Video Gamers Podcast - Gaming Quick Takes - Guardians of the Galaxy

Episode Date: April 15, 2023

From gaming hosts Paul, Michael and Josh, we're bringing you even more gaming content each week.  Gaming Quick Takes are a short series of game recommendations, funny moments, off-topic chat and more. A small dose of gaming to brighten your Saturdays! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Offer ends March 3rd, 2025. Terms and conditions apply. invest with RBC. Offer ends March 3rd, 2025. Terms and conditions apply. Invest with RBC today. Hey guys, welcome to this Quick Take episode. We're so excited to have you here with us. In the past, these Quick Take episodes actually were only available to those who financially supported the show through Apple subscriptions and patreon but due to popular demand we have decided to shake up the perks for our supporters and we'll be releasing these quick takes on saturdays to everyone giving you all some extra free content that was previously unavailable to the public and these

quick takes are a little more laid back and they're hosted by just one of us so sit back relax and enjoy this quick Take episode. Shazam! Boom! Hey, everybody, it's Josh, and I am back with a brand new year of Quick Take episodes, our way of saying thanks for supporting the show. We're going to keep doing these for you. You guys seem to love them, so we're going to keep putting them out there as our way of saying thanks. So I'm going to hop right in on this one. I have mentioned this game several times on the show already, but I haven't really had a chance to dig into it very much. And so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to give you a glowing

recommendation and to dive into a game that I have been finding myself really, really enjoying. I think it's drastically under known at this point, and that is the Guardians of the Galaxy video game. Now, if you've been listening to the show, you've heard me mention this a couple times, you know I'm a fan of it. I'm going to get that out of the way right now and tell you that I think this is a very solid game. It's funny because just earlier today, Paul picked it up for his PS5. I'm very curious to see what he thinks about it. I can never really know with Paul. Sometimes I think he's going to love a game and then he tells me he doesn't like it. Other times I think he's not going to like a game and he loves it. But I guess that's what keeps everything interesting and one

of the reasons that he's one of my best friends too. So, all right, Guardians of the Galaxy. This game is great. I think that right now it's not in the, you know, widely known because of the failure of the Avengers game. I never played Avengers. That's one of those games where I was very hyped for it. And then I saw that the reviews started coming out and they weren't all that great. People said it's very shallow in content. Yes, it's a lot of fun for a little bit, but then it grows old, very stale. It's like the developer ran out of time and they just started copying, pasting everything. And they said it was not a $60 game. However, Guardians of the Galaxy do not fall into that trap. If you've played Avengers, you might have a different opinion. I never played it, like I said, but the Guardians of the Galaxy is incredible. And one of the things, actually probably the thing

that makes it such a great game is how well written it is. It's got beautiful graphics. It's got a great storyline. The combat is okay. It's not bad by any means. I feel like it probably is one of the weakest parts of the game because it's fairly simple. But I'll get into all of that. So first of all, if you're not familiar with Guardians of the Galaxy, you are missing out. Go watch the movies. They're probably free on Netflix at this point, but it's one of my favorite Marvel movies. They're phenomenal. I haven't really met very many people that don't like them. The game definitely borrows a little bit from the movies and the popularity of the movies and some of the personality of the characters. But this is a standalone game. This is not a game that was made to mimic the

movies by any means. The characters are not... They do not look like the actors or actresses in Guardians of the Galaxy. But basically, without getting into spoilers, because you guys know I don't like doing spoilers on these, you're, you know, you're in the galaxy, you get yourselves into a little bit of trouble, like the Guardians of the Galaxies do. And you have to kind of find your way out of trouble. And that leads to a much larger storyline. In this game that you then follow, you come across some phenomenal bad guys, some great plots, different planets and locales and things like that. The graphics in this game are top-notch. They really are jaw-dropping. This is a triple-A title in every sense of the word.

