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

The game opens with Peter Quill on earth, listening to music. This is a theme you see throughout the story and represents Peter's inner guilt, something incredibly important to the story. More on that later though, we jump to Peter Quill present day, attempting to lead his team "Guardians of the Galaxy" through a quarantine zone to score some serious cash. Right off the bat you see that this isnt the MCU Guardians, while similar each of these characters have pretty extensive stories about their past. Each character throughout the story overcomes a fear of theirs and that in turn unlocks their special ability game play wise. One example of the gameplay and story tying together pretty well. Another example of the gameplay and story tying together is just the quiet moments..... Or lack there of. Whether you stand still for like 30 seconds or you explore trying to find new costumes or scraps the team will almost always have some sarcastic response to whatever your doing. All of them teaming up to make fun of you. Or the team will discuss about the story or events that occur depending on wherever you are at in the story. There is almost never a moment of silence in this game, which I think is perfect for a team like this. Something that helps with this a lot is the performances. Each character is performed really well, delivering the funny lines just as well as the dramatic ones. Moving on from the story, I want to talk about the antagonist. The main antagonist being the Universal Church of Truth, this is a perfect antagonist for the story they're trying to tell. Most of the Guardians experiencing some tragic loss, Peter being him Mom, Gamora being her sister, Drax being his Wife and Daughter, Rocket being his friends from when he was locked up and tortured, and Groot being..... I couldn't tell you to be honest. Apart from Groot each character has to come to terms with their loss through denying the Churches promise, basically a ideology that they can bring passed loved ones back from the dead. Something Nikki, a side character believed to be Peter's daughter throughout most of the game needs to come to terms with as well. Her kind of being manipulated into helping the Church spread they're message and kind of "brainwash" people. I see Peter and Nikki's story mirror one another. Both losing their mom at a young age, only difference is Nikki basically HAS to come to terms with it quicker then most in order to save the Galaxy. Overall the church felt really unsettling, especially early on. When you first encounter them, seeing hooded figures twice your size from afar, or thousands of people praising the Grand Unifier it's all pretty disturbing especially when you don't know what the hell is going on.  The final thing I want to touch on is the gameplay, I love it. The gameplay centers on Star-Lord, that's you. You control him just like any other video game protagonist, but then you have commands to control the rest of the team. Each having three abilities you unlock with points and a special ability each that you unlock by progressing the story. Along with abilities of his own, Star-Lord features elemental guns with four elements. Plasma (fire), Electricity, Ice, and Wind. Each ability having benefits against specific enemies, and environmental "puzzles" that are much closer to obstacles. The gameplay can be extremely fluid, I love it. It's easy to control your fellow Guardians, and they help out quite a bit. The elements offer a fun variety and make for a more challenging combat experience when you need to attack enemies with specific elemental types. The traversal really isn't anything special. Star-Lord has jet boots you can dodge with, glide with, or double jump with. It isn't anything spectacular but it gets the job done. Overall, Guardians of the Galaxy is a really solid narrative oriented superhero experience. If you haven't played it and like the Guardians, or anything Marvel related, I highly recommend this game. If you hate the Avengers game and think this is similar in any way shape or form, take it from someone who's played both, it's not. Guardians is its own experience entirely that I recommend everyone trying. You won't regret it.