I didn't expect this game to be as emotional as it was. The Guardians of the Galaxy are usually seen as a comedic relief group, and their comedy can wear thin relatively quickly. The game came at a time when the Avengers game had just failed and I think people were generally fatigued from all of the superhero content, so its lack of fanfare was expected. I'm glad that I waited until now to experience this game. Through fresh eyes and mind, this game was awesome.

The general story structure of the game is much like the plot of a Guardians film. It's all over the place and it loops back on itself in a way that makes sense and really captures the spirit of the group. There were plot points that didn't feel like they would fit into the overarching narrative at all, however later in the game they did. All of these moments built up into a satisfying finale that I thoroughly enjoyed. There were many moments in this story that were in a completely different tone than what I expected from a Guardians centered game and that is a really good thing. It still did have that Guardians humor, but because I didn't play it when it had come out, I was more receptive to it. Some of the character moments near the end fell a bit flat because I think they felt like they had to have a moment for each one within the story and had to shoehorn them in last minute. Others were really well done and I found myself tearing up at some of them. It was the last emotion I expected to have when playing this game, so those moments hit even harder.

It's a very pretty game too! The world is dense, populated and feels lived in. The planets you land on ooze character. It's crazy how much detail they were able to pack into the environments on their own. I was dumbfounded with how much work and effort went into this game. This game proves that you don't have to go for hyper realistic Graphics to have a compelling art style and I am here for it. design a world that you think looks cool and people will feel that passion.

Gameplay here is standard for a character action game. You traverse areas with some light puzzle solving that uses your team members abilities to access areas. The traversal mechanics here are fairly straightforward and nothing special. During these moments your team banters and you have the option to pick dialogue to respond to them, or choose a side, and it does make it a bit more interactive, but I'm not sure it had any real ramifications.

The combat scenarios are a little more interesting, but don't really require too much thought. This is not really a con for me as I really just care about the story in single player games, and it's serviceable. I spent most of the time spraying and praying, while mashing the character ability buttons and had a great time. Most of the abilities are satisfying to use, but in the heat of battle, the controls did trip me up sometimes. After I warmed up to them I was able to effectively manage them, but initially I was pressing the wrong button a lot. There is another mechanic to the combat as you can essentially do a power up for your entire team once a meter fills. You can fill it by just beating up enemies, and when you trigger it you have to give your team a pep talk to get them back on track. If you succeed, your team is powered up and an old school song plays. It heightens the franticness of the combat afterwards, because of the music, and its abrupt interruption to the gameplay feels authentic to how the Guardians handle situations.

There are skill trees for the Guardians and you unlock them at a steady pace, but some of the earlier abilities spammed the entire game. There aren't really any choices to be made in this, because by the end of the game you're going to have everyone's abilities fully unlocked. There is also a separate upgrade system for Star-Lord himself. Most of these are just power-ups to his guns, movement, stats, and some utility based abilities. They didn't make much of a difference to the game feel. I think a lot of it was artificial depth, but it's not offensive in its implementation.

Overall I was very surprised by Guardians of the Galaxy (the game), and I find myself thinking about it anytime I hear one of the 80s songs from the soundtrack. I was reluctant to leave the crew in all honesty, because I had grown so attached to them and was emotionally invested in their success. (I haven't even seen the third movie!) Because of this game, I have a more profound appreciation of the characters in The Guardians. I think it's a really well written narrative overall, but some character specific moments near the end fell flat for me and areas were a little bit more hand-holdy, which was surprising. It's definitely worth a play if you are a fan of superhero content and you’re out of that fatigue phase that I know we were all in when this game came out.