Biggest surprise of 2021, that I played anyway. The base game is a very generic action game with minor platforming, exploration, and combat. What ties it all together is teamwork.
Each aspect of the game has an element of team building or team management layered on top. The levels have you commanding your teammates to bypass environmental hazards or carve out new paths. In combat you can chain attacks together by issuing commands to your teammates. While just moving from place to place, whether through the environments or just hanging out on the ship, you're given opportunities to converse with your teammates. You'll basically spend most of the game herding cats until you actually earn the game's namesake. By the end you'll have grown so much you don't even have to tell them what to do.
Biggest gripes were mostly minor, but dragged the game down a significant degree. For one narrative beats drag on for WAY too long. In one of the last pivotal emotional sequences a character had made their point, but just kept repeating themselves, killing the moment. This is really emphasized in the ship discussions where you talk about an object you found and it unlocks a private discussion with a member of the team. The conversations go on for ever, but it's compounded by the fact that there wasn't much budget for the scenes. They look like robots in what should be some of the most emotional beats in the game, a concession of course, but it hurts the game nonetheless.
The last thing kills me though. You can't pick your battle music for the huddle. I heard Bobby McFerrin five times before I got anything that actually had me pumped. Just letting you pick a battle setlist at the music player would've let me get Kickstart My Heart at least once. Never heard it in ANY of the huddles through the whole game. Supremely disappointing even if minor.
It's a lovely time sans those issues. The narrative nails the team dynamic that made the films work. It owes a lot to those movies, but manages to set itself apart by gamifying team building. I also really dig the costumes. They look like cheap knockoffs at a glance, but they make a lot of practical sense. Groot has a handle apparatus for rocket, Quill's big arm pads are literally battle armor, and Gamora's ninja suit accentuates her skills much more than the skimpy film outfit. Biggest surprise to come out of 2021 and definitely my GOTY.
Each aspect of the game has an element of team building or team management layered on top. The levels have you commanding your teammates to bypass environmental hazards or carve out new paths. In combat you can chain attacks together by issuing commands to your teammates. While just moving from place to place, whether through the environments or just hanging out on the ship, you're given opportunities to converse with your teammates. You'll basically spend most of the game herding cats until you actually earn the game's namesake. By the end you'll have grown so much you don't even have to tell them what to do.
Biggest gripes were mostly minor, but dragged the game down a significant degree. For one narrative beats drag on for WAY too long. In one of the last pivotal emotional sequences a character had made their point, but just kept repeating themselves, killing the moment. This is really emphasized in the ship discussions where you talk about an object you found and it unlocks a private discussion with a member of the team. The conversations go on for ever, but it's compounded by the fact that there wasn't much budget for the scenes. They look like robots in what should be some of the most emotional beats in the game, a concession of course, but it hurts the game nonetheless.
The last thing kills me though. You can't pick your battle music for the huddle. I heard Bobby McFerrin five times before I got anything that actually had me pumped. Just letting you pick a battle setlist at the music player would've let me get Kickstart My Heart at least once. Never heard it in ANY of the huddles through the whole game. Supremely disappointing even if minor.
It's a lovely time sans those issues. The narrative nails the team dynamic that made the films work. It owes a lot to those movies, but manages to set itself apart by gamifying team building. I also really dig the costumes. They look like cheap knockoffs at a glance, but they make a lot of practical sense. Groot has a handle apparatus for rocket, Quill's big arm pads are literally battle armor, and Gamora's ninja suit accentuates her skills much more than the skimpy film outfit. Biggest surprise to come out of 2021 and definitely my GOTY.