@JohnnyShoulder I’ve bounced between all three modes, as I’m apt to do when a PS5 game has options, but I’m settled into performance mode. Usually I love me some good ray tracing, but the effects in this game weren’t quite as mind blowing as I’ve seen in others (Like Control and Miles Morales). I think the very bright and varied color palette in GotG makes the effects of light reflections less prominent than in game worlds that include more dark contrast. There’s plenty of reflective surfaces in this game, but they are so intensely colored in HDR that they look wonderful without RT and the combat and platforming really benefit from 60 fps.
I’m still loving the game. I’m finishing off chapter 12, and it’s scratching an itch that I’ve had and didn’t know it. It’s mostly an Uncharted itch, I think.
I was able to finish off Guardians this weekend and just thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
I don’t know if I have much to add to the discussion that hasn’t been already said, but I’m really bummed that the game didn’t perform better commercially to warrant a sequel, or at least enough to encourage more story-driven single player games from Square-Enix. (Of course with the recent failure of Avengers and Babylon’s Fall, I’m not sure that Square-Enix has any genre outside of their mainstay JRPGs that they feel confident in). The industry is saturated with Marvel content, so I don’t know that a second GotG is what the industry needs, but I wish that we’d get more games like this — ie AAA quality where there’s team based gameplay, character and narratively driven, linear with mild exploration, etc. Unfortunately I feel that soft sales will send a message that this style of game is not in demand.
As far as critique of the game, I think I’ve given plenty of praise but some more detailed observations include the following:
I think the visuals are fabulous, the HDR is a particular highlight (no pun intended). The facial animation leaves something to be desired though. Not nearly as consistent in the facial capture and virtual acting as games from Naughty Dog or Quantic Dream. Some of the character interactions were quite good but a lot of the facial close ups were wooden and uncanny. Several times the characters’ eyes would dart around quite creepily.
Performance was likewise a mixed bag — despite playing most of the game in performance mode, I noticed dropped frames from time to time. And audio cuts were actually quite common. I can excuse some of the audio quirks due to the unique nature of the game’s constant chatter from characters, so to have a side conversation cut off by a timed and scripted dialogue event should be expected. It doesn’t change the awkwardness of when it happens though. I guess I’m spoiled by God of War’s deft treatment of that issue when characters would seamlessly return to their conversation when gameplay would interrupt it. GotG had a lot of recycled dialogue too which, again, is to be expected with such a large amount of constant chatter. Amazingly the repetition only seemed noticeable during battle, and I don’t recall much during exploration. The worst offender was there was only so many “huddle” speeches, and so I was seeing those repeat by mid-game.
Without spoiling anything, I liked how the game ended. There was some frustration and a little trial and error which made it tedious, but the overall direction of the game was really well handled and consistent with the tone of the movie (and presumably the comics, I would guess).
Overall, I’d put it up there with my favorite games I’ve played this year, which is some esteemed company (sitting alongside Miles Morales, The Last of Us Part II, Demon’s Souls, and Kena). With a little more polish it could have been outstanding, but in a way I’m glad it didn’t have extra time and resources put into the small details since it already lost money as it stands.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution Glad to see you enjoyed it! I did love just how complete an experience it was, it was a full linear game without any bloat. I think that might be everybody done now so I’ll get the list of games together as soon as possible!
I think guardians of the galaxy is an excellent game, excellent story better than most marvel films and great characters. the non stop banter is the real highlight of the game.
Its one for my collection and thats high praise indeed as im very fussy
@trev666 yeah, I know what you mean… I definitely thought the story and characters were to a higher quality than the two GotG movies. They did a great job and the game should’ve sold gang-busters.
@colonelkilgore That's a fair comment but then we've only had around 6 hours total with the movie "Guardians" compared to the character development allowed by a 20+ hour game.
@LN78 I do get you but I think it’s an awkward comparison when putting film run-times up against game run-times. I say this as a film’s action scenes would take up less of a run-times’ percentage than a games gameplay sections.
