As soon as Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” appears during the reveal trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, we knew we were going to be pampered.
Presented today during the live stream of Square Enix unveiled E3 2021, we have our first look at the latest adventure for Star-Lord, Groot, Gamora, Rocket and Drax in a brand new and original version of the Guardians of the Galaxy from developer Eidos. thrown -Montréal.
The mix of the looks of the comics, particularly Dan Abnett’s run on Guardians of the Galaxy (2008), with some influences from the films themselves, has an air of familiarity that runs through everything we’ve come up with so far Have seen movie Marvel video game.
In this narrative, single player action adventure game, you play as the Star-Lord, “leader” of a diverse group of aliens, as you embark on an epic adventure through the cosmos. In this Guardian tale, it has been 12 years since a massive galactic war rocked the universe. Through a series of unfortunate and ill-considered events, the Guardians must stop a new threat to the galaxy, one they created themselves, and face not only that enemy … but themselves too. Sounds like a piece of cake!
As we saw in the short gameplay demo prior to today’s presentation, combat encounters will feature a mix of agile moves to dodge enemy attacks, and using Star-Lord’s legendary two-armed blasters to take down enemies along with each of the Guardians stepping in to contribute special attacks to knock down enemies. Speaking to Senior Producer Olivier Proulx, we learned more about how these combat encounters can be played out.
“Each Guardian has their own identity and ability in combat,” explains Proulx. “Drax will be more aggressive and will be able to stagger opponents to throw them off balance. Gamora focuses on high impact punches. Groot is the protector who can control and heal the group. And Rocket has his bombs and deals more area damage. Then as the Star-Lord you mix his agility with the use of his blasters. “
When these encounters are up against a larger enemy, a mix of skill and strategy comes into play as you need to make the most of the Guardian’s abilities by mixing up crowd control, squadrons, and finisher attacks. And during these encounters, we can fall back on Star-Lord’s “huddle” ability.
“In the game, when you call the huddle, Star-Lord can give a speech to reassure or motivate the guards,” explains Proulx. “Then when you return to gameplay, your guards will be reinforced based on how successful the speech was (or not).”
The best thing about this boost is that when you return to the fray, one of the 30+ licensed music tracks begins to add a dramatic flair to all of the on-screen action. In our presentation, Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” came through when each of the Guardians banded together to defeat a group of alien thugs.
Speaking of music – which has been a huge focus in recent Marvel Studios films with lots of hits from the 70s – this Guardians universe star-lord is a lost child of the 80s … and he’s a bit stuck in that era. So Eidos-Montréal worked to get licensed 80s hits that could be played throughout the game like Iron Maiden, New Kids on the Block, Kiss, Rick Astley and many more to give the team a great soundtrack , which is based on thematic game moments as well as through story cutscenes.
Through this story, each guardian will have four unlockable abilities, along with a special mega-ability that each guardian can gain through the game through a “growth moment”. Not only does this sound like it scratches our “need to collect them all”, it also seems to indicate that there is much more going on beneath the surface for this group of Guardians.
“Choice and consistency are part of the Eidos Montréal DNA, which gives you both play and dialogue options during gameplay,” said Mary DeMarle, senior narrative director. “You want to see the decisions you make have an impact.”
We have been told that this can manifest itself when the Guardians respond to your choices as the Star-Lord. These are all very strong-willed characters who become React to your decisions and you will have to deal with those effects while balancing their unpredictability.
“Some of the decisions you make open and close gameplay pathways to your goals,” explains DeMarle. “For example, there may be certain secret weapons that you can get. It’s still a linear story that will have the same beginning and ending for every player and build into a strong emotional story that will pay off in true Marvel superhero style in the end. But it is the moment-to-moment experiences of the story that you go through that vary according to your decisions, whether small or large. “
Also, DeMarle announced that they had tremendous access to the Marvel team to build the characters for a journey of humor, lightheartedness, and colorful moments, but also addressing deep issues of family, and belief and loss.
“It is fun!” exclaims DeMarle. “You are having this wild cosmic adventure and in a minute you are laughing and in a minute you get an emotional blow and then you are right in the middle of it again. Marvel has given us a lot of leeway so we can really put our own stamp on the Guardians of the Galaxy, so it’s not like the movies, it’s not like the comics – it’s our own version. “
As for the journey of our guardians in the universe, Eidos-Montréal keeps this a secret so as not to spoil anything. But the eagle-eyed fan may have spotted a particular space dog suggesting a stop over at this iconic location. The good thing is that we don’t have to wait long to discover these places for ourselves.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy will be available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S on October 26th this year. Plus, it will be optimized for Xbox Series X | S and support Smart Delivery – buy the game once and play the best version on your console. Pre-orders, available now from the Xbox Store, come with the Throwback Guardians Outfit Pack. We’ll have more to tell Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy in the months leading up to its October 26th release, so definitely come back here to Xbox Wire.
