
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t just wear its Mass Effect influences on its sleeve: it prances them about like Chris Pratt in the opening exchanges of the franchise’s first movie. The similarities to BioWare’s space-faring soap opera are so plentiful that they’re almost impossible to ignore, but following the success of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, it should have publisher Square Enix greasing its palms.
With the release – originally announced at E3 2021 – less than a month away, we were invited to play over an hour of the title, picking up the story at the start of chapter five. Our demo begins in the Milano, where the eponymous Guardians are trying to contact Ko-Rel at a Nova Corps outpost named The Rock. It turns out the intergalactic quintet have a debt to settle, and differing opinions on what to do about it.
Before embarking on your destination, you’re free to explore the Milano and interact with all manner of different nick-nacks located around the ship, many of which prompt conversations that deepen the relationship between your comrades. There are dialogue decisions that you can select from in order to further the discussion in the way that you desire, but we didn’t get the impression that we were shaping the storyline during these moments.

At any point, you can interact with the ship’s cockpit to depart, where the main mission begins. Upon arrival, it turns out that the Nova Corps outpost has been abandoned, forcing the Guardians to effectively break and enter in search of Ko-Rel. This introduces some of the exploration gameplay elements, as protagonist Peter Quill is able to use an alternative to detective vision in order to reroute a power system, enabling the crew to infiltrate the base.
The Guardians will bicker and snipe with each other as you poke around, but the dialogue never feels quite as sharp or interesting as in the films. In fact, living up to the outstanding blockbusters may be the biggest problem that this title faces: without the baggage of two of the MCU’s biggest ever movies, we feel like fans may be more forgiving of the occasionally flat delivery and stilted dialogue here, but it sticks out like a sore thumb at times.
It’s not really a fair comparison, of course, because we suspect this campaign will take at least 20 hours to beat, where director James Gunn makes the most of every second of the two hours he has to work with – but these are the drawbacks of licensed properties, we’re afraid.

Fortunately, the combat is fantastic, and attracts parallels to Mass Effect once again. You control Quill from a third-person perspective, armed with a photon blaster and the ability to knee-slide. However, at the push of a button you can command your teammates, whether it’s getting Drax to perform a wrestling move or Groot to wrap up opponents in tree-like tendrils. By either dishing damage or depleting your adversary’s defences, each squad member brings something a little different to your arsenal.
You’re encouraged to use your allies, too, as this will improve your overall score. Similarly, Starlord’s weapon will only be effective in close quarters situations, forcing you to close space and play recklessly. It all comes together to create a combat system that’s frantic, and the excitement is enhanced by the addition of portrait artwork and brash words that appear on screen while you execute. You’ll even be able to trigger a special move which removes the cooldowns on your commands, all while songs by artists like Wham and Blondie play in the background.
The enemies do seem a bit spongey for our tastes, but we suppose this is just another example of the game forcing you to use all of the abilities you have available. In our demo, for example, Quill is armed with a secondary fire that effectively allows him to freeze foes, which when executed correctly enables you to double your ordinary damage output. Also of note is that, when poking through the menus, we spotted that the difficulty is completely customisable, allowing you to either choose from presets or toggle the attributes that you care about to tailor the experience to your personal tastes.

But obviously, we were only able to scratch the surface of the game during our hands on. There are a ridiculous number of unlockable costumes available to all of the Guardians, with Gamora’s movie threads one of the cosmetics unlocked in our demo. It also seems like there’s a pretty substantial skill tree to explore, with different commands for all of the characters, and various perks that can be crafted from scrap that you’ll find around the world.
It seems good, then – promising, even. But the strength of the films may still come to bite it in the butt. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the default character designs or even the snippets of script that we got to sample – but it just doesn’t feel quite up to par with the movies so far. Of course, the MCU set an outrageously high bar for Eidos Montreal to clear, and if it can keep the combat as entertaining as our demo across the entirety of its campaign, then we’re confident that it’s going to live up to spectacle of its silver screen counterparts – even if its gags likely won’t hit as hard.
Are you looking forward to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, or are you waiting for reviews? Will you be picking this superhero spin-off up at launch, or waiting until later in the year? I am Groot in the comments section below.
Comments 51
Enjoyed my time with this! I guess I can answer questions if you have any.
