Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode Two: Under Pressure (PlayStation 4) Review

The first episode introduced the Infinity Forge, an ancient Kree artefact that can somehow bring the dead back to life, as Starlord found out at the finale of the first when a crazed Kree warlord in pursuit of the Forge gave him a minor case of spear through the heart. By episode's end, Peter is brought back thanks to the Infinity Forge, and in doing so, he's given a glimpse at something claiming to be his dead mother, beckoning him to come find her.

Each of these episodes is going to be centred on one of the Guardians, and this second episode is focusing on the gun-toting, foul-mouthed, bad-tempered little trash panda that is Rocket. While in the cinematic universe it's been confirmed Rocket was a genetic experiment and the only survivor, little else has been touched upon. This episode gives Rocket a chance to share his story and his history. Like everyone, Rocket lost someone important back at that lab: a character who has played a much bigger part in the comics, Rocket's "girlfriend," Lylla. Lylla is an Otter and reimagined as a fellow test subject of the same lab that created Rocket. Just like the cinematic universe, Rocket was the only survivor of that lab, something that has stayed with Rocket, and now he has a chance to fix it with the Infinity Forge.

While each episode is dedicated to a different member of a cast, this is much to the detriment of the rest of the crew in this episode. Each ends up acting like background characters with little development or personality. Drax provides some decent comedic relief, at least. Supporting cast favourites from the MCU show up here, too, with Yondu and Nebula both being far more interesting than the rest of the Guardians in this episode.

Being a Telltale title, there are a couple of key elements for the team to get right for the long time Telltale fans to enjoy this latest story. The first is the choices presented to the player, and in this area, the episode is rather lacking, as seen in the closing credits, with the results of the choices made by the whole audience for each major decision. If these choices are difficult to choose between, then the audience will understandably be quite split on the choices, but in this episode, almost every decision has a majority of 80-90%. On the QTE front, there are some fun little sequences, including a zero G brawl that is filled with fun moments and witty banter from the Guardians.