Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy review: A superhero epic

Guardians Of The Galaxy Source: Windows Primal

I love Marvel, and Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my favorite franchises. Equally such, the surprise announcement in the summer that the galaxy'southward finest band of misfits was making it into their very own video game met with 2 reactions. The first; glee. But that was likewise met with trepidation. Coming from Square Enix, publisher of the Avengers game that saw notably mixed reception, I was nervous that one of my favorites wouldn't live up to the hype.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is not like Avengers. It could be further from information technology. Information technology's a single-player, story-driven game, much closer to Sony'due south sectional Spider-Human titles. There's no need to worry about another alive service championship.

There'south withal a lot that needs to go into making a skilful Guardians of the Galaxy experience though. Fortunately, the squad at Eidos Montreal hasn't but delivered — they've knocked it make clean out of the park. If y'all were waiting for some other slap-up superhero game on Xbox, information technology'due south now here.

Guardians Standard Edition

Marvel'due south Guardians of the Milky way

Lesser line: Guardians of the Galaxy looks good, sounds great, plays well, and higher up all else, is an authentic feel based on Curiosity's misfits.

The Proficient

Stunning visuals and level blueprint
Astonishing soundtrack
Authentic writing and character interaction
Fluid gainsay organisation
Xbox Series X|S enhanced
Fantastic accessibility tools
Cosmo is the best male child

The Bad

Slow pacing at times
No options to skip cut scenes
Ray tracing mode missing at launch on panel

Disclaimer: This review was fabricated possible by a review code provided by Square Enix. The company did non see the contents of the review before publishing.

Curiosity's Guardians of the Milky way: The (spoiler-gratis) story

Every bit a single-player, story-driven championship, the narrative is integral to the player's enjoyment of the game. This review will be spoiler-free, with no plot details revealed and no characters discussed that haven't already been made public. At that place are plenty of details non revealed prior to launch and nosotros're non going to spoil any of the surprises.

Marvel's Guardians of the Milky way: What's practiced

Guardians Of The Galaxy Source: Windows Key

I could talk about this game for hours, and equally, I don't want to say anything because I think everyone should take a run at this fresh. Just that would make for a terrible review so...

Starting from the top, everything about Guardians of the Galaxy looks astonishing. It's enhanced for Xbox Serial 10, Xbox Series Southward, and PS5, and the sometime is what I've experienced. You get 2 modes for the visuals, at least for launch, with either quality or performance to choose from. The functioning mode gives you a silky smooth 60 FPS which — trust me — is the best style to play this game.

Operation fashion is the way to play this on Xbox.

If you look closely y'all'll exist able to spot some differences in graphics between the two, but overall, it'southward small enough that if y'all tin can play it at lx FPS, you lot're going to take a much better time.

Besides high-quality visuals, the level design is absolutely fantastic. When the environment needs to exist night and gloomy, it is, when information technology needs to be bright and colorful, hoo boy, information technology really pops. Each unlike environment has its own very unique style. The first mission is a standout for its pink space goo everywhere, while the hustle and bustle under the lights of Knowhere helps set the tone. The game follows a linear path, but there is withal scope to explore a piffling, hunting for collectibles, lore, and interacting with diverse NPCs.

Guardians of the Galaxy Source: Windows Fundamental

Then comes the music. If you're familiar with Guardians of the Galaxy yous know how important music is to Star-Lord and it's no exception in this universe. Hither, Peter Quill takes his moniker from a fictional band called Star-Lord, his favorite every bit a teenager growing up. The developer squad could have left it there, but the attention to detail is no improve exhibited than the fact they actually formed the band and recorded an original, 80s rock album for the game. It's astonishing. Honestly, I've been listening to the tracks already released on repeat in my car.

Category	Echo Generation
Championship	Marvel's Guardians of the Milky way
Developer	Eidos Montreal
Publisher	Foursquare Enix
Genre	Superhero, adventure
Game size	41GB (Xbox) 85GB (PC)
Playtime	25 hours (additional New Game Plus mode)
Players	Single-role player

The total soundtrack goes far beyond this, though. It'south chocked total of 80s bangers from the likes of Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, and Rick Astley. Y'all haven't experienced anything like shooting space baddies while "Never Gonna Requite Y'all Upward" pumps out of the speakers. For content creators, at that place'due south a toggle to turn off the licensed music and while information technology does bear upon the overall feel, it means yous can stream the game or make as many YouTube videos equally you desire without fear of pesky copyright infringements. Yous should definitely play it at to the lowest degree in one case offline though, the music makes a difference.

Guardians of the Galaxy Source: Windows Primal

The writing is equally first-class. The Guardians of the Galaxy accept their own team dynamic and the Eidos Montreal writers have captured information technology beautifully. As you progress through the game the human relationship between them changes, sometimes for the ameliorate, sometimes for the worse, merely there's a existent arc to it. Past the end of the game, the team feels dissimilar from when it began.

The writing really captures the dynamics and dysfunction amongst this team.

The details are there, as well. The way Quill and Rocket rub each other the wrong way, constantly, the way Drax is extremely literal, and the way Groot is, well, Groot. Equally y'all walk around the Milano, the characters will quip at each other. If you lot become off exploring you'll be shouted at for going the incorrect way. If yous're struggling with a estimator Drax fifty-fifty suggests the Information technology classic technique of turning it off and on over again.

Dialog is a huge role of the experience and has actual consequences. It's not quite "choose your own adventure" but your decisions take consequences. Decisions made at one point may have an important impact later on on. Information technology also adds a dose of replayability, because I know for certain when I hitting the New Game Plus fashion (yeah, information technology's included at launch) I'll be making dissimilar decisions on purpose simply to see what alternative outcomes may wait like.

