

In one sequence, Star-Lord needs to buy Rocket enough time to hack a system by distracting a villain with annoying questions. For example, crew conversations are filled with dialogue trees that create impactful decisions down the line. The game successfully borrows ideas from both Mass Effect and Telltale’s titles to create smart team-management mechanics.

This isn’t a game about replicating Hollywood power fantasies, but showing just how tricky it can be to manage oversized personalities. Fortunately, Eidos-Montréal made the right call here - and it’s an inspired one at that. A Guardians game where you can only play as Star-Lord while issuing commands to seemingly more fun heroes like Rocket Raccoon and Groot? The fact that it’s a single-player game with no co-op play sounds like a misstep at first glance. On paper, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a tough sell. An unpolished, bug-ridden package drags the team down, but Guardians fans will be delighted by how much detail the game packs into its story. The “solo team play” is a well-executed riff on Mass Effect that works both in and out of combat. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a clever superhero game that ditches genre expectations in favor of gameplay mechanics that better suit its oddball squad. At the center of it all is Star-Lord, who’s given the most difficult task a leader could face: Team management. They bicker with one another over who’s better at killing sentient gelatin cubes. They quip their way through combat, as if every battle is a company softball game. In their first video game adventure, the aptly titled Marvel’s’ Guardians of the Galaxy, the misfit superhero team’s cockiness is on full display.
