If 2014’s Guardians Of The Galaxy movie was a breath of fresh air for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then its 2021 video game equivalent isn’t quite as ambitious. This is not an adventure that adds much, if anything, to the third-person shooting platformer formula – even though some superb world building, fantastic visual design, a wonderful (if underused) soundtrack and actual laugh-out-loud writing kept me invested in spite of its flaws.
If you’ve seen any of the movies in which the eponymous heroes appear, you’ll likely feel immediately familiar with this video game adaptation. There are subtle tweaks – some for better and some for worse. On the one hand, developer Eidos-Montréal’s reimagining of Gamora is more interesting than that of the films. On the other, your protagonist, Star Lord, is a pale comparison of Chris Pratt’s fish-out-of-water, fake-till-you-make charisma. Still, it’s impressive that this unusual mix of similar-but-not-exactly-the-same works as well as it does. From the get-go I felt for these characters and wanted to spend time with them.
It’s the way you spend time with these characters that makes or breaks Guardians Of The Galaxy, though. Combat is a total misfire. Partly this is because your weapons are tied to the actual comic book/movie character of Star Lord himself. This must have been a development frustration, but I can’t help but think that Eidos-Montréal could have done a better job of getting us away from Star Lord’s dual-wielded laser pistol things. They are simply not fun to fire. You fire them once, at the start of the game, and they feel limp and unsatisfying. And then that’s it: you are going to be shooting them, and only them, for the entire 15-hour campaign. Imagine loading up Doom and never getting to the BFG.
Other abilities crop up, including an overall squad control that lets you use Rocket Racoon to throw grenades, Gamora to slash with her sword, Groot to entangle with his roots and Drax to use his brawling strength to smash enemies. These look cool and feel, briefly, satisfying, but they’re almost a glib reminder of how lame your little guns feel to fire. Add this on to the fact that enemies are bullet sponges and take a long while to kill and you’ll likely quickly grow tired of most fights in which you find yourself.
Often Eidos-Montréal seems unconfident in letting Guardians’ best moments shine without padding them out with repetitive combat and plodding puzzles. These highlights are found in the style and energy of these characters and the world they inhabit. Your spaceship, the Milano, is a liveable hub world that you visit between some of the missions. You can hang out, chat to your team members and delight in the little incidental details that bring this iconic ship to life. It’s a game that constantly feels suitably alien, too. Other sci-fi efforts of recent years, such as Mass Effect: Andromeda, have promised and failed to deliver something that felt out of our galaxy. Guardians actually succeeds in making the Marvel universe feel big, diverse and properly extraterrestrial. The first moment you go to a new area it’s legitimately exciting, especially as the many different chapters deliver quite a lot of variety.
Chiefly, it’s the writing and characterisation that makes Guardians more or less work. It delivered laughs, surprising moments of pathos and has some unpredictable twists that caught me totally off-guard, including a dog that shows up when you least expect it in the most hilarious way. Unfortunately these moments usually arrive when you’re not pushing buttons on the controller, having control wrenched away and to show you a gorgeous MCU-inspired cut scene. If emotional beats and smart storytelling are what you’re looking for, come right in. But the game is pretty rote, and, at that point, you wonder if this should have been on Disney+ and not your PS5.
From £59.99. At amazon.co.uk
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