While on the surface it feels like an excuse to cash in on the popularity of the movies, Telltale’s version of the Guardians of the Galaxy does have a bit of heart.
To start, Telltale aren’t really known for “gameplay” as they usually stick to point and click but honestly this is some of the best they’ve done. Puzzles are pretty fun, with some nice unique tools that help you solve them. The action is really great with “Combat” (AKA quicktime events) being satisfying to watch, especially with the accompanying music. The very first and final fights deserve a special shout-out, as does the montage in episode 3 despite it not involving any gameplay.
The story, and the way the gameplay interacts with it, is classic Telltale. Choices mostly have minor consequences on the overall plot other than maybe the order some events happen, but there are a few major ones that are quite tough to make. The plot itself is fine. It’s pretty generic and MCU-formulaic but manages to have well written themes and stakes that keep you interested. With any Guardians media, however, the real focus should be on the Guardians themselves.
The team itself is made to replicate the MCU version of the team from Gunn’s Vol. 1, and at times it can feel quite tiresome to just see a rehash of these characters beat for beat. This includes them often just acting like cardboard cut outs of their movie counterparts, as if seeing them at a Disney park. But as the episodes progress, they gain some more complexity as they deal with their pasts and their relationships with one another.
Over the course of the five episodes we see the guardians deal with their traumas and how that affects the way they interact with each other. And at the time of release, for these episodes, many of these pasts/relationships had been either only just recently shown or barely shown at all in the movies (especially Rocket).
That does mean, however, that these complexities are mostly only effective back in 2017. Now six years later, four more movie appearances, a holiday special, and an amazing game by Eidos-Montréal have given us more evolved takes on the characters that I think outshine this game massively.
Overall, this game still did surprise me, it does well with emotional beats and kept me interested throughout. The soundtrack is good and the action is great. I just think that the 2021 game does it all much better, (especially the Guardians themselves) and is the superior choice for anyone to play.
To start, Telltale aren’t really known for “gameplay” as they usually stick to point and click but honestly this is some of the best they’ve done. Puzzles are pretty fun, with some nice unique tools that help you solve them. The action is really great with “Combat” (AKA quicktime events) being satisfying to watch, especially with the accompanying music. The very first and final fights deserve a special shout-out, as does the montage in episode 3 despite it not involving any gameplay.
The story, and the way the gameplay interacts with it, is classic Telltale. Choices mostly have minor consequences on the overall plot other than maybe the order some events happen, but there are a few major ones that are quite tough to make. The plot itself is fine. It’s pretty generic and MCU-formulaic but manages to have well written themes and stakes that keep you interested. With any Guardians media, however, the real focus should be on the Guardians themselves.
The team itself is made to replicate the MCU version of the team from Gunn’s Vol. 1, and at times it can feel quite tiresome to just see a rehash of these characters beat for beat. This includes them often just acting like cardboard cut outs of their movie counterparts, as if seeing them at a Disney park. But as the episodes progress, they gain some more complexity as they deal with their pasts and their relationships with one another.
Over the course of the five episodes we see the guardians deal with their traumas and how that affects the way they interact with each other. And at the time of release, for these episodes, many of these pasts/relationships had been either only just recently shown or barely shown at all in the movies (especially Rocket).
That does mean, however, that these complexities are mostly only effective back in 2017. Now six years later, four more movie appearances, a holiday special, and an amazing game by Eidos-Montréal have given us more evolved takes on the characters that I think outshine this game massively.
Overall, this game still did surprise me, it does well with emotional beats and kept me interested throughout. The soundtrack is good and the action is great. I just think that the 2021 game does it all much better, (especially the Guardians themselves) and is the superior choice for anyone to play.