GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
AN UNCHARTED GAME WITH BETTER CHARACTERS
Fraser Brown: My love for Guardians of the Galaxy makes me feel very basic – a big Marvel action game with quips, how novel! – but I can’t help myself. It’s an incredibly entertaining jaunt through colourful alien planets, cop-infested spaceships, and a city chilling out inside the skull of cosmic god, elevated beyond a popcorn-munching diversion by the Guardians themselves.
Star-Lord is a man-child leading a bickering team of semi-reformed criminals who don’t respect him. He’s the only member of the Guardians you’ll directly control, and starting out you’re a bit of a punching bag. But over the course of the 15-hour adventure, the team becomes a support system, helping each other work through trauma in genuinely heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. And when things threaten to get sickeningly sentimental, there’s guaranteed to be a joke or a fight right around the corner to give you time to dry those tears.
It’s very 2021 – a comedy action game that’s secretly a big therapy session. These different sides never trip over each other, either – it’s all holistic. When you’re exploring a planet or fighting some space cops, the Guardians are always chatting away, forging bonds, working through shit or firing out meme-worthy running gags. The heroes-in-training and their punchy dialogue might be the high point, but it also makes everything else so much better. I’ve been a fan of this lot since they first teamed up in 2008, but this might be the best they’ve ever been.
Morgan Park: Guardians is basically Uncharted with better characters. All of the enjoyable hours spent shooting, climbing, and walking are really just sponges for hours of engrossing, funny chatter between teammates. I love that even during a fight or treacherous climb, the game makes you an active participant in every conversation with binary dialogue choices. Not every choice has an impact on the mission, but you often set the group’s mood with your input. Before long, keeping everyone’s spirits high became as important as shooting straight.
As someone who’s never cared for the world or characters of Deus Ex, I’m thoroughly impressed that Eidos has whipped up a better version of the Guardians than the MCU could ever dream of.