Review - Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy... The Final Countdown

 

Image credit: Marvel

I've been on a bit of a Marvel kick lately. I suppose I have Midnight Suns to thank for that one. Hot damn, that was a surprisingly good game. And luckily, there are still other games from the comic conglomerate that haven't ceased to amaze me.

    Guardians is just one of these.

    As Peter Quill, or Star-Lord as he's so keen to remind everyone, we get to step into the boots of the un-seasoned leader of a newly formed Guardians of the Galaxy. The crew consists of poorly timed jokes and attempts at cohesion that fall flat as each member tries desperately to carve out a little piece of fortune for themselves. These fortunes are accumulated from the oddjobs that Peter amasses along their way through the galaxy, but more often than not are really just moments when the gang ends up getting in trouble for violating some code or law they were unaware of. Supposedly. Allegedly.

    That goodguys who sometimes do bad things gimmick works for the Guardians, for the most part, until something bites them in the rear a little too hard. A massive fine is placed on the group from the Nova Corps, the galaxy's police force, and Peter has to fast-talk his way into getting a couple extra days to come up with the cash. Luckily for the Guardians, he's a motormouth in general so fast-talking is kind of his shtick. Unless, of course, the leader of the Nova Corps happens to be his ex.

    These problems, and more, litter the path the Guardians have to travel on their way to keeping the galaxy together. And the hope, of course, is that they will find a way to work as a kind of unit on the way.

The Good

The story was actually surprisingly pretty solid. Incorporating a child into the mix threw me for a moment, but I really liked how the developers tied Peter's own past in with his present and potential future. On top of that, the rest of the gang have their own issues to work through as they face down the devastations of their own pasts. The game does a great job in fleshing those moments out as you walk beside them.

    Visuals are also great. There were only a couple of times that frames got chopped up or Peter got himself stuck in a situation that I was unable to retrieve him from without reloading a checkpoint. Those frustrations aside, the graphics are great and I can tell that a lot of love went into making the world a fleshed-out piece of Marvel lore and not just some hamfisted attempts at setting up places to go from A to B. What really intrigued me was the detail that went into the facial expressions of the characters during certain bits of dialogue.

    The best audio components had to have been the voice acting. Peter and Rocket steal the show, they talk the most anyway, but Gamora and Drax were also up there as well. The depth that Peter, in particular, brought to the role was a nice change of pace from the goofiness that he leans so hard into. I must say I also really enjoyed the music. Throwbacks to the 80s are peppered throughout with everything from Blue Oyster Cult to Europe. It was a fun ride.

The Bad

While the overall flow of the game is great, it does come with a couple sour notes.

    The biggest issue that I had with the game was really the last few chapters. They were a bit of a slog, but not in the way that many games are. In Guardians, the pace gets bogged down with the amount of fights that are thrown at you in those last few chapters. You can't go fifty feet without another rip-roaring battle, but at this point in the final moments you just want to get to the boss and be done with it.

    That brings to mind my other glaring issue. The combat could have been tweaked a bit to be more fun. While it is entertaining to command the Guardians in any number of ways to hound your enemies with various moves from Groot's tie-down to Rocket's cluster-flark grenade, it gets tedious after the 100th time doing so. In addition, Peter's pistols are relatively harmless when compared to the special moves of Gamora or Drax. Running around spraying mosquito bites when you have a ready and willing katana ends up pointless in the extreme.

The Glory

Flaws aside, Eidos and Marvel have crafted a very playable game here. Whether you're a fan of superhero movies or not, the scifi-fantasy crossover so synonymous with Guardians of the Galaxy is on full display here. It's a fun time. And at roughly 20 hours, it's a fairly small galaxy to traverse.

8/10

Glorious

Want to check out a review for the ultimate in scifi romps? Look no further.