{"id":4773,"date":"2021-09-22T17:47:32","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T15:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1366200"},"modified":"2021-09-22T18:25:39","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T16:25:39","slug":"guardians-of-the-galaxy-gameplay-star-lords-scrappy-combat-gives-us-hope","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/guardians-of-the-galaxy-gameplay-star-lords-scrappy-combat-gives-us-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardians of the Galaxy gameplay: Star-Lord\u2019s scrappy combat gives us hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Quill gets by with a little help from his friends. <\/p>

By Rob Leane\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 22 September 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

On a sunny September day, RadioTimes.com<\/a> travelled up to the London offices of Square Enix for a hands-on preview session with Marvel\u2019s Guardians of the Galaxy game<\/a> \u2013 we got to play through the fifth level of the single-player game\u2019s main campaign, and we were particularly pleased with how the combat system put us in Star-Lord\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n

This was one of the first real-world events we\u2019ve been to in over a year, and the overall experience was one of pleasant surprise. If you were slightly put off by the uncanny nature of the character models in the game\u2019s first trailer \u2013 much like the Avengers game, it was hard to look beyond the differences between this set of heroes and the Guardians of the Galaxy cast we know from the MCU movies \u2013 now is the time to put those worries aside.<\/p>\n

The demo began on the Milano, Star-Lord\/Peter Quill\u2019s spaceship that will act as your hub between story chapters, much like the Normandy in Mass Effect<\/a> or the Ebon Hawk in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. And just as you could in those classic spacefaring RPGs, here you can wander about the ship and enjoy some deep conversations with your crewmates.<\/p>\n

As we wandered through the crew quarters and had a poke around, various organic interactions occurred: Rocket Racoon popped by to berate us for looking at his private possessions, Gamora was mortified when we walked in on her seemingly shopping for dolls online and we also found some memories from Drax\u2019s homeworld in his room, and a poster of the superhero pop-star Dazzler in Quill\u2019s own quarters.<\/p>\n

The result of this sojourn around the ship is that all of these characters feel like fleshed-out people, rather than just copy-and-paste knockoffs of the movie characters. Details in their backstories and quirks in their personalities may not be what you\u2019re expecting, even though there are some film-riffing outfits to unlock and Easter eggs to uncover \u2013 for example, Gamora has a skin that pays tribute to Zoe Saldana\u2019s threads from the first Guardians film, but her characterisation feels quite different.<\/p>\n

\""The\"<\/div>
The Guardians of the Galaxy game has heaps of costumes.<\/span><\/figcaption> Marvel\/Square Enix<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

After Rocket fixed a problem with the ship (a llama-like creature had chewed through some important wiring), we were able to travel through space to the site of the next campaign mission \u2013 a space station base belonging to the Nova Corps, the spacefaring police who should be easy to spot in their blue and gold costumes.<\/p>\n

The Guardians have come here to begrudgingly pay a fine, but something seems to be wrong \u2013 there doesn\u2019t seem to be anyone home, leaving the Guardians to explore the spookily silent space station on foot. We came across one unlucky prisoner who\u2019d been left here on their own to rot, a mini storyline that paid off with a strong gag later on.<\/p>\n

The graphical representation of this space station felt fairly standard for a sci-fi action game (although we did see glimpses of some much more colourful environments in the trailers), and the exploratory gameplay is nothing new either.<\/p>\n

The most challenging moment at this stage of the level came when Rocket had to crawl through a hatch and tamper with a computer to activate the unlock protocol for a big door. Once this protocol was activated, Star-Lord had to connect up some power junctions on the floor to get the door open. It\u2019s not a million miles away from the Mass Effect franchise\u2019s door-unlocking mini-games.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also something warmly familiar about this eerie environment being undercut by constant quips and comments. The Guardians franchise has always had a jovial tone to it, and that\u2019s very much the case here \u2013 the jokes come thick and fast. There are some hits and some misses, with a remark about \u2018gross negligee\u2019 being one of the most memorable misunderstandings (the character had meant to say \u2018gross negligence\u2019).<\/p>\n