Guardians of the Galaxy Source: Windows Central

The teamplay extends into the game's gainsay organization, besides. Absolutely, at first, I was as disappointed equally many others that you tin but play as Star-Lord. Merely information technology works. His position as the team's leader is an integral part of everything, simply y'all still have some command over the other Guardians in gainsay and to call upon their own private skill sets as y'all progress. Each grapheme has their own abilities to unlock and Star-Lord tin can call upon these during boxing. Once you remember the button combinations, it becomes second nature to ship Gamora off to slice and dice or Rocket to drop something explosive on the enemy.

Happily, starting the game at the showtime makes the combat feel less frantic and confusing than it did during my initial preview where we were dumped in the fifth chapter. The game does a thousand job of explaining the mechanics to you and holds your manus merely enough as you learn to employ the strengths of each fellow member of the team. When you hit the later on stages with everything unlocked and much, much contesting nether your belt, you'll observe it'due south a actually fluid gainsay system that matches the claiming perfectly.

Guardians of the Galaxy Source: Windows Central

As an extra to the abilities, Star-Lord has a number of perks that can be crafted at workbenches throughout the game and each costs materials that you'll find without also much trouble. If in that location's a side passage somewhere, go down it, chances are yous'll discover some, or improve, one of the many unlockable cosmetics.

There are no micro-transactions at all. None.

That'southward right, all the cosmetics are in the game, even the ones that come equally a pre-society bonus. At that place are naught micro-transactions.

Guardians of the Galaxy as well has some pretty strong accessibility tools including 1 of the all-time difficulty selectors I've e'er seen. Information technology goes far deeper than just choosing "piece of cake" or "normal" difficulty, various aspects of the gameplay feel tin can be customized. If you lot desire to go along the overall difficulty the same merely practise more than harm, you can. Information technology's both surprising and refreshing to see such an approach, making this truly a game anyone can enjoy.

As I said earlier, I could talk nearly this game for hours. But I won't, I'd rather you lot went and played information technology instead.

Curiosity's Guardians of the Milky way: What's not good

Guardians of the Galaxy Source: Windows Primal

Fortunately, Guardians of the Galaxy is overwhelmingly good, very picayune bad. Even so, there are some things which could mayhap exist amend. The skilful news is that it seems to be largely issues-free. I did encounter some problems during my review period with artifacts, unremarkably in areas where lighting would have a stronger effect, and also some pretty crude frame dips later in the game. The solar day i patch has already been released though and at least from my feel has fixed things I've seen.

Being able to properly skip cut scenes on subsequent play-throughs would be really handy.

Having spoken to another reviewer, though, there does seem to be a potential bug that could wipe your progress unlocking outfits. This merely seems to happen if you beginning a fresh game (not a New Game Plus run-through) in some other save slot to your original 1. Then maybe avoid doing that for now.

The ray-tracing manner is likewise non present on console at launch, and it volition presumably be a third option in the video settings menu. The menu mentions information technology but the day one patch already pushed out to reviewers specifically states that this manner is however missing.

Guardians of the Galaxy Source: Windows Central

Otherwise, at that place's not actually much to dislike about Guardians of the Galaxy for existing serial fans. Some may discover issues with the overall pacing, even so, and the fact you can't completely skip cut scenes. Yous tin sort of fast forward through many, but there's no coating selection to only skip ahead to the side by side time you actually do something. On the kickoff playthrough, this isn't a problem, since you really shouldn't exist skipping any of the dialog or the story, but if y'all're in NG+ or going back to a specific affiliate maybe to find collectibles you missed, it does make everything drag a trivial.

The overall game time is mayhap 25 hours or and so for a full playthrough, and then again for a New Game Plus. Information technology never feels short, though, which is both a strength and a weakness. The story is actually absorbing, but it'due south non so much a option-up-and-play kind of game. Some of the chapters can accept over an hr to consummate, so being able to skip some of the in-between parts on subsequent playthroughs would help.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: Should you play it?

Guardians of the Galaxy Source: Windows CentralCosmo is the best boy.

In a world of free-to-play games, micro-transactions, and alive service, the Guardians of the Galaxy come swooping in to save the day backed by the sounds of the 1980s.

If you're a Marvel fan, or even if you just love story-driven games, this game is absolutely worth playing. While I had reservations headed into this review, there's absolutely no doubting that this has been a labor of love for the Eidos Montreal squad. Guardians of the Galaxy isn't a completely similar style game to Sony's Spider-Homo series, only it'south close enough to matter. It's a single-role player game, with no strings.

Like Spider-Man, the team behind Guardians of the Galaxy can be immensely proud that they've not just made a proficient game, but they've fabricated a good Marvel game. Information technology pays the highest respect to the franchise by creating its own take on the universe with admittedly superb writing.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Source: Windows Key

It as well, finally, puts another truly ballsy superhero game on the Xbox, something Curiosity fans especially have been craving. I'm not overselling it when I say this is easily my game of the year. Curiosity's Guardians of the Galaxy is a triumph and a game that truly deserves to wearable the famous reddish and white logo. It too brought a tear to my eye, make of that what you will.

Curiosity'southward Guardians of the Galaxy is prepare to launch on October 26, 2022 for Xbox Series Ten, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch (via the cloud).

Guardians Standard Edition

Curiosity's Guardians of the Galaxy

Bottom line: Marvel is back on the Xbox with a bang in a truly impressive outing with Guardians of the Galaxy. There'due south no fluff, simply a peachy-looking, sounding, playing superhero game with an epic story.

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