By Liyo Kikon
Have you ever played any Telltale games? I’m sure that some of you have obviously tried a few of them, but for those who haven’t, let me just say that Telltale games are not like ordinary games where you have full control over the action of the protagonist. Instead, it feels feels more like watching a movie rather than playing a game. Sure, you have a few controls to determine how the story goes, but unlike traditional games, you simply have to enjoy the story and not worry much about other stuff.
In Guardians of the Galaxy Telltale Episode 1, you watch the story unfold following the comic book heroes in their adventures across the galaxy. For a lot of people who only watched the movie, you will be pleased to know that this game also has a lot of references pertaining to the movie, which is always a good thing and like all other Telltale games such as The Walking Dead and Borderlands series, the Guardians of the Galaxy has a great storyline, decent graphics and awesome voice over to top it all up.
But before you jump ahead and get this game, remember that this is just Episode 1 and what this means is that more episodes will be released soon and this current episode has a total play time of less than 2 hours! That is usually considered as an extremely short game, but believe me, anyone who has played Telltale games will tell you that 2 hours of leisure game play is more than enough. Without giving out any spoilers, let me just say that in this episode, you go after a well known enemy and as the story progresses, you will get a glimpse of our hero “Starlord’s” ( Peter Quill ) past and his relationship with his mother. Although those parts are the only ones which show Starlord’s soft side, the rest of the story is packed with snappy dialogues and clever quips. Since this game is mainly concentrated on the story, dialogues and interactions with your fellow team members and enemies are important, since you usually get three to four choices on how to respond during a conversation and even though I got the sense that these conversational choices change the course of how the story unfolds, there are hardly any variations on how it ends. Most of the time, when you choose a certain response, a small notification will appear saying that the other character will remember that particular response and I’m guessing that in further episodes, these responses which you make throughout the game will affect the outcome of the game.
Apart from the dialogues, you can control the movements of Starlord in certain areas where you are required to do some ‘detective’ work as you look around for clues on how to solve certain puzzles. In Episode 1, there is really just one such area where you try to open a door so that your teammates can get through and this was the only area where it felt like we were given a bit more control over the game. But when it comes to fight scenes, you need to be quick and responsive since you will have to quickly press certain button(s) to attack the enemy and this game has probably one of the best fight scenes in my opinion when it comes to Telltale games. During a fight scene, all the characters attack simultaneously and since this game has really great camera works, it feels immersive. And speaking of other characters, you will be glad to know that the ever greedy and yet loyal ‘Rocket’ is there to spice things up with his tasteless ideas while Drax is always ready to face the enemy head on with his lack of humour which is often amusing. Gamora, on the other hand is usually the one who talks sense and in one of the important mission where you have to choose between Drax’s brute force attack and Gamora’s careful approach, you can guess which character most people choose anyway. And as for everyone’s favourite character Groot, he’s always there to support the team with his ever famous line “I am Groot!”.
I found this game to be quite enjoyable and any fan of the Movie or comic book should try out this game but if you are hoping for a traditional action packed gameplay, I’m sorry to say that this is probably not for you. But for anyone who loves a good storyline and wants to be in the shoes of Peter Quill, than this is something you need to play. Besides, anyone can easily finish this episode quickly without breaking a sweat.
