reference to QTE's. I hate them and turn them to auto solve in the settings right away.
+3
Options
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
This was very frustrating to do the first launch of this game - the window that pops up was too big to reach the "apply" button and couldn't be resized. Had to screw around with the resolution to try and git at it.
But then we managed to play a little bit and it's very good hurray!
I'm really surprised by just how good this game is. I'd honestly not have picked it up (or at least not until it was on sale) but I got it for free with some Black Friday shopping.
The banter is hilarious, the story so far is like playing an MCU movie, and the shootty parts are OK; Not bad but not exceptional.
It's a really fun game to play.
( < . . .
+2
Options
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Finally getting to start this up!
It's fantastic so far.
My one disappointment is the outfits... legit the only outfits that I like for Star-Lord are unlocked after you beat the game(???) which is basically the same as not existing.
Did they get some of the writers of the comic to work on it? I get the impression they mined the comics for some of the characters. They have Cosmo.
I am fairly sure that like 100% of named characters are from the comics in some form or another
0
Options
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
edited December 2021
Yea in game you can look up bios of all the characters and it gives you background details and the original comics they come from.
They are definitely killing the vibe. And the soundtrack is magnificent.
DemonStacey on
0
Options
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
I'm not sure if they consulted Abnett or Lanning or any of the GotG writers from over the last couple decades. What I do know is that this game was written by someone with a clear love of the property from the comics, which a little of the MCU thrown in.
But all of the major characters you meet, hero and villain are from the comics, and even a few are from the classic Guardians team before they were revamped in the 2000's.
Some of the deep cuts that showed up in the game made me super giddy as even though I'm not a big Marvel guy, I am a huge Guardians fan from the comics. (It's probably why GotG 1 & 2 are two of my favorite MCU movies also)
Two characters that were mentioned in this game that I really hope show up in some capacity in the sequel are:
Dark Hawk and Nova. I need Richard Rider in a game! But making the Fraternity of the Raptors the main villains in the next game would be so awesome!
I'm not sure if they consulted Abnett or Lanning or any of the GotG writers from over the last couple decades. What I do know is that this game was written by someone with a clear love of the property from the comics, which a little of the MCU thrown in.
But all of the major characters you meet, hero and villain are from the comics, and even a few are from the classic Guardians team before they were revamped in the 2000's.
Some of the deep cuts that showed up in the game made me super giddy as even though I'm not a big Marvel guy, I am a huge Guardians fan from the comics. (It's probably why GotG 1 & 2 are two of my favorite MCU movies also)
Two characters that were mentioned in this game that I really hope show up in some capacity in the sequel are:
Dark Hawk and Nova. I need Richard Rider in a game! But making the Fraternity of the Raptors the main villains in the next game would be so awesome!
I was really excited to see
Moondragon in the Nova Files. Her character would need some reworking as she obviously isn't Drax's daughter, but happy to see that she at least exists.
Just finished this, brilliant experience. Technically, it's a shit show, but it's a genuine love letter to the Guardians series and because it's based on the comics there are tonnes of cameos and references without the awkwardness of Spider-Man PS4 where every other hero is just absent and barely mentioned.
Yeah they reused some levels I imagine to save time because making all these alien ships and worlds must be a huge timesink but they reworked them each time and it was great to see. The writing is good and the comedy is on point. That one scene where the
Why was Nikki dying her hair btw? I thought it'd be because she matched Quill's, I can't imagine it was hiding flame hair that seems to have come from her possession if anything.
I didn't take Nikki's hair as being because of the possession. It was because she's Mercurian. She's a call back to the character Nikki from the original Guardians of the Galaxy comic, set in the year 3000.
So it's more a deep cut and a red herring regarding Quill being her parent?
A duck! on
0
Options
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Yep, that was a twist I wasn't expecting:
Not sure why I didn't put two and two together with her name being Nikki. But when that happened toward the end and her hair changed, I nearly slapped my forehead in frustration that I didn't realize that she was going to be Nikki from the original Guardians. Very deep cut, but once again, I appreciate that the game is a love letter to the comics, the Guardians, and their history.
I may get this since it is really leaning on the comics. I wish it had other Gaurdians members like Moondragon and Adam Warlock. We know the third movie will add Adam Warlock.
