I think no one can ask for a better video games debut for Guardians of the Galaxy with Marvel’s release of Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon. Now, Marvel could have come up with a bog standard 2D platformer kind of thing, but what they did was to utilise characters from the comic book series, particularly Star-Lord and his rag-tag gang of well…lovable rogues, in a squad-based RPG featuring tactical combat. Combat takes place in arena-like levels with a maximum of 4 members in a team up against waves of enemies. Since the GotG gang have 5 members, one of them will have to sit out each battle.
Each character has their own special abilities (kinda like roles in a typical RPG game), and each are good against a particular type of enemy. For example, melee fighter Gamora is great against ranged enemies, whereas Star Lord and Rocket Raccoon can shoot from afar at melee opponents. Players will have to make their choices wisely and it also depends on their play style. I prefer to mix things up a bit so I keep my team composition at 2 melee (Drax and Gamora) and 2 range (Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon) while omitting Groot, who is a little slow and is capable of healing other units.
Characters gain XP from combat and they can be upgraded, unlocking new abilities, and there are item drops to benefit from whenever a level is completed. Additional characters are unlocked as players go through the levels, expanding the team roster beyond the original 5. The Story Mode brings the player through 60 levels in search of parts of the Universal Weapon while the Arena Mode is a survival test. I’m going through the Story Mode at the moment and the way they utilise comic book panels to drive the story is a nice touch, along with the funny quips in the loading screens.
So Marvel not only came up with a great game, they also did away with in-app purchases, making the USD 4.99 price tag the ONLY fee you need to pay to play the game. That just made an already great game totally awesome. Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon at a 5/5. Check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/guardians-galaxy-universal/id834485417?mt=8
A review code was provided to Nine Over Ten 9/10 for the purpose of this review.
