{"id":685,"date":"2025-06-07T13:10:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T05:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/2025\/06\/07\/marvels-guardians-of-the-galaxy-the-telltale-series-review-3\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T11:58:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T03:58:47","slug":"marvels-guardians-of-the-galaxy-the-telltale-series-review-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/2025\/06\/07\/marvels-guardians-of-the-galaxy-the-telltale-series-review-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel\u2019s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n

Marvel\u2019s Guardians of the Galaxy are back, and not just in\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2<\/em>, the film sequel hitting theaters in less than a month. Preceding the new movie is Telltale\u2019s take on Star-Lord\u2019s unlikely crew, with the first episode out this week. And although the developers used the first\u00a0Guardians<\/em>\u00a0movie as a stylistic template, this game\u00a0does differ slightly from the movie \u2014 mostly because of the complex world of licensing.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Related:<\/div>\n

Best new movies to stream on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Max (HBO), and more<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Superficially, the hallmarks are there. The crew is the same as in the film, with Star-Lord heading up a team comprising Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot. Telltale didn\u2019t get likeness rights for the movie actors, but the game\u2019s voice actors are definitely doing their best impressions. The extended cast remains the same as well, from Yondu to the mysterious Collector and, of course, Thanos the Mad Titan. Like the movie, the game\u2019s first episode, \u201cTangled Up in Blue,\u201d even managed to squeeze in a Howard the Duck Easter egg.<\/p>\n

But those similarities only go as deep as Gamora and Drax\u2019s green skin. Telltale\u2019s\u00a0Guardians<\/em>\u00a0doesn\u2019t have to fit into some larger cinematic universe, and the studio\u2019s writers, as they often do, use that opportunity. When the Guardians confront Thanos in a no-holds-barred fight within the game\u2019s first 20 minutes it becomes clear that Telltale isn\u2019t letting this license go to waste.<\/p>\n

Telltale\u2019s heart<\/h3>\n

Telltale\u2019s\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em>, like the studio\u2019s other games, is a story-heavy adventure that consists mainly of watching scenes play out and engaging in limited interactions. These include lots of dialogue choices, scattered \u201cquick-time events\u201d that make you press certain buttons or keys in time to correspond with actions in a scene, and brief sections where you\u2019re given control to walk around and investigate or chat with characters. Compared to most video games Telltale\u2019s adventures are light on interactivity, but they often make up for it with good storytelling, and they can be ideal for casual and hardcore gamers alike. And like other Telltale games,\u00a0Guardians<\/em>\u00a0is episodic, with only the first installment out this week.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Despite the characters in Telltale\u2019s\u00a0Guardians<\/em>\u00a0initially looking and sounding like bizarro versions of the ones we\u2019re used to, fans of the movies will warm up to them quickly (and book readers should already be accustomed to the team changing depending on the medium). Their personalities and the dynamics between them work as well with a controller in your hand as they did on the big screen. Telltale fans know that the studio likes to take liberties with familiar faces and go down unique paths \u2014 just ask anyone who played\u00a0Telltale\u2019s Batman game\u00a0and learned about Bruce\u2019s parents \u2014 but that\u2019s not evident yet in\u00a0Guardians<\/em>\u2019 first episode.<\/p>\n

Warts and all<\/h3>\n

Where Telltale\u2019s\u00a0Guardians<\/em>\u00a0might falter is exactly where all Telltale games struggle. Presentation and performance. How the studio has gotten away with using this same engine for so long is anyone\u2019s guess, but it continues to perform as poorly as ever on Xbox One and PC. The studio\u2019s normal comic book style has been replaced in\u00a0Guardians\u00a0<\/em>with more typical graphics, which some might count as a loss (and ironic, considering these characters originated in comic books). But more importantly, the episode\u2019s animations are universally janky, the frame rate is all over the place, and nearly every camera cut or line of dialogue is accompanied by an awkward pause, jerk, or stutter as the game attempts simply to run.<\/p>\n

\n

Telltale fans know that the studio likes to take liberties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On top of that, the writing in this first episode is not Telltale\u2019s best. The Guardians are meant to get into some small kerfuffles among themselves in \u201cTangled Up in Blue,\u201d no doubt to foreshadow full-blown rows to come in future episodes. As with all Telltale games it\u2019s really only the\u00a0illusion<\/em>\u00a0of choice that matters, so even if you try to jokingly defuse the tension in certain scenes, the characters will react way out of proportion. And toward the end, Drax comments on a new development, stating something that might catch you off guard \u2014 because he\u2019s actually jumping the gun on a reveal Rocket makes after the next cut. That\u2019s just sloppy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n

More to come<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s certainly not all bad. Telltale\u2019s\u00a0Guardians<\/em> isn\u2019t as funny as the source material, but it has its moments. And there are some interesting gameplay features. In one exploration sequence where you\u2019re given control to walk around as Star-Lord, you can use the d-pad to hover using the character\u2019s rocket boots and explore vertically. You can choose multiple actions, like \u201cshoot\u201d and \u201clook,\u201d when examining interaction points, and there\u2019s lots of optional dialogue if you stop to chat with your teammates, or call them on your wireless communicator.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As with any Telltale game it\u2019s irresponsible to judge it from the first episode alone. The best of Telltale\u2019s games are structured so that later episodes build on the ideas, mechanics and themes presented in the first episode. The worst of them turn out pretty disappointing, but it\u2019s impossible to know at this stage into which category the\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em>\u00a0will fall.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one thing that\u2019s almost too weird to explain. Although the episode is titled \u201cTangled Up in Blue,\u201d and features jams by Hall and Oates, Buzzcocks, and Electric Light Orchestra, it doesn\u2019t actually have a single Bob Dylan song.<\/p>\n

Highs<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • Characters remain great<\/li>\n
  • Story comes in hot<\/li>\n
  • Great potential<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Lows<\/h3>\n
      \n
    • Technical problems<\/li>\n
    • Sloppy writing<\/li>\n
    • Generic graphical style<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n

      <\/p>\n

      \n

      To be continued …<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Marvel\u2019s Guardians of the Galaxy are back, and not just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-xbox-one"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":743,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions\/743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamespot.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}