Sometimes you are looking for a strategic video game that makes you think about every move, sometimes an exciting and profound title that lines your face with tears, but every now and then what you need is to shoot some aliens while Pat Benatar yells “Hit me with your best shot! “. As you can imagine, Guardians of the Galaxy belongs to the latter eventuality, but it also knows how to tell a beautiful story of friendship.
The game is basically an action-packed third-person shooter with a few small detours from time to time to short fights between spaceships, just to vary the ingredients a bit. The appearance of the Guardians is different from that of the movies as already happened for the Avengers video game, the only two characters almost the same are Groot and Rocket Racoon because sentient trees and genetically modified raccoons do not have big problems with image rights .
Throughout the game we will take on the role of Peter Quill, aka Star Lord, leader of the group and glue between the various badasses that compose it and who will have to manage yet another threat on a global scale while trying to prevent Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot kill each other for a wrong word. All while trying to manage the traumas of his past and the responsibilities that await him around the corner and that will inevitably clash with his nostalgic childlike character molded on the personality of a forty-year-old player.
From the point of view of the gameplay this means that the fights will, in fact, always be from the point of view of the less fun character in terms of special powers. Let’s be honest, why would we want to play the role of an (almost) human shooting around when we could be a very strong warrior armed with blades, an agile and very fast assassin, a raccoon armed to the teeth with bombs and sarcasm or a great-grandson of the Ent de The Lord of the Rings? Evidently, however, the developers have chosen this way, so in each battle we will be able to use our companions only to perform some super support moves, letting them fight independently.
The best way to exploit them will be to combine these attacks at the right time, for example by asking Groot to block some enemies on the post with his branches and then to Rocket to throw a bomb at them, or Drax could stun a particularly tough enemy, so as to make him lower his shields and grant Gamora an opening to slice him with her sword. Do not expect, however, who knows what strategic implications, it is all very simple and immediate and, to be honest, quite repetitive with the flow of the game, even if the variety of enemies remains quite high.
What really keeps the shack standing is the writing of the dialogues. For all the approximately 20 hours it will take you to finish the game, perhaps less if you play it in easy mode, perhaps more if you increase the challenge, the whole group does not stop chatting, as it should be, weaving a series of spectacular hitting and repeating, even during the fights and especially in the interlude scenes that are the glue to the story. In addition, from time to time you will be asked to choose who to side with in yet another quarrel over how to resolve yet another potentially deadly situation and this will involve small variations in the plot that could facilitate or hinder your path.
The end result is, as in the case of the Guardians of the Galaxy, something that is greater than the sum of its parts. We have a very traditional game in the gameplay, with very few flickers, an environment that is undoubtedly beautiful, especially on PS5, but which is little more than a very rigid set where to stage repetitive clashes but if you mix all this with a writing capable of enhancing the characters and a few winks to those who also know the whole comic universe that revolves around them, here you get a simple video game, aware of the first limits but also of its own value.
Guardians of the Galaxy is not a video game that will go down in history or something that you will perhaps replay in 10 years thinking about how it changed your life, but it is perfect for when you come home and you want to spend an hour having fun and excitement with a band crazy that you love, but can not say.
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