Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series is the next hot new franchise licensed by Telltale to get their episodic treatment. For those that have never played a Telltale game, each game is played out like a tv series, telling the story over a set number of episodes, usually five. Each episode is a quick time event filled, interactive movie where, as the story progresses, a series of button prompts will appear telling you which button to press. Failing this usually means your death. The game also plays like a choose your own adventure book, where during dialogue scenes, you can choose what your character says which can alter the course of the story, sometime minor and sometimes in a big way.
Now that we got that bit out of the way, let’s talk about Guardians of the Galaxy. The series is (loosely) based upon the movie versions of the characters, which is fine and expected as they are the majority’s first, and possibly only, exposure to the team. The only problem here is the writing is not good. At all. The story starts out with the Nova Corps calling on the crew of the Milano to help stop Thanos from obtaining a powerful artifact. After they turn Thanos over to the Nova Corps, a should-be-extinct-but-is-for-some-reason-not-extinct Kree ship comes out of nowhere to Knowhere to steal it and it is up to Star Lord and crew to get it back. Now the story (so far) is decent and is something that could have been very well lifted out of the comics, but the writing for the characters’ dialogue is a different story. Each of the the characters seem to be written as caricatures of themselves, taking their one basic trait and exaggerating it. In doing so, it makes it seem like the game tries too hard to be funny at times. Drax, for example, in the movie is portrayed as someone who doesn’t grasp subtlety as sarcasm and takes everything literal and at face value, but in the game comes off ass dumb as a rock. Every character’s one defining characteristic has been over amplified to the point where it isn’t funny anymore. It also doesn’t help that each voice really doesn’t fit their character, except Rocket and Groot, although all I could picture was Deadpool while listening to Rocket speak. Everything else (graphics, gameplay, audio) is what one would come to expect from a Telltale game.
I was honestly excited for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, but, now that it is here, it is just so underwhelming. While it is far from the worst Telltale episode I have ever played, it is a dish best served on a Steam sale. I do have some hopes Telltale can turn the series around like they did with Minecraft, but won’t give it too many second chances.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode One
- Story - 6/106/10
- Gameplay - 7/107/10
- Mechanics - 7/107/10
The Verdict
So much hype and so much of a let down. Unless you are a hardcore GotG or Telltale fan and must have it now, I say wait for a Steam sale.
[…] Episode 1 was kind of lackluster, it picked up in Episode 2, picks it up (review coming soon), and Episode 3 looks to be building off of 2 and adding a heavy philosophical overtone. I can’t wait! […]