Guardians of the Galaxy

[DisturbedSwan]

Not sure how many hours into this I am now but I've just reached Chapter 12 if that's any indication, I'd guess about 12-15.

 

Unfortunately, my enjoyment of it has taken a massive nosedive since about Chapter 9/10 where I thought the game should've ended. Everything afterwards just feels a bit like filler really, not a fan or the religious zealot enemies either, just a bit trite in this day and age really, nothing particularly special or unique about them in my view. 

 

The map design is also starting to grate a bit too, I don't mind linear cinematic experiences (I love them in fact) but something about this is rubbing me the wrong way now, all the gaps you've got to squeeze through, ledges you have to squeeze past and doors/bridges you have to open or make which all mask the loading screens just make me roll my eyes a bit. Every planet is incredibly colourful and varied still at least but something about it just isn't resonating with me anymore and I'm not sure why.

 

The combat is starting to grate a bit too now, I've tried slowing it down via the accessibility options and stuff but I've just kind of seen everything its going to do at this point and am just along for the ride, I will say the Huddles are annoying me too (I'll have to see if I can turn the cutscene off in the settings). It's still cool when combos work together line stunning a group of enemies with Groot and then blasting them all with Rocket, the spectacle is still good and its serviceable enough but it just isn't landing with me now like it was at the beginning, which is a shame.

 

The characters are all excellent and the story is still good (despite feeling like it should've ended already) so I'll definitely see it to the end, but it's just a real shame its lagged a bit behind in my estimations these last few chapters. 

 

I will say as well that I turned it to Quality Mode after unwittingly having it in Performance Mode for the first 7 or Chapters and graphically it has got even better, just an absolutely stunning game to look at, cannot stop taking screenshots!

 

I need to get it finished before Friday for DL2 which is also weighing on my mind and may be affecting my view on this so we'll see where it ends up.

[one-armed dwarf]

The game is too long, it peaks around chapter 9 I think. The back third of the game feels budget challenged, and you unlock most of your most interesting stuff before then.

 

I think the approach they should go for in a sequel is a more action de-emphasised type of thing with more stuff to do around Nowhere (or however you spell that). Lean more into the talky bits, which are the good bits anyway. It already has this telltale lite thing going on so it seems like a good approach

[mfnick]

Yea the last part of this game does drag a bit. I take it you’re near the end now where you’re basically just fighting loads of the same enemies in gold coloured rooms? Basically fancy combat arenas? Up to that point the pacing is so good on introducing new ideas, areas and characters. When you reach that part it hits a real wall and feels like filler - which really wasn’t needed, it’s long enough without it. Even more disappointing is the massive space battle just before it goes like that is so fucking exciting and fun too. 
 

For me it wasn’t long or bad enough to sour the rest of the experience and I liked the ending story beats but I completely understand people really hating it at that point. 
 

Too many games resort to boring combat rooms towards the end. Wish more would just have the confidence to end sooner. 

[DisturbedSwan]

19 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

The game is too long, it peaks around chapter 9 I think. The back third of the game feels budget challenged, and you unlock most of your most interesting stuff before then.

 

I think the approach they should go for in a sequel is a more action de-emphasised type of thing with more stuff to do around Nowhere (or however you spell that). Lean more into the talky bits, which are the good bits anyway. It already has this telltale lite thing going on so it seems like a good approach

 

Yeah up to Chapter 9 was pretty amazing but since its just felt so pointless. Like we were in the place with the final boss at his house (so to speak) and yet we've got to drag out another x amount of chapters? Just getting on my tits now. 

 

 

18 hours ago, mfnick said:

Yea the last part of this game does drag a bit. I take it you’re near the end now where you’re basically just fighting loads of the same enemies in gold coloured rooms? Basically fancy combat arenas? Up to that point the pacing is so good on introducing new ideas, areas and characters. When you reach that part it hits a real wall and feels like filler - which really wasn’t needed, it’s long enough without it. Even more disappointing is the massive space battle just before it goes like that is so fucking exciting and fun too. 
 

