Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is the perfect holiday break game
It won't blow you away, but is much better than expected
Typically walking around clicking on objects in games is sort of a bore after the first few times you do it and is the exact reason making a great “walking sim” story game is hard.
But paired with great acting, a fun story and soundtrack, and an interesting battle and puzzling system, you can have a pretty damn good game.
That is exactly what the new Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy from Eidos-Montréal is.
I am not totally through the game so I don’t want to talk it up too much but half-way through it has been incredibly fun gameplay-wise and chock-full of great characters and story moments to boot.
The game ended up winning best narrative at The Game Awards so I felt compelled to finally load it up and play.
Throughout the more story-centric sections of the game it mimics the typical walk around and interact with objects to get more story type of games, but in the action and puzzling sequences there is also a lot of great dialogue from the team to help you connect with the characters.
The battle sequences are fun, high intensity shooting and dodging gauntlets while also managing the team and their special abilities to help combat certain enemy defenses. With all of these on cool down, it makes for a nice fluid style of combat that when done right can feel rhythmic.
There is also a combo system in place that allows you to build up to a team huddle where Peter Quill gives a speech to the rest of the guardians to hype them up. This usually ends with Quill putting in his headphones, some 80s music plays during the battle, and everyone receives stat boosts for a short period.
Little touches like this are what really make the game feel different from the typically comic book hero video game. It really highlights each character's personality and has Easter eggs to keep the player interested in the entire team.
Besides the main cast of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the villains in this game are extremely well acted and help make for some super comedic moments. Actually battling in the game has been surprisingly easy, which I would call a bit of a negative towards the gameplay.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a legitimately funny game as well. The writing doesn’t feel forced or ham-fisted. I have laughed out loud more than once while playing.
The set pieces of giant space cities, waste dumps, and temples also make for some incredible eye candy. The game from top to bottom looks absolutely stunning.
Even with all of the good parts of this game, I do feel that it will never be the best game of the year or anything close to it. It has a lot of great parts but certainly has a ceiling. As I play, I find myself getting a bit bored at times and wanting to move the story along.
The combat system grows stale over time and lacks the challenge that I am looking for so they feel like more of a distraction to the story most of the time.
Without being done with it, I don’t want to give any final thoughts, but I’d say this game is worth the time with it only being about 15 hours and the small break in game releases.
It is comfort food if anything else.