Square Enix's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy game has proven to be one of Marvel's better video game adaptations, and has managed to succeed where the publisher's other Marvel title, Marvel's Avengers, did not. With its own unique take on the Marvel Universe, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy provides players with a fun and exciting game combining a choice-based story and fairly tactical, challenging gameplay. The game has even been set to be nominated for various awards for this year's Game Awards. That being said, Marvel's Avengers, which was released last year, had flopped, despite gaining anticipation for the game when the first few trailers had been released. There are quite a few reasons as to why Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy did so successfully compared to Marvel's Avengers, specifically in gameplay, story, and replayability.
Despite Marvel's Avengers characters like Hulk having different abilities and skills, most of the combat in the game felt bland and button-mashy. Most of the enemies were easily defeated by spamming the same abilities over and over again and most fights felt the same. It was easy to level up a character and most upgrades were slightly new animations for an already existing attack. In many of the explorable areas of the game, there were barely any puzzles to solve and most of the items given to the player in hidden chests were just upgrade materials. Exploration could feel boring and low-reward and combat was repetitive, especially once players entered into the post-game.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy changes it up, however. Despite only Star-Lord being playable in Marvel's GOTG, the player is able to command the rest of the Guardians both in and out of combat. The combat system is similar to Final Fantasy 7 Remake, where the player can slow down time for a bit in order to command a set of abilities, while also fighting enemies in real-time. It is a good blend of both turn-based and real-time combat that allows for fun, challenging gameplay. The player can also command the Guardians to solve detailed puzzles throughout the game. Star-Lord can have Groot create a wooden bridge across a deep crevice, make Gamora climb hard-to-reach areas, and have Rocket crawl inside ventilation shafts to power up doors. These puzzles are extremely rewarding too, as they can give the player new outfits for each of the Guardians to wear both in-game and in cutscenes.
Marvel's GotG's World Is More Fleshed Out Than Marvel's Avengers'
From the crowded streets of Knowhere to the desolate fortress of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy's Lady Hellbender, the world Eidos-Montréal crafted feels extremely alive and lived-in. There are also hidden logs scattered throughout each level that flesh out the overall lore of the world. Meanwhile, in Marvel's Avengers, each area contains only enemies to interact with. There are no hidden logs that flesh out the world, and the only NPCs that talk to the player are either their teammates or the comms. Some of the social hubs in the game contain other NPC's the player can interact with, but they are only needed as mission givers or vendors.
In Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, the game allows the player to interact with various NPCs in each chapter. A good example of this is in Chapter 6, where the player wanders the bustling city of Knowhere as Star-Lord. The other heroes of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy are off doing their own business, so it is up to the player to find the target location while exploring the vivid neon city. The player can talk to certain NPCs within the crowd, interact with arcade machines found around the city, and even be pickpocketed by some harmless-looking kids. Marvel's Avengers barely has any of this, making the game's world feel lifeless by comparison.
Guardians Of The Galaxy's Story Beats The One In Marvel's Avengers
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy's narrative relies heavily on the player's decisions. Most of these choices can result in random quips to game-ending consequences. The narrative is extremely character-driven as well and arguably better written compared to the one seen in Marvel's Avengers.
The Guardians and the people around them are way more fleshed out and have their own goals and motivations whereas in Marvel's Avengers most of the characters were fairly flat, joining the cause to fight with the Avengers because they simply believed AIM was evil. In Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, there are moments where you must convince other characters to help you, and they may decide not to, in the end, depending on your dialogue choices. This provides added depth to the story, and makes the player feel as if they're directly influencing the story.
Marvel's GotG's Outfits Are Not Locked By A Paywall
Lastly, the outfits in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy are not blocked by a paywall like most skins are in Marvel's Avengers. Besides the skins earned for preordering the game (which you can still earn in-game), all of the outfits for every Guardian are unlockable through exploring each chapter of the game. The outfits in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy are all unique and detailed, and have been faithfully recreated from the comics and MCU.
Marvel's Avengers does have some great skins in the game, but most of them are locked behind a paywall. The player must spend more money in the game to acquire these skins rather than earn them in the game or through exploring, as many require a repetitive grind to unlock. It's a shame that the game took this approach, as many of the legendary outfits in Marvel's Avengers are extremely unique and cool-looking. The rare and common outfits, however, are mostly just reskins of the default suits in the story.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is another big hit for Marvel Games' lineup, delivering a package comparable to Marvel's Spider-Man in terms of narrative depth and presentation. With its well-written narrative, challenging gameplay, and detailed cosmetics, the game illustrates the potential Marvel's Avengers wasn't able to realize. The Guardians game embraces its comics and MCU roots, while also delivering a brand new, unique version of the space-faring adventurers everyone has come to love over the years. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy sets the bar for what a superhero game should be, and marks a significant improvement over Marvel's Avengers.
Next: What Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Could Be About