Despite their intriguing stories and clever use of IPs, Telltale's games have been a mixed bag on iOS primarily because of technical issues. While most of the series were either fine or at least playable, Batman: The Telltale Series left a pretty bad taste on players' mouths because it was pretty close to unplayable on more than one instance. Well, I'm glad to say that Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series [] (from now on Guardians of the Galaxy) plays just fine on my iPad Air 2, despite a couple of very brief—but unobtrusive—stutters. I don't know if this means Telltale has tinkered with the engine enough to make it work well or Guardians of the Galaxy was just less demanding than Batman; what matters is that Episode 1 of Guardians of the Galaxy should play fine on most of your devices. I will be reviewing the whole series, so expect the review score to change as more episodes release.
Episode 1: "Tangled Up in Blue"
I'm glad the technical issues seem to be a thing of the past because the first of this new series, and Telltale's first venture into the Marvel universe, is entertaining and manages to balance humor, gravity, and meaningful choices quite well. At the same time, though, most of the action scenes feel almost unnecessary, and the game's engine is definitely showing its age, which results in occasionally wooden-looking characters. Add to that lines that aren't always delivered very convincingly, and you have a good—but not great—episode. If you like the Telltale formula, you'll enjoy Episode 1; if you don't, this won't be the one to draw you in.
In case you aren't familiar with Guardians of the Galaxy, this peculiar splinter of the Marvel universe definitely fits the definition of a team of misfits. You've got Star-Lord, a human (?), the ex-assassin Gamora, the destructive and humorless Drax the Destroyer, the sentient tree-like creature called Groot, and Rocket Raccoon, an anthropomorphic raccoon. As you can tell, these aren't the kind of characters you'd expect to see team up, and Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy definitely plays on that idea, but more on that in a bit. If you've enjoyed the recent Guardians of the Galaxy movie, you'll be glad to know that the Telltale series has a similar feel; the humor that comes out of such a team of misfits transitions well into the game, so expect silly jokes, funny lines, and entertaining moments (like the incredibly slow elevator scene). In terms of humor, Guardians of the Galaxy will remind you of Tales from the Borderlands more than any of the other Telltale series, and that's a good thing.
Spoilers from here onward, so proceed with caution.
While the cinematic version of Guardians of the Galaxy has been teasing The Mad Titan Thanos as its ultimate baddie, the Telltale version cleverly jumps to the end of that storyline and starts the series with the confrontation between the Guardians and Thanos, a confrontation that quickly leads to the surprising death of Thanos. Starting the series from the (possible) end of the movie version of the franchise frees the writers to head to new directions rather than retread the same ground, and that decision pays dividends, at least in the first episode.
As I mentioned earlier in the review, Telltale focuses on how in a "normal" universe (whatever that means in a story about aliens) the Guardians wouldn't be a thing because of how different they are and how different their motives are. What was holding them together was the threat of a common enemy, Thanos, so with The Mad Titan gone, the group starts to splinter very early on in the episode. I don't need a crystal ball to know that throughout the series one of the recurring themes will be the Guardians splitting up and temporarily going their own way. By the mid-point of the first episode, Star-Lord has to take sides two to three times, which I'm sure will come back to bite him as the series progresses.
With Thanos becoming more of the plot device than a central character, the episode gradually shifts its attention to the Eternity Forge, the artifact that will be at the core of the whole series. This Kree artifact has all kinds of yet-unexplained powers, but its most important power in terms of narrative development is that it allows the writers to shift the narrative from outer space back to Earth during Star-Lord's childhood. This quite-unexpected turn of events acts both as a way to diversify the narrative but also as a way to add depth to the character of Star Lord while at the same time introducing his backstory to new players.
