I am getting addicted to this game and I want more … it’s literally that good.
Anyways, welcome to the Guardians of the Galaxy Episode 2 review and I have to say, I had a blast playing it. I remember that back in episode 1, I had some concerns with the title and how it will play out, but I think with every future episode that will be further down the past. In truth I found myself able to fully enjoy this second episode, without thinking “oh, this could be done better” and “maybe if it was done like this, it would be more enjoyable”. Telltale are doing an amazing job and I can only hope, we get episode 3 soon, because I’m dying inside to continue the adventure.
Just like in my previous review, I wanna put in a few words about characters here, because there are some noteworthy events to mention. I loved the fact that we can observe character progression, right off the bat. Remember when I said that Star-Lord and Rocket felt exactly right, with their jokes (although more could have been done on Rocket’s side), but still, just like a sponge cake, have their mushy centers (damn I am on a roll with the food analogies in the guardians reviews), here we saw them show these “more vulnerable” sides and in particular Rocket. I for one have never experienced Rocker’s character in this state of sorrow and to an extent I am glad I did, because all we see is the “tough” Rocket and the “joker” Rocket – they are the ones who he portrays constantly and it’s a rather nice change that we get to experience a memory of his past, that he cherishes so much and it unveils a different part of his personality. Same for Peter. We did see memories with his mother in episode 1 and how sentimental he can be with his team, when making decisions, but in episode 2, we see this further developed when he backs Rocket up and I will talk about this more, when I get to story. I am also more pleased with Gamora’s character. Now that Nebula entered the spotlight, I think we can finally see the “right” type of serious when it comes to our green assassin lady, because as I mentioned before, she felt a bit stiff and whiny. I’m glad we got to experience this development and speaking about Nebula, dayum that girl is a drama queen of class. I was actually going to mention this, however, as I saw how she was in the movies as well, I’m just gonna let it go. I actually like how they have built up the sister relationship. They are usually at each other’s throats, however when the circumstances require they wouldn’t hesitate to step up for each other. I am also glad that Nebula is not a revenge-driven psychopath and acknowledges when Peter is nice to her (because I totally took the nice guy approach with Nebula). But that’s not all, we see Drax in a new light as well. He is struggling with finding new purpose and we can actually advise him who he should talk to. Of course I picked Gamora, because he can learn a thing or two about purpose readjustment from her. I feel bad for the guy though. He’s been chasing Thanos for so long and now that he finally got his revenge, he’s kind of confused as to what he should do now. And just so we don’t skip everyone’s favorite tree – Groot is just the cutest thing ever <3 I hope, in a future episode we get to see more deep moments with him as well.
So how do the guardians fair story-wise? In episode 2 we progressively continue trying to figure out the deal behind the eternity forge, after we saw its mysterious power to resurrect beings at the end of episode 1. I have to say, I got quite engaged into the storyline itself. Here we face the type of choice I love in Telltale games – something which was most heavily seen in their The Wolf Among Us series as well as Batman and a bit in Borderlands and that is the presentation of two (or three) choices and what the main character prioritizes. Of course we do get to visit our other choice as well, but depending on what we had done, the tailoring of the story will be different. For example here … [SPOILER ALERT] … I went on and supported Rocket till the end, because I am a man of my word and when we got to retrieve Nebula, the Nova Corps were not very happy that we didn’t go sooner, but hey, I did warn them about Nebula. So now, Thanos’ corpse is flying around somewhere, however, we are one step closer to unleashing the secrets of the eternity forge. And also, we got to meet YONDUUUUUU! I love that guy, both as a character and as a father figure and I have to say I was a bit sad when he died in the second movie, however, hopefully, this won’t be the case here. Other than that – choices were consistent and again we had to pick between pleasing Rocket or Gamora mainly, but because I value my whole team, again I tried keeping them all happy, so yeah I try to pick stuff that would 1) build Star-Lord the way I want him to be built and 2) everyone in the team gets what they want at least once, so I supported Gamora last episode, now I had to go with Rocket. And c’mon, who can say no to that little fur ball in distress.
Speaking of Rocket, we got to meet Lylla, this episode, and I have to say yes, it was a sad moment when she died and it was even worse when Rocket collapsed in tears on me, however, me being the douchebag that I am, I couldn’t quite connect to the whole sadness thing, because it came a bit out of nowhere. There was no build up, for us to see their relationship and hardships in order for me to take in the feel whatsoever. However, I do understand that this is just a 5 episode series and there is only so much that can go into it, so we’ll give this one a pass. I did feel bad for Rocket though, when the forge didn’t work and I tried to be as supportive as possible and even though personally I believe that he should let go of that computer and just keep the memory of her, I just couldn’t bring myself to advise him that so in the end I told him to keep it.
Gameplaywise there is not much change. We have our QTE as usual and more of those rocket boots I like using + the time thingy device stuff … why the hell can I not remember what it’s called? However I did see an improvement in its use. I do remember that I complained how chaotic it was to utilize, but now it’s better played out. Usually around footprints to follow where you have to go and what you have to do and even if you are a complete idiot when it comes to directions (which I usually am, however this time, contrary to popular belief, I managed well), when you talk to Groot, he points you to the right direction (aww, honestly, Groot is the best member of the Guardians and I wish we get more dialogue and stuff to do with him).
And when it comes to music, the choices are spectacular again. I actually found myself jamming to a lot of the tracks mid-game. Like I would actively take my tame, wherever the game allows me to, and dance around in sitting position … that’s how good they are. I also loved one feature, when you’re on the Milano, we couldn’t do this in the previous episode, however Rocket fixed our tape player and we can listen to music now, so of course I put the jam on and rocked it all the way on the ship, before proceeding with the storyline. Hopefully we get to do that next episode too and we get a different assortment of songs.
As far as verdict, I can without a doubt give episode 2 a 9/10. I loved it so much and it managed to immerse me perfectly into the atmosphere of the guardians. The humor was on par where it could be, there were sentimental moments, enough action and all in all a very nice balance of all elements. I cannot wait to play the next episode and see the big reveal that we found at the end of episode 2.
One more thing before I wrap up the review. I’m not really a fan of how they present what will be in the next episode. I feel like it comes out as a bit plastic and fake even, and I would rather go without one at all, than those taped c0nversations. Alas, what can we do?
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