A perfectly succinct, narratively brilliant, and incredibly fun experience. Blew far past my expectations in just about every regard, and makes for a game I'd recommend to anyone. NameBrand
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (MGotG) is such a rare oddity that this is an exceptionally fantastic, shorter game. I feel like so many games are undeservedly asking for my time, so when I started playing MGotG, I was almost shocked that the entire game was over after 18 solid, enjoyable hours.
To describe it, I think comparisons to the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie (and its sequels) are inevitable, and as much as I consider those movies, the first especially, as some of the best-written Marvel stuff in recent years, I have to say that this game takes the cake. The voice acting, mo-cap, etc., all mesh with the narrative of the game to bring together what will probably be my favorite iterations of these characters for a long time. The "campy" nature of the team joking around with each other is sooo good and exactly what I hoped for. There's so much they do to help you connect with the Guardians through their backstories, and through the events of the game. Out of the last 10 games I've played, I haven't felt more interested in the story and the characters than I did here. Overwhelmingly successful in that regard.
Gameplay is where many players lodge their complaints with this game, and to each their own, but I enjoyed it all. I'd break it down into a couple of different sections: Combat, traversal, and other.
Combat can be really frantic and fun. Guardians all have their own kit of abilities with various uses, and after one is activated, that Guardian goes on cooldown. Guardians have an ultimate ability on a separate cooldown, and you as StarLord have elemental ammo that deals extra damage when matched with an enemy or shield weak to it. So what you have is a lot of ability management, while dodging, matching elemental damage types, and using StarLord's own kit of abilities. After you've been in combat for a while, you can "Huddle" where you can pump up the team for a damage boost by giving a short speech and playing a song from this game's beautifully phenomenal 80's inspired tracklist. I had so much fun with the combat system that I always looked forward to enemy encounters.
Moment-to-moment traversal isn't too special. There are a couple of puzzles here and there, especially if you're hunting down resources or collectibles, but you won't come across anything too difficult. Often the game uses these moments for extra world-building, character interactions, and even some light "choose your own speech-bubble" moments that accent the craziness of the combat, and help give the world scale, and the narrative good structure.
For the other stuff... well there's just some other stuff! I was shocked to see there are several sections with full controls for the Guardian's ship, the Milano, where you pilot it through even a few space battles, which is wild to me. You have some mini-games here and there, some dialogue trees with unique outcomes sprinkled in... there's a nice variety of "other" stuff that really makes the game unique.
On top of all this, again I have to mention: that the tracklist is so good. Better than the movies in my opinion. Got some great Drax moments. He is certainly one of the guys of all time. And man. Cosmo is the best animated dog in any video game ever? Props to the mo-cap actor dog for a stunning performance.
Overall, I couldn't get enough of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. I made it into the second chapter and was hooked the rest of the way through to the end. Laughed more than I ever have at jokes in the game that were intended to be jokes. Empathized a ton with the characters. I love the tracklist, the combat, the journey, and the incredible writing. It's not my favorite game of all time but it has made an incredible impact on me. This is one of those games that I would recommend anyone play because it's just so dang fun.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (MGotG) is such a rare oddity that this is an exceptionally fantastic, shorter game. I feel like so many games are undeservedly asking for my time, so when I started playing MGotG, I was almost shocked that the entire game was over after 18 solid, enjoyable hours.
To describe it, I think comparisons to the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie (and its sequels) are inevitable, and as much as I consider those movies, the first especially, as some of the best-written Marvel stuff in recent years, I have to say that this game takes the cake. The voice acting, mo-cap, etc., all mesh with the narrative of the game to bring together what will probably be my favorite iterations of these characters for a long time. The "campy" nature of the team joking around with each other is sooo good and exactly what I hoped for. There's so much they do to help you connect with the Guardians through their backstories, and through the events of the game. Out of the last 10 games I've played, I haven't felt more interested in the story and the characters than I did here. Overwhelmingly successful in that regard.
Gameplay is where many players lodge their complaints with this game, and to each their own, but I enjoyed it all. I'd break it down into a couple of different sections: Combat, traversal, and other.
Combat can be really frantic and fun. Guardians all have their own kit of abilities with various uses, and after one is activated, that Guardian goes on cooldown. Guardians have an ultimate ability on a separate cooldown, and you as StarLord have elemental ammo that deals extra damage when matched with an enemy or shield weak to it. So what you have is a lot of ability management, while dodging, matching elemental damage types, and using StarLord's own kit of abilities. After you've been in combat for a while, you can "Huddle" where you can pump up the team for a damage boost by giving a short speech and playing a song from this game's beautifully phenomenal 80's inspired tracklist. I had so much fun with the combat system that I always looked forward to enemy encounters.
Moment-to-moment traversal isn't too special. There are a couple of puzzles here and there, especially if you're hunting down resources or collectibles, but you won't come across anything too difficult. Often the game uses these moments for extra world-building, character interactions, and even some light "choose your own speech-bubble" moments that accent the craziness of the combat, and help give the world scale, and the narrative good structure.
For the other stuff... well there's just some other stuff! I was shocked to see there are several sections with full controls for the Guardian's ship, the Milano, where you pilot it through even a few space battles, which is wild to me. You have some mini-games here and there, some dialogue trees with unique outcomes sprinkled in... there's a nice variety of "other" stuff that really makes the game unique.
On top of all this, again I have to mention: that the tracklist is so good. Better than the movies in my opinion. Got some great Drax moments. He is certainly one of the guys of all time. And man. Cosmo is the best animated dog in any video game ever? Props to the mo-cap actor dog for a stunning performance.
Overall, I couldn't get enough of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. I made it into the second chapter and was hooked the rest of the way through to the end. Laughed more than I ever have at jokes in the game that were intended to be jokes. Empathized a ton with the characters. I love the tracklist, the combat, the journey, and the incredible writing. It's not my favorite game of all time but it has made an incredible impact on me. This is one of those games that I would recommend anyone play because it's just so dang fun.