The other interesting departure from most other previous Telltale series is how throughout the episode you get to make big either/or decisions that have immediate impact. While you do get the "X will remember that" kind of choices, there are many others that force you to pick one of two major threads; for instance, you get to either sell Thanos to the Collector or turn his body over to Nova Corp, each decision having immediate consequences but also setting you on a collision course with other members of the Guardians. There are other similar decisions that reminded me of Batman in that you could only do X or Y, and the results are immediate. This sense of immediacy between choice and consequence is refreshing and makes your choices feel more meaningful.
So, narratively the first episode works well, setting up an interesting story arc while departing from the events of the Guardians movie. What about gameplay? I'm glad to say that Telltale has finally learned how to put together good action scenes, something that the developer has struggled with in previous series. The prompts you get on screen are appropriate and, more importantly, actually work. I've had more than one instances in previous series where my swipes simply wouldn't register, but I'm glad to say I've had no such issues in Guardians of the Galaxy.
However, while they might work, these quick-time events increasingly felt extraneous to the rest of the game and, more often than not, got in the way of the narrative rather than developing it. Because there's absolutely no challenge to them and failing them barely has any consequences, they feel a bit like drudgery work. I'm starting to wonder whether removing them all together and adding more character interaction and dialog will benefit future Telltale series.
Visually, Guardians of the Galaxy suffers from a pretty dated engine; there's a distinct lack of sharpness in the visuals that I'm guessing makes the game playable in lower end devices, although lower end is relative since the game won't play on devices below an iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2. Still, I'd have liked the game to look better overall, with better-looking characters and more expressive facial animations. These Telltale series are all about character interactions, so it's important that the characters' faces show the multitude of emotions the narrative clearly describes. And the character development wasn't helped by the occasionally stilted line delivery. The soundtrack starts off very promisingly—Guardians of the Galaxy is famous for its fantastic music—but then is more restrained than I would have liked. Still, it's entertaining to start the game with Electric Light Orchestra playing in the background.
Overall, the first episode of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series is off to a good start both narratively and in terms of performance. Whatever was going on with Batman seems to be fixed now, which is definitely good news for fans of the Telltale formula. The story seems poised to split into multiple, interesting threads, and the powers of the Eternity Forge can definitely make for some unexpected narrative turns. Whether the story will deliver over the long run remains to be seen; what I can tell you is that Tangled Up in Blue is a promising start. At the same time, it's hard to avoid wondering whether Telltale needs to rethink its narrative/action balance and how much the game would have benefited from an updated engine.
Rating: 4/5
Episode 1: "Tangled Up in Blue"
I'm glad the technical issues seem to be a thing of the past because the first of this new series, and Telltale's first venture into the Marvel universe, is entertaining and manages to balance humor, gravity, and meaningful choices quite well. At the same time, though, most of the action scenes feel almost unnecessary, and the game's engine is definitely showing its age, which results in occasionally wooden-looking characters. Add to that lines that aren't always delivered very convincingly, and you have a good—but not great—episode. If you like the Telltale formula, you'll enjoy Episode 1; if you don't, this won't be the one to draw you in.
In case you aren't familiar with Guardians of the Galaxy, this peculiar splinter of the Marvel universe definitely fits the definition of a team of misfits. You've got Star-Lord, a human (?), the ex-assassin Gamora, the destructive and humorless Drax the Destroyer, the sentient tree-like creature called Groot, and Rocket Raccoon, an anthropomorphic raccoon. As you can tell, these aren't the kind of characters you'd expect to see team up, and Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy definitely plays on that idea, but more on that in a bit. If you've enjoyed the recent Guardians of the Galaxy movie, you'll be glad to know that the Telltale series has a similar feel; the humor that comes out of such a team of misfits transitions well into the game, so expect silly jokes, funny lines, and entertaining moments (like the incredibly slow elevator scene). In terms of humor, Guardians of the Galaxy will remind you of Tales from the Borderlands more than any of the other Telltale series, and that's a good thing.
Spoilers from here onward, so proceed with caution.