0
Options
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
I may get this since it is really leaning on the comics. I wish it had other Gaurdians members like Moondragon and Adam Warlock. We know the third movie will add Adam Warlock.
All I can say without spoiling is play the game. :P
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I just hope in a sequel they don't make it so easy to cut off dialog. Or they do what a lot of dialog heavy action games do and allow characters to resume their dialog if it gets cut off.
I just hope in a sequel they don't make it so easy to cut off dialog. Or they do what a lot of dialog heavy action games do and allow characters to resume their dialog if it gets cut off.
I want to hear all their banter
Yea, this was my only real gripe to the game. I got to the point that I would wait until there was silence for a few seconds before I moved forward so I didn't cut off the conversation. The random banter during the level had some of the best conversations and character moments in the game.
I may get this since it is really leaning on the comics. I wish it had other Gaurdians members like Moondragon and Adam Warlock. We know the third movie will add Adam Warlock.
All I can say without spoiling is play the game. :P
Spoilers for characters appearing in the game
I think of the DnA Guardians line-up, I only found no mentions at all of Phyla and Major Victory and in both cases, it could just be that I missed a collectible or a bit of dialogue. I only noticed Bug being mentioned by Mantis during a bit of banter which I could have easily missed for instance..
Not sure why I didn't put two and two together with her name being Nikki. But when that happened toward the end and her hair changed, I nearly slapped my forehead in frustration that I didn't realize that she was going to be Nikki from the original Guardians. Very deep cut, but once again, I appreciate that the game is a love letter to the comics, the Guardians, and their history.
yeah, I had pretty much an identical reaction at that same point in the game. for pretty much the exact same reason.
0
Options
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Story and characters continue to be fantastic into chapter 10!
COSMOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
The character progression is lackluster at best. Would have been better off just dropping it entirely and focused on being actiony. I wish they had just made it a bit deeper to have a reason to exist. Maybe actually have upgrades to different elements and such. As is it's worse for existing.
It's like the two tiered failure of progression systems. First is that none of the upgrades are particularly exciting or interesting. You're probably never really looking forward to the next one or planning out any sort of path to get all the cool stuff. And secondly is that you get everything even remotely useful super quickly.
Like by chapter 5/6 I had everything that did anything useful. That's... really early to have upgrades start to feel completely pointless. And that even those upgrades weren't very interesting or exciting... it just really feels like something slapped on with no thought because it had to be there.
The actual gameplay is still butt tons fun though! Waffling between whether I'd give it a 3/5 or 4/5. We'll have to see how the rest of the game goes.
I think the upgrade system was some sort of compromise after earlier things don't work out. It's weird that personal upgrades are crafting, elemental upgrades are story progression and party upgrades are xp / story progression.
I also don't think I ever played a game that has such an excess of craft mats.
The combat is more fun with everything unlocked, even though it turns into a lot of menu'ing. The simple "switch weapon type to trigger stuns" is way more engaging than the starting "circle strafe while holding down shoot and do the reload QTE"
Just started, combat feels off. Right clicking not bringing his guns up with a reticule is weird. You have to start shooting and then use right click to lock on.
Is there a way to change this in the settings?
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Warder45
0
Options
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
I may get this since it is really leaning on the comics. I wish it had other Gaurdians members like Moondragon and Adam Warlock. We know the third movie will add Adam Warlock.
All I can say without spoiling is play the game. :P
Spoilers for characters appearing in the game
I think of the DnA Guardians line-up, I only found no mentions at all of Phyla and Major Victory and in both cases, it could just be that I missed a collectible or a bit of dialogue. I only noticed Bug being mentioned by Mantis during a bit of banter which I could have easily missed for instance..
Yea, definitely missed any mention of them, which is strange considering the amount of love the writers had for the Guardians lore, especially of the DnA era.
Just finished off the achievements on this today. It's a very fun game, basically the exact opposite of the suffering I endured playing Avengers co-op with my bro for a month or two.
Character thoughts:
-They did a good job showing why the team would stick with Peter eventually, but there's a bizarre reliance on him saying "We're a TEAM" and that being something the others will relent on. Like, yes we all value teamwork when it seems like... maybe ONLY Drax would, at all. Early in the game, there's a lot of jokes about Peter being promiscuous, but it's kind of unfortunate that easily the funniest one is hidden in a route that there's no guarantee you'll take (the selling Groot path). The deadbeat dad arc was very interesting, more on that later. I really loved when he employed references beyond just Star Wars, metal bands, etc. Like the Die Hard reference!
