Guardians of the Galaxy: Square Enix Gets a Marvel Video Game Right

Second time lucky for Square Enix. Following the disaster that was The Avengers the team at Eidos-Montréal and published by Square Enix have reclaimed some good will when it comes to them making and publishing Marvel games when it came to 2021's Guardians of the Galaxy. Before going into the game more to showcase how great the game is I just want to use the one image below. Now this is pretty metal. 

The Guardians of the Galaxy game has you play as Star-Lord and Star-Lord only. In a move that feels a lot like God of War you can command your allies around you, while God of War had 1, Guardians of the Galaxy you can order your crew in battle with each supporting character (Drax, Gamora, Rocket & Groot) who all have their strengths and weaknesses. The strength of this team is their bond and how that grows it has been in the movies and it is in the game, it's a small detail but I loved that in the final level the environmental puzzles were automatically done instead of you ordering the team to. It's a way of showing how the team has bonded. While the game is not the most complicated of a narrative it didn't need to be it's enjoyable for how character focused it is.

I also enjoyed the large cast of characters. Movie favourites like Nebula and Yondu not in the game is a smart move it helps to differentiate it from the films. Instead the use of characters like Nikki & Lady Hellbender (the later who 100% should be in Guardians 3) and an expanded role for the Nova Corps (no Richard Rider which leaves a big character for the sequel) it is as fresh as a take as much as you can with these characters and the supporting cast around them. While it's a give an take where I thought the Thanos design was horrific but at the same time this version of Mantis was vastly superior to the movie counterpart and its something the MCU should look at to make her more of a useful character.

It also stands to make new fan favourites and see different side to the characters we have seen on the screen for a number of years. Character development and care to how they interact with each other should be key, the strength of the Spider-Man games came from the relationship between the Spider-Man and the main villain (Peter & Doc Ock and Miles & The Tinkerer) and how they changes and shifts so a team up game should focus on the team and over the game I felt them getting closer and becoming more of a team.

But what puts this above The Avengers game? Well it's a careful consideration on what the game should focus on. The Avengers wanted microtransactions by the bucket load and prioritized it over the core gameplay, from what I've seen on The Avengers game it is very basic when it comes to the story being a pick and choose like story mission instead of a linear story, when priority is on microtransactions and costumes when people don't buy that the game falls short. 

I hope that the critical success of Guardians of the Galaxy shows what Square should be doing in future Marvel games. The games-as-a-service model didn't work and while both games served from repetitive combat the format of the game for Guardians is why people care for it more. I think they should take stock on what Guardians is praised for and what Avengers was reviled for and work from that. But only time will tell what happens to the universe Eidos-Montréal built.