Guessed by @Machina
So, here we are again. The last day of another year, the last big post about the game I love most, and again it's about Guardians of the Galaxy. A year ago, I said this was both the easiest and the hardest game to rank. Having given it a second playthrough this year, I don't think the hardest part of that holds up. I mean, it is still largely unlike anything else on this list in that the gameplay has very little bearing on its position here, but then again, a lot of my favorite games rank high mostly in virtue of their stories and atmospheres, even if most of them also have great gameplay. They're not Guardians of the Galaxy, though.
This has been my favorite IP ever since I came out of the movie theater on that evening in August 2014, completely blown away. Since then, I've seen a few variations of these characters, but none impacted me anywhere near as much as their depictions on their two mainline films. It was something about the way the writing was done, or the way the actors portrayed them, it just felt so real and relatable - I remember first noticing it on a scene early on in the film, when Peter Quill meets Gamora, and just thinking, "this doesn't feel like a movie, they don't look like they're acting". It's a quality I hadn't really seen in any films up to that point, and have barely seen to that degree since then either. It made me connect with these characters, these people, in a way I'd never felt before.
Fast forward some seven years, they announced the Guardians of the Galaxy game. While everyone quickly jumped on the hate train, I was mostly impressed by what the trailers showed, and got cautiously optimistic. There was a scene at the end of one trailer that felt for all the world just as real and heartfelt as the way the characters talk in the movie, but that's where I cut my hype short. Stop hyping yourself up for disappointment, he said. It'll never be as good as the movies, he said.
So like, last year, when I put this in first place, it felt difficult also because it was such a recent release, barely making the event's deadline, my feelings on it were still totally raw. Everyone on the internet had turned a full 180° and were now saying this was better than the films, but I couldn't even entertain the idea of comparing the two. If you asked me then, I'd probably say my favorite was still the films, just out of a certainty for having loved them for so long. If you ask me now... I might be considering siding with the internet, for once.
What Guardians of the Galaxy, the game, gets right more than anything is the same thing the films before it did: the characters feel real. They're all unique from each other in many of the ways you expect them to be, and also in ways you don't. They're funny in their sarcasm or in their stupidity. Or both at the same time. They make fun of each other, because they're assholes. But then they make fun of each other, because they're best friends. They'll give you the cold shoulder, but they'll be there for you when you need them most. Well, sometimes at least. Other times they'd rather be anywhere else even if it leads to your death. Or maybe that's exactly their goal. They're broken. They need to find a way to open themselves up to attachment again. They need to get better, and step by step, they do. But sometimes they stumble or take a step backwards. It happens. They're not perfect. They're people.
In the shoes of Peter Quill, your main goal is to stop them from killing each other. Which may include having to stop them from killing you. Because they are so genuine, it really does feel tense throughout, like you're holding all these people together by a thread. And these people are basically time-ticking bombs. In the meantime, though, you should also try to save the galaxy from an insanely powerful threat you may have accidentally released because of a stupid competition with your teammate. But who cares about the greater universal ramifications if it means getting the bragging rights. Just don't brag too much or that bomb's gonna explode. But not a metaphorical one in this case.
Still, the way those universal ramifications end up developing, it's pretty insane. I'm not really gonna get into that because I know a lot of you here still haven't played this game. I also know most of you probably never will, but I'm not giving up just yet. Anyway. This is a rare case in recent storytelling where the villain is a perfect counterpart to the heroes, with a power that takes full advantage of the protagonists' greatest weakness, and thus plays a crucial role in their character development. This story is all about the Guardians, not so much about the Galaxy, and the enemy that threatens to destroy the Galaxy is perfect because the way in which they plan to do that allows the narrative focus to be all on the Guardians.
I don't have another of these cool thematic paragraphs in me, so have a video instead.
Oh yeah, did I mention they wrote a whole-ass metal album just for this game? Because that happened. Apparently the creative team decided that Star-Lord actually named himself after his favorite band (awesome idea by the way), and then they went to their audio team and were like, "make this band for me, thanks". They couldn't settle for just one song so they made ten instead. And they're great, because of course they are.
This is really one of those cases where everyone behind the project was on a real creative high, and it shows in every detail and every aspect of the game. Wherever you go, there's always something cool to find, if not something relating to the gameplay then it's some easter egg or obscure reference. Nowhere in the game do you ever find even a semblance of anything they cared less about. The people at Eidos-Montréal, who by the way are awesome people, have showed tremendous love for an IP people thought was being shoved their way. From the writers, to the actors, to the audio designers and musicians, to the artists who created such a wild and wacky universe to be in, everyone involved showed tremendous care and quality in their work, and their vision was realized to perfection by all the programmers and modelers and animators and probably like a million more types of work required to make a game like this. They did a truly outstanding job and they are vastly underrated.
And by coupling their love for the source material, both comics and films, with all that creative quality and original ideas, they've made a game that feels like a completely original take on the Guardians, as well as the most Guardians Guardians has ever been.
Anyways, it's getting late and I have a new year's party to get to. I think I've said what I wanted to say. Well maybe except for the part where I'd talk about how emotional I got while playing this, but I mean, you all know that. Unlike other games though, in this one there aren't any specific moments where I get emotional, it's the whole time. Maybe if I loved these characters just a tiny little bit less, I'd say I could listen to them talk shit to each other all day. But I can't, because I don't have the emotional strength for that. Which is probably the only reason why I haven't replayed this game twenty times yet. But it ends up being better this way, instead of burning myself out of the things I love. Then again, I don't think my love for Guardians can ever burn out.
Happy new year's, everyone. And play Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.
