Back in June 2012 when the Guardians of the Galaxy film was first announced, I never would have imagined their explosion in popularity within five years. Why? Twenty years ago this movie wouldn’t have worked at all. A movie with a talking raccoon named Rocket just screams Howard the Duck all over again. Oh, and Howard the Duck is in the movie. That’s not really a spoiler now, is it?
Anyway, coming fresh off their Batman story, Telltale Games, who are widely known for their Walking Dead series, have partnered up with Marvel to put their own take on Guardians of the Galaxy. The excitement was pretty high from Telltale fans and Guardians of the Galaxy fans. Can Telltale Games hit the same mark with an original story or would it be slightly lackluster like Batman? (Note: I did like Batman, but I wanted so much more than an origin story.)
STORY
First off, let me just say that this is going to be a spoiler-free review. The best part of a Telltale game is the story, and I’m not going to ruin that for anyone. Telltale Games made their own story here that isn’t cannon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. To be honest, this was exactly how it needed to go. We don’t need to follow the films in this video game. If we wanted that, we would watch the movies.
The story is definitely unique. The first 30 minutes shows that Telltale came up with their own idea regarding where to bring the Guardians. In typical Telltale fashion, they have moments where the story pulls on your heartstrings, which all leads to the normal cliffhanger at the end since this is the first episode of five.
The main story is about the trials and tribulations of the team. Conflicts arise based on decisions you make which can hurt or help your team. These decisions are normal to Telltale, but will make one character happy and the other angry. The story really grabs your attention for the two hours of gameplay, and makes you want more by the time the credits roll. Which is the point of these games, right?
CONTROL
One of the most important parts of a game is the control. Telltale usually just has basic controls, as you typically control the cursor with your joystick or mouse and examine the area or move your character around. This time they added a new control. What’s the new control? You can fly with Star Lord’s rocket boots! I’m sorry, I get excited over little things like that, but you can fly! The flying does have a purpose rather than being fun (and it is). There’s a point in the game when you have to use the rocket boots to examine an area further than normal. I’m tying not to spoil it, but FLYING!
The dialogue circles are still the same as other Telltale games. You have a designated area to click with your mouse or button on a controller for your console. The dialogue can be compassionate to sarcastic to just evil. This just makes you want to replay the game once you’ve finished to see the results of the different dialogue options.
VISUALS
The graphics are on par with other Telltale games. Well, maybe not like the Walking Dead, but Telltale games will never blow you away when it comes to graphics. The characters look more like their comic counterparts, which I think is where I have my issue. All the Guardians look good, in my opinion, except Gamora. My issue is they made the area around her eyes too yellow. I know that’s how the comic is, but here it’s distracting. It’s like yellow raccoon eyes. Everyone else looks like they were ripped out of the comic, even the villain who… oh no… I’m not revealing that. You have to play the game, or just read a spoiler for that.
VOICE ACTING/MUSIC
When it comes to Telltale Games, the voice acting is very important. I think this is where it missed the mark for me in Batman (besides the story). The Joker’s voice didn’t hit the mark for me. That’s how quickly voice acting hurt these episodes.
I can say that’s not the case when it comes to Guardians of the Galaxy. The voices are on point. While I stated earlier that you want to keep Guardians away from the MCU as much as possible, this is the one point they have to stay close. The reason is because you already have voices in your mind due to the film. You’re going to compare it regardless if you want to or not. When you hear Star Lord, you think and hear Chris Pratt. Telltale really hit a home run here. The casting of Nolan North as Rocket actually makes it a grand slam.
When it comes to Guardians of the Galaxy, you think of music. While the first episode doesn’t have twenty songs, it has one song that hits the note with the episode. ELO’s “Livin’ Thing” was perfect for the story, which again I’m not going to spoil for you. Hopefully you will like it as much as I did (because I’m old) and will research more ELO songs if you never heard them before. I have already heard them, because I’m… old.
FINAL THOUGHTS
When it comes down to it, Telltale Games did more things right with Guardians of the Galaxy than wrong. At this point, you know that my biggest issue was Gamora’s eyes, which I found distracting. However, everything else mixes together to show such potential for the series. The story, acting and song choice really makes this one of the top series from Telltale Games. That says a lot from someone who’s been playing their games for a long time.
Tangled Up In Blue should hit the mark for not only Telltale Games fans, but also newcomers. Check it out if you ever get a chance. Telltale’s games are typically inexpensive and worth it. Now if they can only give me Wolf Among Us Season Two. Don’t worry Telltale Games, I’ll wait for another four years….
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