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Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy review

November 10, 2021

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Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a single-player, action-packed adventure from the development team at Eidos-Montreal. It’s got a killer soundtrack, hilarious banter and chemistry between the entire Guardians of the Galaxy team and is one of the most entertaining games in recent memory. If you’re a Guardians of the Galaxy fan, you are in for a treat!

Throughout the game, you discover new cosmic superheroes, super villains and worlds, upgrade your and your teammates abilities and looks, and much more. Read on and find out why Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my top games of 2021 and a contender for game of the year.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Details

Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch: Cloud Version and GeForce NOW
Reviewed on: PS5
Developer: Eidos-Montreal
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: Action-adventure
Modes: Single-player
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

An all-new story with a fresh take

The team at Eidos-Montreal worked closely with Marvel Entertainment when developing the story from the game. While the game is set in the Marvel universe, it’s different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, it’s an all-new story with a fresh take on the Guardians of the Galaxy that I really enjoyed.

While I don’t want to give too much of the story away and spoil it for you, I can tell you that the game’s story takes place 12 years after the Galactic War. This is a war, which waged war against civilized species by the monstrous Chitauri and wreaked havoc throughout the known universe. You take on the role of, you guessed it, Peter Quill a.k.a Star-Lord—the self-proclaimed leader of the Guardians.

The story begins as you’ve just assembled a crew of motley misfits, but by the end of the game, you genuinely feel that they are friends. They joke, laugh, and the banter back and forth between them had me laughing out loud more times than I can count on two hands. And, at the same time, the story was never afraid to get serious—here’s looking at you Drax.

Working together as a team

Interestingly enough, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy isn’t a multiplayer game. The only character you directly control is Peter, who’s elemental guns and jet boots help you to defeat enemies. However, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Drax are controlled by AI and you are able to issue commands for each of the heroes with simple button presses during combat. And, surprisingly, it works quite well!

Each character has their own unique skills and abilities, which are useful not only during battle but to solve mini puzzles that you encounter throughout the game. And, as your teammates fight enemies, a special metre builds up that allows your team to unleash a special ability known as Team Huddle. During the huddle, you create a motivational speech and play a song to inspire your teammates. Give a good speech and your teammates will get perks. Give a not so inspirational speech and only you get gameplay perks during battle.

Additionally, as your characters gain more experience you can unlock new skills for them, which makes them even more deadly in battle. Furthermore, you can craft perks for Star Lord such as visor enhancements, rapid cooling for your element guns and more. Like the Telltale games of old, Guardians of the Galaxy allows you to make key decisions via dialogue trees and certain points in the game. These decisions affect the outcomes of certain missions and your relationship with your teammates. While there is some slight variation of the story and experiences, the overall core story is the same.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Killer soundtrack with licensed and original music

Guardians of the Galaxy looks great and has two different graphic options. One mode offers dynamic resolution up to 4K at 30fps and the other mode runs at 1080p 60fps. While there were some visual differences between the two modes, the smoothness of 60fps won me over.

The game’s characters themselves look great and their facial animations are fantastic. The voice acting is well done but if you are a fan of the MCU movies, it takes a little while to get used to the different voices. Environments in the game are varied and range from decaying shipyards to a city built in a giant decapitated space god head

Presentation wise, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy’s best asset is its soundtrack. It features a killer lineup of over 30 hits from the 80s including Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Never Gonna Give You Up, We Built this City, White Wedding and more. Furthermore, the Senior Audio Director at Eidos-Montreal wrote 10 original songs for the fictional rock band Star-Lord in the game. And, the game includes a nearly 6 hour cinematic soundtrack from BAFTA-nominated composer Richard Jacques that is woven in with the licensed music and Star-Lord tracks.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a contender for GOTY 2021

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy contains a stunning universe that is filled with wonder and adventure. Without a doubt in my mind, I can honestly say that Eidos Montreal has made one of the best superhero games to date. From the fantastic visuals, to the amazing soundtrack, to the superb voice acting and all-new story, the team at Eidos Montreal has truly outdone themselves.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a contender for game of the year in 2021 and a game that I highly recommend to anyone that likes games based on comic book characters.

+ Killer soundtrack and fantastic voice acting
+ Humorous dialogue and banter between the characters
+ All-new and interesting story
+ Easy to pick up and learn gameplay

– Combat can get repetitive sometimes
– Minor variances in story choices don’t necessarily warrant another playthrough