Skip to main content

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy nails the superhero team dynamic

When Square Enix announced Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy at E3, I was left a little confused. I was expecting a co-op multiplayer game ala Marvel’s Avengers, where everyone controls a different hero. Instead, I learned that it’s a completely solo experience where the player only directly controls Star-Lord, while also being able to issue commands to Drax, Groot, Rocket Racoon, and Gamora, but not play as them.

At first glance, it seemed like an obvious missed opportunity. I mean, who wants to play as Star-Lord when Groot is standing right there? But after playing a 90-minute demo of the game, I’m completely sold on the concept. The traffic-directing gameplay of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy nails the team-based dynamic of a Marvel squad better than any superhero game I’ve played.

Recommended Videos

A sly parody

I started off a little ways into the story, as my team lazed aboard the Milano. After bantering with Rocket Racoon and getting some of his tragic backstory, I jumped in the cockpit and navigated to our first mission. We needed to head down to a planet and grab parts to fix the ship — it seemed a pesky llama chewed through some wires.

Right off the bat, the game’s Mass Effect influence is clear. Walking around the Milano and chatting with my crew was very reminiscent of hanging out in the Normandy, minus the romance options (let me smooch Drax, cowards). That similarity started to make a lot more sense once we actually landed. Guardians of the Galaxy essentially plays like a parody of those games, trading in their grizzled stories for goofy one-liners and fictional swears. It’s a video game version of Spaceballs.

The Guardians of the Galaxy stare at a giant spore.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Teamwork makes the dream work

The squad mechanics are no joke, though. I quickly found that the systems make a lot of sense. Pressing the left bumper opens up a little wheel featuring each Guardian. Star-Lord can issue commands to each both in and out of combat. Early on, the squad found themselves stuck behind a locked door. I shot a small vent open and used the menu to send Rocket through it. Later on, I’d command him to hack into a door panel (I tried to ask Drax to simply rip it off first, but he scoffed at the idea).

The system really starts to gel in battles, though it took me a second to get used to the flow. By using that same bumper wheel, Star-Lord can target an enemy and send an ally to perform a specific skill on them. Groot, for instance, can briefly tangle enemies up in vines, while Rocket can drop a bomb that’ll knock out a wide area of enemies.

Characters also have some environment-specific actions. If I see a crate precariously hanging over some enemies, I can hit a button to send Gamora up there to cut the ropes and squash my foes. Star-Lord himself can fight by firing guns and performing some basic punches, but the game is much more about managing the crew and calling the shots in battle.

Once it all clicked, I was totally enamored. I could command Drax to throw an exploding barrel at a group of enemies, send Gamora to take out a sniper above me, and have Groot lock an enemy in place, allowing me to get a few good licks in before Rocket finished him off with a big bomb. Beating enemies down enough will trigger some special attacks ,too, adding to the team dynamics. When I get the prompt to hit B and Y at the same time, my entire team comes together to knock an enemy senseless.

The Guardians of the Galaxy stand together in alternate costumes.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

What’s most important here is that all of this happens very fast. Menuing can be a slow process in action games, but it’s all extremely quick here. Sending out commands to all four allies only takes a few seconds, with a few quick button presses for each. With quick cooldowns on abilities, fights become a superhero cacophony, with allies causing pain in every direction. When all goes well, I feel like a competent squad leader. When they don’t, I feel like I let my team down, not the other way around.

That whole idea culminates in the game’s goofiest team mechanic: Huddles. When prompted to press both bumpers, Star-Lord calls a time-out. The whole team comes together and bickers for a few lines of dialogue before Star-Lord has to choose between two inspirational lines. That activates a super mode where everyone gets a little boost. But more importantly, it causes an ’80s tune to start playing. The first time I triggered it, The Final Countdown began blaring over the battle. I can’t tell you how much that instantly hyped me up.

Star-Lord fights a NOVA Corp member in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

My only real worry with the game’s squad systems comes from dialogue. Characters are constantly quipping, as you’d expect from the Guardians, and I noticed a lot of repeat one-liners in my short playthrough. Whether it was lines said in huddles or off-hand remarks during combat, the repetition was noticeable, making me wish I could command the crew to pipe down and focus on fighting.

Nitpicks aside, I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed the squad systems here after initially being turned off by the idea on paper. While I’ve played plenty of games that ask me to issue commands to my party, this is one of the few that really made me feel like the leader of a well-oiled team. In some ways, it makes a lot more sense to me than multiplayer superhero games where everyone runs off doing their own thing. This isn’t a free-for-all; it’s a coordinated effort.

Or maybe I’m just a narcissist who wants to be in control. But how can I help it when calling the shots feels this good?

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy launches on October 26 for PC, PlayStation4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.

Giovanni Colantonio
As Digital Trends' Senior Gaming Editor, Giovanni Colantonio oversees all things video games at Digital Trends. As a veteran…
Marvel’s Avengers Mighty Thor update lets me down for the last time
Jane Foster and Thor both wield Mjolnir while fighting enemies.