@get2sammyb just here to applaud the sub-heading
Mass effect set in the guardians universe is exactly what I want from this. I just hope the writings decent.
I actually like that it barely resembles the MCU. Means they can cover the more ridiculous Guardians content from the comics and it doesn’t have to be ‘grounded’.
I think this looks like it suffers from the same problem as The Avengers in that because most people are not familiar with the comic book characters in any way whatsoever beyond the recent movies, it's difficult to look at these character designs as anything other than cheap knock offs. I had the same the issue with the Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy game which not only did I forget existed but also forgot I reviewed until this game was announced.
Sounds a little better than expected, actually. For all the lofty expectations that the MCU movies create, the lackluster Avengers game brought expectations for this back down to earth.
Oh wow... thanks for the hands on.
I had written this off after the last trailer, but if actual gameplay is like ME it is back on the list. That all sounds good.
I would have a bigger problem if the characters looked like the movie actors. That should not be a thing now in games.
This looks like a good time. I hope they go beyond the films and dip into some of the weird cosmic Marvel stories from the 70’s. A Charlie-27 cameo would be nice.
@johncalmc The character design is hit or miss, much like the Avengers game, and I really don’t know why it continues to be that way. Marvel’s bread and butter is having a multitude of different artists and writers give their takes on iconic characters. I’d much rather they push the art direction towards the comic book side where there are many decades worth of great designs rather than the film side which feels a bit limiting.
Bold comparison. Mass Effect is a favorite series of mine. The Guardians movies are my favorite Marvel movies. Perhaps I'll have to take a look at this.
@Telekill I think you'll like it.
Trailers haven't done a good job of selling the game, turns out they should have just said its like Mass Effect but with Guardians of the Galaxy because now I'm interested.
Sounds cool. But it’s a wait for a sale game for me.
Back on my watch list given this description. Looking forward to the review!
What I'm getting from this is that it actually doesn't suck. Which is good
Never played Mass effect (not a fan of shooters), but I'll definitely check this one out.
Definitely gonna wait for the reviews on this one.
I'm happy to see it's taking inspiration from Mass Effect because this game's developers can make a good rpg, sometimes even a great one. I'm not a big Mahvel guy but I do like Guardians comics and movies. Sort of wish this game had been marketed as an action rpg, I think most people are expecting a brawler of sorts.
@nessisonett they absolutely can! In this game, Thanos is literally in love with Death (or Lady Death), just as he should be.
Haven't watched the movies so that isn't a factor for me. Sounds good so far. Will wait for reviews of the rest of the game (They'll always show their best areas first).
I was sold on this the moment I saw the trailers. It reminds of Jedi Fallen Order in the sense that it was almost an apology game from EA after the Battlefront 2 controversy, of course this one following Marvel's Avengers.
I don’t mind the character models generally (except Quill).
Voice acting and dialogue is going to make or break it.
I like the idea that it’s taking inspiration from the Mass Effect games though.
@BowTiesAreCool yeah, I hated what they did with Thanos in the MCU. Completely ruined him.
I'm not necessarily worried if it resembles the movies. I'm worried as to whether it's on par with other comic book games like Spider-Man and the Arkham games. How does it fair when compared to, you know, its actual contemporaries? That's all I care about.
I never once thought to myself "this isn't enough like the movies/shows" when playing comic book games.
I preordered this a while ago because there's nothing else to look forward to playing in 2021 except fc6 which will be discounted after 2 months
I am Groot...I am Groot
@johncalmc Alot of it will depend on the writing and how much personality (and how much it differs) comes through. I know that I personally didn't play through Spiderman thinking "I wish this guy looked like Tom Holland" during the unsuited bits...I didn't really think about it tbh. And I doubt I'll think about Wolverine not looking like Hugh Jackman.
I’ve read some other previews like ign’s and they’ve the dialogue is well written and funny.
I can't help but feel you are overplaying this by comparing it to such an engrossing series.
I very much doubt a 20 hour game delivers on the same premise as mass effect.
With that said... i went from not interested to intrigued. Maybe when it's on discount.
Well done Sammy, you managed to singlehandedly move this from my ‘Not Bothered’ pile to my ‘May be bothered if reviews are good’ pile
@dark_knightmare2 yeah, but that’s IGN.
Nice preview Sammy! This was completely off my radar but your preview and the association to Mass Effect has me very interested in seeing how this turns out.
