Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series
PlayStation 4
It seems like in the three year life span of this blog I have reviewed a countless number of Telltale games. Despite the fact that the formula of each game hasn't changed much over the years, I still really enjoy playing them. I have had two bad Telltale experiences and those were The Wolf Among Us and Back to the Future. Everything else I have played I've had a great time with.
About that never changing game formula... I have recapped it in just about every Telltale review I have written and (in case you are new to this blog and have never read one of my past reviews) I am going to recap it again. These games are always very heavy on story line and light on actual gameplay. Most of the content of each game takes place through conversations with other characters. They talk to you, and then an option of four different responses pops up on the screen. The choices you make in conversation can affect the way your fellow characters perceive you. For example, in this game if you are a dick to Gamora, she will remember that and chances are that you and her will clash later on down the road. If you are nice to Rocket, he will appreciate that and have your back till the end.
Conversation responses aren't the only choices you make in this game. Many of the physical decisions you make are much more game-altering than that. Do you fight or do you flee? Do you send character A into battle or character B? Who do you bring along with you on your "away mission?" Do you sacrifice one character to save another? You could play through this game a number of different times and make different choices each time. While the basic direction of the game heads the same way, the path you take can be much different. I finished the game with one major party member dead, one severely injured, and then I made a controversial decision towards the end of the game that I can only imagine severely altered the game's ending.
When you aren't talking to people or making choices, you are exploring on foot. These foot exploration scenes are not very exciting. You walk around and you examine stuff by pointing your cursor at items and then clicking on them. Click on or examine the right things, and the story line advances. Every once in a while a battle will break out too. You don't really have control of your character during these battles. Battles mainly consist of Quick Time Events. A button pops up on the screen and you have to press the corresponding button. It says X, you press X. It tells you to swipe up, you swipe up. Every once in a while it will throw in a wrinkle and have you - GASP - hit a direction and a button at the same time!!!!1! Or even more exciting, line up the cursor with an enemy and hit the R2 button. Wow!!!!11!
I kid, I kid. Like I said, the gameplay of this game is like every other Telltale title out there. It doesn't suck, but it is nothing to get too excited about. I can see why some people may get tired of the same thing game in and game out. But surprisingly, it hasn't outworn its welcome with me yet. I play for the story. And the story of Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty darn good. I'll offer a quick recap below, but be warned: spoilers will abound.
The game starts off with the Guardians getting a distress call. Thanos is raiding an ancient Kree temple and has wiped out all of the forces that were dispatched to stop him. The Guardians swoop in and engage in a massive fight with Thanos. They end up killing him (man, Infinity War is going to suck now) and discover the artifact that he was after: the Infinity Forge. Turns out another faction led by Hala the Accuser is after the same artifact. Star-Lord is killed trying to fight them off. But in a shocking twist of events, we discover that the Infinity Forge has the power to bring dead people back to life. You didn't think Star-Lord was going to stay dead, did you?
The Guardians escape, but suddenly become haunted by visions of their past. Star-Lord sees his mom. Rocket sees the death of Lylla, a fellow experiment from his days when he was confined in a laboratory. Drax sees his dead family. Gamorah sees when she was betrayed by her sister, Nebula. Together, the Guardians decide that these strange visions are because of the Infinity Forge. They head off to investigate the origins of this mysterious artifact. On their journey, they discover Mantis. She is an empath who has a special connection to the Forge. When the secret destructive power of the Forge is revealed, Hala swoops in and steals it for her own personal and nefarious use. A final assault is launched to stop Hala and reclaim the Infinity Forge. At the end of the game, you are given the choice to use the Forge to bring back one dead character from the game's past. I chose to bring back Lylla, because Rocket's back story was so darn tragic. Yes, I nearly cried over a scene where a sentient otter died in the arms of an equally sentient raccoon. I can be such a sap some times.
This is only a basic recap. You will encounter many twists, turns, and challenging decisions along the way. My playthrough ended with Nebula dying, Groot suffering grievous burns, I brought Lylla back to life, and Hala was murdered by her own son. If I had made any number of decisions differently, who knows how my game would have ended?
The story of the game really made it work for me. I was unsure how they would be able to stretch out a Guardians of the Galaxy story into five different chapters, but they made it happen. I was fascinated by the opportunity to get a sneak peek into the back stories of each main character. These back stories were a lot more interesting than I would have expected. I always thought of the Guardians as this funny, goofy rag tag group of heroes. But there is a lot more depth here than that.
I really started to pull for the characters the more I played. I felt a connection there, even when they were being obnoxious, irritable, fight starting jerks who couldn't control their emotions. But that is part of their appeal, particularly when they are able to put aside those differences and work towards a common goal. They may be a bunch of unique, crazy individuals who don't seem to have a lot in common, but at heart all they have is each other. They are family. When the game ended, I kind of missed them. I was sad to see them go. That is a feeling that video games rarely are able to inspire in me.
Is this game flawless? Of course not. The game is not as buggy or glitchy as other Telltale games I have played in the past, but it did freeze up on me on once occasion. It glitched out on me another time where all I could do was wander the ship without being able to make any selections or advance the plot. I had to restart the game. While the graphics are nice, this game looks like it easily could have been done on a PS3. There are a few slow points in the game where I zoned out a bit because there was just TOO much conversation going on. Also, it is a bit annoying how the characters keep arguing and picking fights with one another when they have bigger problems at hand. Each of the five chapters seemed to have some kind of big argument or blow up in it. I wanted to slap them because they were being so unreasonable. Also, Star-Lord has one of the most douchey, punchable faces I have ever seen in a video game. Could they not have done any better with his design than THAT?
One thing I won't knock is the game's music. The soundtrack is not as good as either of the movies', but it is still pretty impressive. A few of my favorite moments in the game were set to the tune of "Dancin' in the Moonlight", "You Make My Dreams Come True", and "Crazy on You." Good stuff. Also, the game's voice actors do a tremendous job here, particularly Drax. I thought it wouldn't be the same without the voice actors from the movies, but I was wrong. They all do a really good job. Even Groot, although they do overuse jokes about "I am Groot" just a tad in this game. Not that I mind. I have always found him to be one of my favorite Guardians, and I like the schtick. But I can imagine that if I wasn't a Groot fan I would have gotten tired of the constant jokes about his famous one liner very quickly.
So I would say that this was altogether a pretty good experience. Does it offer anything more as far as gameplay than previous Telltale games have offered in the past? No. But that is not why I play these games. I play for the story. I play to make decisions and see all the different ways I can alter the game's progression. I play for the characters. I play to be entertained. And I was entertained here. Not the perfect experience, no. It might not even be in my top five Telltale game list. But I still enjoyed it much more than I had expected to.
Overall:
B
If you liked this review, please check out the following reviews:
The Walking DeadThe Walking Dead Season Two
Batman: The Telltale Series
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