The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Guardians of the Galaxy are in big trouble. Not only is a purple space llama chewing its way through the Milano, but the Nova Corps is demanding our motley crew pay a hefty fine if they don’t want to end up on the galactic most wanꦜted list. To make matters worse, they’ve just had an unfortunate run-in with Lady Hellbender, the Monster Queen of Seknarf Nine known for her collection of dangerous creatures that once included the Hulk and Venom. And if all of that wasn’t enough, the Nova Corps Outpost they just docked at is, to put it mildly, compromised.
The preview build of Eidos-Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy I played last week began a few hours into the story, but I had no trouble at all following along. It’s not the MCU, but nevertheless, these are the Guardians you know and love. Rocket is still a foul-mouthed engineer who isn't afraid to speak his mind, his best friend Groot is still a friendly giant that speaks a language only Rocket can understand, Drax is still missing his family and struggling with metaphors, Gamora is still a badass assassin with a hidden vulnerable side, and Star-Lord is still a loveable himbo doing his best to turn this ragtag crew of misfits into a team. It’s technically not the MCU, but in all the ways that matter, it is.
Before leaving the Milano to explore the Nova Corps Outpost, I spent a full 20 minutes exploring the ship and chatting with my crew. Like Mass Effect’s Normandy, there’s a lot to discover if you spend the time getting to know your teammates, as well as dialogue choices that will likely inform future events. I had more fun chatting with Drax and Groot than I did with the game’s exploration and combat, and I think Marvel fans are going to appreciate how much time and attention Eidos-Montreal has put into these optional scenes. These are early days for the Guardians team, and a lot of the tension that drove the MCU movies is present here. It ꦍmight sound like a rehash of old ideas, but it was clear after only a few minutes that the game will be able to explore so much more about who these characters are than a two-hour movie ever could.
Once aboard the Nova Corps Outpost, gameplay feels like a mix of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mass Effect and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Uncharted, with an emphasis on exploration and scripted eventဣs that make it feel like a cinematic experience. As Quill, you lead the team through levels, commanding your squad to take character-specific actioཧns in order to progress. For example, Rocket is the only Guardian that can fit in vents, so when you find one you simply aim at the opening and select Rocket’s picture from a radial menu to command him to enter it.
My favorite moment from the preview was when I found a door that Rocket could hack open. Rocket, who wasn’t particularly pleased about us breaking into the seemingly abandoned police station, refused to unlock it the first time I told him to. I stood there wondering what to do for a moment before I tried telling him to do it again, and he reluctantly did. It was a funny moment, but it also demonstrated something special about GotG: even though the other Guardians are NPC teammates, they never feel or act like bots. They’re not interchangeable like the squad members in Mass Effect. They’re all experiencing and participating in the story with you, and it never feels like they lose their personalities or agency, even when they're just following behind you as you run down a hallway. It’s a tricky thing to put my finger on, but the non-playable characters have a unique quality that makes them feel like something more.
I’m being a bit coy to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say the outpost is in pretty bad shape. Each environment is a blast to explore, and filled with easter eggs and references to Marvel characters - if you take the time to seek them out, that is. The level design is linear like Uncharted, but that structure is beneficial to the pacing and presentation. Replay value comes from semi-frequent decision points - there’s one major one in this Nova Corps chapter - that change how the events unfold, though it's hard to say how much impact these choices will actually have on the story from such a self-contained preview.
There’s a dramatic transition from exploration and puzzle solving right into combat, and from that point on it’s a gauntlet of one fight after the next until the mission concludes. Of all the aspects of Guardians’ gameplay, combat is the one I’m most iffy about. At this early point in the game, your abilities are extremely limited and fairly us🌱eless. Star-Lord’s pistols do negligible damage, and his elemental bullets, which can be used to st🅰agger and freeze enemies, feel like a defensive measure more than an offensive one. The lion’s share of the fighting is done by the rest of the team, and as Star-Lord you need to command them to use their abilities on enemies instead of jumping into scraps yourself.
Radial menus that slow down the action are a personal pet peeve of mine. I avoid using mechanics like the gadget selection menu in Marvel’s Spider-Man and the weapon select menu in Doom Eternal at all costs. I hate the way they interrupt the flow of combat, and I despise navigating menus with a controller. Unfortunately, Guardians is Radꦛial Menu City. You’ll need to open one menu to select a character, and a second menu to choose which ability to use. You’ll do this for all four characters on cooldown, if you want to be as effective as possible, which means most of the battle is spent in menus. There’s no doubt you can learn t🔯o navigate these menus quickly with some practice, but that doesn’t make them fun - it just makes them slightly less annoying.
There’s a lot of stopping and starting to combat, including an Ult-like mechanic called the huddle up. During battle, a meter charges up as you land hits and string together combos. When it's full, you can enter a dialogue cutscene where you’ll need to choose the right things to say to the team to encourage them. If you choose the right dialogue options, the whole team will gain an attack damage bonus and reduction to their cooldowns. It’s rubbish, frankly, and I probably will ignore it for the rest of the game unless I have to use it to get out of a jam.
As much as I’m turned off by combat right now, there seems to be ample opportunity for character progression. The crafting menu has abilities and upgrades which are far more impactful to gam𒆙eplay than a simple stat increase, and I’m hopeful that fighting will be more engaging once you’ve unlocked some additional tools to play with. I enjoy the story and exploration enough that I’ll likely push through the awkward combat system, even if it never really improves beyond what I’ve already seen.
What I saw was only a tiny piece of the full experience, but I can already tell Eidos-Montreal knows exactly what makes the Guardians of the Galaxy so great. I have many questions regarding combat and character progression, but I’ve already bought into this version of the Guardians and the story they’re planning to tell. I’m glad the wait until release isn’t long, because I’m eager to get back on the Milano, tour the galaxy, and hopefully, figure꧑ out what the hell is up with that purple llama.
