Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, tried Square Enix's single player action adventure
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
We have already talked about Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in the past. It was the height of summer and the new title from Eidos Montreal and Square Enix had popped up by surprise, with only a handful of fairly smoky rumors to anticipate the announcement. At first we had all thought a bit of a Marvel's Avengers DLC so full-bodied that it convinced publisher and developer to try the spin-off route, but after a few interviews and especially on the occasion of the first look at the game, it was quite easy to change idea.And now, on the occasion of a new completely virtual press event, we have even been able to get our hands on a preliminary version of the title, played in streaming on PC and including an entire chapter positioned about halfway through the game . In our trial of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy we will therefore focus on the playability of the title, on our very first impressions and also on some element that genuinely surprised us.
All this clearly awaiting a much more in-depth judgment and definitive on the title that will arrive on the occasion of its launch on the market, on October 26, on all existing platforms: PC, PS4 and PS5, Xbox One and Series X \ S, Nintendo Switch.
The demo tested
The 5 Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Before going into the details of the gameplay and how Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy works, it is necessary to take a small step back and quickly summarize what game is the new work of Eidos Montreal . In this regard, the first advice is to read our preview of the title, particularly complete and full of details on history, genre, mechanics and peculiarities.Secondly, we take this opportunity to remind you that the new production of Square Enix, in total antithesis with the Marvel's Avengers already mentioned above, is an exclusively single player adventure, with strong action connotations, numerous dialogues and a completely original storyline that rethinks the genesis of the Guardians from the ground up, placing itself in the very early period of the creation of the ramshackle team, just when its members are starting to know each other and have decided to unite and fight side by side in an attempt to keep the balance of the galaxy, and in the meantime enriching oneself.
Having made this necessary premise, the demo that we were able to try in streaming, on PC, included the entire fifth chapter, about 4 hours of gameplay: it can be considered a turning point in the narrative since it comes after a long opening that will allow us to become familiar with the Guardians and to find out what they have done to attract the wrath of the Nov to Corps and get us to impose the hefty fine we will have to pay to avoid going to jail. According to the words of the developer, at this point in the game, we will have recovered the necessary money to get our freedom back and we will be in the process of paying the penalty. To do this, Star Lord and associates will have chosen to head towards The Rock, one of the militia outposts where it is possible to converse with a Centurion and pay any fines.
Once landed on the equipped asteroid and built, however, we will immediately realize that something is wrong: there is practically no life on board, the patrol and control activities of the territory are stopped and the Nova Corps soldiers who will visit us will express themselves in an atypical way, continuing to ask us obsessively if "we have accepted the Promise", as well as being surrounded by a strange purple halo. Who is behind all this and how we will be able to pay this blessed fine, we are not given to know in the demo, but we will clearly find out only in the final game.
The gameplay
Peter Quill , aka Star Lord, shoots some enemies in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy From what we have been able to prove, the gameplay of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy can be considered "broken" into 2 sections.On the one hand there is the section on board the Milano, the ship where the 5 Guardians find refuge and accommodation and where we will be able, in some way, to prepare for the next mission and dedicate ourselves to more in-depth knowledge of the team. On the other hand there is the exploratory and action part that starts when we decide to disembark the ship to carry out our tasks and carry out the narrative.
Be careful, however, because we are not in front of a title with great exploratory freedom. From what little we have seen, the structure of Guardians of the Galaxy is that of a traditional and linear single player: the missions will be carried out one after the other and we will not be able to "guide" Milan to choose which destination to reach, but it will be all already decided on the basis of history. So: chat on board as long as you want and until you decide to start the next mission. After this, we return on board and so on.
Speaking of the section on the ship, in the role of Peter Quill we will be able to explore the various environments and engage in long dialogues with the other 4 Guardians: Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot. These conversations are partly related to the mission just carried out or that we will have to face later and partly activated by interacting with the objects that we will find in the personal quarters of each Guardian. In effect, these are collectibles that we will have to look for during the ground missions and that will allow us to learn more about some anecdote from the past of that team member.
The reconstruction of the Milan is certainly inspired to what we saw in James Gunn's 2 Guardians of the Galaxy and more generally in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it is evident how Eidos Montreal has put his own effort into creating some environments from scratch, such as the hangar and the specific rooms of each Guardian, in addition to having poured an obsessive care in the numerous systems, bulkheads, corridors and trinkets that furnish the ship.
The great dynamism of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in an official artwork It will also be possible to interact with some of these secondary systems as a useful jukebox to listen to the incredible soundtrack of the game and keep it in the background during our chats on board. There is also a work table where you can unlock a whole series of perks that improve Star Lord's combat skills.
In Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, in addition to getting your hands on the aforementioned collectibles, we will also have to collect 2 types of reagents while we are on a mission. These can be "spent" to unlock these passive and permanent bonuses which provide, for example, a faster reload of Peter's 2 guns, or an increase in the collection range of enemy drops (usually energy and experience), or even one increased resistance of Star Lord to stun shots and even a charged shot that we can use in combat. Let's say that basically these are secondary perks that do not significantly modify the power of our protagonist, but make life easier for us in battle.
Once we get off the ground, the story changes and the more action and Guardians of the Galaxy adventure comes out in the open.