What I will say though, I think my expectations probably contributed to my rating. I had pretty high expectations for the movies being a massive fan of the Abnett and Lanning runs but fairly low expectations of the game. Maybe that caused me to enjoy it so much more.
@colonelkilgore I love seeing different interpretations of the characters. I thought the character work in the game was excellent and far outshone the ultimately repetitive and button mashy/linear gameplay sequences. The movies are both amongst my favourites in the MCU - I'm a huge James Gunn fan in general, going back to his gross out days at Troma.
@LN78 yeah I generally like Gunn’s movies too, I only go as far back as Slither and Super but I pretty much like everything he’s done (I think his Suicide Squad movie is the best DCEU movie to date… I’m not counting Nolan’s Batman movies as DCEU).
I have to be honest, I really didn’t enjoy the first Guardians… movie on first viewing. I think it was partly just how different it was from the comics and partly to do with the fact that we were moving that weekend and I was very stressed. I’ve watched it since many times and enjoyed it immensely. I also really liked what the Russo’s did with them in Infinity War.
@colonelkilgore Agree 100% about "The Suicide Squad" - the plot might have been a bit squiffy but the character work more than made up for it - it takes a special kind of talent to make Margot Robbie's insufferable mugging even vaguely tolerable. Have you seen "Peacemaker" yet? It's a really terrific show. Apparently Gunn has shot a "Guardians" Christmas special (complete with celebrity guest stars and musical numbers) for later this year. I might be tempted to buy a month of Disney+ for that one.
@LN78 yeah I waited for Peacemaker to hit Sky tv with baited breath. And yeah, I’d say that was the best DC TV show too tbh.
We’ve had D+ since it started, so have watched all of the Marvel D+ stuff (including I am Groot just this week) and I’ve found it all a little (only a little mind you) under par so far. I’m looking forward to the Guardians Xmas special though… and even more to GotG3. The raw emotion on stage at Marvel’s recent Hall H presentation at Comic Con when Gunn and the crew walked out was something to behold.
@colonelkilgore I quit slavishly following the MCU content after "Endgame" which seemed to be a sensible stepping off point (although my head canon ends with "Infinity War") and have been almost universally disappointed with the bits and bats I've seen since then. I saw "Dr.Strange 2" recently (having not seen "Wanda TV") because of Raimi's involvement and I thought it was complete splooge. I've also heard nothing but bad things about "Thor 4" which is gutting because Waititi was on such a great winning streak. Hopefully that SDCC "Guardians 3" trailer will get a general release soon.
@LN78 yeah there is a definite Endgame hang over in Phase 4… and even more worrying, there seems to be less care involved in regards to simply adding stuff that fans would think cool.
I’m hoping that now we have a ‘direction’ for Phase 5 & 6 (Kang and Doom) that it’ll all start to come together as with Phases 2 & 3 once we knew Thanos was on the horizon.
@colonelkilgore "Guardians 3" then "Fantastic 4" (they have to get it right by law of averages) and then wake me up when the "X-Men" reboot eventually surfaces.
@LN78 fair enough… I mean for me, Feige has enough credit in the bank that I’ll probably catch all of phase 5 in the cinema at least. I do think the quippy humour is now in need of a rethink though, I wonder how long that sentiment will take to filter through to the scripts though.
@colonelkilgore It's funny that you mention the quippy humour ("Marvel Snark") because I recently caught the first few episodes of "Star Trek Strange New Worlds" on a Paramount+ free trial and the dialogue in that (otherwise surprisingly good) show is dripping with it. It just seemed so inappropriate for characters in a hierarchical quasi militaristic setting. It really got on my nerves after a while.
PS Just occurred to me that we're derailing this topic. Sorry!!
Votes are open for the next game! I’ve added a couple that were suggested to the usual unlucky suspects as well as a few from the PS Plus lot.
Sonic Mania
The Last Guardian
Star Wars Squadrons
Ghostrunner
Crash 4
Metro Exodus
Bugsnax
Assassin’s Creed II (included as part of Ezio Collection)
Batman Arkham Asylum
Little Nightmares
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