For me it wasn’t long or bad enough to sour the rest of the experience and I liked the ending story beats but I completely understand people really hating it at that point. 
 

Too many games resort to boring combat rooms towards the end. Wish more would just have the confidence to end sooner. 

 

I've just got into Chapter 13 last night which looks like a Snowy planet, the previous chapter was all on Knowhere and did indeed feature a lot of combat arenas. I don't think I've got to the massive space battle yet.

 

Yeah I agree, a lot of games seem to just run out of ideas and just throw a ton of enemies at you (and not much else) towards the end of games. It's a shame it seems that's going to happen in this too. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Finished this early this morning after having to crunch on it to get if finished in time for Dying Light 2 tomorrow. Not sure how long it took me but probably about 20 hours in all.

 

You know what? It flipped back around for me thanks to the last few chapters and some amazing end sequences. Every level after Knowhere was a great rollercoaster ride to the finish with some memorable action sequences and some surprisingly emotional story beats.

 

The snow level with the Wendigos and

Spoiler

Fin Fang Foom

at the end was just so different to anything that had come before and the boss battle at the end was just so awesome. I did fail it a few times and didn't really realise what I was getting wrong but got there in the end. 

 

The chapter with a million golden combat arenas after another was a slight drag at times but there was so much stakes in that mission and so much crazy going on around you that I just didn't really think about it and breezed through most enemies. The space battle preceding it was indeed awesome too.

 

Then Chapter 15 was such an emotional gut punch.

Spoiler

That whole scene where Quill goes into Nikki's mind and slowly makes her realise this is all a fantasy and her Mother is dead was an amazing scene to behold. Actually found myself tearing up at one point, such a powerful scene. 

 

Then the bombastic rollercoaster ride continues after that with the

Spoiler

Raker and Magus boss battles

, the scale of the latter is pretty damn bonkers. I love that Final Countdown comes on right as you're about to defeat him as well, such a clever touch. I don't think I've mentioned how much the soundtrack slaps in this game throughout. 

 

So yeah aside from a few chapters in the middle of the game and the middling combat, it was an absolute blast overall. I loved the characters, loved their banter, so well written, great vocal performances and absolutely jawdropping graphics at times. Highly Recommended.

 

Pics:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[mfnick]

Strange, I really don’t remember a combat room type area dragging around Knowhere. But those gold combat arenas towards the end I found a real drag. The story beats, especially that one in chapter 15 you mentioned, 

Quote

(Shooting his mum was another earlier point and Drax’s section)

Kept me going though. 
 

Glad you liked it overall though. 👍

[one-armed dwarf]

I thought overall the story was really good and stayed that way, but I couldn't get past how cheap some of the last sections felt

 

Spoiler

That bit where they're doing their 'victory march', or however you call it. what the hell man, lmao

 

 

But like, it's a cool story about camaraderie. Listen to Jan's pitch here

 

 

[AndyKurosaki]

Just finished this. Jesus Christ, does it outstay its welcome. I had to play it in installments, as I was getting so bored of it. It dragged out for way too long. 

[Maf]

Ayyy, a fellow hater. Come join me @AndyKurosaki we’ll start our on Universal Church of Truth with the founding philosophy that this is an annoying video game 

[AndyKurosaki]

It really is. It should have finished way sooner than it did. I ended up looking at the trophy list and thinking “Fuck me, how many more missions are there?”

[Maryokutai]

Played the first hour of this yesterday after some people talked about it and me realising I actually bought it some time ago.

 

It's immediately obvious they put a lot of love into this. I spent an eternity in the room in that very first scene, then continued to run around for a second eternity on the ship just to listen to the banter and the licensed soundtrack, which ticks all the right boxes for me. (Because the question came up: the game does have a 'streamer toggle' in its settings for the music, so that's hopefully something they'll make mandatory when those licenses run out instead of delisting it. Better having a lesser version of the game than not having it at all.)

