By Luca Newton
Literally a week ago, I made a post about my apprehensive, hopeless outlook on Square Enix's Guardians of the Galaxy - well, we saw 15 minutes of it yesterday..
Square Enix hosted their Square Enix Presents last night to very negative reception - for very good reason. Today, I am not here to review that presentation, but it was genuinely awful. However, as promised, they shared a world premiere of a game by Eidos Montreal, that being rumoured before; Guardians of the Galaxy. They proceeded to share 10 minutes of footage for the game, on top of a 3 minutes long trailer. Objectively speaking, it was too long, but as a guy who watched the show for that game specifically, I enjoyed the deep dive. After that, I have a lot to say about it - and also the response behind it too.
It Actually Looks Good...?
As you will probably know, I was apprehensive to get excited for Guardians of the Galaxy due to Marvel's Avengers. Yet, I was also incredibly hopeful for it not to follow the same path - I even made a few paragraphs on reasons on why it can't possibly be like Avengers, and to my avail, I was right. It isn't like Avengers!
A dynamic trailer previewed at the start of the Square Enix Presents, we saw a fun, Guardians-like game down to its core, with its own take on the beloved characters. However, the trailer alone wouldn't acquit Guardians of the Galaxy from having the same pitfalls as Avengers. After the trailer, we then saw an interview with people working on the game, and 3 magical words were uttered.. single-player action adventure. With those three glorious words, a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, all my greatest fears had vanished, all by the hand of 3 simple words that have no right to make me genuinely excited for a game, but after the disaster of Marvel's Avengers, with the stupid live service model, it had me worried. Thankfully, Eidos Montreal was allowed to make a single-player adventure game instead of being forced into a live service game, like Crystal Dynamics were. The tremendous amount of genuine potential this game has now thanks to just three words makes me tremendously excited, unlike most things this E3.
However, a game being single-player doesn't guarantee it will be good. Guardians could be terrible, and the fact it's single-player would have nothing to do with it either way. Luckily, Guardians of the Galaxy looks genuinely really good. Firstly, there is the undeniable family bond between the Guardians, authentically feeling like them. The constant banter is classic, and no matter how cheesy it is, I love it. In the gameplay demo, we see the Guardians walking through a planet, constantly bickering - it felt so authentically Guardians I was very satisfied. Is the dialogue as good as the movies? No. But they work, they serve their role, and so far I am enjoying them. Each new take on the Guardians look cool to me, while the voice actors will take time to get used to, I like their general new take so far. One interesting aspect of the gameplay is the choices. Peter Quill has multiple occasions where he can make decisions for what to do, which have impacts on the game - probably only small, but still big enough to be worth it. The game is going for the idea that you are Star Lord, and so you not only play as him, you also do stuff he does. Stuff like calling the shots, and leading the team in battle.
That brings me to the next aspect; combat. Personally, this is the part I am most stoked about. It looks so cool to me. It's not just the traditional action combat, it fuses action and almost real-time strategy with RPG elements with the levels. You can only play as Star Lord, but through him, you also can choose all of the other Guardians' actions, down to exactly what they do. I understand that people are disappointed that you can't simply play as Rocket specifically, but personally I am not too disappointed because of how this works. It is a system that lends to Star Lord, and honestly when put into motion, it gives off a real sense of teamwork among the Guardians, which is a key aspect. I like that you can always command the CPUs to do stuff. It can lead to some really cool situations in combat. It overall looks really fun. And honestly, I wouldn't mind if it had local/online co-op too, where the Star Lord can give the moves as more suggestions than commands. It could be really fun, but I think they're sticking to single-player, which is also fine - I think that they should prioritise single-player, but if you can play as the other Guardians through co-op I think people would be satisfied with it.
I'm sorry I have to just add.. they actually did it. Remember I said how cool it would be if licensed music was incorporated in cutscenes and actual combat? The madmen did it.. I am over the moon, it sounds like it's gonna be even cooler than I expected. Licensed music plays in multiple cutscenes in just 10 minutes. Additionally, it seems that there's a meter that when filled gets Peter to take out his MP3, and play a 80s song while being more powerful while doing. It looks like an integral part of gameplay which I'm definitely gonna enjoy. All I'm saying is that The Chain and Mr. Blue Sky better be part of the selection..
But as it stands, I think the combat will make sure you feel like you're playing as all the Guardians at the same time with constant combos.
Fan Scepticism: Reasonable Or Not?
There has been a variety of opinions shared about Guardians of the Galaxy over the last day online. Fans are largely apprehensive to be excited for a game with the same publisher as Marvel's Avengers. I personally think it's reasonable to be sceptical. Avengers was so bad, why would you blindly trust that this next one is going to be any different? The fact that it's single-play, made by a completely different team, and we got 10 minutes of footage of it, I think we got quite a bit to form an opinion. However, I do find some of the complaints to be a bit overstated..
Firstly, I've seen people say that the graphics look bad, but I don't understand that? Game looks graphically good. At the end that's down to opinions, but I do think it's a bit overdone with the graphics. Like, I don't think many would complain about the graphics if it wasn't already under scrutiny - but the graphics complaints aren't very common. I've seen a lot of hate for the Guardians' new designs, but personally I think they're pretty good. They all look unique from the films, but not in a bad way like the Avengers did, but in a new take kind of way. To be honest, none of these complaints are really unfair though. They are all down to personal preference, and that's fine. We all perceive things differently from each other, which is fine. I find it unreasonable when people then project their scepticism onto other people's opinions. Such as criticising people for being excited for the game after Avengers, when it is not even the same developers, Square are publishers, it is not stupid to be excited, in the same way it's not unreasonable to be sceptical for yourself.
I just fear that people largely overblow their scepticism because of a previous game made by completely different developers, with completely different ambitions.
Things I'd Like To See More Info On..
In the trailer, we saw Mantis briefly. After the trailer, and when more information dropped online, we learnt that reportedly, other Guardians will be able to be recruited. I'm assuming that as Star Lord you will be able to choose if an additional Guardian joins your team or not. I assume they'd stay in the game either way, but maybe if you recruit them, they'll be in combat. I think Mantis could be a really support character, putting enemies to sleep, or being able to give the team info on maybe a weakness in an enemy. In addition to Mantis, I presume there'll be more recruits. Perhaps Nova, maybe Yondu.. maybe even Adam Warlock?
I'd like to know the structure of the game. Is it purely linear, such as God of War (2018)? Perhaps it has a linear story, but has open areas able to explore, such as Jedi Fallen Order? I'd like to see. Additionally, I'd like to know if they're gonna do co-op like I suggested earlier? They mentioned villains; some are obscure, others are more well-known. Will we get Ronan the Accuser as a recognisable villain or even Thanos? Honestly, Thanos would be a behind-the-scenes kind of presence in this game if anything. I'm excited to see what the villain roster will be..
What do you think of Guardians of the Galaxy: did it underwhelm you? Are you excited? What do you want to see in it? Personally I'm overly excited for it. Of course, it could suck, but as of now I think it looks great, exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks for reading.
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