You got this. Probably.
― Tagline
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is a video game developed by Eidos-Montréal and published by Square Enix's European subsidiary. It is a single-player, narrative-driven, action adventure game[1] released worldwide in October 26, 2021.
Taking place in a separate continuity from Marvel's Spider-Man series and Marvel's Avengers,[2] the game follows Peter Quill and his newly-formed band of outlaws who are set to save the universe in a fresh but faithful take on the Guardians of the Galaxy, inspired by both comics and films. Somehow, they set off a chain of catastrophic events, leading to a wild ride through mind-blowing worlds inhabited by iconic and original Marvel characters.
Story[]
Peter Quill dreams of his room as it was on his last day on Earth, then is awoken by Drax, as they are about to enter the Quarantine Zone to find a rare monster that Lady Hellbender may be willing to pay for. Divided in two teams, the Guardians venture through the illegal area on-foot to place "thumpers" to lure the monster. During the journey, Peter and Rocket stumble upon a gem that unleashes an aggressive cloud-like entity; as it withdraws, they continue with the mission and rejoin the others. Together, the Guardians accidentally capture a space llama before confronting their intended rare monster, an Acanti, only for the entity from earlier to kill it and destabilize the QZ, forcing the Guardians to flee aboard the Milano.
However, a Nova Corps patrol ship appears and takes them all into custody for their illegal trespass. Aboard the Hala's Hope, they are greeted by Cadet Nikki Gold, but before their conversation can go on too long, a docked ship explodes, prompting Peter to save Nikki, both tumbling down into uninhabited areas of Hala's Hope. Making it back to safety, they meet with her mother, Centurion Ko-Rel. She scolds Nikki and sends her away, and then talks to Peter alone. Due to their shared history, she lets Peter and his group go on the condition that they pay a steep fine within three days.
Broke as they are, the Guardians decide that their best bet is selling either Rocket or Groot to Lady Hellbender claiming they are a terrible monster, then break them out. Peter lands (roughly) the Milano on Seknarf Nine, and they make their way to her fortress through the treacherous jungle. Regardless of whether they sell Rocket or Groot, they obtain enough units for the fine, but during the escape attempt their treachery is discovered by the Monster Queen. She pits them against the Dweller-in-Darkness, but they defeat the beast, steal hoverbikes, return to the Milano, and escape the planet.
All except Rocket willing to pay the fine, they intend to rendezvous with the Hala's Hope at The Rock, only to find the outpost completely abandoned. They wander (and argue) in search of Ko-Rel until they stumble upon some Nova Corpsmen executing some of their own comrades for not accepting "the Promise". Upon noticing the Guardians' presence, they also try to kill them. In the end, the group's efforts amount to nothing as they see the Hala's Hope depart, causing a schism between Rocket and Peter.
The Guardians escape the station to arrive on Knowhere, with Peter intending to warn Cosmo about the Rock's cultists. The group splits: Rocket—making Groot follow him—abandons the group over the argument and arranges a job; Peter, Gamora and Drax make their way to Cosmo's Tower, briefly running into Gamora's cryptic friend Mantis, only for them to also go their separate ways, leaving Peter with the task of finding Cosmo on his own. He is soon attacked by bounty hunters sent by Hellbender, Garek and Rosson Blood, but Gamora and Drax come to his aid. The skirmish is interrupted by Cosmo, who psychically imprisons them all—including Rocket and Groot for a trespass attempt elsewhere—for disturbing the peace. Peter, however, successfully convinces Cosmo to let them investigate the Universal Church of Truth.
Cosmo thus teleports the Guardians to the Hala's Hope, currently located near Contraxia, via the Continuum Cortex. As they explore the Nova ship, they discover the Church is extracting energy from the planet below, but also that Nikki might be Peter's daughter. They reach the bridge, where they learn of a QZ incident involving Ko-Rel, Nikki, and the aggressive entity from before. Before they can piece everything together, Grand Unifier Raker barges in and invites the Guardians onto Sacrosanct on the Matriarch's behalf. After he explains the Church's benevolent intentions, he introduces the Matriarch, who is none other than Nikki. She tries to convert them through a vision of their loved ones back to life, but the Guardians break the illusion—Peter killing his "mother" to do so—and proceed to flee, all deeply shaken by the events.