@ShadowofSparta well yeah it was just one example I used there’s quite a few others I saw that said the same thing.
This will be a “wait for sale” for me if the reviews turn out good. I hope i’m wrong but I have a bad feeling about this game & get the sense that it may be a case of more style over substance
I’m cautiously optimistic.
Marvel + Mass Effect = Guardians of the Galaxy!
One of those cases where its so obvious once you hear it, that you wonder why it never occurred to you before.
I honestly was never considering this game until now... could be a masterstroke.
Still a pass unless on sale with rave reviews, your dialog comments cement my impression from the trailers so far. Cheers for the hands on report.
After watching Gameinformers preview on this, and reading yalls im sold on getting this.
I was already looking forward to this and hoping it turned out to be good, but you must work for Square Enix to compare it to Mass Effect.
Diabolical to use that to reel us in if anybody was on the fence, since like somebody else said, Mass Effect is one of my favorite series of all time with 2 being one of my favorite games period.
I'm still going to keep my expectations in check to an extent and just hope it can even approach the greatness that was Mass Effect 1 and 2.
I might not be buying this day one anymore, but will still check it out eventually.
@Bleachedsmiles I don't really think Spider-Man would be a good comparison to this. Characters like Spider-Man has had so many mainstream appearances over the years from TV, to video games, to action figures... etc. No one, unless your only knowledge of Spider-Man is Tom Holland. Is going play Spider-Man, and wish it looked like Tom Holland.
It much harder to look at characters like Guardians of Galaxy and not go "Hmm... I wish these was MCU versions". Since character had no mainstream appearance since the movie. Only avid comic books fans know about Guardians of Galaxy cause even the comic books sale pale in comparison to Spider-Man.
@Bleachedsmiles That's the thing though - Spider-Man is different. Spider-Man is like Batman or Superman. He's one of the big ones that everyone knows. In my lifetime we've had different iterations of Spider-Man in games, comics, animated shows, three different live action movie continuities... at this point, Gordon Ramsey could play Spider-Man and I'd probably just think, "Man, that was weird, but I liked the look of the steak."
Guardians and Avengers are inherently different because if you're not a comic book fan you might not know these guys. The only version of these heroes that most people are familiar with is in the MCU and so to then have a version that looks kinda, nearly, but it's not quite right... it's jarring and it makes the games feel cheap.
I know it sounds crazy but I genuinely believe that's the biggest issue facing this and Avengers, and why Avengers struggled so much. I bet if they'd gone with a stylised comic book style or something for Avengers it would have done better, because stylistically it would have been clearly different from the movies and an obvious thing that stands on its own. As is, to the uninformed, it just looks like the Avengers movie got turned into a game but they couldn't afford the real actors.
@get2sammyb I was tentatively looking forward to this game. The review here is a bit 50/50 as as incentive. Please tell me there's none of that planetary mining drudgery to upgrade the ship etc. That put me right off Mass Effect
@OmegaStriver Cautiously optimistic pretty much nails it.
@BowTiesAreCool Did you read the more recent iteration of Thanos's childhood story up to how he became the mad tyrant we all know and love. His history & relationship with 'Lady Death' is a pretty smart take.
Looks good and have already pre-ordered. Great hands on btw
Looking forward to this one.
I wasn't planning on getting this, or on starting any new game until Death Stranding over Christmas.
I've been hearing too many good things about this yesterday and today. Nothing mind blowing, but it sounds like fun...
It's one of the very few single player games that doesn't have a "designed by committee" feel to it, so I'm definitely getting this. I'm as leftie as anyone but even I'd say gaming has become way too political now. It's just nice to have a bunch of people having fun in space.
@nathanSF Didn't see anything like that in the demo, no.
Seems a lot more promising than the Avengers game ever did already, so feeling nicely optimistic!
@get2sammyb Thanks, that makes the game a little more appealing. I'm trying to convince myself to pre-order and your review did push the potential forward a little.
@johncalmc I honestly don't think the characters not looking like the actors was why avengers didn't do well. It was more the fact that it was a boring brawler that recycled the same uninspired looking enemies to throw at you whilst rewarding you with a loot system where you couldn't see the cosmetics on your characters. Gameplay is ultimately king when it comes to games. They could have had a photo realistic Robert Downey Jr and it would have still been a tedious game to play.
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