Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy review: A narrative masterpiece

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is the latest superhero iteration from Square Enix, featuring a reimagination of the galactic heroes. Players are offered to get into the blaster boots of Peter Quill aka Star-Lord taking down enemies across the galaxy with his motley crew.

While Marvel’s Avengers received quite a backlash upon release, the game is a breath of fresh air for all the Marvel Comics enthusiasts out there. The story is entirely original, which the players will shape up along the way. Characters are given a different spin, including some old and new traits that will be accepted readily.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy allows players to take control of an ex-space pirate with iffy leadership skills and his crew, who are ready to get hired and create havoc.

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Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy review: “Let's. Flarkin'. Go.”

Story

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is the latest action-adventure game by Eidos-Montréal and the European subsidiary of Square Enix. As soon as the game starts, players are smeared with a 1980s rock theme all over. Peter Quill is listening to the songs of a fictional band named “Star-Lord” while turning thirteen years old.

Fictional band "Star-Lord" (Screenshot via Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy)

His messy and movie-poster-filled room gives an actual picture of how a 13-year-old’s room is supposed to look like, who’s also a fan of Black Sabbath! Peter’s mom enters suddenly, and both get into a light discussion over their tastes in music. Gradually, they get ready for the kid’s birthday celebration. The throwback to classic rock music felt good, and it kind of sets the tone of narration for the rest of the story.

Young Peter Quill's messy room (Screenshot via Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy)

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy narrates the incidents of Star-Lord beautifully and sequentially, followed by occasional flashbacks to his childhood. It doesn’t feel boring while completing the missions, and the rare banter among the characters often brings out a smirk. The main storyline takes place 12 years after the Galactic War waged by the monstrous Chitauri and her genocidal military force.

It’s not open-world but pretty linear and straightforward in terms of gameplay. The visuals and level design, on the other hand, feel stunning and are a treat to the eyes. Players will experience the journey of an ex-space pirate with his motley crew for hire, aiming for basic survival. This new single-player experience felt fresh after a long time, especially amidst a lot of microtransaction-filled junk.

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Gameplay

The whole game is divided into 16 chapters featuring the main characters from the comics, namely - Star-Lord, Gamora, Groot, Rocket Raccoon, and Drax the Destroyer. Some other characters will also be featured, like Mantis, Blood Brothers, Cosmos, Hellbender, and more. Choices, appearing in dialog boxes with a timer, do matter to some extent, thereby getting the job done reasonably. Outcomes are not heavily dependent on preferences and give them a more casual approach.

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Out of the main characters mentioned above, only Star-Lord can be controlled by the player while his sidekicks act more like extended abilities. It’s kind of a bummer as it’s a Guardians game allowing only Star-Lord to be player-controlled. It would have been nice to control the other main characters as well.

The basic gameplay is pretty linear and straightforward, offering minimal exploration. This felt quite a contrast compared to Marvel’s Avengers, which focused more on live service gameplay. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy features superb-level designs and a very vibrant environment with combat that can often get frustrating (will be discussed more later).

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The Guardians travel in a spacecraft called “The Milano”, which also happens to be their base of operation. It’s a pretty compact ship comprising living space and equipment mimicking a college dorm. The Guardians behave almost like a family, which improves the unity among them. The chemistry between them felt similar to that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, enhancing the relatable factor.

"The Milano" (Screenshot via Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy)

Characters and their abilities

Not going to lie, the characters in-game do feel like a cheaper rip-off of the characters in MCU. It is understandable from the studio’s financial point of view, but the cinematic universe set the bar high, encouraging fans to have higher expectations.

There are five main characters, and each of them has its abilities that can be leveled up with “Ability Points”. These points are collected after engaging in combat and performing combos. Although taking control of Star-Lord does feel exciting, it would have been better if other characters could be controlled at certain times too.

Each of these abilities specializes either in inflicting Damage or dealing Stagger, or just getting an advantage over the enemies. There is also a variable cooldown for each of them. Every character is equipped with three primary skills and a hidden skill that gets unlocked as the player progresses with the story.

Star-Lord

The protagonist is a half-human and half-Spartoin, having a combat specialty in talking enemies to death. He is equipped with his father’s ‘Elemental Blasters’ and has three main skills: Vantage Point, Fan the Hammer, and Eye of the Hurricane.

Gamora

Also known as The Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy, she is a Zen-Whoberian with a combat specialty of incurring heavy damage to a single target and moderate damage to multiple targets. She also has three main skills, namely - Deadly Strike, Shadow Strike, and Stagger Wave.

