“Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Episode 1: Tangled Up in Blue” Review

Telltale’s narrative driven adventure games have been making a name for themselves by allowing players to step into their favorite worlds and get more than a cursory glimpse into its inhabitants. Be it Game of Thrones, Batman, or The Walking…

Telltale’s narrative driven adventure games have been making a name for themselves by allowing players to step into their favorite worlds and get more than a cursory glimpse into its inhabitants. Be it Game of Thrones, Batman, or The Walking Dead, character development and decisions that carry over from one episode to another are what have made them popular.

Now Telltale has taken a crack at Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m happy to say that they’ve done another excellent job of capturing the heart of another franchise. So get a fresh pack of AA batteries for your Walkman, grab that awesome mixtape, and get ready to save the galaxy!

What Is It?

As the name implies, Guardians of the Galaxy takes on the popular Marvel franchise of the same name. It’s based more on the film iterations, and it does an excellent job of capturing the atmosphere. The game begins with Peter Quill (Star-Lord) receiving a distress call from the Nova-Corps. Thanos is wreaking havoc on them and they plead for help from the Guardians. Agreeing to help, they arrive to find that they are too late to help the officers, but not too late to deal with Thanos himself. Action and hilarity ensue from that point on.

I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the handful of issues I ran into with the game. First and foremost for me was the crosshair being very easy to lose on screen. Not a huge deal for most, but it was something that made the game take longer for me to complete since I had to keep finding it again. Another problem that crops up now and then is the game’s audio stuttering for a brief moment between scenes. This wasn’t a huge deal, but it is something that was noticeable. These are small issues, but they’re worth mentioning, as I have very little else to complain about.

Why Should I Care?

The one thing that I can safely say about Telltale’s games is that they appeal to all sorts of people. Even if you’re the sort of person that doesn’t like fast action games, you can get a good deal of enjoyment out of a Telltale game because there are very few consequences for failing. At worst you’ll have to retry a scene again. Since the scenes play out the same way each time, you just have to memorize the command you may have missed earlier. It’s not challenging, but it’s not meant to be. It’s meant to let you advance through the story and experience the world and its characters. Guardians of the Galaxy is all about character, and this formula works very well for it. You’ll make dialog choices, decisions that will stay with you, and partake of quick-time event action scenes. There is also a little bit of light puzzle-solving thrown in to keep things interesting.

During the course of the episode you’ll learn more about Peter, Drax, Rocket, and Gamora while Groot… well he’s just Groot. You’ll have to make choices that may leave other members of the Guardians upset with you, then deal with those consequences later. Finally, given that this is Guardians of the Galaxy, there is also a fair bit of humor sprinkled in to help keep things from feeling too dark and gloomy. There was one part of the game where I had to pause because I was laughing so hard it hurt.

What Makes It Worth My Time And Money?

You get all of your favorite characters in a new storyline. Though they may not be voiced by the original actors, they use convincing enough soundalikes. The game looks pretty good, too, with nicely detailed characters, environments, and well-animated action. The camera work is also very similar to that of the film.

Since this is an episodic game, you’ll be able to clear it in about 2 hours if you take your time. If you don’t look through the ship’s databanks and explore everything, you can reduce that by a half-hour or so. At the end of it, you’ll be wanting more, and waiting impatiently for Episode 2 to be released.