What kind of bizzaro world do we live in where the tainted reputation of an Avengers title threatened to derail a Guardians of the Galaxy game?! No other game in recent memory had people on the fence more than Guardians of the Galaxy. In every post in every Facebook group or Twitter thread about GotG, there's always going to be someone asking if the game is any good. And the reason for all that tentativeness, despite glowing critical reviews, is because Avengers, a superhero team game from the same publisher, is a slow-motion train wreck that keeps charging people $14 for every MCU costume. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix just screwed the unscrewable - what was supposedly the hottest, most popular pop culture franchise this decade has become gaming's punching bag. And all that negativity bled into the perception of Guardians of the Galaxy, putting that game at a major disadvantage from the get-go. Fortunately, you can't keep a good game down - despite the bitter taste the Avengers left in the collective mouths of Marvel fans and gamers alike, Guardians of the Galaxy has proven itself to be one of the best, most narratively satisfying games this year!
You got this. Probably.
As a comic book fan, I can confidently say that the most enjoyable part of comics isn't the big action pieces or the weird storylines - it's the characters. We fall in love with the characters first, we relate and we imprint on them, before any of the big action scenes and big plot points really matter. And that's what's at the heart of Guardians of the Galaxy. GotG is the very essence of a comic book video game.
It's ALL about the character beats. Going on this journey, and by extension, the gameplay and exploration are made muchmore enjoyable thanks to the colorful cast of characters.
Giving credit where credit is due, before Gunn got his hands on the character, Star-Lord was essentially space Captain America with guns and daddy issues. Gunn was able to make Quill stand out among the Marvel characters. And the Eidos-Montréal took Gunn's blueprint of Star-Lord and expanded upon it, fleshing him out and giving him a bit more heart and a little more likeability. I still do find it weird that the pop culture he still clings to today is what he used to enjoy when he was 13. How much do you still identify with the things you liked when you were 13? Do you still quote Limp Bizkit lyrics unironically? But regardless of his weird fascination with Earth 1980's, Eidos-Montréal's take on Peter Quill holds up. He acts as the glue to the whole team, and that's seen in both the narrative and the gameplay.
Rocket is pretty much the same Rocket, except that you will feel for him more by the end of the game than you did at the start. This is true for all the characters but I think it's Gamora and Drax that showed the most improvement over their movie counterparts. Drax is way deeper and way more interesting than movie Drax. He's still funny, but he's no longer simply just comic relief.
Character interactions happen constantly, and I mean constantly. There's constant banter whether you're exploring, in combat, or solving puzzles. Unfortunately, even though the non-stop back and forth between the characters is quite enjoyable, it sometimes does get repetitive.
The real meat and potatoes of character development is when Star-Lord initiates a conversation with his crew. Whether it's just the conversations in between missions on the Milano or when they're triggered by items you find scattered across the game world, these conversations really dive deep into each Guardians' back story, emotions, and motivations.
Epic Journey
The game's story is linear; it plays out from chapter to chapter, almost kind of like most single-player Sony exclusives. That linearity lends itself to some tight storytelling. Everything matters; story chapters that might seem like filler matter in the long run.
Along with a satisfying story, the game's presentation is also top-notch.
To be able to tell a story this compelling effectively, GotG employs some of the best facial animations in gaming. It's on par with something like The Last of Us 2. Every tiny emotion is expressed without uttering a single line, and it's perfect for a game all about the characters' emotional journeys.
As you go on this epic quest, you are thrust into locations, set pieces, and maps that are visually impressive to say the least. Every location is designed with such creativity and skill, making for some breathtaking and enthralling vistas. Pure eye candy. To help you preserve the memories of how beautiful this game is, GotG does have a photo mode, and I'm super happy that it brings back the comic book frames, much like Spider-Man.
Gameplay
GotG's gameplay does some things perfectly, and some things a little less perfectly.
Even though you're given limited paths and areas to explore, it truly is rewarding to actually check every nook and cranny of the space you're given. Not only are hidden paths essentially satisfying mini-puzzles where you have to use Star-Lord's entire kit along with the other Guardians' "lock and key" skills, but the rewards are also legitimately exciting to find. At the lowest tier, you get crafting materials - necessary to power up Star-Lord, but not very exciting. Mid-tier rewards are special items that unlock conversations with your crew - these make for beautiful moments you can share with the rest of the Guardians that really flesh out their characters. And at the very tippy top tier, you get skins. Skins are FREE. FREE. You hear that, Avengers? The skins in Guardians of the Galaxy are FREE.
