Voice maketh the game
Guardians of the Galaxy Review
I have cooled considerably on my reception of Guardians of the Galaxy. I think the novelty of the music and gameplay wore off very quickly after playing other games. The honeymoon phase is very strong with this game. In a game with zero competition (The Ascent and 12 Minutes) the Guardians of the Galaxy: No Subtitled Name (strange for a comic book) 3rd-person action shooter is my game of the year 2021.
Is it a comic book? Is it a movie? Is it season of cartoon? It’s all of these things. It was a great ride and i highly recommend that you play it. It has the choice of a telltale game and the voice acting to supplement that, instead of the lazy lack of full-voice acting that is found in Nintendo properties like Famicom Detective Club or Fire Emblem games. Blurbs and farts do not make a voice work complete.
The lore is interesting to me as someone that is not a fan of comic books in general. I do appreciate the occasional humble bundle graphic novel and I love batman above all, but not enough to consume comics on a regular basis. The last set of comic books i probably purchased were the Transformers 1st generation comics when they were contemporary. I have picked up the Y:The Last Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and a Fight Club 3 Graphic novel with some Christmas gift cards. Hopefully those lead to some exciting rabbit holes.
The menus are nice and feature a blank diary that is filled in with art work and summary as you complete the story like Red Dead 2 and Life is Strange
I finished the game over the course of 3 weeks and really felt like the pacing was well done. I’m glad the next gen update is free and i look forward to one day picking up a series-X (saw my first in-person batch at gamestop yesterday) and playing through this game again some years into the future. This game is good but not good enough for me to pick up a PS5 and pay full-price for it. This game was strong for me mostly because I know that this game universe is something that might help me navigate future marvel properties. Also, with the amount of game length in a game i’m confident that even the most boring of superheroes like Hawkeye or Vision could actually have standalone games that sustain themselves. The game doesn’t have to be Spiderman for me to pick it up. And these are cheap Gameboy games or PS2 licensed money-cash-grab games. At this point if it is getting a console game it’s mostly competent. Even the G.I. Joe game was worth the $20 i paid. I might even go back to it one day.So games like Wolverine and Wonder Woman are now bigger targets on my radar. Games like Suicide Squad and Gotham Knights are must buys. Gaming has finally reached a point where i can play games in franchises that i knew before. Instead of making room for games like Final Fantasy which were just games i played because if i wanted to play a game then i had to accept them.
As far as gameplay I wish the visor (arkham knight vision) mode sent out ripples instead of turning into a virtual boy screen of just red. I spent too high of a percentage of the game seeing it through that lens because i had to collect collectibles and upgrades. I get upgrades have been a part of gaming for a long time but I am kind of tired of playing and underpowered weakling that achieves total power at the end of the game. It is a trope that I am sick of. I’m not sure if i leads me enjoy the power fantasy more since I achieved it by earning it or not. It’s always hard to know.
The greatest voice acting in a game. Makes me want to play more telltale games so Wolf Among Us 2 is high on my list for 2022, even though it’s a different studio from the one I experienced the first Wolf Among Us from.
The soundtrack is a great mix of orchestral music, 80s classic music, and fabricated hair metal band that the protagonist would have liked. Never thought I’d listen to these 80 songs again unless at a planet Hollywood or rain delay at an mlb game. In my golden years I’ll enjoy some Vegas show that much more because of the time i spent with the game here. The game was scored with their choice of 80s music at certain times during cut scenes. But during gameplay (it is part of you using a super power) it was seemingly on random and really didnt feel as effective as it coud. If Star Lord had mentioned loving the New Kids on the Block and the context in his real life why he liked it and why he “needed” it to get through this battle you might be talking a watershed moment in gaming for using licensed music. We didn’t get that here, but i’m going to pretend like we did. It’s like a spinclass pumping soundtrack that keeps you going the whole time. I can’t even imagine this game without licensed music. It would be like 50 Cent Blood on the Sand without his own music in it.
Without voice acting well this game would be trash. It makes me wonder why everyone gives Zelda pass without voice acting. Voice over the course of 20 hour game gives a chance to really appreciate the game for what it is supposed to be, a semblance of life. The last silent protagonist that mattered was the protagonist in Shadow of the Colossus. Protagonist need to speak. If a company can’t do it right that’s a problem. No something we should accept. Especially if a back catalog has dozens of games without voice that we respected for their efforts to save on memory or focus on other bits, holding on to tradition. That excuse no longer applies.
A Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind or Mission Breakout rides exist and I don’t ever recall a videogame getting me hyped for real life experiences (outside the ocassaional NBA or NHl game) and i will probably make time to visit the rides if i am at themeparks.
I am not sure of the order of operations of things but my understanding of the guardians comes purely from the 2014 movie. So i’d like to think whoever established them in their contemporary form was inspired by 80s music when writing these characters and their adventures. I think it’s grea the game has come full circle and potentially what inspired the characters is now part of the inspiration for the characters in the game. It’s hard to explain what i mean here but it’s pretty neat. Not having a deep understanding the characters means i’m not going to be bored by the typical mary jane and uncle ben story arcs found in a spiderman game (though playing a miles morales game might be more for me).
TLDR: This game is cool. It’s got a great soundtrack. The voicework is exceptional and should be a requirement for any contemporary AAA game. Has the permanence of my story that a game from the telltale franchise has. Gets a little framey on the Xbox One-S. 4.5 stars (im not doing the nextlander thing and saying starlords) out of 5.
giantbomb won't let me select version. Played on Xbox-One-S not PC