(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Note: The clips that are all shown are from Doug's Twitch streams of himself playing the game)
Doug (vo): One of my favorite movies in the MCU is Guardians of the Galaxy 2. I've actually really grown to love these characters. So as you could imagine, I was really excited to play Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy on PS4, and in short, it's pretty damn good. I was really impressed with how this game captured the voice, comedy, and even drama of those movies, yet it still is its own unique thing. Yes, there's a lot of callbacks to the film, but the film is also based on the comic series, and, yeah, that's really where this is taking a lot of its material, even though, yes, the voice acting is eerily similar to the movies. I don't see that as a disadvantage. I felt like I was just fighting all these weird aliens and beasts and whatever with the Guardians of the Galaxy from the movie. Even though this technically isn't the movie universe, you can tell it borrows a lot from it the same way, say, the Arkham games borrow a lot from the Batman movies and the animated series. They blend together and really capture the essence of what I enjoy about them so much.
Story[]
Doug (vo): The story, as you'd imagine, is very complicated, so, yeah, I'll try my best to sum it up as there are a lot of side quests in this as, again, you would probably expect. The Guardians of the Galaxy are once again not doing the best job guarding the galaxy as they're always in trouble, and they have this giant debt they need to pay off. When Star-Lord is captured by an old flame, he finds he's being put in custody by...her little daughter. I give credit this game immediately introduces the idea that he's probably her dad. I feel like a lot of other games and even movies would take forever to put that together, but almost instantly, it's brought up. The Guardians try to find a way to pay off their debt, while, of course, hatching all sorts of schemes and side missions. But one of those schemes involves taking on a giant evil cult whose energy power is, get this, faith-based. That's a really inventive idea. As you'd imagine, this faith-based energy is being harnessed by this cult, to a point where even the most powerful beings in the universe who supposedly have control over everything are having trouble keeping control of it. Obviously, it's up to the Guardians to find a way to stop this cult while also trying not to be sucked into it themselves.
Review[]
Doug (vo): I guess I'll talk more about the story and character elements first before I get into the actual gameplay. All the actors in this have a similar sound and acting style to the people in the movies, but it never feels like a straight on rip-off. It feels like it's really trying to give you the experience of going on these missions with the Guardians of the Galaxy. And so much of that works because the writing and acting of these characters feels so authentic. I legit love hearing the banter between all these characters, and I love, too, that not only can you interact with them, but the way you interact with them can affect the gameplay later. Without going into too much detail, if you make choices that try to pull them together as a team, you'll fight better as a team. If you make more choices that are putting them down, trying to separate everybody, well, you'll have to do a lot of fighting on your own. If you don't help somebody out, they won't help you out later. But what's so great about that is some people might prefer that. There's a lot of people that like the challenge of taking on a lot more enemies and want to go in guns a-blazing on their own, and I think that's kind of cool that you have the option. And it's not something that affects the story right away. There might be a character that you, say, maybe keep them out or include them in, and they may not have any interactions until, like, five missions later. I think that is really clever storytelling that uniquely ties into what only a game can do.
(Footage focusing on the characters is shown)
Doug (vo): But I will say, a lot of what the characters have to go through are interesting, but nothing really that new. There's a lot of stuff about choices that people have to make, and an interesting fantasy being introduced where maybe the choices they made were different and they have their happily ever after, and they have to make a choice whether or not they should take that or not. And it's all very effectively done with characters you really enjoy, but it is familiar. I can't think of anything challenging in this game that I can say, “Wow, that was new, I haven't seen that before”, it's something that you can pick out from a lot of other games, and again, other movies and series for that matter. But it's still with these characters you really like, and if it's done well, I don't have a problem with it. Not every game has to be Last of Us or Bioshock.
(Footage focusing on the different worlds is shown)
Doug (vo): The worlds in this game are so much fun to look at. I think if I had one gripe, I would say maybe I wish they got a few different designers. All of them start to have a similar look. But on that note, it's a look I never thought I would get into. There's kind of this Tetris blocky feel that a lot of these worlds have that, I don't know, if you told me about it, I think that'd be kind of lame. But they really utilize it in a creative way, to a point where I'm like, “Wow, maybe I should play Minecraft at some point. I never knew blocks could be made so interesting”. But it doesn't all look like that, either. Some levels are supposed to look gooey and gross, look appropriately disgusting, dingy, but technologically advanced. Marketplaces look appropriately scuzzy, but still impressive. And it does look alien, it looks like something from another universe. There is structure to it, but it still looks very, very foreign and very new. Yes, there's callbacks to similar designs, but it really feels like you're in a different world. Like, they take those designs and they use it in a different way.
