4/5 ★ – TheShazMo's review of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Platform: PS4 Developer: Eidos Montreal _________________________ Having been thoroughly exhausted with any and all projects tied to Marvel (and Disney) over the past few years, I was fully ready to let this game blaze past my sights without much commotion, especially after the disaster that was (is?) The Avengers. But the more I heard my friend talk about it during our weekly Apex Legends sessions, the more intrigued I got. Talks about interesting and well-written dialogue between a dynamic cast, beautifully realized worlds, and a choice-driven narrative reminiscent of Mass Effect, all seemed too good to be true. But curiosity killed my cat and I folded nonetheless. Though not for the full $60 (or rather $80 up here in Canada), oh no, I wasn’t about to relinquish my frugal nature for a Marvel game that may or may not live up to the hype. No, rather I perused online until I found a nice gentleman who was willing to sell his copy for $20 off. With the game inserted, and my base PS4 ready to take-off and cursing at me for continuing to treat its aging innards like Clifford’s chew toy, I was off. The opening left me cringing, quite literally, at the corny dialogue and the horrendous voice performance by the actor playing the young Peter Quill. But the music and roaming around third-person, clicking on 80s memorabilia did mask the cringe somewhat. Things got a lot better once I awakened as adult Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, aboard the Milano with the familiar faces we all know from the 2014 movie (because none of us read the comics). From the get-go, I became attached to these characters. Though, it was a little jarring at first, having been so used to seeing these characters played by the movie cast. But the Eidos team were quickly able to showcase their unique takes on these characters, and truly separate themselves from the movies. Sure, many of their traits and behaviours are still in alignment with the characters from the movies, but the more you play, the more their idiosyncrasies show in the best way. And because this is a game that has you spend upwards of 15 hours with the cast, you get more time to connect with each character and learn about their histories. It’s nowhere near as in depth as the individual missions you embark upon in Mass Effect, but it’s still more than I was expecting. Also, these characters talk. A lot. Like, incessantly. To the point where I almost felt like I couldn’t pause the game because there was always chatter between characters going on in the background. And it wasn’t bad chatter. The writing in these moments were funny, or snarky, or intimate, or…something. It’s impressive, really. That both the dialogue writing and the voice acting of the main cast held up both in-game and in cutscenes throughout the entire play through. Now, that’s not to say that there still wasn’t cringe or corn to be found. Far from it. Peter Quill, for me, was the biggest culprit. There were times where I wanted to face-palm at some of the dialogue written for him. He didn’t seem like this bad-ass, witty, mischievous space pirate with a heart. He seemed like an idiot. A dorky, goofy, cringey, at times whiny, idiot…with a heart. Did I dislike him? In the beginning, sure. But the more I played, the more his Kingdom Hearts level “we’re a team, a family” optimism made me giggle and sigh in the best way. Except for in two instances: The Huddle & The Strut Without getting into the weeds of it, The Huddle mechanic is a gauge that builds up during combat, and once activated, calls all the Guardians to Peter. It’s this weird, kinda-but-not-really cutscene where all the Guardians look at the camera (Peter), say some vague line like, “they’re killin us out there,” and based off of that you have a choice between two dialogue options. Choose the right option (usually pretty obvious), and the team’s health is replenished, their strengths buffed, and all other abilities open to unleash chaos (with some banging music in the background). It’s a good mechanic in terms of gameplay, and it’s a fun idea to have it be integrated with the narrative. Unfortunately, in that latter aspect it falls apart because the dialogue basically runs through a series of options, most of the time not being contextually appropriate with what’s actually happening. And once again Peter’s dialogue with whatever response you choose is…a whole bag of corn. But more jarringly the characters just look…goofy. The entire thing makes me cringe to the point where I actually refused to activate The Huddle, choosing instead to push through to the end of the combat sequence. As for The Strut…this might take the medal for most awkward and downright cringiest moment for any triple A (or single A) video game in recent years. This is not a mechanic in the game, nor is it a repeating section. It’s one section, one moment, and a dreadful five minutes that if I ever play this game again (which I genuinely want to), I may simply put a rubber band around the left thumbstick and leave the room until the horror is finished. You might think I’m exaggerating, but this moment, which happens at the end of the game, was awful, and I have no idea how the devs saw it and didn’t think it wasn’t out of some janky mid-2000s game. All of that said, and I’ve said a lot, I genuinely had a great time with this game. I prefer these Guardians over the ones in the movies. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and all of the side characters (Cosmo is best boy). I got excited with every new planet or location I visited, as I felt each were unique, visually stunning, and I hate to use the game journalist phrase but, “lived in.” I wish I could have seen more, I wish Knowhere was a larger section of the game, and that more missions could have taken place within it. The combat is basically a stripped down version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and that isn’t a bad thing by any means. It’s nowhere near as satisfying or deep, but it does enough. Star-Lord is definitely underpowered, and his guns become useless towards the end, but calling out the deadly skills of everyone else to make for some awesome combos never got old and made me feel like a leader. It could get repetitive, but I never felt the combat got in the way of the story, and I still enjoyed myself with every encounter. It’s just unfortunate that some of the cringe-inducing moments like The Huddle, The Strut, and a lot of Peter’s dialogue; alongside some minor bugs (as well as two crashes for myself), bog down the overall quality for an otherwise great game with a compelling story, and an incredibly memorable cast of lively characters, all of whom exist in a galaxy that I want to continue exploring.