Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Review – “Galactic Ride”

If you wanted to play a modern, really successful video game from the world of Marvel comics, you had to buy a PlayStation console to find a game from Insomniac called Marvel’s Spider-Man (reviewed here) and its new brother, Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles. Morales (read review here). Square Enix tried to dip into those waters last year by releasing Marvel’s Avengers with the help of developers from Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montreal (again review here). Although the title offered a relatively interesting story mode, its legs were undermined by the rebellious live service model.

But now more than a year has passed, and the label is trying again with this world, this time with the title Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which is already being handled exclusively by the Eidos-Montréal team. However, with this project they go completely differently. This time around, it’s a purely single-player story experience that’s been pared down with all the unnecessary popular current “enhancers”. And I can say with sincere pleasure that this is perhaps the best direction they could have taken.

• Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (peer review), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch
• Publication date: Oct 26 2021
• Producer: Eidos-Montreal
• Genre: third-person action-adventure
• Czech location: Not
• Multiplayer: Not
• Data to download: 31 GB (PS5)
• Game time: about 20 hours
• Price: 1 499 – 2 199 kr in Xzone

Characters you will fall in love with

Twelve years have passed since the massive galactic war. A conflict that has forever affected the lives of almost every creature in space. And it was at this time that a charismatic earthling named Peter Quill founded a group called the Guardians of the Galaxy. This is a group of outcasts and hired heroes, in which, in addition to Peter, at first there was a genetically modified Rocket and his faithful friend Groot, and later they were joined by Gamora, the daughter of the powerful Thanos, and Drax the Destroyer. . One day, this perhaps slightly disparate five travel to a restricted area in which they want to capture a dangerous beast for Lady Hellbender with the prospect of profit. However, the situation gets a little more complicated, and a huge adventure begins, in which it will be about friendship, family and saving the entire galaxy. And I must say that this is an incredible trip.

The story is told in a great spirit.

Immediately after switching on, the Canadian developers explain to the recipient that they will be riding here in a truly magnificent spirit. That’s why they’ll fool you with one great situation after another, strung with really brilliantly written characters. Each character that has received at least some place in the game is colorfully drawn, which gives the local protagonists a real calling card of life. This is then beautifully highlighted with great mutual peaks and interactions that create believable relationships and emotions that have virtually every member of the local staff rooted to your heart so once you get to the end of a well-crafted story, you’re likely to find what you require. . Ideally now. This is also due to the perfectly matched length of the game, which is long enough so that you do not get poor, but at the same time just short so that you do not have time to overeat.

Illusion of belonging

In any case, the creators really managed to capture the essence of the Rangers themselves (many films served as inspiration this time), that is, a group of outcasts, together forming a somewhat dysfunctional, but strong family in which there are no irreplaceable. But the dialogue isn’t the only thing that brings the characters to life. A really good selection of actors who gave the local heroes a special soul also plays a significant role.

Actors give the characters a special soul.

However, you can breathe that soul into the characters, or at least the Star-Lord you exclusively play as. At its core, the game is a linear matter with a clear beginning and end, but there are also dialogues that offer various dialogue options and solutions. In most cases, these choices are more or less purely scrollable, with which you can create Star-Lord however you like. However, in some cases, individual decisions have real consequences, where you can, for example, influence upcoming fights or unlock various additional story nuances. This probably won’t be the reason for the immediate return of the game, but it’s certainly a nice thing that increases your involvement in the world.

Collect everything!

This ultimately leads us to the game itself. From the point of view of various genre scales, we can classify Galaxy Rangers as an action adventure game, where the gameplay itself is divided into two main pillars – exploration and combat, where all components, including films, are more or less common in the game.

The first pillar will have you navigating through beautifully crafted locations (the name really makes you feel like you’re in the far reaches of space) with jumps, some quick event, and solving simple puzzles in which you’ll use the skills of all the members team, which again well reflects the importance of a close group. These locations are mostly corridors, but they do not lack various branches that hide secrets, such as collectibles.

The gameplay is divided into two main pillars – exploration and combat.

