Guardians of the Galaxy Review – A Flarkin’ Good Time

It’s been about 7 years since the general populace was introduced to The Guardians of the Galaxy in James Gunn’s film. A C-list group of heroes that no one had heard of. It was considered an incredibly risky movie, one that was guaranteed to flop, mainly because it hinged upon audiences being able to empathize with a talking tree and raccoon.

Guardians of The Galaxy
Developer: Eidos-Montreal
Price: $60
Platforms: PS5 (reviewed,) PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC

Well, they did.

And here we are now, and Guardians is one of the most recognizable film franchises of the decade. So one would say it’s about time they got a video game of their own, one that matches the irreverent but meaningful tone set up by the comics and movies. Thankfully Eidos-Montreal delivers. 

In some kind of weird blend of Mass Effect, Uncharted, and Telltale, Eidos-Montreal has made a wonderful single player experience that hits all the notes you’d want and expect out of an adventure with the Guardians while still making it their own. 

You play as Star-Lord, eternal man-child who finds himself as the leader of the rag-tag group of space mercenaries we all know and love. If you don’t know, the Guardians are made up of: Rocket a smart talking raccoon and engineer; Gamora a superpowered alien assassin; Drax a hyper strong alien bent on revenge; Groot a talking tree and literal saint; and Star-Lord the aforementioned human man-child with a love for 80s hits. 

The game is based around using the guardian’s specific talents to overcome obstacles both in and out of combat. This could be using Groot’s vines to wrap up a group of enemies, making it easier for you and the other Guardians to take them out, or using Gamora’s blade to cut up an obstacle in your path. To do this you simply pull up a wheel with each Guardian that brings up a sub wheel with their abilities. On its surface it sounds a bit complicated, but as you spend time in the game it almost becomes second nature, and you’ll be calling out orders without even thinking. 

At first you might feel a little disappointed playing as just Star-Lord, whose abilities are just: gun. Especially compared to the more exciting or unique members of the team, but the system lends itself to making the gameplay much more strategic. You start to learn what enemies are weak too and what Guardian is best at exploiting that weakness, as well as learning what abilities combo well with each other. It really makes you feel like you’re learning about making the team gel as well as the combat; it’s like a coach watching their hard work pay off. In addition, as the game goes on Star-Lord’s guns get upgrades to shoot different elements such as Ice, Wind, and Fire which also really spices up the combat and traversal in interesting ways. 

Eventually through combat you’ll gain access to the huddle. Which is more or less the super of the game, where you pull the Guardians together and give them your best Friday Night Lights style speech to amp them up before sending them back out into battle with all cool downs more or less turned off and a random 80’s pop hit blasting in the background. It’s a fun system, because you have to pay attention to what the Guardians are saying before picking one of two prompts and sending them back out. If you succeed, you give a wonderfully cheesy speech that gets everyone pumped, if you don’t they mock you and only you get the buff. 

This is more or less indicative of the dialog system as a whole. Throughout the game you’re given the chance to speak for Star-Lord, there are usually 3 prompts, two full on dialog options and the option to say nothing. These are usually broken up between Star-Lord being a screw-up or Star-Lord trying to be more open. These usually inform what characters think about you and occasionally lead to larger Mass Effect style changes to the game such as someone coming to help you later or missing a chance to speak with someone because you pushed too hard in a conversation. The changes pop up on screen Telltale style, letting you know what changes you’ve made, though occasionally smaller dialog choices will be called back on by various characters in the game. 

It’s not entirely clear how deep this goes or how much it changes between each playthrough, but there were a few times the game caught me off guard when characters would bring up things that were brought up in side conversations that you’d assume would never be brought up again. It really made the world feel lived in and that I was forming actual semi-dynamic relationships with these characters. I’d love to see how it changes between playthroughs. Especially some of the more dramatic and emotionally charged moments. 

One of the things this game nails is the constant bantering between the Guardians. To the point where there is rarely a moment in the game they aren’t talking to each other. What is legitimately amazing about this is that there are very rarely any repeated lines. In the 20ish hours I spent in the game the only time I ever heard repeated dialog was when I was stuck on a puzzle or a few times in combat, but even then every planet, and more or less every individual encounter in the game has unique dialog tied to it. It’s staggering and nothing short of impressive, but I could see it being infuriating if you don’t like these characters. 

The characters themselves are kind of a blend of the movie versions and the Abbnet and Lanning versions. With them mostly skewing towards the latter. The story and universe of this game is heavily based on the comics, especially those tied to the Annihilation storyline and the various sequels to that. Here, the Guardians aren’t just a group of losers that come together, but a group of harrowed veterans searching for purpose after a great war which they all have massive scars from. This offscreen war informs so much of the world and story and it really makes this version of the Marvel universe feel lived in and real. You meet various characters, institutions, communities, and religions that spin out of it and the collective trauma that arose from it, and it grounds a pretty fantastical world and makes it feel much deeper than you’ve seen anywhere else. 

That’s not to say that the story is super dark and depressing, it’s very much the opposite, but this strong darker undercurrent does a lot for it and culminates in some wonderful story moments in the back half of the game. It also helps sell some of the more intense emotional moments that pop up throughout the game. 

There are a few misgivings, with a few technical issues throughout the game. Some stiff animations and visual bugs. A lot of these were fixed with the day one patch, but a few still remain. Like I said earlier, if you’re not digging these characters, it could possibly get grating with how much they talk. And a lot of times they’ll be talking about something and stop mid-sentence onto another bit of dialog based on progression and it’s a bit frustrating missing out on them. 

Overall though, if you’re in the market for a fun character driven space romp I can’t recommend this game enough. It nails the tone you’d expect from these characters and does fun new things for new and returning fans. Sure it’s not the most revelatory thing you’ll play this year, but there are moments when you’re in the middle of a fight and Groot’s holding up 5 guys in his vines, Rocket is just blasting away at them, Gamora is slicing up that big guy who’s been giving you trouble, and Drax is chucking massive boulder at him, all while you’re flying around the arena and Kickstart My Heart is blasting, and you can’t help but smile and think to yourself “We’re the goddamn Guardians of the Galaxy!” and how can you beat that?

The Final Word
Guardians of the Galaxy is a love letter to fans of the movies, comics, and just the cosmic side of Marvel as a whole. As a long time fan of all of these I had a big nerdy smile on my face the entire time.

MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great