After a tense dogfight with the Lethal Legion, the group travels to New Xandar and attempts to convince Worldmind to fight the Church to no immediate success. Peter washes his hands of the matter, but a nightmare makes him reconsider, even more so with Drax falling for the Promise. Thankfully foreseen by Mantis earlier, Drax lands the Milano on Lamentis under her influence, and Mantis guides them through ancient caves to find a cure. This (partly) turns out to be Adam Warlock, the Church's original divine vessel; Mantis then makes everyone explore Drax's mind to free him. With their encouragement, he accepts Hovat and Kamaria's deaths and kills the illusory copies. With the Church's arrival at Lamentis, Mantis remains behind to help the Priests of Pama, while the Guardians and Adam—who vows to stop his alternate self Magus—depart.
Having lost contact with Cosmo earlier, they fly back to Knowhere, only to find it overrun by Church forces as they attempt to use the Cortex for their grand ritual. The Guardians manage to successfully sabotage the device, but Adam Warlock is captured by Raker and Nikki slips from their grasp yet again, both returning to Sacrosanct. The group gives chase, but they find the former colony at the Alpha Herculis system guarded by a impressive fleet. Pondering possible allies, they choose to make peace with Hellbender (and her monster army) by offering her the legendary Fin Fang Foom. Upon defeating the mighty dragon on Maklu IV, they strike an alliance thanks to Mantis' intercession.
With the Milano leading the charge against the Church, the Guardians (now clad in their team uniforms) infiltrate Sacrosanct, free Adam from captivity, and then rush to stop the Matriarch's ritual. Yet they are halted by Raker's magic, and Nikki surrenders to Magus so that he might expand across the galaxy, seemingly unstoppable. Peter hears a remnant of Ko-Rel call out to him. Privately, she reveals that she is dead and that Nikki is not Peter's daughter. Left alone inside Nikki's Promise, Peter helps Nikki admit that Ko-Rel is truly gone; she thus rejects Magus, ending the ritual. Furious, Raker attacks the Guardians but he is killed, and Adam absorbs Magus into himself, thus ending his thrall over the Converted.
Bringing the battle to an end, the Guardians are hailed as heroes. They, Nikki, and Adam then meet with Mantis and Kammy back at the Milano. Unfortunately, after departing Sacrosanct, Magus takes control of Adam's body and attempts to kill them. Yet the Guardians successfully taunt him into charging back into the Soul Stone, imprisoning it for good but Peter sacrificing himself in the process. Thanks to Groot, he is healed, however. Ultimately, Adam takes on the burden of guarding the gem, while Nikki finds a new family in the Guardians.
Gameplay[]
In Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, the player assumes control of Peter Quill/Star-Lord from a third-person perspective to interact with the environment. During exploration or by choosing dialogue paths, he may unlock entries in the Galactic Compendium, or find Guardian Collectibles and different Outfits for the team. He is also equipped with Element Guns, Jet Boots, and a Visor—all three are used in and outside of combat, and can be improved via Perks. Story progression is occurs by completing chapter objectives, and is recorded via Peter's Journal.
Ground combat screen.
Although the rest of the team—Groot, Rocket, Drax, and Gamora—are all computer-controlled, the player can issue commands to them via the Guardians Mode menu. They can help Peter progress through an area using their unique skills, or defeat enemies with their special Abilities (which can be unlocked by spending Ability Points, obtained from defeating enemies). They may be incapacitated during battle, requiring that Peter assist them so as to continue fighting.
