Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series
Can Telltale weave its magic with the GOTG?
$4.99 Developer Telltale Games, telltale.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 9.0 or later
If you watch GOTGVol.2 in theaters and then play this, you might find you’re in for a disappointment. This game has little to do with the film, instead presenting an original story in a world more influenced by the comic books.
This has the effect of changing characters’ appearances from the likes of Zoe Saldana and Chris Pratt to something far more goofy, but also taking the crackling, quick-fire dialogue and filling it with awkward pauses.
As a Telltale game – a kind of cartoony choose-your-own-adventure – dialogue is the core of the experience, and your conversational choices matter in the long term as much as the taps and swipes used for movement and combat. So it’s a shame to see it so stilted and stuttering.
The game feels lightweight, despite a shock defeat for a familiar character from the wider Marvel universe and a new MacGuffin for our team of interstellar buccaneers to chase. Once the sub-two-hour running time is up there’s little in the way of a cliffhanger to spice up the wait for the next part. You can save 25 percent now by buying episodes 2–5 as a bundle for $14.99, but there’s not much here to encourage you.
the bottom line. With clunky dialog and low-res textures, this is GOTG robbed of their gravity.