Square Enix subsidiary Eidos-Montréal’s new Marvel video game asks an important question: what if the Guardians of the Galaxy movies were a bit more like the comics? On a less facetious note, the reception for the developer’s story-driven, single-player game has been much more positive than that of Crystal Dynamics’ Avengers, meaning this could be the start of another major comic book-turned-game series, a la Insomniac’s Spider-Man or Rocksteady’s Batman. With that in mind, let’s dive into this new take on Star-Lord (Jon McLaren), Gamora (Kimberly-Sue Murray), Rocket (Alex Weiner), Drax (Jason Cavalier) and Groot (Robert Montcalm)’s universe.
Spoilers after the jump.
1. Guardians of the Grief
Guardians ’21 takes place twelve years after the Galactic War, a major conflict with the Chitauri that ended when Drax slew Thanos (though Drax himself is still unsure if the Mad Titan is really dead.) When Peter Quill and Rocket discover the Soul Stone in a ship graveyard, they accidentally set in motion the Universal Church of Truth’s takeover of the known universe, as Grand Unifier Raker (Andreas Apergis) brainwashes everyone with the false “Promise” of reuniting them with those they lost during the war. It’s up to the Guardians to save the galaxy, and in particular, Peter’s apparent daughter, Nikki Gold (Romane Denis), who has been crowned the Church’s Matriarch after bonding with the stone.
As you might’ve surmised, grief is a major theme here: Peter is tempted with an unsettling vision of being reunited with his mother, and Drax becomes possessed, meaning a not inconsiderable amount of time is spent freeing his mind from a dreamscape where his wife and daughter Hovat and Kamaria are still alive. I can’t imagine Eidos-Montréal knew how relevant their game would feel when they began working on it: sure, cults have always been a part of the world, but it strikes a particular chord given how many of us have spent the past two years indoors, wishing none of it had happened; and yet, as the story reminds us, we can either let despair overwhelm us into delusional behavior, or we can accept that pain, and continue to do good.
2. Peter Quill, You Are Not The Father (But You Are Her New Dad)
Much of our emotional investment in the game comes from Peter believing he fathered a 12-year old with the Kree Nova centurion Ko-Rel (Judith Baribeau.) It makes a lot of sense: like his movie counterpart, Quill is still an ’80s kid (complete with a mullet in flashbacks), meaning he must be in his forties, so what better way to shake up his arrested development? However, during the game’s “climax,” Ko-Rel’s echo in the Soul Stone reveals Nikki isn’t her biological daughter, but a war orphan she adopted after she and Peter went their separate ways.
At first, it felt like backtracking, to reflect how Nikki Gold isn’t Peter’s daughter in the comics (matter of fact, she’s one of the 31st century Guardians), but then I realized it was a perfect extension of the theme of found family in the series: Peter may not be related to Nikki by blood, but the years he’s spent processing the loss of his mother means he’s the best person to look after her following Ko-Rel’s death. Now Peter is essentially Yondu, looking after a 12-year old on the Milano, and it’s an intriguing dynamic that’ll hopefully be explored in full in a DLC or sequel — and perhaps even set a precedent for Quill having his own child in the comics.
3. It is Really Amazing How Many Characters Are in This
Given the Universal Church of Truth are the main villains, it was unsurprising that the final boss was Adam Warlock (Brent Skagford)’s evil alter-ego, the Magus. However, the game more than compensates comics fans who predicted Adam’s entry into the story with unexpected appearances from nearly everyone: aside from Nikki Gold and Ko-Rel, monster collector Lady Hellbender (Sarah Levesque) plays a surprisingly integral role, and who would’ve ever thought this game would feature the dragon Fin Fang Foom, the Wendigos, or even D-list villain Ruby Thursday? Even X-Men and Fantastic Four villains like the Brood and Galactus are referenced; and while it was probably safer for this game to namedrop them now that they’re at Marvel Studios, the abundance of cameos and guest stars here make the Spider-Man and Avengers games look positively timid about acknowledging the greater Marvel Universe.
Continued below4. Moondragon, Where Art Thou?
One Guardians member, who is seen in the Nova Corps’ intel files but otherwise conspicuously absent from the game, is Heather Douglas, aka Moondragon. It makes sense, given the game uses Drax’s MCU backstory, where he is an alien, instead of the comics, where he is her father, Arthur Douglas, a human transformed by a cosmic entity to kill Thanos. However, I can’t help but wonder if at one point, the developers had planned to bring in her in as the one who heals Drax’s mind, but decided against it in case James Gunn doesn’t reveal Kamaria is the MCU’s version of Heather in Vol. 3. Regardless, it would be great to see Moondragon in-game eventually, even if her father and Drax are still separate characters.
5. Thanos & Nebula Aren’t Really Dead, Right?
Killing off Thanos well before the game’s events was the right move, as it would’ve been overkill after Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. (Even his brief, non-speaking cameo in Drax’s mindscape feels tawdry as a result.) The game follows through with an ending that emphasizes the possibility of Adam losing control of the Magus again, instead of teasing the Mad Titan’s resurrection, but there are five other Infinity Stones, and at some point enough years will have passed that Eidos could do their own, more faithful take on “The Infinity Gauntlet” series. Likewise, despite Gamora’s heartfelt confession that she slew her own sister, it’d be a major missed opportunity if Nebula didn’t show up in future.
Bonus Mix:
– Lady Hellbender’s most prized pet, the Dweller-in-Darkness, was also the monster in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Now, if I had a nickel every time he appeared in a 2021 Marvel adaptation touching on the theme of grief, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s still weird it happened twice.
– Some of the aesthetics and textures I noted over the course of the game included: vacuum brushes (the Magus), leaf veins (Adam Warlock’s skin), tetris shapes (the Universal Church of Truth), ammonite ribbing (Thanos’s armor), undersea tube sponges (Fin Fang Foom’s neck), pointed foam (the cage the Guardians use on Seknarf Nine), car hoods (the faces of Hellbender’s hounds), udon noodles (the Celestial brain matter harvested on Knowhere), and wavy rocks (Nikki’s Nova cadet uniform.) The game’s art design is so fascinating that I’ve preordered Guardians of the Galaxy: The Art of the Game as a result.
– Adam Warlock’s verbose and alliterative speech patterns are a piece of alliteration themselves (geddit? Because his name begins with A.)
– The Soul Stone is yellow here, despite being depicted as orange in the MCU and the comics since 2015.
– Like her Acanti or Fin Fang Foom, Lady Hellbender can apparently breathe in space.