In battle, enemies drop pick-ups for the player to replenish Peter's health and elemental ammo. Additionally, there are two gauges that players can make use of: One is the Momentum gauge, which triggers a Call-to-Action attack to cripple an enemy. The other is the Huddle gauge, which triggers a sequence in which Peter must motivate the team, with a licensed song playing afterwards, providing a damage boost. Attacks deals either standard damage, which depletes enemies' health, or Stagger damage, which fills their stagger bar to leave them inactive for some time. Players can capture screenshots via Photo Mode.
Development[]
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was developed by the Eidos-Montréal team that previously worked on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and is powered by the Dawn Engine.[3] At the beginning of development, Jean-François Dugas's team discussed multiplayer or co-op, but they believed that Guardians of the Galaxy is "all about colourful personalities clashing with each other, and sometimes getting along" and that their idea was that the player be "surrounded by those characters".[4]
According to Mary DeMarle, it became clear very quickly that players needed to play as Star-Lord "because [he's] the heart of that team, he's the human part of that team, which we can identify with". As such, he is at the heart of every social interaction that they have, including boosting the team's morale "in order to win things in a better way, by dealing with the characters themselves";[1] however, he is the 'so-called leader', allowing the other Guardians to "be characters on their own, make their own decisions, have their own reactions",[4] wanting to portray the shaky "kind of teamwork that most people know in real life".[2]
Drawing from the Deus Ex games, they wanted to "engage players in the storytelling", letting them make "decisions that will have an impact on them and they will have to discover different outcomes or adapt to certain situations".[2] Furthermore, the music is infused in the DNA of the game, with the Guardians being "pretty much a rock and roll band". Regarding licensed music, fun was the main factor when choosing songs that were popular in the '80s.[5][6]
Releases[]
The game was officially announced at E3 2021, and was released for Microsoft Windows (produced in collaboration with D3T[7]), Nintendo Switch (as a cloud-based title[8]), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S on October 26, 2021.[9] According to Mary DeMarle, it was important that players had the entire game on day one, and that "there isn't going to be any DLC for this game, and there isn't going to be any microtransactions."[1]
Physical deluxe edition.
Two special editions were released: the Digital Deluxe Edition and the Cosmic Deluxe Edition. The former includes the base game, the outfits Sun-Lord and City-Lord (early unlock), the Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Hits original soundtrack for digital download, and a digital The Art of the Game mini artbook. The Cosmic Deluxe Edition includes all of these, although the mini artbook comes as a hardback, along with a SteelBook case.
Pre-ordering the game enables players to download Peter's Team-Lord, Gamora's Black Vortex, Drax's Thanos Imperative, Rocket's The Stinger and Groot's Impaler outfits. Additionally, pre-order bonuses for the physical editions on GameStop include a Guardians business card with a steel box, while Walmart's comes with a steelbook case featuring artwork from comic book artists Marco Checchetto and Matt Wilson.[10]
- System requirements
The game requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.
