Let’s be real here. Square Enix’s Guardians of the Galaxy game looks kind of lame.
By Geek Law, before we go any further, I must go on record to state that I am not a comic-book aficionado, and my experience with these characters is exclusively tied to their recent cinematic versions. With that said, my issue with this game doesn’t stem from the fact that it does not feature likenesses of those cinematic characters. I am fully capable of enjoying multiple versions of fictional characters throughout all forms of media, regardless of my knowledge of the entire pantheon of said characters. And really, I’m not even a fan of Marvel’s cinematic rendering of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
But still, this new Guardians of the Galaxy game looks pretty lame.
Again, this has nothing to do with Chris Pratt or Zoe Saldana not being the template for the game characters (although the voice actors for Rocket Raccoon and Drax the Destroyer are clearly doing Bradley Cooper and Dave Bautista impersonations). I have no complaints in that regard.
It’s just that this Guardians of the Galaxy game looks lame to me.
I even get why Eidos-Montréal is leaving just Star-Lord as the sole playable character. In fact, Half Glass Gaming’s tireless owner and Editor-in-Chief, Josh, pointed out that this singular focus could lead to a more refined combat system rather than a scattershot one. I whole-heartedly agree with that assessment.
But on the flipside, having four A.I.-controlled characters in the mix — even if not at all times — sounds like a recipe for disaster. Even moreso if there are combos or finishers that rely on you doubling up with one or more of those characters. This isn’t to say it will automatically be a pain in the ass, but the long history of A.I. companions would suggest that this will likely be the case.
The other problem with forcing the character to play solely as Star-Lord is that he is arguably one of the weaker (or maybe just less cool) characters, at least as far as fighting style is concerned. Seeing Peter Quill sliding around using his jet boots while firing his Quad Blasters is pretty lackluster.
Don’t get me wrong, I play plenty of games in which most of what you do is simply shoot guns. That is, after all, a longstanding staple of video games. But for some reason, when I see it on display in Guardians of the Galaxy, it just seems like it’s par for the course. Worse, it’s also at odds with the otherwise fantastical elements of the game environment.
And that’s saying nothing of the fact that when hovering and flying are incorporated into games that mostly use traditional on-the-ground combat, the result is usually finnicky (and sometimes even plain awful).
In Marvel’s Avengers, which is another video game based on (but not really based on) the Marvel Cinematic Universe, flying around as Iron Man sucked. It was frustrating and just… well, it sucked. Look, Square Enix, if you’re going to expose my IP address for playing your Avengers game, then the least you could do is make Iron Man’s flying feel kind of cool. So when I see it in yet another Marvel video game, I am already cringing.
I mean, not like super cringing, as I do not anticipate even wanting to play this game, but I am still cringing nonetheless.
This opinion piece is about as lame as the game looks.