Rocket launches a grenade across the battlefield to put the boom boom into my heart. Groot tosses enemies airborne to send my soul sky high when the fighting starts. Jitterbug into my brain, and Quill’s guns go bang bang bang while his jet boots do the same.
If something’s bugging you about this intro, if something ain’t right, Guardians of the Galaxy probably isn’t for you. Every boss battle, no matter how difficult, no matter how intense, no matter how narratively poignant, is accompanied by slick ‘80s pop. Music, self awareness, and a quirky sense of ‘why the flark not?’ runs through the entire game and turns a bright spark into a flame. You don’t wanna miss it when it hits that high, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby…
When I started playing Guardians of the Galaxy, I thought it was the stupidest game of the year, and I adored it. I couldn’t shake the fact that Star-Lord looked like Luke Shaw, one of the first characters you meet is a space alpaca, and your first mission sees you and Rocket competing to see who can blow up the most space barnacles. I loved it. All the way through, it retained this fun loving freedom, but by the end, was it still the stupidest? Now I’m not so sure.
Without giving away too much of the story, the GotG game has a stronger narrative arc than either of the films, especially when it comes to each individual Guardian’s struggle. These moments land surprisingly well for a game where Rocket gives his name to the police as ‘Quill’s Mom’. Speaking of Rocket, he has one of the best journeys but is also the earliest misstep. The game forces a sense of friction between Rocket and Quill in the opening hours that feels unearned, and as a result the early story moments all flop. Thankfully a few hours in things get back on track, and the unfolding narrative takes on a level of heart that only Quill is ever afforded in the movies.
Quill remains the ‘main character’, but that’s only because we play as him and the main mission is tied to his past. Every character gets the spotlight at times, and it feels like they are a team, first and foremost. They’re The Beatles, not Paul McCartney & Wings. Should that have been an ‘80s reference? Probably!
There are some deep Marvel cuts to be found too - Lady Hellbender is in good company. Square Enix has asked me not to talk about a couple, but I’m going to avoid mentioning any of them, because I think comic book fans will be blown away by the cameos here. There aren’t a bucketload, but the ones that appear - including my personal favourite design ever - go above and beyond the obvious, ‘eh, let’s chuck in Captain Marvel’. Since Mantis is in the trailer though, I want to take a moment to highlight that this is my favourite version of Mantis ever, whether we’re talking about games, movies, comics, or cartoons. She understood the assignment like no one else.
While there is a lot of heart, Guardians never forgets that it’s stupid. The whole affair feels like a more polished Agents of Mayhem, and as someone who loves Sunset Overdrive and thinks Saints Row 4 is the best one, I felt right at home.
Of course, ‘it’s like a good Agents of Mayhem’ should help highlight how divisive I expect this game to be as well. While few Guardians fans will have issues with the tone - more casual players may find it a little too quippy, but come on, it’s Guardians - I think the combat will split people. I’m basing that mainly off the preview, where the combat split people.
Personally, I was a huge fan. Quill's role is a coach more than anything else, and once you understand that, combat becomes much more fluid. Quill's job is mainly to direct the other Guardians; he decides when they use their special attacks and where, which allows you to target the strongest foes, thin the herd, or tee up devastating combos. Quill also has access to elemental attacks - four, by the time the game ends - and a few powers of his own, though only his stand and deliver gunfire barrage proves consistently useful.
This is all combined with the huddle ability, which comes when you reach a high enough combo - basically do more damage than you take - and lets you group the five Guardians together. Play completely stops at this point, and Gamora will say something about how much fun it is to splat the enemy, while Rocket calls them losers. You're given two choices, usually something like 'it is fun!' or 'don't be scared!' - pick the right one and everyone gets a boost. It's not a bad idea, but it's too slow, it repeats itself by the end, and Quill's usual sparkling chemistry is gone, as if these lines were recorded first before the actor understood the role properly. This activates Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, We Built This City, or Don't Worry, Be Happy, as well as a significant power boost, so it's worth doing, but by the end you'll want to hurry things along or avoid using it altogether.
This gives you a much lower cooldown on squad powers, which is handy for longer battles. In said big skirmishes, you often spend a lot of time running around shooting and punching to no avail. Quill's role as a coach is a decent idea, but when all he can do is wait, the usual frenetic battles become turgid. Remember that charity match where Mourinho went in goal? It's that.
Traversal I expect to find more universal praise. Each alien world feels, well, alien, and every planet has its own sense of geography. The Guardians' unique abilities are put to great use too, with Rocket there to hack, Groot to form bridges, and so on. Do the choices you make on these planets actually matter? I have no idea. I will say I don't think it's important; this is not a game that demands you play it 17 times to understand it, and every choice, plus every conversation leading into and out of these choices feels organic. A couple of times you get a clear A or B decision to make, but most times you're shaping Quill's relationship rather than actively steering the game’s ultimate narrative destination.
Unfortunately, even there Guardians rayguns itself in the foot. It all feels like a game from six or seven years ago, with too many QTEs for no reason, a lot of environmental puzzles put there just to fill time, and Eagle Vision. Honest to god, Eagle vision. In a 2021 game. It’s almost retro. I had the exact same sensation when reviewing Kena; this would have been a Game of the Year contender a few years ago, but gaming as a whole has evolved to become more immersive. It’s fun playing Guardians, but I don’t think it has anything that bucketloads of other games don’t aside from its IP. That’s enough to make it worthwhile, but not enough to make it great.
In terms of accessibility, Guardians is one of the most impressive triple-A games this year. You can customise target lock break, target switching, target range, axis sensitivity, exploration dot, and exploration dot transparency down to the percentile. You can set QTEs to auto-win, tweak the adaptive triggers, customise colours, background, spacing, language, and size for the subtitles, which all come in closed caption format, and take specific control of the various audio settings.
It's not all great, however. While nothing game breaking occurred, there were more than a few bugs. Some stopped midway through the review period with a patch, but others remained. It took a few tries for the game to register Rocket was nearby for an upgrade, Gamora's cape constantly jitterbugged through her body, and Drax got trapped in a rock. A minor inconvenience to a man of his strength, but still.
Eidos-Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy is brilliant, but the one thing holding me back from giving it a higher score is how dated many of its conventions seem. The power cooldown has no plan B, QTEs are everywhere, and again… Eagle Vision. It’s a few years behind the times, even without George Michael's dulcet tones. It’s fun, but it certainly isn’t fresh, and for a lot of people, that will be enough. In some ways, it's an experience not to be missed. In others, it's an experience you've had before.
Score: 4/5. A PS5 code was provided by the publisher.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is an action-adventure game from Eidos-Montréal that sees Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot attempt to clean up a galactic-size mess of their own making.