by Alex Henderson, Contributing Writer
[This game was reviewed on PC]
Ever since last year’s release of Marvel’s Avengers from Square Enix’s Company Crystal Dynamics, I was left heartbroken due to the game being a live service RPG. They came out swinging with one of the biggest intellectual [roperty names of modern pop culture and used it as an excuse to fill it with game mechanics that will have you playing hours on end for very little in return, and a very predatory microtransaction system that asked way too much for your hard earned money. We’re talking $20 dollars U.S just to unlock a skin that makes one of the main characters resemble their MCU counterpart. Because of these systems and a lack of endgame for all your time spent, it was a financial failure, and has lost 96% of it’s player base within less than two months since its release in September of 2020.
So when another name owned by Square Enix (Eidos Montreal) announced in the summer of 2021 that they were making a Guardians of the Galaxy game, many were not interested in buying into the hype. You can’t really blame consumers for not wanting to trust a company asking you to fork over $60 or $70 US Dollars when they just burned you less than a year ago. But then you had those like me who were skeptical at least. Any time the developers were asked questions from the community, they would not only answer us, but they actually were giving us the answers we wanted to hear. No microtransactions, no live service aspect that would require hours on end to unlock collectables, and most importantly, it was a linear single player experience mixed with some RPG elements within combat and dialogue. So as soon as I heard all of that, I was very much on board, even taking the risk of pre-ordering the game. Fast forward to now and I’ve played and completed it. So let’s go ahead and jump on into it.
Story
I feel that it’s important to begin talking about the game’s strongest aspect: the story itself. From the beginning, you are shown that while you may have a pre-existing knowledge of these characters from the MCU movies, this game’s portrayal is quite different for a lot of the characters involved, as well as their backstories prior to the game’s start. Not all get fleshed out stories, and some definitely more than others, but there is enough that you’re able to see these characters as their own, instead of wanting to compare them to the MCU. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that I prefer some of these versions to the live action counterparts. The main standout for me is Gamora, who stays true to being the deadly assassin and adoptive daughter of Thanos, but as well to a more laid back and surprisingly nerdy side. I was convinced this wouldn’t work at first, but that’s because I was expecting it to be too much like the other versions I’ve seen before; I’m glad that’s not the case because I found myself enjoying it quite a bit for what it was. So without going too much into detail, because I do believe the less you know before playing is better, I’m going to tread lightly on the major details so you get to experience a lot of it for yourself, while also telling you what I think works best about the story.
Something I absolutely loved about the story was that it’s paced quite well for the most part. From the very first chapter, this game wastes almost no time getting its boots deep within its story, doing a great job at giving you tutorials along the way, while not letting the pace suffer for it. When the game begins, you have the Guardians arriving to look for something on this sort of planet that’s mostly deserted and very quiet. It’s a good way to kick off the start of the story, as it also serves as a slight tutorial. Then you’re off and meeting side characters who you realize have a past with certain members of the group, which allows you to get some basic background of your main characters prior to this moment. Not long after that, you cross the wrong people, and learn there’s a threat to the galaxy coming. At some point, all of this has to come together for the climax, which is business as usual, but I definitely have to give credit to Eidos Montreal for taking time to develop these side characters. I didn’t expect for this game to be cutscene heavy with it’s character building, but it really pays off and gets you invested in the stakes of the situation at hand, so that when major character moment’s happen, it has an effect on you and the way you see that character in particular. All around, the writing here is solid and flows perfectly throughout it’s campaign, which only took me 17 hours to complete.
Gameplay
As far as gameplay goes, it’s perfect. The combat reminds me of PS4’s Spider-Man game in the sense that the fights feel alive. You’re playing as Star-Lord and your main attacks are pretty much his two iconic blasters that have elemental upgrades over time, which make certain enemies challenging, but also cause you to consider your next move carefully. For example, sometimes you’ll have an enemy that needs to be stunned enough times with electricity before they can take proper damage from his blasters. And being that you are the leader of the Guardians, you actually get to command members of the team to attack certain enemies. Groot can grab multiple enemies at once, allowing you to unload multiple hits on said enemy while they stay restrained. Rocket uses grenades to deal heavy damage, Gamora can slice someone with her sword and drop hanging items onto enemies below, and Drax plays more like a brute who deals more damage and can even throw huge objects at the targets of your choice. Plus, when you deal enough damage within combat, you can form the team together to “Huddle Up” and give an inspiring speech that can refill everyone’s abilities and health, as well as playing one of the many various classic songs from it’s soundtrack. But basically, this game gives you the perfect experience of what it’s like to be a member in the Guardians of the Galaxy, and to the point where even the combat nails it down. I typically play my games on the normal difficulty setting, but I cannot wait to play through the new game plus mode with an even harder challenge.
Sound and Music
One of the strongest aspects of the Guardians of the Galaxy films are their iconic soundtrack, and I’m happy to report that the game has quite a strong one as well. It’s so fun hearing Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart” while in the heat of battle or A Flock of Seagulls “I Ran (So Far Away)” while being chased in the Milano by a giant and dangerous alien creature. Something so cool is that when you’re not on a mission, you can actually roam the ship and find the music player with all of the songs in the game. They even go as far as to add the album covers for reference, which is a nice bit of attention to detail. Also, sound mixing is definitely key when it comes to this game, and it doesn’t fall short one bit in this category. Everything is mixed nicely and I never once had to adjust the default mix settings.
Graphics
As mentioned early on, I did play through this on the PC. I was able to keep the game running at a smooth 60 frames per a second with very few performance issues. Turning on Ray Tracing would cause some problems and would cause lag, so I turned it off. I am on a 2070 Super, so I kept it at High settings, and while at 1080p, everything still looked absolutely stunning so I just kept it there. The only slight issue I can come to in this department is that shadows on characters aren’t always perfect. There can definitely be some annoying flickering on characters’ faces depending on the cutscene. Luckily, I was able to get used to it, but it may be annoying for some, so I thought I’d give you that disclaimer.
Final Verdict
Guardians of the Galaxy is not only one of the best superhero video games ever made, but is also one of the best video games of the year. Eidos Montreal were tasked with bringing us a group of characters we were mostly familiar with and needed to shape them to the story they wanted to tell, and I think it really works here. Like I mentioned before, they do enough different with these versions of the characters that you’re able to separate them from what you know. So if you love the Single Player games with a linear story that will keep you coming back for more, then I highly recommend Guardians of the Galaxy.
Grade: A