(Footage focusing on the graphics and glitches is shown)
Doug (vo): I will admit, though, I played this on PS4 and you can definitely tell this was made for PS5. There are times where you can tell they had to cut corners on some of the hair textures, and while there really weren't that many glitches, when they did pop up, they were enjoyably distracting.
(We're shown a moment of one of the glitches occurring, revealing that Star-Lord's head is missing. Doug breaks out into laughter seeing this. The glitch soon fixes itself and Star-Lord's head is shown again)
Doug: Oh, come on! I so want to go around with that mug and no head! So then the next time, the mug is my head! Come on!
(Footage focusing on Star-Lord's hair is shown)
Doug (vo): Also, this is totally just a nitpick, there's one scene in the game where somebody says to Star-Lord, “Aren't you a little old for that haircut?” They're right. I don't like that haircut on him. Not to say this haircut can't look good on other people, but this is a dude from the 80s, he has an 80s jacket, he's wearing 80s merchandise, he walks around with a friggin' Walkman. What the hell is he doing with this haircut? It doesn't make sense. I'm not saying this dude has to have a mullet or anything, but nothing about him indicates he would want this modern hairstyle, he would want something more retro. Again, it's a total nitpick.
(Footage focusing on the gameplay is shown)
Doug (vo): The gameplay itself is also really, really fun. Of course, there's a variety of moves and guns that you get as you progress through the game, a lot of them have different powers and techniques. But maybe the most fun thing is you can use the Guardians to help you in the fight, and it isn't like one Guardian just does one thing, there's a variety of different options you can choose from. And, of course. as you progress, you get more of them.
(Footage focusing on the final level is shown)
Doug (vo): On that note, and this is probably just a me thing, if you have a very distinct way of fighting, there are some moments where they change it up very quickly, and you really have to change your muscle memory. I was really used to circling around an enemy and using the Guardians all the time, but there is a level where you have to constantly change guns in order to take down these other enemies, and the other times where you've had to change guns was, well, a lot slower and laid back. Like, “Oh, you have to open this wall. Well, why don't you choose this gun with this button that you don't use that often?” Suddenly, near the end. they drop you in a situation where a ton of these enemies you have to use these different guns on, and I just couldn't train my fingers to do it. I finally just made a run for it, using every other option I could, because I just died too many times and I couldn't adapt. Now I didn't have to change the difficulty setting or anything, I played on normal the whole time, but I'd say it's the one part of the game that legit started to get frustrating to me.
(Various game footage is shown)
Doug (vo): Everything else, no matter how difficult it got, always felt like it could be accomplished. And, yeah, I did kind of like the moments where there was a bit of a trick answer. Well...eventually. There was one level where there was a trick answer to get out of it, it kept repeating, and you had to find a way out of it. And, yeah, I couldn't figure it out, I finally had to ask somebody, and the answer was very simple. So simple that it got me a little mad and I was like, “No, no, that wasn't how it was before, they set it up this way!” But no, it was an option that was always there, and I didn't put it together. And it's gonna sound weird, I kind of like that it made me mad, because I like trick questions with trick answers, and it's not too often I can't figure it out...eventually. So the fact that this one had the answer right in plain sight and I couldn't quite get it kind of delighted me, even though I was pissed off I couldn't figure it out. It's inventive, it mixes things up so you don't get bored doing the same thing over and over, the Guardians' abilities are fun, their chit chat is fun, your weapons are fun, there's just a good fun variety to it.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): So, yeah, if you're a fan of sci-fi shoot ‘em up games or Marvel games or clearly Guardians of the Galaxy, this is a good time. It's giving you everything you're expecting to get out of a game like this. Is there a little part of me that's wishing something a little different or more risky was done in parts? Sure. But I really should appreciate the hard work that went into making and also understanding this series. You really do feel like you're fighting alongside the Guardians, and how can you pretend that isn't a really fun and exciting experience? Plug in your 8-track and check it out for yourself.
(A scene showing Star-Lord posing victoriously with his Walkman is shown)