Groot

Groot is a Flora Colossus and the last of its kind. He is very kind-hearted and compassionate towards his teammates and can even sacrifice his life for the good. He has a combat specialty of giving support, healing, and taking area control. He has three primary skills, namely - Entangle, Uproot, Mammoth Grab.

Rocket Raccoon

Rocket is a genetically engineered and self-proclaimed non-raccoon, having a combat specialty in inflicting area damage and control. He is equipped with three skills: Cluster Flark Bomb, Gravistack Grenade, and Glowing Pains Grenade.

Drax the Destroyer

Drax is the most state-the-obvious character of the lot. He is a Katathian with a combat specialty of staggering foes, making them vulnerable to a team attack. He is also equipped with three unlocked skills: Destroy, Katathian Charge, and Pound Pummel.

Abilities of Drax (Screenshot via Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy)

Except for Star-Lord, the rest are controlled by AI and act as an extended ability feature for the protagonist, helping in combat. Each of these characters is separated by contrasting personalities, often resulting in several banters and misunderstandings within the game.

Apart from them, several other characters like Mantis and Cosmos help the Guardians in their galactic adventures. This brings a fresh feel to the overall gameplay, which doesn’t involve a lot of grinding, unlike Marvel’s Avengers, to unlock the abilities.

Cosmos, the telepathic Soviet Dog (Screenshot via Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy)

Combat

Combat in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy comes alongside the tag of "mixed feelings." It does feel nice hitting those combos and getting the additional XP, but sometimes, it can also get frustrating. While combat does have variation and no mindless repetitive shooting, it can get claustrophobic at times.

Players can use the rest of Star-Lord’s crew as a vast skillset, using their abilities to get out of tricky situations. The movement is pretty smooth, allowing Star-Lord to dodge attacks by dashing out of the way, just like Jett from Valorant. Taking an aerial route can prove to be an intelligent choice, and combining his attacks with other Guardians can be lethal.

Effects after using multiple abilities at once (Screenshot via Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy)

One exciting addition to the game is the “Huddle” mode. It’s used when there’s no way out, and a break needs to be taken to boost the team's morale, thereby buffing the characters to some extent. In this mode, all the members have to agree with the decision of Star-Lord to receive a mass boost. However, if they don’t like his decision, Star-Lord still gets a buff, continuing the fight.

Guardians "Huddling Up" (Screenshot via Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy)

The player can collect heals colored in green after defeating the enemies. It should be noted that combat gets easier when played with a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard. Star-Lord’s elemental gun can be fatal when crafted appropriately and when combined with Rocket’s Cluster Flark Grenade, the damage dealt is deadly.

Music - a bit of both, yay and nay

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is widely known for its incredible music and soundtracks, as it helps in setting the mood for a particular scene. The game has incorporated a killer playlist that includes some of the 1980s licensed rock hits and a streamer-friendly alternative that barely manages to do its job.

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Let’s focus on the previously mentioned alternative as the classic hits have their class already. With the Streamer mode toggled on, the effect is noticeable from the game’s start screen itself. The menu goes silent, licensed music is replaced by copyright-free alternatives, and a permanent text block saying “Streamer Mode: On” shows up on the top of the screen. This text gets obnoxious after a certain time, and Square Enix should get rid of it with an update to keep players' sanity in check.

Obnoxious "Streamer Mode: On" text on top of the screen(Screenshot via Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy)

However, It’s not a critical mechanic, and the experience will not be ruined if players can’t hear the licensed music. But it does help to get into the groove that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy offers, missing out on the ambiance.

Performance of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

The Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Deluxe Edition press copy provided by Square Enix was played on the following configuration systems:

Non-RTX Setup

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: GTX 1060 6GB
RAM: 16 GB
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Preset: High
Framerates: around 50-60 fps

RTX Setup

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: RTX 2060s
RAM: 16 GB
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Preset: Medium (RTX on)
Framerates: around 70-80 fps

Even though the ray-tracing does make the game look like eye candy, it’s equally enjoyable without all those fancy reflections.

Some ray-traced reflections in-game (Screenshot via Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy)

Conclusion

Rating of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy by Sportskeeda

Is this game a breath of fresh air? Absolutely! Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy focuses solely on the player’s single-player experience without involving any microtransactions. This game is not based on live service, unlike Marvel’s Avengers, thereby setting itself apart. The occasional flashbacks show Star-Lord's traumas in his childhood and how he managed to be the way he is at present.

It would have been better if the other Guardians were also playable. Hopefully, it will be implemented in the future installments of the series. Overall, the game is excellent, filled with easter eggs here and there, and players will enjoy while playing Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy!