Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy | PS4 Review

The rise of the Guardians of the Galaxy property is unlike anything I’ve ever seen with comic books. The film adaptation took incredibly obscure comic book characters and redefined them so thoroughly that it is now the only way they’re represented across all media. When the video game adaptation from Eidos Montreal and Square Enix was announced, I responded with a mild shrug. Not only was its development a pretty open secret, but the overwhelming onslaught of adaptations we’ve received from the property following the first MCU movie had dulled a lot of my interest. The bizarre marketing choices didn’t help anything either. I’m happy to report, however, that despite everything stacked against it, Guardians of the Galaxy is a game of the year contender and has reignited my fiery passion for the property.

Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)

This take on the Guardians of the Galaxy has the crew already fully come together, although it’s early on in their tenure. The crew is still learning a lot about each other, with only a dozen or so missions under their belt. It was nice that the story just throws you right into an early adventure with these familiar characters, instead of operating as some kind of origin story. This is where I think video games have the edge over movies with adaptations. They’re less afraid to just throw players into the mix of things and fill their universes with some of the wilder comic book concepts.

A strong cast carries you through the fun romp of a story. I admit it took me a bit to get used to this Star-Lord, but he really grew on me by the end. While the main threat itself isn’t too exciting, the characters carry the plot exceptionally well. I really rooted for these young Guardians to put aside their differences and come together as a family, and I’ll even admit I got emotional a few times. The Marvel cuts are pretty deep for comic fans, and the way the characters interacted had me grinning pretty much the whole time.

Hooked on a Feelin’

Contrary to what would be the natural assumption, you do not play as all of the Guardians in this title. You take on the role of Star-Lord, and while that feels like a strange decision initially, it makes plenty of sense after a couple hours with the game. It’s a tale of leadership and unexpected responsibility, so the definitive space faring man-child is an excellent vessel for it. It also plays into the game’s combat system. It allows the systems to excel, rather than buckling under the weight of making five different sets of mechanics.

A shooter on the surface, Guardians of the Galaxy has something that precious few modern games have, especially shooters: uniqueness. The combat system has you shooting Star-Lord’s iconic blasters with lock-on targeting, which makes it seem overly simple at first. As you’ll discover quickly, however, this is simply not the case. In your role as leader, it’s up to you to direct the actions of Rocket, Drax, Gamora, and Groot as needed.

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

It’s overstimulating at first, but as you find your groove, the combat flows wonderfully. It’s a lot of fun to respond to the battlefield with specific members. It might be smart to send Gamora in with her high-damage special attack, or maybe you notice a grouping of weakened enemies, which is perfect for a grenade from Rocket. Each character has four abilities, and while a total of 20 different skills sounds like a lot to manage, the game hands it over to you at such a pace that you’ll always have your bearings.

Certain difficult enemies have a stagger meter, requiring you to hammer in specific damage to lower their defenses. Between that mechanic and constantly going into the quick menu to issue commands to your comrades, combat plays out more akin to an Action-RPG than it does to a shooter. This especially applies to the game’s fun range of boss battles. While none of the villains are particularly strong in personality, aside from the best version of Lady Hellbender to date, they are universally fun to take down.

Spirit in the Sky

The remainder of the action gameplay is a linear affair of traversal and puzzles. The platforming is fairly easy, but the way it works in puzzles is a lot of fun. Whether it’s having Groot use his roots to create a bridge or using Star-Lord’s elemental powers to freeze a geyser and create a platform, it’s usually fun and interesting.

The linear nature of Guardians of the Galaxy is so unbelievably refreshing in the current state of the industry. As games continue to balloon and explode into 60+ hour open-world affairs that overstay their welcome, it was with open arms that I welcomed the linear nature of Eidos Montreal’s title. Despite its 20-25 hour play time, the pacing is perfect throughout. Because of that linearity, upgrades can reasonably be doled out via narrative during the course of the adventure. What this means is that the gameplay gets a new curveball every few hours, keeping the campaign fresh and interesting for its entire duration.

Surrender

Also keeping things fresh is the player’s involvement in the story. The Deus Ex history of the studio is on full display here, as you’re forced to make narrative decisions often. They’re usually innocuous quick choices in how to respond to your comrade’s chatter as you all explore together, but several of them carry far larger ramifications.

An early example is that your motley crew comes across a chasm, but unfortunately the bridge controls are on the other side. Drax suggests just tossing Rocket across, much to the raccoon’s chagrin. I opted instead to acknowledge Rocket’s protest and tell Drax not to toss him. Because of that, I had to go on a several minute excursion of platforming and puzzling to find a different route across. This is just one small example of how you can color your own playthrough.

More drastic choices can bear out more significant rewards, such as when I got to skip a major endgame battle because reinforcements arrived via a character I opted to save hours ago. It felt great seeing the subtle and not-so-subtle ways this felt like my own unique playthrough. That coupled with the great pacing and linear focus makes me want to replay it already.

Mr. Blue Sky

It should surprise no one that the music is exceptional, since it’s such a staple of the Guardians of the Galaxy brand. It’s used sparingly throughout the storyline itself, though it is used very well when it shows up. Of particular note is an absolutely legendary use of “The Final Countdown” by Europe.

You’ll more often hear it on board your ship (which you can freely explore at several points of the campaign) or during combat once your “huddle” ability activates. The huddle is on a big cooldown timer, somewhat similar to the Limit Breaks of JRPGs. Whenever it’s ready, you can pull the crew together for a rousing speech. Once that’s accomplished, Star-Lord activates his cassette player and a random 80’s song comes on. It really gives you one more thing to look forward to during combat, and there’s nothing quite like murdering dozens of mercenaries to “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin.

The last thing I need to note is the exceptional user interface in Guardians of the Galaxy. So many video games make it so frustrating to navigate menus these days that I want to spend as little time in them as possible. But here we have a delightful experience that actually made me want to engage with the skill system and codex entries. There’s none of that god awful PC-cursor style navigation here, and the interface overall actually feels designed with a controller in mind. The text is even of a readable size! That’s almost unheard of from a game on release day.

Guardians’ Inferno

At the end of it all, I had a flarkin’ blast with Guardians of the Galaxy. It was such a refreshing experience in a sea of AAA games that all feel like each other. It’s also nice to know we can trust Square Enix with at least one Marvel property. I’m utterly sold and invested in this universe they’ve built. It’s unafraid of its source material and really rewards longtime readers, which is always exciting to see. I want more from this version of the characters as soon as possible, and that’s as high of praise as I can think of.

This review is based on a a PlayStation 4 copy of Guardians of the Galaxy provided by fortyseven communications for coverage purposes. It releases on Tuesday, October 26th on PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC, and GeForce Now.