Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Video Game Review

Story

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy tells an original story staring our favorite band of cosmic misfits. Twelve years ago, there was a galactic war with the Chitauri, and the effects are still being felt today. Star-Lord Peter Quill has recently formed the Guardians of the Galaxy as a band of heroes for hire, but unfortunately, no one wants to hire them.

The story starts with the Guardians scavenging in the quarantine zone (a dumping ground for weapons and ships leftover from the war), searching for a deadly beast to sell to the famous monster queen, Lady Hellbender. In keeping with the Guardian’s luck, they don’t catch the monster and get arrested by the Nova Force (the space police). To make matters worse, a seemingly harmless religious crackpot, Grand Unifier Raker is converting the galaxy en masse to his Universal Church of Truth, and threatens to overtake everything. Looks like it’s time for the Guardians to live up to their name.

One of the highlights of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is the characters. Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket, and Groot are the familiar Guardians we all know and love, but have enough differences from past comic or movie versions to make them feel unique. The group is constantly bickering, joking, and getting on each other’s nerves, and whether it’s mid-mission banter or having a private conversation on the Milano, the dialogue is well written and an absolute delight. The only exception is some lines got repeated a lot during combat encounters, which got a bit annoying.

Aside from the comedy, each Guardian has their own personal issues their dealing with, like Drax’s lost family or Gamora regretting the things she did in service to her father Thanos. You can have conversations to learn more and maybe help them come to terms with their pasts.

Besides the Guardians, there is quite the cast of side characters. In addition to familiar faces such as Cosmo, Mantis, and Adam Warlock, more obscure Marvel characters make appearances, such as Jack Flag, Ruby Thursday, Throg (the Frog of Thunder), and even Fin Fang Foom. There is even a nice little tribute to the legendary Stan Lee. References and cameos abound to keep True Believers searching every inch of the game.

Gameplay

The missions of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy follow linear paths with some minor platforming, and lots of enemy encounters. In combat, Star-Lord uses his Element Guns, which can lock on to targets to allow you to move around while shooting. In addition to their standard fire, the guns gain their namesake elemental powers as the game progresses, adding new wrinkles to the combat. The guns can be upgrades at workbenches using the components you collect along the way, but only a few of the upgrades felt meaningful.

While you only play as Star-Lord, the other Guardians fight with you, and you can call on them to perform special abilities such as Groot trapping enemies in branches, Gamora unleashing deadly sword slashes, Rocket blowing things up, and Drax charging and throwing enemies. Each Guardian has four abilities that can be acquired through the story our bought with skill points.

As you fight well, your Huddle meter builds. Once it is full, Peter calls the team in for a pep talk where you have to gauge the state of the other Guardians and motivate them accordingly. If done correctly, the Guardians are revived, healed to full health, and given unlimited special moves for a brief time. Gameplaywise this is a huge boost, but it was jarring to interrupt the fight to huddle up, and Peter’s speeches were usually pretty lame.

Besides combat, platforming, and searching for collectibles (database entries and costumes), the game features dialogue choices that influence the outcome of some events. However, these usually resulted in a slight perk rather than a meaningful impact. It felt like these were there to offer the illusion of choice, but the story ends the same way no matter what.

Final Thoughts

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a fun romp through the cosmos that tells an interesting story and makes you fall in love with the characters. The gameplay was nothing special, and there were a few mechanics that didn’t work too well, but the Guardians’ personalities and banter were what kept the party going. Add to that plenty of references for big-time Marvel fans and an outstanding soundtrack (as expected with the Guardians) and you end up with a great game.

My Rating: 4/5