-Drax is easily my favorite of the game characters. The scene where he's grieving in Knowhere was the first in the game to give me a BIG emotional reaction. For some reason, he still calls Gamora a sexually themed insult early in the game, but thankfully he is much less like his movie counterpart in that respect and his growing affection for the team besides Peter is some really nice character writing. They borrowed the favored style of Drax joke from the movie, but managed many, MANY more of them, most of which are very direct hits. I enjoyed his fanboying for Lady Hellbender a lot, and his enthusiasm for the Foom hunt is also very funny. The moment when Drax emotionally realizes that his family really IS dead and lost to him forever (in the midst of his promise) is some EXCELLENT facial animation. You can actually SEE the thought silently enter his mind and devastate him.
-Gamora is basically a more emotionally in control version of the movie character. They've written it such that she and Peter could theoretically develop in a romantic direction, but have no particular need to do so (whereas that was clearly always endgame for the movies). I appreciate how she and Peter are pretty emotionally in touch with each other from the beginning of the game and, especially in the collectible based dialogues, emotionally drop their walls for each other and are willing to be honest. There's a reservoir of careful empathy there, they WANT to be there for each other. Because of that, I really think we should know more about how they got to know each other and why he confidently invited her to the team when the rest of the team was clearly very against that. If there's a collectible where they discuss this, I didn't see it (but if you tell me, I'd go Youtube that one right away). The Nebula twist is fine but I think delivered WAY too late in the game. I also don't completely buy it, there's no way they decided to just permanently never use Nebula in their games.
-Rocket is a difficult character. I don't mind the arc of him starting as a pretty big turd, reaching a breaking point, and then willingly becoming a bigger part of the team and emotionally committing to them. That's fine. I just don't think the asshole portion is handled very well at all. He blames Quill for the opening mission going wrong based on nothing, then gets mad at the result of the Hellbender mission, even if you take care to side with him on EVERY occasion. He seems more mad at Peter than the Cops (Novas) when they get arrested, which is a missed opportunity for characterization. Then his breaking point is... when you try to pay the fine instead of going on vacation? His behavior on that mission is completely bizarre and does not present any legitimate things for him to get mad at Peter about. The backstory of this version of the Guardians is that Rocket and Groot hunted Peter as a bounty (like the movies), but he then convinced them to give up on the bounty AND form a team with him. They then were a team of three for some time before any of the others joined. This backstory is very strange when you consider how much he just seems to DESPISE Peter throughout the first half of the game. The game shouldn't have written in so many "side with Rocket or not" choices early in the game when this arc was written in stone (there was much more fertile ground for you to intercede in the grudge between Gamora and Drax for example). I do think the writing is good when Rocket reveals his trauma through collectibles and the turning point about his water phobia is handled well. I would recommend players side against Rocket at every chance early in the game, because the results are MUCH funnier and then create a more consistent story as the game goes on.
-Groot is clearly the character the writers didn't exactly know what to do with. He doesn't really have best scenes and he's also pretty much the worst in combat. It's VERY noticeable when the other three characters have huge emotional breakthroughs to get their ultimate ability and Groot... heals a dragon. That's not character growth, it's just a tutorial for how the ability works. Arguably his best scene is on the optional path when you sell him, when the Guardians AND Hellbender take a beat with the fact that Groot just CANNOT lie.
-Mantis is wonderful. They hammer her one joke in a little TOO far in the caves (because that level runs a little long), but to be fair, it's a very good joke. I like how she's a positive person, but is still willing to criticize and make jokes at others' expense. I don't dislike the movie version, but this more worldly and grown up version is more fun imo. It would be very good if the next game allowed you to swap teammates, Kingdom Hearts or FFVII Remake style and you got Mantis as a full combat member sometimes.
-Adam Warlock sucks, but in precisely the way they meant him to. The comics always expecting you to just tolerate his egotistical shit show was always hard to bear, I very much appreciated how the Guardians as a unit are just constantly "Get a load of THIS asshole" when Warlock is around. And I LOVED the reveal at the end of the game that he CAN make himself understood in a normal way, he's CHOOSING to talk like a massive dork/turd.