The music. It wouldn't be Guardians of the Galaxy without absolutely incredible music. And man, let me tell you, this fits right in. You're going to be fighting crazy monsters out in space on some floating platform out, you know, like that's next to a planet. And you're going to have just these classic rock songs that start playing that just, they're incredible. That's the only way I can describe it. It's just so cool to see how they kept such of the vibe of the Guardians of the Galaxy. It is much truer to the comics, like I mentioned. I love the fact that they make a lot of nods to the comic books,

and they set right some of the leeway that the movies took with the comics and the characters and the storyline and stuff like that as well. So if you're a comic book fan, there is an awful lot to enjoy about this game, even if you weren't a fan of the movies in that regard. But some of the things that stand out in this game to me, the character interactions are absolutely top notch. If you are like Paul and like a game where the characters interact, and you get to talk to them and learn some of their backstory, you make choices that affect how the characters feel about you and just some of the banter and the cool things like that. This game's got it. There are special items in the missions that you go on that you can find that will unlock more character dialogue. So for instance, with Groot, I found this weird sapling plant thing that was

some exotic plant that's in the galaxy. And they can then take that to Groot and talk to Groot about it and kind of get some more background from Groot and that conversation. If you know anything about Groot, you know pretty much what he says, but it's pretty comical in that regard. So there are neat little hidden items and treasures and objects to find. You have skill trees. So if we're going to talk about the combat for a minute, like I said, I think it's probably my... I don't want to say it's my least favorite part of the game, but it's just... It could have been so much more, but that's not to say that it's boring by any means. You play as Star-Lord in this game. You don't get to play as any of the other characters.

I feel like maybe that's a bit of a missed opportunity, but I understand the complexities involved there as well. But in combat, you play other characters, basically what it is, is it's a press of a key or if you're using a controller, you know, up or sideways or down on the D-pad. And that will tell Gamora, you know, hey, do your ability. And each character has various abilities that you can tell them to do. So there is a fleshed out combat system there. It's just that you can't hop into their shoes and actually play as that character. And I feel like it just, man, it just misses the mark for me in that regard. But it is super fun. There's crazy combos popping up on the screen.

If you get Groot to root somebody and then Rocket to throw a bomb in the middle of them, and then you fly up in the air with your Rocket Boots as Star-Lord and then Bl to throw a bomb in the middle of them. And then you fly up in the air with your Rocket boots as Star-Lord and then Blaster Fire down onto them. You'll pull off this great combo, and it'll say, like, fantastic across the screen while there's rock music playing in the background. It's just, it's a whole experience. It really is put together very, very well.

It's just that not being able to play certain characters feels a little bit jarring at first. You do get used to it very quickly. And like I said, you can command them to do some pretty cool things. So you get that aspect. Combat is a lot of fun. Like I said, I'm not trying to slander the combat in this game, but I feel like it's probably the one thing that they could have done better because the rest of this game

is so great. Storyline is very good. The characters that you come across, the bad guys, the situations that the Guardians find themselves in are all top-notch. With any Guardians of the Galaxy game or movie, the humor is just there. I have laughed out loud many, many times in this game. In all fairness, I have not beaten it yet. I was chugging through this thing and then Halo Infinite came out. We had to cover it for the show and then I got caught into that campaign. I'm just about to finish the campaign on that. I will 100% be going back to

Guardians of the Galaxy. If you all know me, you know that's difficult for me, but this is one that I will absolutely... I want to get back in there. I want to keep playing this. It's one of those games that I think is just drastically under the radar. It's not fair to this game because it really is top-notch. I've mentioned it before, but I feel like this is this year's Jedi Fallen Order, where this game is absolutely top-notch from start to finish. But for whatever reason, it's just not getting the popularity that I think it deserves. So I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you all about it. Check out some gameplay. It's pretty impressive, but I don't think you can go wrong with this one at all. Definitely check it out. If you've played it, let me know what you think.

And that's it for this episode. So I hope you, I hope you give it its fair shot. I love Marvel movies and this game follows those amazingly as far as just the entertainment value goes. So once again, from Paul and myself, thank you for the support. We could not do this without each and every one of you, so we really, really do appreciate it. And I am out for this Quick Takes.

I will be back with some other pretty great ones here. I've got a few I'm looking forward to, and I'll see you next time. Thanks a lot. See everybody.