While the cinematic version of Guardians of the Galaxy has been teasing The Mad Titan Thanos as its ultimate baddie, the Telltale version cleverly jumps to the end of that storyline and starts the series with the confrontation between the Guardians and Thanos, a confrontation that quickly leads to the surprising death of Thanos. Starting the series from the (possible) end of the movie version of the franchise frees the writers to head to new directions rather than retread the same ground, and that decision pays dividends, at least in the first episode.
As I mentioned earlier in the review, Telltale focuses on how in a "normal" universe (whatever that means in a story about aliens) the Guardians wouldn't be a thing because of how different they are and how different their motives are. What was holding them together was the threat of a common enemy, Thanos, so with The Mad Titan gone, the group starts to splinter very early on in the episode. I don't need a crystal ball to know that throughout the series one of the recurring themes will be the Guardians splitting up and temporarily going their own way. By the mid-point of the first episode, Star-Lord has to take sides two to three times, which I'm sure will come back to bite him as the series progresses.
With Thanos becoming more of the plot device than a central character, the episode gradually shifts its attention to the Eternity Forge, the artifact that will be at the core of the whole series. This Kree artifact has all kinds of yet-unexplained powers, but its most important power in terms of narrative development is that it allows the writers to shift the narrative from outer space back to Earth during Star-Lord's childhood. This quite-unexpected turn of events acts both as a way to diversify the narrative but also as a way to add depth to the character of Star Lord while at the same time introducing his backstory to new players.
The other interesting departure from most other previous Telltale series is how throughout the episode you get to make big either/or decisions that have immediate impact. While you do get the "X will remember that" kind of choices, there are many others that force you to pick one of two major threads; for instance, you get to either sell Thanos to the Collector or turn his body over to Nova Corp, each decision having immediate consequences but also setting you on a collision course with other members of the Guardians. There are other similar decisions that reminded me of Batman in that you could only do X or Y, and the results are immediate. This sense of immediacy between choice and consequence is refreshing and makes your choices feel more meaningful.
So, narratively the first episode works well, setting up an interesting story arc while departing from the events of the Guardians movie. What about gameplay? I'm glad to say that Telltale has finally learned how to put together good action scenes, something that the developer has struggled with in previous series. The prompts you get on screen are appropriate and, more importantly, actually work. I've had more than one instances in previous series where my swipes simply wouldn't register, but I'm glad to say I've had no such issues in Guardians of the Galaxy.
However, while they might work, these quick-time events increasingly felt extraneous to the rest of the game and, more often than not, got in the way of the narrative rather than developing it. Because there's absolutely no challenge to them and failing them barely has any consequences, they feel a bit like drudgery work. I'm starting to wonder whether removing them all together and adding more character interaction and dialog will benefit future Telltale series.
Visually, Guardians of the Galaxy suffers from a pretty dated engine; there's a distinct lack of sharpness in the visuals that I'm guessing makes the game playable in lower end devices, although lower end is relative since the game won't play on devices below an iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2. Still, I'd have liked the game to look better overall, with better-looking characters and more expressive facial animations. These Telltale series are all about character interactions, so it's important that the characters' faces show the multitude of emotions the narrative clearly describes. And the character development wasn't helped by the occasionally stilted line delivery. The soundtrack starts off very promisingly—Guardians of the Galaxy is famous for its fantastic music—but then is more restrained than I would have liked. Still, it's entertaining to start the game with Electric Light Orchestra playing in the background.
Overall, the first episode of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series is off to a good start both narratively and in terms of performance. Whatever was going on with Batman seems to be fixed now, which is definitely good news for fans of the Telltale formula. The story seems poised to split into multiple, interesting threads, and the powers of the Eternity Forge can definitely make for some unexpected narrative turns. Whether the story will deliver over the long run remains to be seen; what I can tell you is that Tangled Up in Blue is a promising start. At the same time, it's hard to avoid wondering whether Telltale needs to rethink its narrative/action balance and how much the game would have benefited from an updated engine.
Rating: 4/5