Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Deluxe Edition (PS4)

I didn’t know existence of this game until I saw some positive and surprising reviews. I immediately liked the visual design of the game. And I decided to buy it. Didn’t regret it at all. Simpley amazing

Set twelve years after a massive interstellar war that leaves the galaxy still struggling to deal with the consequences of it, various parties are trying to take advantage of it – including the Guardians of the Galaxy – but when a mission to recover a rare creature for a wealthy investor goes wrong and lands them in a Nova Corp cell, a series of events is set into motion that could threaten the entire universe!

Guardians of the Galaxy is a third person action game with light RPG elements. You play as Star Lord alongside the rest of the team, Groot, Rocket, Gamora, and Drax. Whilst the other team members are not playable, you can utilise their skills both in battle and when traversing the game world. Need a door hacked? Rocket is your guy. Need some heavy lifting done? ask Drax. Need a quick bridge to help traverse a gap? Groot can help.

As Star Lord you can use your rocket boots to help you reach otherwise unreachable areas or to skate around your enemies in combat and your element guns to blast your enemies. Your helmet is also equipped with scanners that allow you to analyse your environment for useful information and your enemies for weaknesses. All of these features can be upgraded by collecting scrap and componants from around the game world that can be used at a work bench to boost your damage, manouverability, or add special moves and experience can be gained from battles that will allow you to imbue your team mates with even more deadly and effective special moves.

Controls are simple and intuitive and similar to most games of this sort. Left stick moves your character. Right stick your camera. R1 aims whilst R2 fires. X allows you to jump whilst pressing rapidly twice enables a double jump. Square is your close combat attack. Circle allows you to dodge or dash.

Graphically the game is excellent. Characters are very much designed with their movie appearances in mind (although there are numerous costumes that can be unlocked that allow you to change this). Sound and voice acting is equally excellent and the game is accompanied by an awsome licensed music track that includes songs from the likes of Def Leppard, Pat Benetar, Wham, Ah-Ha, Tears for Fears, and Rick Astley.

Where the game really excells however is in just how well it nails the theme and style of the franchise.

The game exudes class, coolness, humour, and nostalgia. All of the characters are portrayed in the manner you will have come to expect, from Peter trying to schmooze his way through every problem with a fine line in BS, Drax taking everything literally, Rocket always busting the teams chops, and Groot being…well…Groot. The game is laden with conversation options that will require you to talk to and try to relate to your team members, and there are also numerous moral choices that you will have to make at key points that effect the way the story develops. You also have the ability to deliver an inspirational speech mid-battle in order to rally your team and imbue them with bonus damage. There’s numerous references to the wider Marvel Univserse, and you’re probably going to have to be of a certain age to get all of the 80’s pop culture references scattered throughout the game.

In terms of faults there have been some complaints of bugs and crashes. I haven’t encountered any of these yet and it may be that the most recent version 1.03 upgrade has fixed most of them.

What you have here however is undoubtedly one of the best superhero games, best movie adaptations, and just a great, fun, endearing game period.