Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode One: Tangled Up in Blue (PlayStation 4) Review

By Drew Hurley 22.04.2017

Review for Marvel

Nobody could have predicted who from Marvel's colossal catalogue of characters would find mainstream success thanks to the cinematic universe. Of all the unlikely candidates, though, the Guardians of the Galaxy have to be the biggest surprise. This ragtag bunch of losers and a-holes went through plenty of incarnations, but the cinematic universe adapted Dan Abnett's seminal stories and this game adapts the cinematic characters, with some creative licence.

This story enters a galaxy where the Guardians are already united and adventuring around. Not only that, but their signature villain is here, too! The first episode opens with Peter Quill receiving a distress call from the Nova Corps for help. They're under attack from the Death-courting, chin-lord himself, Thanos, and they need the Guardians to save their asses. This story sees Thanos attacking a long dead Kree world to try and recover an artefact there known as The Eternity Forge. The Guardians jump in, of course, with Drax and Gamora taking any opportunity to face off against the Mad Titan, and the team finds themselves in a showdown against the Masterlord.

The story itself is an okay start for the first episode, setting up each of the characters and introducing them well enough for those who have not seen the movie or read any of the comics. It feels a little predictable, though, and thus far there's little to hook the audience for future episodes. Not to mention Rocket's, or rather, Chekov's gun - a very literal one in the first episode, then a few story threads that are easily predictable to unravel as the season progresses.

Screenshot for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode One: Tangled Up in Blue on PlayStation 4

Another slight issue with this introductory story is the heavily on-the-nose overstating of the conflict between the members of the Guardians. It's a common inclusion in the Telltale games, having to decide between two bickering parties, only for the loser of the argument to "Remember this." After having played so many Telltale titles, though, it gets a little old, and here it makes up the majority of the decisions.

Speaking of the choices, a good indicator of their quality and difficulty is often seeing how the community has swung on the choices, and whether large portions of the community is making the same decisions. Sadly, with the opening of this new story, the proportions are heavily swung at the moment, with around 80-90% of the community all making the same choices. It's very indicative of the lack of difficult decisions and of the variety in the story in this first episode. Hopefully, it's something that improves. The decisions in a Telltale game are a fundamental part of the experience and they're a let-down here.

The presentation is good at least - ignoring the usual Telltale flaws - with a fun soundtrack and an aesthetic style that falls somewhere between the cinematic incarnation and the recent comics. One oddity, though, is the facial features of the characters. It's likely just down to actors' likeness rights, but Peter looks more Ryan Reynolds than Chris Pratt, while Gamora and Drax are far closer to their comic counterparts than Zoe and Dave. Fans of the musical stylings of the 70s and 80s will be happy to hear that, just like the movie, Telltale's title includes some memorable tunes from that period, kicking off with ELO's "Livin' Thing" and including other hits like "You Make My Dreams" from Hall & Oats. It'll be great to see what other tracks will be popping up over the following episodes.

Screenshot for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode One: Tangled Up in Blue on PlayStation 4

Cubed3 Rating

6/10
Rated 6 out of 10

Good

A stuttered start to this new story. None of the characters feel quite right for some reason, and the story is filled with developments that are telegraphed or predictable. Worse yet, the decisions are lacking any sort of grey area and instead seem to just be fuelling breaking the Guardians up in a later episode… Telltale has got its hands on a great licence and this first episode does not do it justice. Here's hoping it improves in subsequent parts.

Developer

Telltale

Publisher

Telltale

Genre

Adventure

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  6/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

Comments

Comments are currently disabled

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
Insanoflex

There are 1 members online at the moment.