MARVEL’S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY – EPISODE 1
Telltale’s latest series struggles to take off
Talk about a match made in a heaven. The biggest A-holes in the galaxy, and a developer which puts characters instead of action at the front and centre of its games. There’s plenty of scope for Telltale’s distinctive style – a genre unto itself by now – to give a fresh spin on the Guardians’ shambolic idea of teamwork. Shame, then, this opener only fitfully makes the dream work. Not that this episode doesn’t lay some solid foundations in its opening hour. Starting with a distress call from the Nova Corps, Star-Lord (that’s you!) and the Guardians are hot on the tale of a very recognisable villain who’s after the Eternity Forge. So far, so familiar. Stifle those yawns, though, as it takes a pleasing hard-left turn that sets up a story that focuses on the internal dynamics of the Guardians.
Because of the temperamental nature of the team, the smaller decisions you make have weight. One early instance sees me siding with Gomora over Rocket during an argument, and he’ll tell Quill to jog on when I try and make nice afterwards. The animosity doesn’t last as long as I want, but this short scene captures the volatility of the team and gives more depth to decisions because you need to keep them together.
The problem is, when it comes to the story rather than the characters, those choices become boring moral absolutes. ‘Are your Guardians good guys or bad guys?’ the game asks, stripping away the complexity and roguish charm that defined the film version of them. At least this does a great job of adopting the film’s style. Late20th-century rock blares at all the right moments, locations like Knowhere are instantly recognisable, and the voice acting sounds familiar without being derivative.
CRASHING DOWN
However, all the good work is blemished by an engine that wheezes like it’s on the home stretch of a marathon. Characters move awkwardly through scenes, overabundant loading screens frequently halt the action, and some animations, like blasting boulders away in a chase, are embarrassingly ropey. It’s getting harder to overlook how old the engine feels with each passing series that relies on it.
These faults are a little easier to look past when you’re more heavily invested in the characters, and Guardians has a solid cast work to with. However, in wanting to give us faithful versions of them, it stumbles into the same problem the Walking Dead Michonne mini-series has: they might be well-written, but there’s reduced scope for experimenting, and the emphasis is on you doing what you think the film version of Star-Lord would do, rather than what you want to do. Although the story is boldly charting its own course, for the series to hit the heights it should Telltale needs to find a way of breaking out of its bad habits.
VERDICT
While adopting the film’s style gives the action a flourish, and the focus on team dynamics is a perfect fit for Telltale, familiar issues hold it back from hooking us on its feeling. Ben Tyrer