Each of the Guardians acts exactly as you would hope. It’s a gradual trickle of information that never feels forced, and most of the time prying further into the world is entirely optional.īut this developer influence doesn’t take away from the key pillars of the Guardians themselves. Between Guardian items you pick up on your travels and conversations with your teammates, a picture slowly begins to build of what Eidos Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy is. And there’s plenty of opportunities to do that. What results is a fresh take on characters we already know, enticing the player to want to find out more about the Guardians’ lives in this particular universe.
Combat, too, is basic but convoluted, with a bombardment of mechanics that often go unused, can be hard to remember and ultimately don’t change the landscape all that much.Įido’s Guardians universe seems to be an amalgamation of various pieces of Marvel canon, including familiar locations, characters and stories, combined with the developer’s own influences. The environments also lack any real depth, with each alien planet differing in terrain but ultimately offering the same gameplay experience with a new skin. It takes a while to get into the crux of the story and, once you do, it feels like it’s drawn out, taking away from the impact. The writing is let down by a story that overstays its welcome somewhat and has poor pacing.
The balance is well done, though at times the ‘we’re all in this together’ spiel gets a bit old. What results is a wonderfully chaotic story with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments but also plenty of heart: one second you’ll be laughing and the next you’ll find a tug on the ol’ heartstrings. A large part of that is down to the writing, which perfectly encapsulates the personalities (and constant bickering) of the Guardians while organically fleshing out their backstories as well as the universe developer Eidos Montreal has created.