Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Preview: Practice with Interstellar Adventure

This summer set the table for the future of Marvel video games with new titles starring Spider-Man, Wolverine and Midnight Suns in 2022, 2023 and beyond. However, those who want a new comic book-inspired game before the end of this year have Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy next month. This new cosmic title from Eidos-Montréal adorned Game informerWe covered a few numbers back, but as the anticipated adventure prepares for lift-off, we finally got our hands on the title to see how it plays out.

If you read our initial coverage on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, you’ll know that our first glimpse of the story took place when the misfit team tried to trick Lady Hellbender into giving them enough credits to pay a fine. That initial look at the game ended when the team entered its stronghold; now our first practice session starts right after they drop out.

While I don’t know exactly what happened within the walls of their fortress, the team escaped with the credits they were seeking and now has a flame with them for some reason. Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord), who you control in this single-player game, charts their course to the Nova Corps station so they can pay the fine and be in good shape again. But before boarding, he caught up with the other Guardians aboard the Milan. After chatting with Drax, he enters Gamora looking for dolls that he secretly collects and Rocket discreetly uses Peter’s toothbrush to clean his tools.

Once the team arrives, they notice that the station is abandoned. After scanning the deserted lobby with Star-Lord’s visor, I use squad commands to tell Rocket to crawl through the vents and instruct him on how to divert energy so the team can progress. Later, I use Star-Lord’s ice ammo to freeze an open door. These puzzles are simple but they left me intrigued as to how they could be expanded later.

“Some of them get a little more complicated and have multiple steps, and you will have to use more than one Guardian, but they never get very difficult,” says Senior Game Director Patrick Fortier. “A lot of these things are for pacing and the opportunity to interact with your Guardians and to [prevent just] walk in a straight line and do nothing. You get a bit of stamina; we need you to make something happen, but we don’t want you to get confused there. [We don’t want], ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve been spending an hour in this room’ because a lot of the magic is starting to evaporate. “

As they walk through the station, the Guardians argue all the time, hurling insults and responses. Sometimes you can even reply. The constant chatter between the Guardians, both in and out of combat, goes a long way toward setting the tone for which the team of space misfits has become known. “With each chapter and each location, we break it down and write tons and tons of weird jokes that could be happening in combat,” says senior narrative director Mary DeMarle. “We had to write tons because we knew we wanted to keep those jokes in combat, so we were always creation of combat system bows / jokes where they are throwing a line and randomly another will respond. “

Although the path through the narrative is linear, the decisions you make with your fellow Guardians and other characters impact the story as you progress. However, the game does not operate on a morality meter or anything like that. Instead, their interactions can lead you to learn more about a character’s backstory or even set events to happen as you play through the story, such as unique game paths or different tools at your disposal.

In this case, I learned that Jack Flag is incarcerated at the station. If I release him, I’ll see him later on stage. While Eidos-Montréal is hesitant to say how his story continues depending on what you do when you meet him, the team says that Marvel fans will encounter various references to the broader universe throughout the game.

“Some Easter eggs are real Easter eggs; you have to be a die-hard Marvel fan, and then you’re in a place and you’re looking at artifacts and suddenly you’ll see something from the cosmic universe,” says DeMarle. “[Some] They could be Easter eggs in the background of locations you’ll recognize, like, ‘Wait. Isn’t that wreck something important? Some of it will be legible. “

As the team moves from room to room, I have little divergent paths that I can take, but they often lead to dead ends where I can learn more about the history of the universe or collect resources for updates. This mission is fairly linear due to its nature of moving through a space station to find out what happened, but other missions in the game feature more exploration.

“In some chapters where you will be looking for things, every nook and cranny will be rewarded,” says Fortier. “Obviously it’s not an open world or anything like that, but if you pay attention and look around, you’re doing to see a lot of little spaces that you can explore and collect some loot, some costumes, some items that reveal more plot for the characters. , or the parts of the elaboration “.

As much as I love to roam an environment and collect what I can along the way, I have more important things to worry about. The grisly exploration is soon interrupted by the surviving Nova Corps troops. Gamora soon notices that they are glowing purple, and once they start talking, it is clear that something is wrong. After realizing that a fanatic cult has infiltrated the ranks of the Nova Corps, a battle ensues. Star-Lord can use his ranged blasters, hover over the battlefield, or zoom in for melee attacks. However, the essence of combat is commanding your fellow Guardians.

By tapping the bumper, a menu assigns each squadmate to a front button for commands. Drax hits hard and usually gives his targets the chills, while Gamora is slightly faster and more accurate. Groot’s moves often set up combinations for heroes, while Rocket’s tech attacks deal AoE damage. Each Guardian operates on a cooldown, so you can’t just spam their attacks, but if you combine them correctly, you can deal some serious damage and turn the tide of the fight. Once the enemies get hurt enough, you can run a cinematic finisher that involves all of the Guardians tossing the enemy back and forth.

For Eidos-Montréal, much of the depth of combat comes from finding combos between the Guardians and their various specialties, which then leads the player to unlock new abilities for the Guardians to fill in the gaps and more perfectly complement your playing style. play. “The game rewards you a lot for creating your different combos by taking creative advantage of your skills,” says Fortier. “I think that’s the fun of it – without too much punishment, some players might still try to apply the same formula every time, but they reward you for trying different things. I’ve had the opportunity to play it over and over again, and it’s a Bit like Deus Ex when you try different augments, you find different styles and different ways to play, and the game still supports it. “

Look at Rocket.

In addition to the basic combat mechanics, you can also use an ultimate style attack called Huddle. Groups work with a longer cooldown and when you activate one, the team forms circles like a soccer team. The Guardians express their concerns and you have two options for your response. If you properly address your concerns, the entire team gets a temporary boost. He answers incorrectly and the group walks away confused, and only Star-Lord gets a boost. Either way, team health is restored and you get a cheerful soundtrack to shoot enemies with.

It’s obvious that Eidos-Montréal set the tone for Marvel’s favorite space misfits. However, it remains to be seen how exciting the combat is throughout the myriad of encounters that we are sure to have for the entire duration of the game. Hopefully, we will learn the answers to any uncertainties surrounding Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy in the coming weeks.