What’s your favourite Guardians of the Galaxy movie? The first one, where we see a new side of the MCU and meet a ragtag cast of characters worth caring about? The oddball second one, the closest to the wacky sci-fi adventures of the ’70s and ’80s that the crew has always been aping? Maybe it’s the third one, a more sombre farewell to an era of the MCU and to these characters who, yes, we did always care about deeply. Me? My favourite Guardians of the Galaxy movie is the 2021 video game.
I know this is not a movie. Firstly, issa joke. A bait and switch rhetorical question that we in the biz call ‘a hook’. But it’s also to highlight that the Guardians game felt not only so inspired by the James Gunn movies, but closely aligned enough in tone and personality that they all feel part of the same saga, despite not being in the same canon. Far more than games based on Batman, Spider-Man, or… wow, we really need more superhero games, huh? In any case, more than most, Guardians of the Galaxy felt like a movie. It’s good news for Mass Effect.
Mass Effect Is Getting A New Senior Narrative Director
With a lot of ‘restructuring’ (the current preferred nomenclature for ‘layoffs’) going on at BioWare in the wake of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s unstoppable mildly disappointing sales colliding with EA’s immovable object of unrealistic expectations, Mass Effect has got a new writer: Mary DeMarle, who also wrote Guardians of the Galaxy and gave it that aforementioned cinematic flair.
It’s a bit of a full circle moment in a lot of ways. Guardians of the Galaxy was clearly influenced by Mass Effect – it’s hard to make a game about a bunch of personalities on a ship without being – and so that influence flows back to the source. It wasn’t just in the character dynamics or ship-based life that GotG drew from Mass Effect though, the combat also bore more than a few passing similarities, which did not go unnoticed when Guardians first appeared.
It did so under a cloud. While intriguing, it looked dated, Quill’s face both familiar and off-putting, like how we all thought Alan Wake looked like Bradley Cooper/Dan Stevens in the sequel trailer. In the immediate aftermath of Marvel’s Avengers, there was a sense that Guardians of the Galaxy was a game out of time, an unnecessary cashgrab, a hokey rip-off. As a result, too few people gave it a chance, and Square Enix immediately threw it under the bus while rushing to the aid of Babylon’s Fall.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Always Deserved Better
While those who played Guardians like myself have helped it earn a place among the pantheon of overlooked cult classics like Mad Max, I always feel like it never quite got what it deserved. There was a heart to Guardians, a cleverness in how it built its narrative, an intimacy in its character interactions, and a sensible use of a tried and tested combat base as solid foundations. Though not perfect – few games are – it did everything it attempted well. That wasn’t all down to DeMarle of course, but she has shown she can tie this sort of story together while feeding into the sort of gameplay we all expect Mass Effect to have.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of Mass Effect – it is under possibly undeserved pressure less so because Dragon Age didn’t sell as well as EA hoped, and more because it neutered its own narrative and lore for broader appeal. The darker edges of Dragon Age that made it great were sanded off, leaving everything feeling a little empty inside.
I don’t know whether this will happen with Mass Effect. It was never quite as dark nor as complex, but it certainly still had its moments. The recent Renegade/Paragon debacle hints at some insecurity on the team’s behalf too, and I hope it is not forced into second guessing itself. The addition of a new writer to drive the story forward at this stage does suggest some work is still to be done, although with no release date even hinted at yet that may not be cause for alarm.
When Guardians of the Galaxy was nearing launch, I remember thinking ‘I hope this is like Mass Effect’. Now as we look to the next Mass Effect, I find myself thinking ‘I hope this is like Guardians of the Galaxy’. Mary DeMarle’s presence might help with that, and right now, it feels as though BioWare could use all the help it could get.
Guardians of the Galaxy
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OpenCritic
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Top Critic Rating:
82/100
- Released
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October 26, 2021
- Developer(s)
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Eidos Montreal