-Ko-Rel kind of gets played strangely, as if she's this beloved character that we're going to be devastated to lose instead of... a cop who we baseline probably do not like. I do like the depth added to her throughout the story but like... she's a corpse for about 80% of it.
-Nikki is very, very good and if anything there's not enough of her. She's kind of the space version of TLOU 1 Ellie, honestly. Villain Nikki sucks and is boring, that's an unfortunate hang up of the plot. The villain is good for scale and abilities but very boring to listen to/look at/deal with. Having Nikki on the team full time for the sequel has the potential to be excellent. I was unsure about the decision to not make her Peter's kid after all when it was first revealed, but upon reflection that was a very good choice. The Guardians are a found family, their first families either ended in tragedy or were horrible to begin with. While Nikki seems to be about the importance of blood ties, she's actually very much the opposite. Ko-Rel took her in purely out of empathy for this orphan child and now Peter is going to do the same, reflecting what Yondu did for him. She'll also serve as a mirror image of Gamora, what a powerful but lost child can become when surrounded by people who care instead of evil dickbags.
-I hate the visual design they went with for Magus and have no idea WHY they took it that direction. It's like the 2000s era monster cloud thing, but in shitty polygon form. The annoying him to death final battle is good, but paced very poorly and awkwardly.
-Kammy the space llama is very good, but they shouldn't have given players the choice to turn her in to Nova and then ignored that choice with zero explanation. Just... don't give players the choice to get rid of her if you're not being sincere about doing so. I do like both scenes that result, but bizarrely the scene that is more of a showcase for her is the one where you did NOT choose to save her. That's... just dumb, players who immediately voted for her presence miss the funniest scene for her!
-Cosmo is excellent as expected, but I don't like how hostile he is in his intro scene. Maybe the idea was to make him seem... tough? I dunno, all the other scenes are about making him lovable or fun, I think the start puts a weird vibe out there.
Potential Sequel thoughts:
Seems like the next game is extremely primed for shitty Dads. Peter's father refused to see him, but seems to still be alive. Yondu is alive and in prison, primed to be a major problem for Peter if he was to be broken out. Drax INSISTS Thanos is still alive. Seems like the head scientist Rocket mentioned in dialogue (the one that specifically tortured him the worst) might still be around. There's also totally "dead" for sure characters who could easily be alive for a sequel. Aside from Thanos, there's Nebula and even Peter's Mom (she falls over with a gut wound, but it's not like Peter was able to go over and check her vitals). They did great with Adam Warlock in this game, but I really want to see Moondragon, Richard Rider, and maybe Bug next time. Finally, a lot of fun background work with the Collector in this game, giving him a more in depth role next time would be cool.
Just started this a couple of days ago, just got to
Lady Hellbender's fortresss
and whilst I'm loving the story and storytelling, the combat really just feels awful.
Bringing up the menus and selecting character abilities just feels like a mess - it cancels your lock-on so you have to reapply it afterwards, and you end up crab-handing having to hold down the left trigger for aim, most likely the right trigger to keep shooting, and the left shoulder button to keep up the menu. I have to actively stop fighting to free up fingers to press the relevant buttons which is no bueno.
The combat also feels way too fast to make meaningful strategic choices in the ability menu, and half the time you simply cannot tell WTF is going on with the fights. Lock-on seems to randomly cancel itself if another enemy crosses your reticule, too, making it very difficult to isolate specific enemies.
I'm going to tough it out because I'm already really engaged with the story, but man I feel like the actual gameplay on this one is not good.
Weirdly, the game it reminds me of most this year is Tales of Arise. But withut the world's most irritating story and characters.
I'm also really surprised at how little discussion there is about this given that it made the majority of notable GOTY shortlists?
I'll definitely agree that the game skipped like a month of polish. But it's kind of amazing how much I glossed over thanks to a strong story and oodles and oodles of great dialog.
I suspect nobody's talking about this game because it sold terribly. Here's hoping it has a decent afterlife with word of mouth ("seriously, it's not Avengers, it's actually good") propelling sales on the steep discount.
Single player games don't tend to get tons of talking about them a few months after release.