| -- | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit Build 1803 | Windows 10 64-bit Build 1803 |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 1400 / Intel Core i5-4460 | AMD Ryzen 5 1600 / Intel Core i7-4790 |
| Memory | 8GB RAM | 16GB RAM |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon RX 570 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super / AMD Radeon RX 590 |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 150GB available space | 150GB available space |
Credits[]
| Senior Creative Director | Jean-François Dugas |
|---|---|
| Senior Producer | Olivier Proulx |
| Senior Narrative Director | Mary C. DeMarle |
| Narrative Director | Stéphanie Blais |
| Senior Gameplay Director | Patrick Fortier |
| Art Director | Bruno Gauthier-Leblanc |
| Programming Director | Daniel Letendre |
| Producer | Hubert Corriveau |
| Senior Audio Director | Steve Szczepkowski |
| Composer | Richard Jacques |
| Cinematic and Animation Director | Darryl Purdy |
| Level Design Director | François McCann |
| Director of Photography | Dominique Demers |
| Animation Technical Director | Sébastien Proulx |
| Audio Technical Director | Jean-Sébastien Leblanc |
| Art Technical Director | Yannick Tabone |
| Cinematic Director of Photography | Benoît Gagné |
| QA Director - Production | Emmanuel-Yvan Ofoé |
| Voice Director | Simon Peacock |
| Star-Lord | Jon McLaren |
|---|---|
| Gamora | Kimberly-Sue Murray |
| Rocket | Alex Weiner |
| Drax | Jason Cavalier |
| Groot / Kammy / Worldmind | Robert Montcalm |
| Meredith Quill | Mylène Dinh-Robic |
| Young Peter Quill | Hudson Leblanc |
| Mantis | Emmanuelle Lussier-Martinez |
| Ko-Rel | Judith Baribeau |
| Adam Warlock | Brent Skagford |
| Nikki Gold | Romane Davis |
| Lady Hellbender | Sarah Levesque |
| Cosmo / Lipless | Alex Ivanovici |
| Cardinal Raker | Andreas Apergis |
| Captain Glory | Danny Blanco |
| Garek Blood | Kwasi Songui |
| Rosson Blood | Christian Jadah |
| Worldmind | Leni Parker |
Gallery[]
Box covers[]
Screenshots[]
Other[]
Trivia[]
- The game has two running gags:
- Peter's toothbrush - The player can catch Rocket, Groot and Drax with it on random visits to the Milano's bathroom. At the Quill Farm during Chapter 3, Peter mentions that sharing a toothbrush can infect people with brain parasites.
- The fridge door - It is constantly open no matter how many times the player closes it. Doing so may prompt a comment from the others, including Mantis who says that the open door is an "universal constant." Even in Peter's flashbacks at the farm, there is an open fridge door that can be closed.
- A limited-time Adidas Originals Collection for the game is due to arrive in the first half of 2022. Each character will receive its own shoe design. This collaboration is apparently a product of incorporating the vintage Adidas Forum 84 Hi to young Peter's design.[11]
- Upon release, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy received numerous accolades. In total, the game was given 113 total nominations, with 29 single award wins and 67 wins overall.[12] Most notably, the game was Best Narrative Winner at The Game Awards 2021, with nominations to the categories Best Score & Music, Innovation in Accessibility, and Best Action/Adventure Game.[13]
External links[]
- Official site
- Steam / PlayStation Store / Microsoft Store / Nintendo Switch
- Facebook / Twitter / Reddit / Youtube / Instagram / Giphy
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 'Guardians of the Galaxy' is more 'Deus Ex' than 'Avengers' | Engadget
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Makes You the Star-Lord of the Show – E3 2021 - IGN
- ↑ @GOTGTheGame (September 26, 2021). "Just want to clarify that they're not made on the same engine. Our game is made by the team that previously worked on Deus Ex and uses the Dawn Engine."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Why Guardians of the Galaxy Is Not a Multiplayer Game - IGN
- ↑ Guardians Of The Galaxy's OST Includes An Album By Fictional Band, Star-Lord
- ↑ Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - Music - Youtube
- ↑ New Project Announcement! Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy – Launching October 26th, 2021 - d3t
- ↑ Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy: Cloud Version Confirmed For Switch - Nintendo Life
- ↑ Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy Looks Like A Cosmic Blast, Release Date Set For October - Game Informer
- ↑ Where to pre-order Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy - Polygon
- ↑ Coming in 2022: The 'Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy' adidas Originals Collection | Marvel
- ↑ ‘Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy’ Brings Home Big Wins From Across the Globe | Marvel
- ↑ The Game Awards 2021: start times, where to watch and nominees | Rock Paper Shotgun
| Series |
|---|
| Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy • Star-Lord: Space Rider • No Guts, No Glory |
| Media |
| Original Video Game Soundtrack • Space Rider • Official Video Game Soundtrack 2xLP • The Art of the Game • Welcome to Knowhere EP |
| view · edit · talk |