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

Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. I thought this game would be a Avengers but more polished and single-player. So I was wrong. Star-Lord’s gunplay is incredibly satisfying. It’s fairly simple at first, but after a few upgrades it improves vastly. I, like most, was also apprehensive of only being able to command the Guardians and not play as them, but Eidos Montreal did an incredible job making it feel like we were still playing as the others, just in a more indirect way. Eidos said they did this to make the player feel as if they were leading the Guardians, and they nailed it. The story is also just as amazing as the gameplay. The characters don’t feel like the MCU’s (personally) character-devoid nostalgia and joke machines. The characters in the game are capable of having adult and mature discussions, and can argue without having to make an unfunny joke halfway through to ease the tension. That’s not to say the game is humourless, there’s a fair amount of comedy in the game. But unlike the MCU’s GoTG, the humour is paced out, and actually funny. Yes, the game is obviously influenced by the MCU, but it surprisingly takes from the pre-movie comics, as well. For example, in the MCU, Star-Lord is a dimwitted, horny, and childish man who clings to his nostalgia. In the comics before the film, Star-Lord is a tired and beaten war hero, who is constantly trying to save a universe that is seemingly trying to kill itself. In the game, Star-Lord isn’t gritty and he isn’t an idiot. He’s a perfect blend of the MCU’s peanut butter and the source material’s chocolate. Yes, he clings to his nostalgia, but (unlike the movies) it’s not his entire personality. Like the comics, this Peter Quill is a war hero. The same can be said about every other character. I also enjoyed the references to the larger Marvel Cosmic Universe. With references to Richard Rider’s Nova, Darkhawk, Throg, Moondragon, Jack Flagg and more. Guardians of The Galaxy is my personal 2021 Game of the Year, and I highly recommend you buy it.