In today’s era of Video Games, where superhero Video Games are starting to thrive seeing the tremendous success of Insomniac’s Spiderman series, the Guardian’s of the Galaxy comes across as a fascinating experience. Although in terms of actual gameplay it is questionable to say the least, Guardians of the Galaxy does an excellent job in terms of immersing you into the team of misfits i.e. the Guardians themselves.
Each of the Guardians are beautifully fleshed out and offer a unique flavor to the whole story. Over the course of your journey, as leader of the team you will experience encounters that give you better insight into the Guardian's past, and by the end of it I can guarantee that you would have fallen in love with every single one of them despite their flaws. Together with the brilliant voice acting and even better written dialogues, the personalities and the quirky nature of the Guardians is able to shine even brighter. I can still recall some of Drax’s lines that made me laugh out loud, as he questions the odd habits of his crew and constantly states the obvious. The quality of these dialogues gave so much more depth to Drax’s character than I would have ever imagined him to have. To think that Drax the ‘Destroyer’ would also prove to be a source of comic relief was surprising to say the least. Similarly the dialogues written for each of the other Guardians give them multiple dimensions as characters.
The story as a whole is enjoyable with distinctly different story beats with each chapter feeling unique and essential. However, considering the whole galaxy is at your disposal, some concepts can feel a little wayward and hard to understand. I distinctly remember having a conversation with one of the NPC’s by the name of Lipless, and even though the encounter itself was entertaining enough I have absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Besides the Guardians, the other story characters are also well written with compelling storylines. My personal favorites being Mantis and the Russian astro-dog Cosmo. The different worlds that we travel to only add to the immersion of travelling the galaxy. However, though the worlds themselves look distinctly different, in terms of gameplay and navigation they offer more or less the same thing, with a couple of interesting quirks here and there. In terms of collectibles in the game, the only ones that feel worth spending time finding are the outfits for your Guardians and I am still a little salty that I wasn’t able to find all of the outfits on my first run. Other collectibles in the game feel mostly avoidable unless you are a completionist or a trophy hunter
Coming to the actual gameplay, it leaves a lot to be desired. Ignoring the consistent bugs throughout the game, the battle sequences start to play out like that of the Hack-and-Slash genre. I played the game on the hardest difficulty available, but I believe that hardly made any difference. The gameplay felt fairly easy just that the enemies had larger health pools and inflated in numbers. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a story driven Video game with quite a compelling and enjoyable narrative, but where gameplay feels more of an afterthought. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun cosplaying Peter Quill and using the Superhero abilities of your teammates, but the fight sequences end up feeling so chaotic that half of the time you can’t even tell what is happening on the screen. You can more or less get through almost every battle sequence in the game just through button mashing. This to me feels like the biggest missed opportunity for a Superhero game. Comparing this to Insomniac’s Spider Man gameplay which is pretty much perfect, this feels relatively pedestrian. However I will commend the developers for making it feel like you are in control of a team of 4 superheroes and not just one, which is something that I have never experienced before in any other game. Optimally, I would recommend this game be played on the Story Difficulty to enjoy it to the full extent. Another thing that I feel the game could have done without were Quick Time events. I do get their appeal in terms of creating a cinematic moment, but I’ve personally never been a fan of them and feel like it belongs to an older era of video games. On the off chance that you do miss a quick time event, and trust me you will, it feels like the most stupid way to break the flow of the game. The only time I did enjoy a QT event in Guardians of the Galaxy was right at the end, as the team was defeating the final boss...in style.
Peter Quill aka Star Lord makes for an ideal protagonist. Despite being a Superhero, he is as human as any one of us making his experiences all the more relatable. He has a goofy sense of humor, one of a kind hairstyle and a knack for screwing things up. However his charisma is truly unmatched and he somehow comes up with all the right words to get the best out of his team. As the player, filling his shoes feels surprisingly normal and believable. And though the illusion of decisions you make in the game as Star Lord often are leading to the same conclusion, it does not take away from the real connections that you end up making with your team. Without giving away any spoilers I would say that I was left completely satisfied with how the story ended. Although the overarching storyline does follow the usual superhero story tropes, it does come across as pretty unique credit to the rich personalization of the characters in the game. The gameplay might not be up to scratch but one thing I can guarantee you is that you are going to have a hell of a time with Peter Quill and the gang.
One of the unique gameplay elements that needs mentioning was the huddle mechanic. Whenever your team of Guardians feel like they’re being overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies, you have the choice to call for an impromptu team huddle, given that it is charged up. Your teammates gather around stating the state of the battle, while you are given the choice of two speech options with which you can rally your troops. If chosen correctly, which happens more often than not, yourself and the Guardians get a temporary buff that allows you to use your abilities indefinitely with greater power. Though I feel the times you end up needing this mechanic are few and far between, as most battles themselves can easily be handled without this buff. All in all it is a nice touch that further immerses you into your team of Guardians.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a fantastic game if all you are looking for is an enjoyable story. For Gamers looking for a challenge you might need to look somewhere else as the gameplay is riddled with flaws and missed opportunities. You will end up having fun with the gameplay as you unlock more abilities but like I mentioned earlier the battle sequences feel more like an afterthought and aren’t what make this game good. The writing in this game is truly spectacular and every single character that you come across is well thought out and has tons of personality. So sit back, set the difficulty to story mode, and there is no way that you would be disappointed.