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
+5
Options
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
I'm just really hoping that the game sold well enough to warrant a sequel. The few small issues I had could be ironed out and polished for the next game. I just want a sequel is all.
I grabbed this over the holidays and really enjoyed my time with it. Felt like watching a few fleshed out marvel movies back to back. I still feel bad for Groots linguistic limitations. Even Pikachu can switch it up with Pika-Pi.
My first gripes were the sudden QTE's, where I wasnt supposed to push a button but rather hold it or something... Sending me back to a hefty load screen on PS4Pro. I was glad to see they could be turned off without penalty, and the amount of other accessibility options you could mess with.
It also seems like a guide would be needed for some of the achievement/trophies. I just wasnt willing to do that on my first play through, story was too important.
I loved the story enough to tolerate the gameplay, but it definitely wasn't a strong point.
I did feel like it got better as more abilities opened up and I'd basically just ignore shooting stuff myself for the most part and call the shots for everyone else.
But yeah, the QTEs were annoying enough on a PS5 with only a few seconds of loading in between when I stuff up, I can only imagine on PS4.
Switch Friend Code: SW-3944-9431-0318
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
0
Options
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
@Spaffy if ya wanna shortcut through most fights, I've found Rocket's "Gravistack Grenade" followed by Gamora's "Shadow Strike" will kill pretty much everything on screen.
Oh brilliant
0
Options
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
The upgrade system was probably my biggest issue with the gameplay. Even the combat would have been improved with some better progression.
It was just very clearly tacked on and largely pointless. The abilities were almost all extremely basic and low impact and then you will have all the skills and every upgrade as well far before the end of the game. Making finding more resources pointless and making it feel like there wasn't much reason to go looking for the resources you did earlier.
I wish some of the upgrades had been for like the various gun forms. That would help add some more layers to the actual combat as you have different levels of weapons with various bonus effects based on how you chose to upgrade.
I do think making Starlord the only playable character is the weakest thing about it, swapping between characters I think would be more fun but probably hard to pull off
Posts
But then we managed to play a little bit and it's very good hurray!
The banter is hilarious, the story so far is like playing an MCU movie, and the shootty parts are OK; Not bad but not exceptional.
It's a really fun game to play.
It's fantastic so far.
My one disappointment is the outfits... legit the only outfits that I like for Star-Lord are unlocked after you beat the game(???) which is basically the same as not existing.
Actual game though is really good!
I am fairly sure that like 100% of named characters are from the comics in some form or another
They are definitely killing the vibe. And the soundtrack is magnificent.
But all of the major characters you meet, hero and villain are from the comics, and even a few are from the classic Guardians team before they were revamped in the 2000's.
Some of the deep cuts that showed up in the game made me super giddy as even though I'm not a big Marvel guy, I am a huge Guardians fan from the comics. (It's probably why GotG 1 & 2 are two of my favorite MCU movies also)
Two characters that were mentioned in this game that I really hope show up in some capacity in the sequel are:
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
I was really excited to see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_(comics)
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Note it is from various points in the story as far as I can tell I was just skipping around a bit.
All I can say without spoiling is play the game. :P
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
I want to hear all their banter
Yea, this was my only real gripe to the game. I got to the point that I would wait until there was silence for a few seconds before I moved forward so I didn't cut off the conversation. The random banter during the level had some of the best conversations and character moments in the game.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Spoilers for characters appearing in the game
yeah, I had pretty much an identical reaction at that same point in the game. for pretty much the exact same reason.
The character progression is lackluster at best. Would have been better off just dropping it entirely and focused on being actiony. I wish they had just made it a bit deeper to have a reason to exist. Maybe actually have upgrades to different elements and such. As is it's worse for existing.
It's like the two tiered failure of progression systems. First is that none of the upgrades are particularly exciting or interesting. You're probably never really looking forward to the next one or planning out any sort of path to get all the cool stuff. And secondly is that you get everything even remotely useful super quickly.
Like by chapter 5/6 I had everything that did anything useful. That's... really early to have upgrades start to feel completely pointless. And that even those upgrades weren't very interesting or exciting... it just really feels like something slapped on with no thought because it had to be there.
The actual gameplay is still butt tons fun though! Waffling between whether I'd give it a 3/5 or 4/5. We'll have to see how the rest of the game goes.
I also don't think I ever played a game that has such an excess of craft mats.