And now, we come to the first, most glaring weakness of Guardians of the Galaxy - the combat. So, it's not super bad, but it has some mechanics that kinda hold it back. You only get to fight as Star-Lord, and he deals barely any damage. He brought Nerf guns to a space laser fight. And this is an intentional design choice. He was made a bit weak so the player has to rely on the other Guardians to do most of the work to make him fill that leadership role.
Each Guardian has their specialization - Gamora deals the most single-target damage, Drax deals the most stagger damage, Groot has the best crowd control, and Rocket deals the most AoE damage. However, as you progress through the game, the Guardians get more powers and you realize that the position of each Guardian in the skill wheel represents the kind of attack you want the other Guardians to do. For example, Gamora is in the triangle/ Y position - you call upon her by hitting R1 and then triangle, and then triangle again to do her default high-damage single-target attack. If you want the other Guardians to do some high single-target damage, you call upon them, then you press triangle, as well. This same pattern follows the rest of the Guardians, I think except for Groot where one of his buttons is a heal/revive.
While that system really reinforces Star-Lord as the leader of the group, the actual combat itself isn't very engaging. Combat boils down to Star-Lord pew-pewing for a few minutes until cooldowns are up, and it just becomes a matter of managing said cooldowns. It becomes a bit repetitive and predictable - even for combat scenarios against enemies that should most definitely have different mechanics but don't.
Another somewhat divisive combat mechanic is the huddle. It's essentially a buff that you can apply to your entire team that works on a cooldown. Star-Lord calls over the entire team and based on their mood, Star-Lord's response could give either a big buff or a minor buff. Regardless of how well you choose your dialogue option, a licensed track will play during combat, which is pretty cool. Overall, while I find this mechanic to be a pretty nifty panic get-out-of-jail-free-card type move, it does slow down combat dramatically. In fact, it just stops it entirely. It's great if you need a breather, but I found myself triggering by accident more often than not.
There are dogfighting missions with the Milano, but those missions, while serving as a nice reprieve from the monotony of combat, aren't very deep or challenging, but they are hella fun.
PS5-isms
Seeing as I played this on the PlayStation 5, I feel like I should comment on the PS5-specific features the game made use of. First off, I can't lie - I'm not a big fan of the adaptive triggers - or rather I'm not a fan of the way most of the games I've played made use of the adaptive triggers.I HATE having to fight against the trigger EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I. TAKE. A. SHOT.
Thankfully, Guardians of the Galaxy uses the feature properly. You only ever feel tension when your guns are close to overheating, which is good to 1. let you know an active reload is coming up, and 2. give you a feeling of struggling with an overheating weapon.
As for the DualSense haptic feedback, I feel like GotG used it perfectly in the sense that you don't really notice it, so it adds to the experience but doesn't overtake it.
Bugginess
As polished as this game looks, unfortunately, you will encounter a number of bugs. You will restart your game because you will encounter moments that won't let you move forward. In my playthrough, I got stuck in some invisible geometry and nothing I did helped. I also encountered enemies that just stopped moving and stopped taking damage. And there was one ledge that triggered the crossing animations regardless of the direction I walked, effectively stopping me from grabbing the Rocket skin that was staring me right in the face.
Verdict
I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy but it's not without its faults. Where it truly shines is the narrative, character-driven story beats. It's a linear game by design, to allow a satisfying story to unfold. That's the main source of enjoyment right there. It also helps that it's bright and imaginative and colorful, plus it has the best facial animation in recent memory, which I feel is super important to convey character emotions as effectively as they do.
Exploration is limited, just being given linear chunks of space to work with but finding costumes and treasures that trigger deep character interactions is quite rewarding.
Where it falls short is in combat. Star-Lord is the only character you play and he deals very little damage, making his Element Guns feel like pea shooters. What he does best is enable his team to do the actual damage. It's probably an attempt to make his leadership position more important, but it's like you were forced to play a support class.
If you primarily find combat to be what you enjoy most about games, you might not like this as much, but if you like character-driven stories, you're going to love Guardians of the Galaxy.
If I were forced to give this game a score, I'd say it's a soft 8.5, or a solid 8. If combat were more engaging and there were fewer bugs, I would probably give it a 9.5. If anything, this game makes for a very solid foundation for a sequel.
8.5Score