Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy is one of the funniest video games in recent memory, but the writing team at developer Eidos Montreal had virtually no comedy experience when they started working on it. Last year’s surprise superhero hit gained much praise for its excellent plot and writing, which explored the minds and backstories of Peter “Star-Lord” Quill and his fellow Guardians Of The Galaxy as they struggled to hold together against the sinister Universal Church Of Truth and their plan to brainwash the entire Marvel Universe.
Unsurprisingly, the team spends as much time bickering with each other as they do gunning down enemies in Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, leading to some excellent character moments and recurring jokes - such as Peter accusing the others of keeping the Milano’s refrigerator door open, only for GOTG voice actor Jon McClaren to reveal that it was Peter himself that’s doing it. Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy's character dialogue system and mid-battle “Huddle Up” mechanic can provide even more of these moments, allowing players to have Peter react to certain situations in hilariously inappropriate ways or deliver team-rallying speeches that fall completely flat in the heat of combat. Just like James Gunn’s critically acclaimed Guardians Of The Galaxy movies, there is no shortage of laughs to be found while blasting through Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy - and one might be convinced that the writers crafting the game’s script were seasoned comedy scribes of the highest caliber.
However, VG24/7 reveals that the writers of Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy came into Eidos Montreal’s team-based superhero extravaganza with zero comedy experience. Senior Narrative Director Mary DeMarle noted that she was initially intimidated at the idea of crafting a narrative with the “very light-hearted” humor of Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy's underdog team, but she and her team of writers would group together and bounce ideas off of one another. She says that they were able to come up with great jokes by simply staying true to the characters of Peter, Rocket Raccoon, Drax, Gamora, and Groot, and that it was “amazing” to see a team of writers with no previous comedic background developing gags together - to the point where it became hard to tell who came up with which joke. “They were like ‘wasn't that your joke?’ And then ‘No, way it was yours!’ At one point, I actually had to look into our file system and say ‘no, no it was you, you wrote that line!’”
This unseasoned approach to Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy's brand of comedy and character interaction paid off well, as the game would win awards at both The Game Awards 2021 and 25th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards for its narrative and writing on top of the positive reviews it received when it launched last October. Unfortunately, sales figures fell below publisher Square Enix's somewhat lofty expectations, putting the possibility of a teased-at sequel in doubt. The good news is that Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy recently saw an increase in players after it was added to Xbox Game Pass early last month, renewing hope that Eidos could continue the story of the Guardians one day.
The fact that Mary DeMarle and her team went into Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy without any prior experience writing comedy makes the end result being so hilarious all the more impressive. GOTG contains plenty of humor and heart within its story and character interactions, and that is due to the hard work of the writers tasked with bringing legendary heroes like Star-Lord and his friends to life.
Source: VG24/7