Even if developer Eidos Montreal doesn’t know it, there’s a lot riding on their take on Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy. A lot of that has to do with the other Square Enix published Marvel game, Marvel’s Avengers. Developed by Crystal Dynamics, Avengers didn’t quite gel with many gamers. That scepticism has certainly rolled over onto Eidos’s Guardians of The Galaxy as gamers are hoping that what didn’t work in Avengers, doesn’t get repeated here.
While both games may be adapting various aspects, storylines and characters from both the Marvel comic’s line and its cinematic universe – and where both games feature a group of heroes – Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be a single-player game through and through. Sure you won’t be on your own through this journey as the rest of the Guardians will be around you, but unlike Avengers which is primarily a multiplayer game with a solo campaign, GoG is designed to be a third-person narrative action game. You won’t be swopping between Guardians as you will be playing as that bumbling hero himself, Star-Lord. Instead, the rest of your crew will accompany you on your adventures, fighting alongside you and been called to use specific skills when you need them to.
Eidos seem to be focusing as much on the game’s story as they are on the characters of the Guardians themselves. Very clearly the MCU is a major inspiration in the depiction of the characters, but to deepen the narrative, Eidos has crafted a dialogue choice system that will change out the way certain scenes play in the game. The dialogue choices are meant to influence your relationships with the other Guardians and affect the outcome of certain missions. Star-Lords decisions will also be referenced throughout the rest of the game then, though the main core story will remain the same and there will only be one ending for the game.
Continuing the trend of MCU inspiration is the game’s soundtrack which will be sporting a bunch of licensed tracks from the 1980s, newly composed orchestral tracks and a composed for the game rock album. Players will also be able to queue up music in the game that they can play during combat to hype the rest of the Guardians up.
For those worried about the microtransaction side of things, Eidos has stated that the game will contain none and that there would be no downloadable characters.
While the game was leaked in 2017, it was officially announced at E3 of this year. The reveal trailer gave a small taste of what to expect, leaving gamers clamouring for more details on just why they should be not viewing this as another Avengers. Since then, multiple cinematic trailers have been released with only one eleven-minute long gameplay first look released.
With the game having gone Gold recently – and just only one month before release – it’s time for Eidos and Square Enix to show us more than just some story and character cinematics and drop us further into the Guardians of The Galaxy’s world with further gameplay videos. As one of the few people that seems to actually like Avengers, it’s difficult to say just how GoG will turn out based on that short gameplay premiere, but, as a superhero fan, I’m more than happy to give the game the benefit of the doubt and find out when it finally releases.
Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy launches on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PC and a cloud version for Nintendo Switch on October 26th, 2021.
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