 

I pretty much only got through the elaborate tutorial area in that first hour but so far it seems good, but not without its flaws. I'm not sure if it's an Xbox problem specifically, but controls are really sluggish, as if there's an extra delay before Quill or the camera starts moving. Might have to do with Performance mode being super unreliable, which is surprising for a cross-gen game. But the visuals really are impressive and I've always preferred these designs to the movie counterparts (Gamora in particular looks so much cooler here). Combat seems a bit meh in the sense that all the cool stuff that happens is the stuff your teammates do, while you only shoot low-hit-feedback bullets at enemies. From what I remember reading about this, that seems to be the case for the entirety of the game, so hopefully I can find a thing or two about these encounters I enjoy and the focus on doing that.

 

I will say though that I already feel somewhat invested in the characters and story, which the movies never really managed to pull off (except maybe G3 with Rocket). I think the differentiating factor is that Drax is played exclusively for comic relief in the movies whereas here he's an oddball, but he's not the permanent 'butt of the joke' kind of character. Rocket, Groot and Quill get trashed just as much as he does, which makes the whole group dynamic a lot better.

[Maryokutai]

I'm in Chapter 6 now and I'm not quite enjoying it as much as I thought I would. At least the interactive part. I can't really get over how bad movement feels and combat is more or less just 'throw cooldowns at the problem and hold RT'. There's also really not much to do when running around, the occasional side passage only harbouring some trinkets that don't really add too much and I've already kind of unlocked all the interesting workbench stuff for Quill. And 'interesting' is kind of stretch in this context.

 

It's pretty much just the story and the presentation that's pulling me along at the moment, but that also has its ups and downs. I also don't really know how impactful some of these choices are, I might double-check some of them on youtube when I'm through.

 

So while I'm not disliking the game, I kind of hoped I would impress me a tad more after all the positive feedback. But I can also imagine there's still a few cool things to come, so I'll hold judgment until then. Maybe I'll just drop it to babymode to get quicker from story segment to story segment at some point.

[AndyKurosaki]

The combat is a bit so-so. The constant banter between the Guardians was mostly enjoyable. But as I put in an earlier post, this game goes on for far, far too long. If you’re legitimately going “how much longer is this going to be”, it could have done with some editing.

 

Midnight Suns is a far more enjoyable game. Ok, it’s nothing like this, gameplay wise. But I’ll never stop encouraging people to at least try that game. It’s legitimately awesome.

[Maryokutai]

Midnight Suns is on my list, I was one of the three guys who didn't dismiss it right away after it first showing. The reason I haven't played it yet was that I was waiting for the now-cancelled Switch version for a while.

 

As for Guardians, I was a bit too quick yesterday because chapter 6 was really enjoyable. But, coincidentally, also pretty much only consisted of walking around and talking to people, so that made it very clear where the game's strengths lie. I immensely enjoyed the buildup towards

Spoiler

Cosmo

and his eventual unveiling. They were obviously a bit playful about that just in case some players didn't know the character, and I really liked his portrayal here, significantly better than in the movies. 

 

One other thing I haven't mentioned yet is that I loved the

Spoiler

flashback scenes.

There's always a strong risk of completely ruining the pacing and forcing the player to go through something pointlessly superficial with stuff like that, but the homely atmosphere made them surprisingly engaging. 

[Maryokutai]

Beat this today. Turns out putting 20 hours into a game over 4 days is possible when you're lying around with a flarking cold.

 

I really turned around on this. I think the first 5-ish chapters are a bit meh, then 6 to 10 are fantastic and the remaining might no be as good, but still really well executed for the most part. I didn't really feel like it dragged on too much, apart maybe from one Chapter that could technically have been a cutscene, but I presume they let it breathe a bit because it concluded Drax's character arc. Which I think is commendable. You can tell this was made during the height of the MCU's popularity with SE seemingly throwing just a lot of money into Eidos Montréal's direction and them basically going all out. It's rare, especially these days, to see such a 'complete' game from a third-party publisher.