The mission
The armor of a Centurion of the Nova Corps in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy The mission we tried was particularly linear and with a largely mandatory path. The player was however stimulated to explore every nook and cranny both to retrieve collectibles and reagents, but also to discover some additional elements of the story and the setting with a whole series of small goodies that will delight fans of the Marvel universe. For example, during this mission there is the possibility, completely optional, to interact with a well-known prisoner to significantly alter his destiny.Although the dialogue component is quite confined to the section on board the Milan, even during the mission on the ground there is no lack of continuous exchanges between the Guardians who will often force us to take a position in the role of Peter Quill, lining up on one side or the other and often annoying the companion to whom we have turned our backs. Nothing serious is clear, given that at the limit there is an additional bickering, but the willingness of the development team to return a very close feeling to the Guardians of the Galaxy that we have come to know with the films and above all with the comics is to be commended. .
Among other things, this narrative component sometimes seems to have more sensitive consequences on the progress of the mission since, in the specific case of this demo, at a certain point we had the possibility to answer a call from the Nova Corps still present on the asteroid. Choosing whether to communicate with them or ignore them has an immediate repercussion that translates into an additional confrontation or, on the contrary, in the eventuality of taking the military by surprise, convinced that there are only them on board.
The fights
The armed and armored Nova Corps in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy After an initial exploratory phase with a couple of environmental puzzles that involved interacting with a flow of energy to open some locked doors, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy gets to the point and launches us against a long series of fights that reach their climax in the final battle of the mission.What has already been seen of the game in the various trailers and presentations, makes it immediately understandable how the gameplay of this title. At our direct commands we will only have Peter Quill who is armed with double guns without ammunition, but which heat up during use and also provide an active reload to circumvent any cooldown, and is also equipped with a jetpack that allows us to perform double jump or stay in the air for a few seconds during a fight. Clearly there is no lack of dodging and melee.
In addition, Star Lord will also be able to fire shots loaded with the power of the elements, such as ice, for a limited time, so as to exploit any enemy weaknesses and stun more quickly the opponents. The other 4 Guardians can be controlled through the combination of the right bumper and the front buttons. By holding down the first button we will send the game in a sort of slow motion which will then allow us to activate a certain skill of one of our companions: with the first press of one of the 4 front buttons we will choose who to select and with the second press we will activate the skill specific. There is no way to directly control Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot, let alone to give simpler commands (go there, attack that opponent, come and help me), but we will only be able to choose which ability of which Guardian to activate and then, possibly , wait for the cooldown to activate it again.
One of the settings of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy portrayed in an official artwork Everything is very familiar and very easy to master, even taking into account the fact that the opponents have a double bar of energy: one representing life and the other stunning, with the latter which, when it reaches its maximum, leaves the enemy still and defenseless ready to be slaughtered by our blows. There is also a minimum of interaction with the environment as it will be possible to ask the Guardians to use a specific element of the scenario during the fight. Even in this case, however, it is all automatic: by framing a bin or a suspended load, the name of the Guardian who can "use" that object will appear in overlay and by pressing the correct front button, the companion will rush to carry out his action. That is throwing the bin at an opponent or cutting the rope to make the piece of furniture fall.
There are also a couple of other variations on the theme that we appreciated and that we must point out. First of all, during the fighting we will be able to increase a sort of counter that indicates the "spectacular" of our actions and that takes into account the variety of attacks, how we move and how we interact with the other Guardians. By bringing this counter to high values, it will become possible to activate contextual attacks with very simple quick time events: a sort of finish that will involve both individual companions and guardians all together depending on the situation and the positioning of each.
Then there is the gathering: Peter Quill's ultimate special that we can only activate once this is loaded into combat. Once both backbones have been pushed, we will see a small cutscene that will see us listen to the very short dialogues of the other 4 Guardians and then force us to choose between 2 possible answers to try to "load" the team. If we have chosen the most appropriate phrase, the whole team will have a bonus in attack and resistance, otherwise only us, or even no one will feel inspired. In all cases, for a certain period of time the special abilities will have a reduced cooldown and any mortally wounded Guardians will immediately return to battle without having to wait for our intervention.
Progression
Lady Hellbender in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy We also spent a few minutes of the demo exploring the internal menus and trying to figure out what kind of progression we can expect for Peter, Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot once we get our hands on the final game.Through a screen we will be able to manage the Guardians under 2 aspects: one purely aesthetic by equipping different outfits collected during the mission for each member of the team and the other more traditional that allows us to spend the experience points earned during the fights , to unlock the various skills of each Guardian. If the accounts are correct, there are 4 skills for each Guardian that require a progressive value of experience points to be unlocked.
We then noticed that there seems to be a minimum of specialization in the fighting style of the Star companions Lord: Gamora appears to have one-on-one focused abilities, while Drax and Rocket seem to be more focused on area attacks, close for the beefy fighter and long range for the raccoon. Finally Groot seems to play the role of Guardian focused on the so-called crowd control: the management of opponents through skills that pin the enemies to the ground.
However it is clear that ours are only initial impressions based on very few hours of testing and it will be all to evaluate the actual variety during the game and the tactical component relating to a careful management of the 5 Guardians. Just as we cannot hide that we remained doubtful about the technical component of the game, which seems to suffer something in the dynamics of the action and in the detail of environments and enemies, and about the precision of the fighting and animations, both a little too confusing. and "slippery".
This first contact with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy confirmed our expectations and initial impressions: we are facing a precise, direct, single player action adventure that aims to recreate on our monitors and TV the dynamics of a group of very funny characters that we have come to know in the cinema and in comics. There are some elements that haven't convinced us completely, first of all a confusing and slippery fight at times, but we are curious to get our hands on the final game to understand where the story will go.
