I Played Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
When it comes to movies, I just haven’t found a way to care about most of what Marvel puts out. I really liked Thor: Ragnarok, but I think that film in particular kind of stands on its own as a kind of action/comedy that probably has some stake somewhere in the grander MCU, but overall I think it’s just a joyride, having an absolute blast with over-the-top characters and set pieces that don’t seem to take themselves seriously. Easily a movie that can show up on cable TV and you can pick the movie up anywhere and watch it until the end without attachment. The other two that I really enjoyed are the movies based on the characters that I’m talking about here: the Guardians of the Galaxy. Very similar in flavor, these films feel like they were constructed from randomly generated characters with randomly assigned ‘powers’ thrown into Capital S Space and given a unifying goal that brings an absolutely abstract crew together to do something special while bringing a lot of heart and ‘charm’ to the fore. Both films are 100% worth checking out.
Beyond that, I am a pretty big MCU agnostic. I barely flinch when these films are coming out in theaters or for home streaming and while I love to hear how it got my friends and family absolutely stoked to watch and what kinds of odds their heroes overcame to save The Universe And Each Other, much like pro wrestling, I never feel like there’s much at stake (even within the scope and scale of those films) and I am never for a second shaken at the possibility that The Good Guys will win. I love to hear about the battles and the storylines In Their Words, from the mouths of the people who deeply love them and are invested in them, but I’m more than likely not the guy you want to take with you to the theater to watch them with you.
All of that being said: this game rules.
I’ll start with the video gameyness of it. Combat is sparse, and when you actually are in a battle, it’s very similar to the God of War series where you find yourself in very specific encounters that require you to engage in this battle in this specific place in the level, and you have to complete the encounter before you are forced to move on. As Star-Lord, you have blasters and your fists to take your enemies out, but most of the fun of the battle is commanding the rest of the Guardians to use their various attacks strategically against the field to ensure your victory. To be sure, the combat is very repetitive whether you are facing massive creatures, huge packs of insects or legions of soldiers. What switched up the most was the amount of attrition needed to apply to each battle, and this was my biggest criticism during my time with the game. Sometimes it felt like it was just a case of How Video Games Waste Our Time, padding a fairly straightforward objective with a pocket of yetis or soldiers or mages or… whoever. With the level of quality that the narrative this game offered, and the way that it fluidly provided me/us with motivation to carry forward for the mission at hand and for the success of the Guardians at large, I was surprised to see so many combat scenarios come up. A good 50% of combat felt jarringly unnecessary. But truly that was a hang-up which only felt so glaring when set against the massively excellent backdrop of the rest of the experience overall. To be fair, the fighting was ultimately ‘just as good as’ combat in other video games. It was just pretty standard fare. My complaints stop there.
We explore the worlds in the story through platforming as we utilize our other Guardian companions to figure out simple environmental puzzles which present themselves sparingly and open exploration within a realm or a city or a planet. I believe most of the traversal of these levels are fairly straightforward A to B affairs, but for me what was worth the rub at all times was digging deeper to find components for power upgrades and my favorite, for new outfits. These aren’t buried haphazardly deep within the confines of the level, but they do require second looks at the rooms and environments you find yourself in, to not follow the well-beaten path, instead applying some care and thought into where various offshoots might take you to find the new gear. Really, none of the outfits meant anything more than cosmetic flair, but some of the suits were just so cool. In a game where the dialog is the core of the experience and the character development is the biggest payoff, letting you dress the characters in variants from the comic books was a big part of what added to my connection to those characters.
As I just mentioned, there is a lot of dialog. This is a game where you’re going to want to set aside some time to really allow yourself to hear what the characters are saying and to give the audio a lot of room to breathe. It’s not like we’re doing any hardcore bureaucratic debating, but if you aren’t here to enjoy the story, you aren’t here to enjoy the game. Main storyline conversations between all of the main five protagonists all seem to shine with very tight and polished writing, even if the GOTG do seem to have some level of fratty partyisms. Drax’s stoic and unsarcastic understanding of Rocket’s crass and street-smart jabs are what make this entire team so great to be beside. While walking through levels, platforming and openly exploring, there is an almost constant banter that seems to resonate just as strongly and naturally as the set pieced conversations that are meant to take center stage. Going off on your own to see if you can find some of that aforementioned treasure and secrets? Be sure one of your companions will have something to say about your wandering off [again]. Little details like this made the game feel like a living thing. And I think that spark of life is what made me want to come back to it again and again.
To get a deeper connection with some of the characters as well, you may also find items that are meaningful to the different characters that find their way back to your ship, the Milano. These items allow you to unlock some backstory for the characters that is revealed through dialog in that little hub level between missions.
The storyline is one that I would have loved to read even if I weren’t interacting or “starring” in it. It is a concise story about the end of the galaxy at the hands of a brainwashed cult [yadda yadda], and we get to see this tap into the pasts of all of the main characters and the people who they have interacted with throughout their backstories. Tying in old comics, old stories and old characters in ways that require you to know absolutely nothing about the subject matter is yet again proof that the writers of this game not only knew what makes these characters tick, but also what makes the universe of Guardians so robust and dense with content. Family is a major theme of the game, both those we share blood ties with and the family we get to choose later in our life. Desperation shows itself in different shades, as do themes of loss, pride, belief, faith and unity. The journey that brings us from hunting a rare massive beast to felling a god has a distinct through-line that has to be experienced in full to really appreciate.
It took me about 24 hours of gameplay time to roll credits on it and it offered me the option to get through it again in New Game Plus, but that’s not really my bag. I played it for about 2 months on and off, never feeling like I had to step away or take a second away from the game out of frustration or burn-out, instead only being held back by personal time constraints and honestly, just not really spending as much time playing video games as I used to.
Highly recommend this game to anyone who likes to casually play games for storyline and just for fun. I laughed out loud a dozen times while playing this one, and I kid you not when I finished one of the game’s major battles, I had to exclaim out loud, “Man, this game just rules.” It was such a blast. For me, many of the games I spend personal time on are open-world games with tons of exploration and questing, and I think I get lost in the completionism instead of the joy that the medium is capable of. This was a refreshing experience, one made even more surprising because of where I usually fall on comic book movies. I promise you that an interest in that genre is not required to find a deep sense of joy from this game.
Please check it out!