I have stuck with Marvel's Avengers through thick and thin. I was hyped for the game before it was released, stayed with the game through its rocky post-launch window, and have returned for weeks on end after every hero release. Even for me, though, the wait between Spider-Man and Jane Foster's Mighty Thor was rough. That gap between heroes was about seven months, and the only significant updates between then and now have been a couple of missions and some quality of life changes, most of which were in a March update that didn't work on PS5 for over a day.
Marvel's Avengers WAR TABLE Deep Dive - The Mighty Thor
Because of this dearth of updates, I eagerly jumped back in when Jane Foster's Mighty Thor was added on June 28. While I can clearly see how Marvel's Avengers has improved since September 2020 and still think there is a really fun action game at its core, I can no longer forgive it for failing me as a live service game. Like every update of Marvel's Avengers, Jane Foster's addition comes with its own set of problems, and I just don't have the faith that the developer can turn things around anymore.
You won't behold in breathless wonder
Thor is the Marvel's Avengers character I’ve probably played the least of, which did help make Jane Foster's Mighty Thor feel a bit fresh to me. Still, there's no denying that her update feels a bit light compared to previous hero drops, and the sentiment among the player base is that she's too similar to the version of Thor that's been available since launch.
The hero update is missing basic features like a training room, loading screen animation, or even more substantial in-game cutscenes that even the controversial Spider-Man update had. This version of Jane Foster was also randomly teleported over from another universe and it doesn't come with much story content, which plays further into the feeling of her being shoehorned in.
That’s disappointing, as Zehra Fazal gives a good performance and the audio logs feature some strong writing as you learn about her alternate timeline and why she feels empowered by taking on the Mighty Thor mantle. The narrative is one place where Marvel’s Avengers still shines but has never really been able to put enough focus on. It appears that's something no update will change. Her challenge card also doesn't contain anything too special either, so there's not much pushing me to spend money on her or to engage with the game in the long term in order to unlock more items. 

The lack of new content puts a lot of pressure on how Jane Foster's Mighty Thor plays, but this will probably be a bit of a letdown for hardcore players, especially those who frequently use Thor. Thor and Jane share a lot of abilities and even some takedowns. The biggest differences are that Jane has a little more range than Thor; she uses All Mother's Blessing instead of the Odinforce to counter and charge attacks. Plus, her Ultimate Heroic Ability The All-Weapons is more similar to Hawkeye's Ultimate, as Mjolnir flies around on its own and hits several enemies.
Because The All-Weapon is a fun Ultimate ability to use and I tend to prefer ranged characters in Marvel's Avengers, I do actually like playing Jane a little bit more than Thor. I’m okay with "echo characters" in games that try to have large rosters, but when it’s the game’s only new character in seven months (10 months if you aren’t on PlayStation), then a character that mostly feels like a clone and doesn’t bring any substantial story mission content is a going to be a disappointment.
I've wanted this service to live
Playing this update, it's clear that she's primarily a clone character made to tie in with the impending release of Thor: Love and Thunder, which is a tough pill to swallow when Marvel's Avengers has been so inconsistent as a live service. I've put dozens of hours into Marvel's Avengers since launch, but ever since I got through the War for Wakanda expansion, updates have been sporadic and felt like less than what came before. Spider-Man and Jane Foster had a decreasing amount of new content surrounding them, and Crystal Dynamics has mostly focused on onboarding updates that aren't super relevant to players like me who have stuck with the game since launch.
I'm finally ready to let go of Marvel's Avengers. It fails to keep me consistently engaged with compelling content, something that is critical to making a live service game successful. I've supported Crystal Dynamics' sporadic updates as I hoped it was building toward a more consistent live-serviced schedule. Things do seem like they might start getting a bit better following Jane Foster's addition, as July's first big update has been detailed and a developer is already teasing the next hero. That said, when the developer continues to disappoint in updates, was sold off by Square Enix, and publicly won't commit to releasing a long-term roadmap, this Jane Foster update feels like too little too late for an inconsistently updated game. 

Read more
5 video games to play if you liked Ms. Marvel on Disney+
Miles Morales as Spider-Man swinging on his web and charging his powers in one hand.

It seems that with each passing month, there's a new Marvel Studios project. The MCU's take on Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel is the latest arrival on Disney+, aiming to tell a touching superhero-themed coming-of-age story.

It should be something within the studio's wheelhouse, as Marvel Studios tends to focus on the tonally lighter side of things. And with Ms. Marvel carving out time slots on many fans' Wednesdays for the next six weeks, there are also a handful of video games worth playing for those looking for a similarly lighthearted experience that ranges from superhero contemporaries to inventive new IPs.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)

Read more
Marvel Snap is Hearthstone for superheroes
Marvel Snap trailer shot of Miles Morales, America Chaves, Iron Heart, Venom, and Black Panther in a mech.

Just when you thought the multiverse couldn't get any larger, Marvel is extending into the world of digital card games. The company announced its new mobile game venture, Marvel Snap, a collectible card game coming to mobile and PC by former Hearthstone developers.

MARVEL SNAP | Official Announcement & Gameplay First Look

Read more