Although Telltale Games produced its own take on the lovable band of galactic misfits in 2017, Eidos-Montréal's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy represents the first real opportunity for fans to step into the jet boots of Star-Lord and efficiently work together as the Guardians. Screen Rant was recently invited to play about an hour and a half of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, which provided a sample of its characters, story, and gameplay. While Marvel's GOTG differs from the MCU's version, the demo showcased a game that likely won't alienate movie fans, yet finds its own unique identity. Still, prevalent gameplay issues could keep it from greatness.
In Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy's fifth chapter, the demo saw the Guardians headed to a Nova Corps station, only to find it completely abandoned, seemingly setting the stage for the game's main conflict. Things began on the Milano, the Guardians' ship, which is essentially a hub between missions. The Marvel's GOTG hub featured many charming details: hidden secrets and references that inform the characters and their histories, optional interactions with the Guardians, and small running jokes, like a fridge with a broken door that causes bickering between the Guardians and a weird space llama that chews through wires. The details add up to make the Milano a place players will likely want to spend time in, rather than quickly barrel through to see the next story event.
The only frustration to exploring the Milano was that, for almost every item Star-Lord picked up to inspect, another character would materialize behind him to start an entire conversation about it. When they're not getting in the way however, the Guardians are fun and charismatic. Their banter is genuinely funny and feels in line with the characters fans have come to know and love in the MCU.
Since Star-Lord is the only playable character in GOTG, the other Guardians need to stand out in other ways, as they won't have distinctive playstyles of their own. Their personalities do most of the work, but they also don't just act like NPCs that follow Star-Lord around; they're usually doing their own thing. At one point during the main mission, Drax wandered over to a vending machine, only to realize it had been powered off, leading to an optional puzzle to bring it back online. It's a small touch, but it gives the feeling they're not exclusively extensions of the player, even though their primary purpose is to service Star-Lord and take orders from him (hacking doors, getting into places he can't, or utilizing their combat abilities).
Sadly, gameplay is where Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy faltered in the preview. Marvel's GOTG's combat has all the pieces for something truly fun, but it doesn't maintain a consistent level of exhilaration. For starters, Star-Lord can only blind fire or lock on to enemies. There's no true free aiming, like one might expect from a third-person shooter. This can make the action feel clunky - even more so when Star-Lord tries to melee enemies, as the animations are quite slow relative to the high-octane action. Combined with cramped combat arenas, it can all often feel cumbersome.
Though it seems to mostly happen by chance, when things do happen to flow properly, combat can be enjoyable. A lot of the fun tends to come from Star-Lord's special ability, which sees him huddle the Guardians together for a pep talk and play a random song from his tape player. Marvel's GOTG's gameplay is elevated by its soundtrack; it's hard to not feel energized when Mötley Crüe's "Kickstart My Heart" is playing in the heat of battle. Still, the moment can sometimes be spoiled by the game's other mechanics.
So far, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is by no means a bad game. It isn't broken - it just isn't refined enough to live up to the expectations of a world where the very fluid Marvel's Spider-Man games exists. Although the story is intriguing and the characters are well-realized, the gameplay still needs to meet the demand of fulfilling a galactic superhero fantasy.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy releases on October 26, 2021, for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Screen Rant was invited to a hands-on event for the purposes of this preview.