And I will dwell on collectibles for a while, because I really need to praise the authors for them. Here you can find classic text documents that will give you additional information about local events, but the main thing is special items related to the Rangers themselves. When you find such an item, an additional conversation with that party member is unlocked as you learn more about their past and thus create an even better path to you. A great way to make me look every corner so I don’t miss any of those conversations. In addition, you can find hidden lockers with alternate costumes or materials that Rocket will use to create additional upgrades for Star-Lord on your poncho.

Guardians? Get it together!

Most of the time, you will use these upgrades in duels, which will look fun to you at first, but maybe a little chaotic. However, you will soon find that it offers various interesting layers that will make you think a little (I recommend choosing the most difficult difficulty or creating your own, because the name may be too simple for the previous two). But let’s go step by step, starting with Star-Lord himself. He can transport a wide variety of opponents both at close range and at a distance, using his elemental pistols, which he inherited from his father. In addition, over time, they will open up the ability to shoot various elemental projectiles, which will be used both in solving puzzles and in confusion, since different types of enemies are subject to different elements, if used correctly, they will be intoxicated. But as soon as you get into trouble, jet shoes will help you, allowing you to make nimble turns and short levitation. This is all then very effective for most of the time when the only crap is the random dueling quick events breaking the flow.

The fights are fun and chaotic, but they also have an element of thoughtfulness.

However, a key part of the fight is reusing the special abilities of all your team members, without which you basically can’t succeed. You unlock these abilities through experience earned in battles, with each hero earning a total of four – three normal and one special. And that’s where the thoughtful element comes in, because you need to use the right combination of abilities to take down enemies quickly. So Groot specializes in area and immobilization attacks, Gamora as a master assassin deals a lot of damage, Rocket blows everything up with his grenades, and Drax basically smashes everything. Once you subsequently learn how to combine and use individual attacks effectively, you will become an absolutely overwhelming unit that will wipe enemies off the face of the earth in the blink of an eye. That is, with a few exceptions such as bosses or more complex figures.

But if you still need help with tactics, you can scan your opponents, which unlocks help to eliminate them effectively. And when it really starts to flow into your boots, you can use a great mechanic called “crouching”. When activated, you call your team into a corner of your mind where you listen to their feelings from the ongoing conflict and then attempt to awaken them by choosing a dialogue option. If successful, the whole team gets a damage bonus (if not, only Peter gets the bonus), and Star-Lord in his cassette player releases one radio from a really well-chosen list of songs from the 80s. And believe me, there is nothing better than playing a skunk from space to the song Never Gonna Give You Up.

those bugs again

By this point, you probably already understand that the game really pleased me very much in terms of content. Therefore, it is a pity that the authors could not avoid the increasingly common trend of games with tuned technical condition. As you play, you will encounter a relatively large number of errors, most of which are more visual, but there are some that will force you to load the last saved position. Thank God, however, in the vast majority of cases, this is not a very big problem, since the storage system is very generous, which is usually the reason for the loss of progress in the form of a few seconds.

During the game, you will encounter a relatively large number of bugs.

Then I played this game on the PlayStation 5, which allows you to play in two modes. The former prefers quality, where the image is really sharper and more pleasing to the eye, but unfortunately, it has to be overcome at 30 FPS. The second mode offers 60 frames per second, but at the cost of reduced image quality, which is really noticeable in some cases. In addition, even in this mode, the title does not support a stable frame rate, which is a pity. When I researched the situation on the Internet, it seemed to me that these problems are not present on the Xbox Series X, so the owners of this platform should be happier. On PC, it seems like the game probably has a problem with some graphics cards, but I didn’t look into the situation in more detail here, as I did on Switch, where the title is run using the cloud. But in order not to offend only the technical aspects, I can praise the rich options in the settings for people with various disabilities and the included photo mode.

We want more!

So let’s sum it up. If, like me, you’re already overwhelmed by various sprawling open-world or live-action games, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy will probably come as a really pleasant surprise for you. The title will appeal to fans of comics, Marvel or the MCU, as well as “ordinary mortals” who are craving some kind of concentrated, engaging story that will offer them really great characters, great environments, and fun gameplay. And even a somewhat rough technical condition will not change this.