The combat is more fun with everything unlocked, even though it turns into a lot of menu'ing. The simple "switch weapon type to trigger stuns" is way more engaging than the starting "circle strafe while holding down shoot and do the reload QTE"
Is there a way to change this in the settings?
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Over the course of my playthrough my huddles resulted in "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" three times, I think it's stuck in my head now
Character thoughts:
-Drax is easily my favorite of the game characters. The scene where he's grieving in Knowhere was the first in the game to give me a BIG emotional reaction. For some reason, he still calls Gamora a sexually themed insult early in the game, but thankfully he is much less like his movie counterpart in that respect and his growing affection for the team besides Peter is some really nice character writing. They borrowed the favored style of Drax joke from the movie, but managed many, MANY more of them, most of which are very direct hits. I enjoyed his fanboying for Lady Hellbender a lot, and his enthusiasm for the Foom hunt is also very funny. The moment when Drax emotionally realizes that his family really IS dead and lost to him forever (in the midst of his promise) is some EXCELLENT facial animation. You can actually SEE the thought silently enter his mind and devastate him.
-Gamora is basically a more emotionally in control version of the movie character. They've written it such that she and Peter could theoretically develop in a romantic direction, but have no particular need to do so (whereas that was clearly always endgame for the movies). I appreciate how she and Peter are pretty emotionally in touch with each other from the beginning of the game and, especially in the collectible based dialogues, emotionally drop their walls for each other and are willing to be honest. There's a reservoir of careful empathy there, they WANT to be there for each other. Because of that, I really think we should know more about how they got to know each other and why he confidently invited her to the team when the rest of the team was clearly very against that. If there's a collectible where they discuss this, I didn't see it (but if you tell me, I'd go Youtube that one right away). The Nebula twist is fine but I think delivered WAY too late in the game. I also don't completely buy it, there's no way they decided to just permanently never use Nebula in their games.
-Rocket is a difficult character. I don't mind the arc of him starting as a pretty big turd, reaching a breaking point, and then willingly becoming a bigger part of the team and emotionally committing to them. That's fine. I just don't think the asshole portion is handled very well at all. He blames Quill for the opening mission going wrong based on nothing, then gets mad at the result of the Hellbender mission, even if you take care to side with him on EVERY occasion. He seems more mad at Peter than the Cops (Novas) when they get arrested, which is a missed opportunity for characterization. Then his breaking point is... when you try to pay the fine instead of going on vacation? His behavior on that mission is completely bizarre and does not present any legitimate things for him to get mad at Peter about. The backstory of this version of the Guardians is that Rocket and Groot hunted Peter as a bounty (like the movies), but he then convinced them to give up on the bounty AND form a team with him. They then were a team of three for some time before any of the others joined. This backstory is very strange when you consider how much he just seems to DESPISE Peter throughout the first half of the game. The game shouldn't have written in so many "side with Rocket or not" choices early in the game when this arc was written in stone (there was much more fertile ground for you to intercede in the grudge between Gamora and Drax for example). I do think the writing is good when Rocket reveals his trauma through collectibles and the turning point about his water phobia is handled well. I would recommend players side against Rocket at every chance early in the game, because the results are MUCH funnier and then create a more consistent story as the game goes on.
-Groot is clearly the character the writers didn't exactly know what to do with. He doesn't really have best scenes and he's also pretty much the worst in combat. It's VERY noticeable when the other three characters have huge emotional breakthroughs to get their ultimate ability and Groot... heals a dragon. That's not character growth, it's just a tutorial for how the ability works. Arguably his best scene is on the optional path when you sell him, when the Guardians AND Hellbender take a beat with the fact that Groot just CANNOT lie.
-Mantis is wonderful. They hammer her one joke in a little TOO far in the caves (because that level runs a little long), but to be fair, it's a very good joke. I like how she's a positive person, but is still willing to criticize and make jokes at others' expense. I don't dislike the movie version, but this more worldly and grown up version is more fun imo. It would be very good if the next game allowed you to swap teammates, Kingdom Hearts or FFVII Remake style and you got Mantis as a full combat member sometimes.
