What's This Game all About?
Every so often you come across a game that has clearly been made with a lot of love. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is one of those games. Everything about it screams passion for the particular branch of the Marvel universe, and it’s obvious the game was made with passion. The world is full of beautiful vibrant colours, and even though it is linear there is still plenty to explore. Whilst it may not be perfect, few games are. Guardians of the Galaxy is a true feel-good game that you can sit back, relax, and share plenty of laughs with the beloved characters, whether you are a hardcore Marvel fan, or not.
You spend the entirety of the game playing as Peter Quill, AKA Star-Lord. It seems an interesting choice and possibly an opportunity missed with the strength and varying abilities of the side-cast. Despite this, it works very well for the story that’s being told. Whilst the game is very enjoyable, the combat is solid, and the storyline keeps you interested, the real hook with this game comes from the entertaining dialogue/banter between the main characters. You can feel the growth and development of the relationship between Quill, Rocket, Groot, Drax, and Gamora. They bicker, laugh, tease, and at times anger each other, but it always keeps you entertained.
The story is just as we have come to expect – an entertaining comic-book adventure that takes you on a journey across wide regions of the Marvel universe. You fight an array of space monsters across multiple planets with the help of your team in order to free the team of debt. Whilst you do not play as any of the other Guardians, you do have access to their special abilities, which are very helpful in combat.
The story in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is solid, without being spectacular. It doesn’t offer anything groundbreaking, but it does exactly what it sets out to do. Deliver an enjoyable, goofy experience with some genuinely heartfelt moments and player choices that influence gameplay and dialogue. It’s overall a fun journey that provides evidence that linear single-player games still hold a place in the current gaming market filled with open world and live-service titles.
Guardians of the Galaxy Trophy Hunting
Collecting the trophies in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was a pretty straightforward experience. It took me 30 hours to obtain the platinum, but I engaged with most of the option conversations when they presented themselves. If I’m honest, though, for the last 10 hours I pretty much ignored them, as I was ready to finish the story.
Post-game grinding was minimal, but it was still there. Annoyingly, using chapter selection to clean up the collectibles doesn’t work, as it resets your compendium to the state it was in when you first attempted that chapter. Unfortunately, I missed quite a few collectibles and had to play through 10 chapters on NG+. I wouldn’t have minded doing that if you could skip all of the cutscenes. For some reason, you can only skip certain dialogue in each cutscene, which does make it slightly tiresome. Again, if I’m honest I played a good chunk of the NG+ listening to music and spamming O when I could. That’s not to say it’s boring to replay it, but due to the linear nature of the game, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do.
Luckily, though, you only need to collect 65% of all collectibles from each category. There are 6 categories – Archives, Guardian Collectibles, Factions (unlocked through the story), Characters (unlocked through the story), Outfits, and Monster Scans. The ones that gave me the most trouble were archives and outfits – so I would suggest exploring as much as you can during your first playthrough. Doing this will allow you to minimise the post-game grinding, and importantly, outfits DO remain in the compendium, so you can use chapter selection for these. There are some significantly longer chapters (1+ hour), which I had to replay for an outfit at the very end, and a lot of the dialogue cannot be skipped. This can get quite tiresome when you are just trying to collect one outfit, but you don’t have any option. PSNProfiles advises not using a guide on your first playthrough, to not ruin the story. I would probably agree with this but just be prepared for everything that I’ve mentioned. Additionally, make sure to scan all monsters in battle once you unlock the ability at the Workshop Bench.
The set of trophies that are probably the most difficult in this game involves interrupting certain enemy types with a specific Guardian. This involves getting an enemy’s health low enough to see the triangle prompt for a Call to Action. Whilst they aren’t that difficult, they do require a bit of luck. Firstly, these enemies are only available in certain chapters, so if you miss out you can either replay the chapter or load the last checkpoint after a battle. Secondly, you have to make sure the appropriate Guardian executes the move. The Guardian that will perform this attack is somewhat random, so be prepared to restart from the previous checkpoint if you miss out. If you’re struggling with this, you can raise the difficulty to the max and let all but the desired Guardian die first. From here, only the remaining Guardian can perform a Call to Action
In addition to the previous set, you also need to execute an auto-combo with each Guardian. This isn’t quite as tedious as the previous one, but it also involves some luck and/or planning. Auto-combos are initiated by performing repeated melee attacks while another Guardian is close. After a while, there is a chance the Guardian close by will join in on the attack automatically, and perform a high-damage melee attack. These trophies are pretty easy for all of the Guardian’s bar Rocket. Firstly, Rocket prefers to sit on top of Groot, so either call a huddle or wait for him to dismount. You can also stand with Rocket and pull an enemy towards you with the wind element plasma shot. I Suggest chapter 14 for this as there are plenty of combat opportunities, and the wind shot is available. This trophy took me around 20-30 minutes post-game.
Overall, the collecting all of the trophies in Marvel’s Guardian’s of the Galaxy was a 30-hour enjoyable journey. The last 5 or so hours were a bit of a grind for me, but I’m sure many people out there won’t mind playing through a NG+. Again, I just wish we could skip the cutscenes.
Trophy Hunting Trophy Facts
Trophies Available – 54 bronze, 3 Silver, 1 Gold, 1 Platinum
Time to Platinum – 30 hours
Platinum Difficulty – 2/10
Number of Missable Trophies – 0
Hardest Trophy – Aim Assist (Execute an Auto-Combat with Rocket)
Number of Playthroughs – 2
Fun Factor – 6.5/10
Read my previous trophy hunting review here – Days Gone Trophies – Platinum Obsession Review