Guardians of the Galaxy showed up on a lot of people’s game of the year list for 2021 and I had a fear that I was missing out. I had to see what all the fuss was about. n

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Reviewed on PlayStation 5

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When I sat down to write my review for Marvel’s Avengers I considered myself a big Marvel fan. Now that I am sitting here writing my Guardians of the Galaxy review I came to the realization I’m actually more of a casual fan. Guardians are one of the reasons I came to that conclusion. I saw the first Guardians movie and did not like it. I did not like most of the characters, the only character I liked was Rocket. I then started to realize I have a lot of gaps in my Marvel knowledge and just had to accept I’m a casual fan. That comes into play a little later on.

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Gameplay n

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Guardians of the Galaxy is a third person action adventure/Shooter game. You are playing as Peter Quill shooting and punching your way through waves of bad guys. Combat was always fun and satisfying. The game slowly gives you upgrades and more moves to add to your arsenal and most of them felt rewarding. n

Combat was not the only form of gameplay, there are a lot of conversations and decisions you make that do slightly alter some outcomes. Before you go out on a mission there are optional conversations with choices for responses that you can have with all of your teammates. The writing and the voice acting made all of these conversations engaging and I kept seeking out more.

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Characters

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For this part to avoid spoilers I will only talk about the Guardians. As I stated, you play as Peter Quill. A character who in the MCU I could not stand. In this game I loved Peter. Watching him learn to be not only a leader but a teammate was a joy to watch unfold. Even though you only play as Peter part of the gameplay has you giving orders to your other teammates and watching them take action.

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Rocket was the only character I liked in the movies and in the game he was my favorite. Everyone else was a close second. Rocket is always coming up with crazy plans and has a lot of witty remarks and you will quickly fall in love with this character. n

Groot is a tough character since he only speaks three words “I am Groot”. With his facial animations and actions, you get so much more from Groot than just the line he delivers. It was amazing to be playing the game and be able to read Groot’s actions and start to understand what he is feeling.

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With Gamora being such a skilled assassin you forget she has a softer side. This game does a great job of developing her into a character you not only like but a character you love. n

In the movies, Drax was good for some funny one liners but I’m this game he has a lot more depth. He still has his funny lines but you find out a lot of what he has been through and learning more about this character was not something I ever wanted.

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From the start of this game the character development is absolutely insane. The arguing and bickering that eventually turns into love and trust was such an unexpected surprise to watch unfold. By the end of the game, the Guardians are truly a family and you witnessed them go from almost strangers to family. n

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Story n

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This is where my being a casual fan comes back into play. If you include all the Marvel games and movies, this is easily one of my favorite Marvel experiences. Catch me on the right day and I might tell you definitively it’s my favorite. This was the biggest shock to me for this game. These are characters I didn’t like from a movie I didn’t like and from a comic I never read. All I can say is great job. Outside of the recent South Park games this is also the funniest game I have played. I don’t want to go into the story at all to avoid spoilers but this is a story you have to seen

Performance

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Sadly I did have some performance issues. I had quite a few freezes and bugs during my 20 hour playthrough. Most of them were not a big deal just making me load my last checkpoint but some did require a full restart of the game. The funniest one is seen below, I picked up a collectible and then had no way to put it away, and I had no head. This is the only knock I have on the game.

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Verdictn

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Guardians of the Galaxy was a huge surprise for me. It took characters I didn’t care about and made me love them. The gameplay was always fun and the character development was best in class. The humor always hit and had me literally laughing out loud (just ask my wife she made fun of me) Unfortunately some bugs and performance issues held this back from being a perfect experience.

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Final score 9.5/10

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