-Adam Warlock sucks, but in precisely the way they meant him to. The comics always expecting you to just tolerate his egotistical shit show was always hard to bear, I very much appreciated how the Guardians as a unit are just constantly "Get a load of THIS asshole" when Warlock is around. And I LOVED the reveal at the end of the game that he CAN make himself understood in a normal way, he's CHOOSING to talk like a massive dork/turd.
-Ko-Rel kind of gets played strangely, as if she's this beloved character that we're going to be devastated to lose instead of... a cop who we baseline probably do not like. I do like the depth added to her throughout the story but like... she's a corpse for about 80% of it.
-Nikki is very, very good and if anything there's not enough of her. She's kind of the space version of TLOU 1 Ellie, honestly. Villain Nikki sucks and is boring, that's an unfortunate hang up of the plot. The villain is good for scale and abilities but very boring to listen to/look at/deal with. Having Nikki on the team full time for the sequel has the potential to be excellent. I was unsure about the decision to not make her Peter's kid after all when it was first revealed, but upon reflection that was a very good choice. The Guardians are a found family, their first families either ended in tragedy or were horrible to begin with. While Nikki seems to be about the importance of blood ties, she's actually very much the opposite. Ko-Rel took her in purely out of empathy for this orphan child and now Peter is going to do the same, reflecting what Yondu did for him. She'll also serve as a mirror image of Gamora, what a powerful but lost child can become when surrounded by people who care instead of evil dickbags.
-I hate the visual design they went with for Magus and have no idea WHY they took it that direction. It's like the 2000s era monster cloud thing, but in shitty polygon form. The annoying him to death final battle is good, but paced very poorly and awkwardly.
-Kammy the space llama is very good, but they shouldn't have given players the choice to turn her in to Nova and then ignored that choice with zero explanation. Just... don't give players the choice to get rid of her if you're not being sincere about doing so. I do like both scenes that result, but bizarrely the scene that is more of a showcase for her is the one where you did NOT choose to save her. That's... just dumb, players who immediately voted for her presence miss the funniest scene for her!
-Cosmo is excellent as expected, but I don't like how hostile he is in his intro scene. Maybe the idea was to make him seem... tough? I dunno, all the other scenes are about making him lovable or fun, I think the start puts a weird vibe out there.
Potential Sequel thoughts:
Bringing up the menus and selecting character abilities just feels like a mess - it cancels your lock-on so you have to reapply it afterwards, and you end up crab-handing having to hold down the left trigger for aim, most likely the right trigger to keep shooting, and the left shoulder button to keep up the menu. I have to actively stop fighting to free up fingers to press the relevant buttons which is no bueno.
The combat also feels way too fast to make meaningful strategic choices in the ability menu, and half the time you simply cannot tell WTF is going on with the fights. Lock-on seems to randomly cancel itself if another enemy crosses your reticule, too, making it very difficult to isolate specific enemies.
I'm going to tough it out because I'm already really engaged with the story, but man I feel like the actual gameplay on this one is not good.
Weirdly, the game it reminds me of most this year is Tales of Arise. But withut the world's most irritating story and characters.
I'm also really surprised at how little discussion there is about this given that it made the majority of notable GOTY shortlists?
Steam: adamjnet
I suspect nobody's talking about this game because it sold terribly. Here's hoping it has a decent afterlife with word of mouth ("seriously, it's not Avengers, it's actually good") propelling sales on the steep discount.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
My first gripes were the sudden QTE's, where I wasnt supposed to push a button but rather hold it or something... Sending me back to a hefty load screen on PS4Pro. I was glad to see they could be turned off without penalty, and the amount of other accessibility options you could mess with.
It also seems like a guide would be needed for some of the achievement/trophies. I just wasnt willing to do that on my first play through, story was too important.
I did feel like it got better as more abilities opened up and I'd basically just ignore shooting stuff myself for the most part and call the shots for everyone else.
But yeah, the QTEs were annoying enough on a PS5 with only a few seconds of loading in between when I stuff up, I can only imagine on PS4.
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
It was just very clearly tacked on and largely pointless. The abilities were almost all extremely basic and low impact and then you will have all the skills and every upgrade as well far before the end of the game. Making finding more resources pointless and making it feel like there wasn't much reason to go looking for the resources you did earlier.
I wish some of the upgrades had been for like the various gun forms. That would help add some more layers to the actual combat as you have different levels of weapons with various bonus effects based on how you chose to upgrade.