MARVEL'S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: PRESS PREVIEW The announcement of Guardians of the Galaxy by Eidos Montreal was met with hostility....
MARVEL'S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: PRESS PREVIEW
The announcement of Guardians of the Galaxy by Eidos Montreal was met with hostility. The creators of the modern Deus Ex dilogy presented not the long-awaited sequel to Mankind Divided, but a strange superhero project. The venture is doubly dubious when you consider that part of the studio was working on the failed Marvel's Avengers. In mid-September, we attended a private screening of the game, where we went through one of the missions twice and learned more about the development. Now we tell you why skepticism is unjustified, and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, it seems, is really worth the wait.
According To Shepard's Precepts
The plot of the mission, which we were given to play, starts on the way of the Guardians to the base "Rock" of the Nova Corps (a kind of space police from the Marvel comics ), where they have to pay a fine. Upon arrival, the player takes control of Peter Quill and can explore the Guardianship Milano. This is one of the most important parts of the game, analogous to "Normandy" from Mass Effect. In the house of the Guardians, you can even turn on some hit of the 80s at any time - a safe haven where you immediately feel warm and cozy.
Between missions, you can enter into optional dialogues with characters who willingly talk about their past and share thoughts about recent events. Moreover, the matter will not be limited to the Guardians: according to the developers, other personalities will appear on the ship as it progresses. For example, the preview on the ship featured Llama Kammi, who will become an important part of the crew towards the end of the game.
And Milano also has a workbench where you can upgrade Quill's skills and improve his blasters. However, the authors decided not to add critical improvements - mainly these are increases to parameters such as the speed of recovery of shields and the duration of the flight.
In the cabin of each of the heroes, you can find items related to his story: Quill has handcuffs from prison, and Rocket has a mind-control device. If you raise such an object, an appropriate character will immediately appear behind your back, who will tell you where the thing comes from and what it means to him. This approach seems artificial - strange that each time the Guardians return to their cabins exactly at the moment when Peter examines their belongings. But the dialogues themselves are interesting.
In general, Guardians of the Galaxy has problems with production. For example, when interacting with control panels, the camera becomes at an inexplicable angle so that the player does not exactly see the screen. And in conversations outside the cut scenes, we decided not to take risks, so there are no interesting angles or at least plans in them. Because of this, not the most advanced facial animation is more striking.
Choices And Consequences
The mission from the preview turned out to be much more exciting than the first gameplay video. It begins with an exploration of an empty base, during which the player solves a simple puzzle and a conflict in the team, and also learns that local employees are infected with something, and enters into battle with them.
One of the most important elements of the game is the relationship of the Guardians. For example, Quill asks Rocket to open the door, but one day he refuses, unhappy that Peter has involved the team in another adventure. Then you first need to calm down the Guardians, and after that, the raccoon will agree to help. There are also scenes in which Peter has important decisions to make. Other Guardians may not approve of them.
The mission to the "Rock" is remembered for a large number of small decisions and the scope for research. It was especially pleasant to activate an optional event at the very beginning, which came back to haunt the Guardians at the end of the task. But the developers' remark that the "Rock" is different from the rest of the game is alarming - no matter how the situation with Cyberpunk 2077 repeats itself when journalists were shown almost the most variable quest.
And Thanos Can Cry
The battles in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy are reminiscent of a simplified version of Devil May Cry, especially the gameplay for V from the fifth part. You can only control Quill, and conditional roles are distributed among other team members: Groot is a tank, Rocket deals powerful attacks in the area, Gamora - point and strong blows, and Drax stuns opponents and distracts attention to himself.
Each Guardian has four skill slots that the player activates during the battle. At the same time, characters can also interact with the environment: in the preview, Gamora dropped hanging boxes on opponents, Drax threw exploding barrels, and Groot attacked with roots from the ventilation.
Quill himself, unlike V from DMCV, fights the enemy on an equal footing using blasters with multiple firing modes, melee attacks, and skills. By pressing the trigger, you can immediately aim at the enemy, so that the game does not turn into a shooter and keeps pace. Quill's main ability is "Fly", in fact, "Ulta", during which he gathers the Guardians in a circle and, in the manner of a coach from American football films, encourages them and strengthens all their attacks with phrases from songs from the 80s. True, if during the mini-game you choose the wrong line (for example, do not moderate the ambition of the Guardians or, conversely, besiege them), only Peter will receive the amplification. After that, one of the songs is turned on. Nova Corps soldiers shot at Rick Astley (Rick Astley) - priceless.
The variety of opponents in the mission was not enough. Judging by it and the first gameplay video, in each task we will have only a couple of varieties of one faction, whose tactics do not differ much.
A separate place in the combat system is occupied by sections, which the developers call warheads (nozzles), - battles during which you need not only to fight off enemies but also to solve a simple problem. At the end of the mission on the Rock, for example, you need to destroy the grips holding the Milano.
Not Like A Movie
One of the main complaints about Marvel's Avengers is the strange design of the heroes: they resemble the MCU cosplay group. At first, the Guardians seem to take too much from the movies, but over time, this feeling fades away.
The new mood is largely created through music, which here is more aggressive than in the movies Gunn (James Gunn). The developers made a list of topics that they wanted to raise in the game ("How to find yourself", "What is it like to be an outcast", "What is a family" and so on), and based on them they recorded the original rock album of the group Star-Lord. It sets the tone for the campaign and sets the game apart from other versions of Guardians.
It is a little more difficult to see something unique in the main characters, especially since you can find a skin from the films for each. Dialogues help here, in which the backstory of each Guardian is revealed - it strongly departs from the MCU and gradually creates a new image of the team in the player's head.
If you want to see the heroes in a completely new guise, on missions you can find skins for each of the Guardians.
This is the situation with all elements of the style of play. At first glance, even "Milano" was written off from the movies of the cinematic universe, but when creating its game version, the developers relied on the functionality of the design. Therefore, he, unlike his brother from the movie, looks more like a "real" starship.
So far, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy looks like one of the main games of Marvel and a giant step up from the "Avengers". Small decisions and their consequences here and there encourage you to explore every nook and cranny, and a simple and stylish combat system forces you to constantly experiment.
The only concern that remained after the preview concerns the monotony and artificiality of some of the scenes. Fighting the same opponents quickly gets boring, and the dialogues sometimes seem too straightforward and functional. Yes, and the plot is still very difficult to judge: the mission from the preview showed only an intriguing plot, nothing more.
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