Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Review

 I was gonna make an MCU joke before realizing "Marvel's" is in the flarkin' title

Can someone give me a hint how I'm supposed to review a game like this when I've been suffering Marvel/Superhero movie fatigue since Infinity War? I'm kind of serious. Like do I review it in a vacuum, put all my biases aside and acknowledge the games many strengths and faults in their own merit. Secure in the knowledge that at the very least, this game will remain accessible to people for long enough (probably, rights issues ahoy) that people can come back to it once they have an urging for that kind of story? But that feels disingenuous, after all can I really review this thing in a vacuum when it blatantly copies it's homework from both the MCU and Marvel comics in style and setting? When even the parts I really enjoyed feel so blatantly like they were put in purely because they were existing beloved things from the comics themselves. I mean I know some of those things thanks to Linkara's reviews, and I even know how some of those things were better in the comics! Plus that's not even getting into the gameplay, how am I supposed to analyze the gameplay. As a way of making the Marvel movies playable!? But it's not even adapting the movies! It's more like the Arkham games creating it's own specific lore and setting to continue telling stories in. But then it's not even that because it keeps relying on people's pre-existing knowledge of these things. I can't even imagine how to introduce this game to someone who'd never seen the films, it just starts as though we all know how the Guardians met. But also because it's not an adaptation it's different than the movies meaning you have to still piece together details and-

Uh, wait there was a game I was meant to review here somewhere. Hang on let me get my notes... "Basically just what Yahtzee said in his review".... Alright toss it that's enough rambling here's the cliff notes.

Disney's Marvel's Square Enix's Eidos Montreal's Guardians of the Galaxy is a relatively safe entry in the Uncharted style of highly scripted action adventure game. With some mind-numbing "puzzles," involving looking at things and clicking a button. Barebones exploration and upgrade systems that I maxed out 4 chapters before the finale. An actually pretty snappy and fun shooter combat system using lock-on and special attacks, that is marred by overly long cooldowns and a severe lack of difficulty. Glitches galore but I don't particularly want to hold that against the game. Aaaaand an okay story. I know I started this whole thing with a rant about Marvel fatigue but I do like the Guardian's as characters, and while the story is poor and Gamora and Groot basically have nothing to do, I did at least enjoy it, which is more than I can say for some.

However, that does not leave the game with many praises. Everything it has to offer I've seen done better elsewhere, and I don't think it has much reason to exist as an adaptation. But I also don't hate the game. I may hate parts of it, the repetitive and bad jokes, several design choices, Square Enix in general. Yet I could also easily see why some are grabbed by it, and really enjoyed their time. It's the sort of game I would recommend to someone who doesn't play many video games, a parent or extended family member who's got a PS4 laying around with one copy of Call of Duty they played for 2 hours. Who isn't necessarily here for the art or deeper design decisions, and just wants to take a look at something palatable and fun for a few hours before moving on. Maybe to deeper gaming experiences, maybe to no more games at all.

Actually, I guess that means it pretty much nailed adapting the MCU's energy huh.....

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