 

I even kind of made my peace with the combat. I still don't think it's particularly good but I went more accurately for weaknesses and staggers from a certain point onward and that makes rather quick work of most enemies. I also must have missed some tutorials early on because there's a two-button melee finisher in there I don't remember reading about and just finding out about through trial & error in the last third. Oh well.

 

Midway through I also switched to ray-tracing mode because it's so sluggish to control anyway and wow, it's a really pretty game, even on my 2011 1080p TV. But at the risk of sounding like a broken record, goddamn does it feel shit to control. For some people this might be nitpicking, but it actually negatively impacted the sightseeing aspect for me, which is obviously part of the deal here, because of the horrible deadzone in the right stick and whatever the hell Quill is doing when you move the left one. These additional transition animations that add an extra layer of delay to everything you input just need to disappear in the Nexus. I don't care how good the running animation looks if it makes controlling the character feel awful.

 

Anyway, apart from that rant, this was a great experience. I think it's the characters that really sold it to me in the end – starting with that one dialogue between Quill and Drax on Knowhere, it becomes less of a goofball cartoon thing and embraces some more serious ideas and themes to better balance itself out. Some really good writing around key character moments, even Groot felt like a complete character here unlike in the movies.

 

Beating this also made me realise what a shitty bunch of years this has been for the developer. First this comes out and it flops to no fault of their own, then they get sold to Embracer, who proceed to cancel their Deus Ex game and massively reduce their workforce so that they're now basically just a support studio. It's a shame to see, but I hope having this game on their CV helps everyone who ether willingly or unwillingly left land on their feet again.

[AndyKurosaki]

I think what really doomed this game was coming out around the same time as the disastrous (and now deleted) Avengers live service game, also published by Square. That game got ripped to shreds by the reviews, and legitimately so, as once the campaign was over, it became an extremely tedious grind. I bet a lot of people were put off from even playing Guardians, as they thought it was a similar experience. 
 

I didn’t know they’d fallen into the clutches of Embracer (honestly, what a set of absolute cunts they are). I’ve seen people on Twitter say “I hope Guardians gets a sequel someday”. Knowing what’s happened to the developer shows that is obviously never, ever going to happen. And that’s a bloody shame. It may have been a bit too long, but it was almost consistently funny throughout, so it was very true to the movie version of the characters in that regard. 
 

 

[Maryokutai]

Avengers certainly did some damage here. It sounds harsh, but I think nothing was gained by that game existing and everyone involved would probably be better off it had never been made. CD would have had the opportunity to make something closer to their expertise, SE would have saved a lot of money and this game wouldn't have had such a hard time.

 

What also adds to that problem is that Guardian's gameplay loop being walking around and partaking in less-than-stellar combat encounters manages to look significantly less appealing than it is to play. We all remember that first showing and how everyone thought it was awful. Arguably that is also one of the weaker sections in the game, but it was always going to be hard to impress people with this I think, without the blind faith of a popular MCU behind it.

[one-armed dwarf]

I think also tbh that the MCU has jaded people against comic book adaptations that aren't these super sheen polished AAA rollercoaster things. For understandable reasons, not everyone is willing to overgorge on these types of characters and stories, making one like this a lot easier to overlook. 

 

I know it came up in the other thread the other day (and many other days), but there's just too fucking much of it. Which is a shame then when a genuinely interesting spin like this comes out and flops hard.

 

(this is technically AAA, wouldn't say it's very consistently polished however)

[Maryokutai]

This absolutely was an expensive game to make. 7 or 8 different areas with unique assets, tons of voice- and performance capture, high-end visuals and they even put in some quirky minigames which is usually the first thing to get axed because they add an extra layer of development QA.

 

But yeah, it's the cool ones that get buried, this is probably sharing a grave with Midnight Suns because their parents couldn't afford two separate ones. It's why I also keep questioning Sony's commitment to using Marvel properties as first-party system sellers, but that's maybe a topic for another time and place.