Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Review: The Best Surprise of 2021

i went in wonderGuardians of the Galaxy I expected a few chuckles, but the tears surprised me. I’m an emotional guy, and I’m sure I’ve cried during several video games and Marvel movies. But there is an investigation into the loss in Eidos Montreal’s latest foray that really surprised me.

Then again: nothing of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is quite what I expected.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a third-person action game in which you play as Peter Quill, AKA Star-Lord, the 80s-obsessed captain of the eponymous mercenaries who became heroes. The game takes you and your squad to a multitude of planets where you have to destroy enemies with your twin guns and order the rest of the guards to perform special moves in battle. In the quieter moments of the game, you explore the strangest parts of Marvel’s galaxy, choose dialogue options, and use your allies to tear down walls or build bridges out of branches. But at best the bridges and walls are in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy are purely metaphorical in some ways, and your relationship with your crewmembers is paramount.

In most of the 16 chapters, the Guardians make their way through a new planet, ship or space station, shoot the shit, start in cutscenes and solve environmental puzzles using Drax’s strength or Rocket’s hacking skills. As I stumble around, at important moments, I can press one of the shoulder buttons to select a dialogue option and steer conversations one way or the other. Sometimes the game comes up with a typical “Rocket will remember” prompt, and sometimes my input just adds a little flavor.

Combat occasionally interrupts exploration, and as the Star Lord, it’s my job not only to fight, but also to command the rest of the team. Groot is great at binding enemies with its roots, while Gamora excels at inflicting heavy damage on individual enemies. Guardian There is such a strong sense of camaraderie that I feel the loss when a member is absent from the fight.

However, Eidos Montreal understands its source material and knows that arguments and internal drama are essential to the Guardians’ dynamic. About halfway through my adventure, everyone on the team felt a little disenfranchised. Rocket and Star-Lord were in the middle of an argument. Gamora was depressed for reasons unknown. Drax had given up atypically. And Groot … was Groot. I stepped into a space station and within minutes we were all going our separate ways. It was the first time I was separated from my teammates and it is thanks to them that I actually felt lonely in this game.

Eventually I came across Drax, who was staring into a great cosmic void. Dialog options appeared and we started chatting. Canonically, these characters’ pasts aren’t exactly the same as in the James Gunn Marvel films, but there’s at least one constant: Peter Quill and Drax the Destroyer both lost their families to tragedy. As Peter, I explained the human concept of Heaven to Drax and he explained the beliefs of his own people. Drax ended the conversation by asking for some time to himself, but when I left he stopped me to say, “Peter Quill, I hope your mother found her way to ‘Heaven’.” To himself taken the line may seem banal. but it was poignant at the end of an unusually emotional conversation with an otherwise stoic animal.

The Guardians all have strong personalities, so bringing them together is a big highlight in an already great game. At one point I denied Drax when he suggested that we just throw Rocket over an abyss and then let us over, and we all went the long way instead. During the hours of ambient chatting, I watched the two develop a friendly relationship, which I encouraged. When Rocket himself finally asked Drax to fire him for the good of the team – much like Gimli in The two Towers – Drax declined the request, saying Rocket was a valuable teammate, not a tool. At Drax’s behest, we found another way.

I’m not sure if that moment would have happened if I hadn’t said no to Drax’s initial toss, but I’m not sure if I care. What is important to me is that I watched their relationship grow from hostility to trust and respect – after all, Drax saw the same potential in Rocket as I did.

One of my favorite moments in Guardian of the Galaxy did not occur until I neared the end. After spending the whole game telling Groot to build bridges for the team, Groot went to a gap and placed a bridge without my asking. At first I thought it was a mistake, but Peter complimented Groot on his initiative. Similarly, Rocket began hacking electronics on its own initiative. I treated my teammates with respect from the start and they paid me back in gameplay.

Guardian of the Galaxy is full of real moments like these. The Guardians never stop shooting at each other – it’s in their nature – but it makes a difference whether you deliberately hurt the feelings of a rival child or tease a sibling. True to life, if you say the magic words, the guardians do not change in an instant – their development is gradual and sometimes painful.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is about the difficulties that come with friendship and the found family, but also about how necessary the connection is for all of us. The game shows how frustrating characters like Rocket Raccoon can be. But in his absence, I explored less and pushed my way through history just to find my way back to him, even if he was still mad at me – all so as not to be alone anymore. It takes work to love someone or a group of someone and it is that collaborative work that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy tap.

Life can be lonely, and I’ve turned to many video games to make friends and help myself keep in touch with real loved ones across the country or – for the last year – just around the corner. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy won’t fool you into thinking that you have the same real social interactions with people you care about. But to Eidos Montreal’s great honor, the Guardians deliver a convincing performance.

I always expected to zoom around blowing up aliens Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. But its new place as one of the most emotionally resonant video game stories in recent memory easily makes it the best surprise of 2021.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy will be released on October 26th Playstation 4, PlayStation 5, window PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. A “cloud version” will also come Nintendo switch on the day of publication. The game was reviewed on PlayStation 5 with a pre-release download code from Eidos Montreal and Square Enix. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect the editorial content, although Vox Media can earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. you find more information on Polygon’s ethics policy here.