Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Video Game — Surprisingly Very Good
Historically, video games based on famous movie franchises have been rather hit-or-miss, largely depending on how much the studio actually cares about putting out a quality product vs. just throwing mediocrity out there in the hopes of a quick cash grab. The Guardians of the Galaxy have always been among my favorite superheroes (if one can really call them that) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), so a video game published by Square Enix based off the same characters piqued my interest, especially with that same video game garnering high praise from many different reviews. It is rather funny because Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was not the only Marvel title published by Square Enix during that time-frame; they released another game that was focused on the Avengers, but in comparison that game was much more poorly received, likely due to awful live-service mechanics that every company is hell-bent on shoving into games now these days. It is a pleasant surprise to enjoy a simple and linear story-driven experience that has no “bullshit” whatsoever to try and force player retention, and that is what Guardians of the Galaxy delivers.
While this game does feature the same cast of characters that are in the MCU version, it does not take place in the same universe so anything that happens in the MCU movies is largely unrelated to what happens in the game. The premise of the game follows the newly-formed Guardians trying to make a name for themselves, and eventually getting entangled into a larger plot that involves the entire galaxy (that is about as general as I can put it without spoilers).
Gameplay:
Right off the bat, I am going to say that in my opinion the gameplay for Guardians of the Galaxy is probably the weakest part of the game. With that being said, it still brings a lot of interesting things to the table and was plenty serviceable enough to carry me through the story. Combat is the primary gameplay loop, and it revolves around controlling Star Lord to shoot enemies and commanding the other Guardians to use their special techniques to defeat bad guys. The game actually does a very good job with utilizing teammates’ abilities, and being able to chain together commands to delete foes feels very satisfying; from tying down an area with Groot and then blasting that same group with Rocket’s bombs, or using Drax and Gamora to chew through a larger foe’s health bar all feel very seamless. Star Lord himself has his own abilities as well, which can be a little daunting at first to manage everybody’s abilities in the heat of combat (especially as each squad mate gets stronger and unlocks additional skills). One pretty cool feature is the “huddle” mechanic which is sort of like a “get out of jail free” card that the player can use if most of the Guardians are down for the count. How this works is that Star Lord gathers everybody in a group and tries to hype them up, and the player has to pick an appropriate speech to deliver based on what the rest of the Guardians are saying. Pick the right one and everybody gets revived with a pretty significant stat boost; pick the wrong one and nothing much happens. It seems pretty weird at first, but I enjoyed it because it felt like it meshes very well with the tone of the game and the personalities/natures of the Guardians themselves.
The main weakness in the core combat system is that the player can only ever control Star Lord. Being able to control only one character out of a diverse group of teammates with different combat styles is a pretty big missed opportunity, and I was not really a fan of how Star Lord’s guns basically feel like peashooters that take forever to kill anything. Sure I can issue commands to the other Guardians to get them to use their abilities, but it would have been nice if I could actually control another Guardian; smashing through enemies as Drax would have been amazing. Overall though, the gameplay held up well enough to carry me through the 15~ hour story, so I think it is fine for what it is.
Writing:
The writing is probably my favorite part of the Guardians of the Galaxy. As a disclaimer, I am not a Marvel comic-head, so I have no idea how the Guardians are typically portrayed in the comics; my only experience with them is through the MCU. With that in mind, I was a big fan of the Guardians movies, and this game feels like a homage to those films. Even though the characters are different from their MCU counterparts, the overall game feels like a James Gunn-directed Guardians movie in tone, atmosphere, and character writing. There are plenty of jokes and funny one-liners, but also plenty of emotionally poignant moments and good character development; seeing how the Guardians go from a ragtag band of goons that were initially almost hostile to one another to a tight-knit group of comrades willing to save the universe together is always satisfying to experience. I was also pretty impressed with the voice cast; I was a little apprehensive at first since I am so used to the original voice cast behind the movies, but the voice actors behind the Guardians in the game did a phenomenal job that is very comparable to the movie cast, especially Drax’s voice actor.
I do not have much to critique about the writing, but if I had one possible gripe to point out would be that at times the characters can get a tad overboard with the quips (especially mid-combat where they are constantly shouting lines). For most of the game it is pretty tolerable but it does get a bit excessive at certain points, but I have to give a lot of credit to Drax as his stoic and deadpan nature do help a lot to offset the other, more energetic Guardians.
Ending/Misc Thoughts:
Outside of the gameplay and writing, one particular thing I think Guardians of the Galaxy does very well is its set-pieces. The game is gorgeous; almost all of the different planets/environments that are visited are very distinct and just look very pretty. There are a lot of points in the game where I had to take a minute or two just to pause and admire the scenery because of how visually impressive it was, and what is even better is that the game does not sacrifice performance to accomplish those visuals. Granted, I play on a rather high-end set-up with a 3080TI, but I never had any issues with frame drops in my entire time playing the game.
Overall, Guardians of the Galaxy is an awesome game, a lot better than I was anticipating it to be due to my rather jaded opinion of anything Marvel-related thanks to the string of mediocre releases in the MCU (though funny enough the 3rd Guardians movie is probably the best film the MCU has put out in a while). For anybody who loved the Guardians movies, this game cannot be missed.
Rating: The game may be a tad short for some people to pay retail price for, but it goes on sale for pretty good deals (I picked it up for only $15), and on sale it is absolutely worth it.
