During E3 this year, publisher Square Enix surprise announced Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy for an October release. As a huge Marvel fan in general, and a HUGE fan of (the MCU version of) the Guardians in specific, this was one of my most anticipated games of the year. (Seriously, I dressed up as Drax for Halloween back in 2017!) Some 18.25 hours later, I can happily state that, although it might not be the most technically marvelous game I've played in 2021, it is definitely the most fun...and the funniest! Square Enix has done the property proud, and makes a strong case for relatively short adventure games.

Background: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is a single player, third person, action role playing game, set in a unique video game continuity/version of Marvel Comics' popular Guardians of the Galaxy series. Players exclusively control Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, the entire game, choosing dialogue options outside of combat, and giving hotkey commands to the other Guardians, Drax, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot, during combat. Some dialogue choices result in angering or endearing your teammates, usually in hilarious fashion, and other choices have impact on the direction of the story itself.

DavPoint: It might take some time getting used to their appearances, as Eidos Montreal chose a combination of comic and movie inspirations to arrive at their unique game appearances. But fear not, true believer, as each character has several different outfits to find throughout the game, and some are closer to their MCU versions, if that's what you prefer!

Once completed, each chapter can be replayed from the main game menu, though I have not experimented with making different choices and seeing if it allows dramatic changes to the story directly, or if the entire game has to be replayed to experience those changes. I can only speculate from my playthrough that certain scenarios that played out with a positive outcome for me, could be negative if different choices were made, but as far as I know, those differences don't directly impact the ending. A "New Game Plus" option is also available after completing the game.

My Experience: The highest praise I want to bestow on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is that it has the BEST dialogue of any game I've played. The characters banter constantly throughout the game, and that banter not only shows off their eclectic personalities, but it is consistently funny and occasionally heart breaking, allows each character to show a surprising amount of depth, and demonstrates how the team gradually grows in closeness and fondness towards each other. This attention to character and story is essential, as it feels as if the conversation mechanics are primary in this game, and the action/role-playing mechanics come after, placing the Guardians and their relationships front and center. It's the wacky characters and their team dynamics that drive the story, and what an epic, space-faring saga it is, as one should expect from this ragtag group of would-be galactic heroes!

Controlling Star-Lord in combat starts out relatively straight forward, but the linear progression of the story delivers new abilities at a pretty steady pace. I especially loved how each character has three abilities that are unlocked by gaining experience from battles, in any order, but their "ultimate" abilities are unlocked after key events during the story. This creates an emotional connection to those abilities that I don't often experience in other games. Even Star-Lord's blasters have unique effect types that are only revealed to the player - and Peter himself - during special events. By the end of the game, battles are gleefully chaotic, relying on constantly swapping out different blaster types and commanding the other Guardians to employ their special abilities, against specific targets or large groups, depending on the type of ability, as soon as they are available.

One of the other mechanics that I would love to see in other games is that deviating from the main path to look for hidden items (either components used for crafting upgrades to Peter's equipment, text logs, artifacts that trigger conversations with specific characters after the mission, and additional outfits) results in the team mocking Peter for going the wrong way. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is a linear game, as each area pretty much has one "correct" way to go from beginning to end, with not a lot of exploration allowed or expected. But, just like other games like this, the player is often presented with branching paths or out of the way ledges that, until you explore them, are not always obvious which direction leads to a dead end - and a hidden object - or the end of the path. Getting that confirmation from the game that "yes, going in this direction will not end the level, keep going to find a hidden object," is something I wish happened more often in games. (And it's often hilarious!)

DavPoint: One of the equipment upgrades players can choose from is an onscreen notification that they are near a hidden object. I regret that I didn't purchase this upgrade earlier in the game, as soon as I could afford it, as it makes finding those objects a lot easier! Note that you still have to be able to find and get to said object, but it is handy to be alerted!

Technical: I should point out that the game looks flarking fantastic, especially on my Xbox Series X, with huge levels, bright colors, and inventive art designs for the various flora and fauna encountered on each planet. But, I did experience some occasional frame rate drops, often for no apparent reason, and I'm not sure if the game was glitching or something was wrong with my Xbox. Also, I sometimes would get caught in a falling animation, instead of dying and automatically restarting from the last check point, or enemy encounters would fail to end even though I had eliminated all visible enemies. Thankfully, the check point system was pretty generous, so restarting an area rarely felt annoying.

If I had to voice one other criticism, I wish the hot key ability commands to the other Guardians used a consistent button pattern. Commanding a Guardian to perform a special ability (on Xbox) required holding down the Left Bumper button to pull up the image that displays the button prompts for each Guardian (X for Groot, Y for Gamora, B for Drax, and A for Rocket); pressing the face button for the desired Guardian pulls up another image that displays their unique abilities, each mapped again to one of those face buttons, X,Y, B, or A. Confoundingly, pressing Y for Gamora makes her perform a single-target attack, and pressing X makes her perform a multi-target attack, but that pattern is not repeated for the other Guardians. Pressing X for Drax, for example, is his "ultimate" ability, but Rocket's "ultimate" is mapped to Y, instead. It's a minor complaint, but it results in too much time staring at the button display prompts for too long, just to make sure the correct ability is selected.

Conclusion: Readers will probably notice that I haven't taken any time to defend or criticize Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy for only being about 20 hours long, as I just consider that personal preference. If anything, I am satisfied with its length as it was consistently engaging, escalated its challenges appropriately, never wore out its welcome or made me feel like it was too long, and again, had the best dialogue of any game I've ever played. I also feel like this linear, single-player action role playing game structure fit this property perfectly, and the longer, open world sandbox adventure game structure fits better for Marvel's Spider-Man and Spider-Man Miles Morales games. As the popular saying goes: Why not both?

Watch me play Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy on the DavPoint!

  • Developer: Eidos Montreal
  • Publisher: Square Enix
  • Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
  • Rating: T for Teen for Language, Mild Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, and Violence
  • Release Date: October 26, 2021