Released on October 26, the game “Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy” hits hard. Between a hellish soundtrack, a humor always present within a hyper endearing band, the studio Eidos Montreal delivers a very solid game.
Before pouring out on the game Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy, it is perhaps not completely useless to go back a little on the change of gear carried out by Marvel concerning the exploitation of its licenses in video games.
In 2014, Marvel Studios decided to change their minds regarding the video game versions of their licenses, most of the time catastrophic, with very rare exceptions. Because if the films under license Marvel regularly prance at the head of the Box Office, it was not really the same for video games.
“When I first came to Marvel, I knew that with such a treasure chest filled with some of the best stories and Superheroes ever created, it was our job to make great games that fans would enjoy.” explained in 2016 Jay Ong, head of the Video Games Division at Marvel. “With the Marvel Executives and my team, we therefore changed our strategy to be very selective and now only work with the best studios and the best partners in the industry. We want to work selectively with them. partners who share our vision and our ambition to open a new era for the Marvel games business “.
The first illustration of this profession of faith was the excellent game Marvel’s Spider-Man, developed by the studio Insomniac, exclusive for the Sony PS4 console released in September 2018. The curse was finally broken.
The second milestone, two years later, was Marvel’s Avengers, developed by the studio Crystal Dynamics. Officialized in January 2017 by the publisher Square Enix, presented with great fanfare two years later at E3 2019, this interpretation of the Avengers universe has not necessarily convinced everyone and shone in the sky. Far from it, to the point of forcing the studio to regularly review its copy. It must also be said that the economic model adopted, a game designed as a Game as a Service, caused a lot of tension, where many players were already expecting a game much more oriented towards storytelling.
Back on track
After this fairly cold shower, which was still not devoid of assets to be completely honest, a charge for the studio Eidos Montreal and Square Enix to seriously straighten the bar with Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy. At first glance, the choice to entrust a Marvel license to this studio could seem a little strange, so much the games developed by Eidos were far removed from the ultra-codified Marvel universe. Is that Eidos Montreal is best known for working on the resurrection of the fabulous cyberpunk license Deus Ex, as well as the 3rd part of the reboot of the (mis) adventures of Lara Croft, Shadow of The Tomb Raider. From games to adult and dark treatments.
But this question quickly turns out to be anesthetized by the studio, to arrive, at the end of twenty hours of games, to this clearly obvious conclusion: we had it all wrong. Not content with being very funny throughout the story, which is not the least of his exploits, well written, Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy is a game which oozes the sincere and immoderate love of the teams ofEidos Montreal for the original materials. A work of enthusiasts and craftsmen, which carries high the already very solid reputation of a studio which has, for a long time, nothing more to prove.
(Re) here’s the trailer …
80’s revival
From the very start of the game, the tone is set. While the camera narrows its field of vision to plunge us into the basement of a farm, we discover the lair of young Peter Quill, the future Star-Lord and leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy gang. Wild mule cut, denim jacket, loud music in the headphones and slumped on his bed, we discover, the eye a little wet to have known the 80s, full of elements plunging us back with nostalgia in this era.
Here, a poster of Tron, alongside that of singer Samantha Fox. There, a poster of the film Nukegame, close cousin of the cult film Wargames. While a ColecoVision console is on the ground, we linger on Peter’s bookcase, only to discover that he is also a cult follower. Books in which YOU are the hero, with a copy of Labyrinth of death, written by one of the absolute masters of the genre, Ian Livingstone. A very tasty wink from elsewhere; since the person concerned was also, years later, …
