Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy by Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex never ever)

[ADL]

RIP Jensen trilogy

 

[Dodo1610]

Wait this is a single-player RTWP ARPG? Dunno this seems actually fun.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Okay, I normally hate everything Marvel, but that trailer was pretty jolly.

 

[vibehunter]

Cinematic normie trash.

Square Enix really decided to double down on this Marvel bullshit.

 

[whydoibother]

Wait this is a single-player RTWP ARPG? Dunno this seems actually fun.

Seems too fast for RPG fans, and too slow for DMC fans, and 50% of your time seems to be cutscenes.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

Gameplay looks iffy. Writing seems alright.
Need the ability to play as the other Guardians as well.

 

[DemonKing]

Looks ok - one of my sons will probably want it so I can have demo it then.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i hope this flops as bad as the avengers game

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

This kind of looks like the game every Mass Effect after the first game wishes it was. Whether or not it's good is something else, but this already looks much better than that Avengers games.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

https://www.pcgamer.com/guardians-of-the-galaxy-deus-ex/

How much Deus Ex is in Guardians of the Galaxy?
By Jeremy Peel about 1 hour ago

Finding the throughline from Human Revolution to the dev’s Marvel debut.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Even with my tinfoil ‘every conspiracy theory is true’ hat on, I can’t imagine a near-future where we get another Deus Ex. The series was a victim of an almighty reshuffle among Square Enix’s Western studios, as the publisher prioritised licensed Marvel games over everything else. With Crystal Dynamics tackling Avengers, Tomb Raider was handed off to Deus Ex studio Eidos Montreal—leaving Adam Jensen kicking about his apartment in Prague, reading other peoples’ emails to pass the time.

Now that Eidos Montreal has announced Guardians of the Galaxy, a Marvel project involving key members of the Deus Ex team, an imminent sequel to Mankind Divided looks more unlikely than ever. But there’s solace to be found in Quill and Co’s comedy adventure, which appears to be run through with Deus Ex DNA.

The writers
You might have recognised a pleasantly alliterative name tag pop up during the Square Enix E3 showcase: Mary DeMarle. The executive narrative director of Guardians of the Galaxy ran the writing teams for both Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, lending surprising nuance to boss characters with snow ploughs built into their armour. She kept morale high when the whole world was sceptical about a Deus Ex reboot—a skill that can only help in the wake of Marvel’s Avengers’ critical drubbing.

DeMarle’s determination to find the discomforting aspects of her heroes, as well as the redeeming qualities of their enemies, is a strong fit for Guardians of the Galaxy. The series has always revolved around a morally-challenged bunch of misfits—the E3 footage featured an argument about which member of the crew was most ‘monstrous’, and so suitable to be sold to a monster collector named Lady Hellbender.

Hellbender herself is a sympathetic character—traumatised when her gambling dad entered her pet monster as a combatant in a gladiatorial arena. Something we can all relate to. Point is, you can expect antagonists just as complicated as Hugh Darrow, Human Revolution’s Nobel Prize winner and tormenter of augmented people all over the world.

The single-player commitment
We’re at a moment in time where even campaign-driven games are sometimes launched atop of charmless content platforms designed for deathless live service. Marvel’s Avengers was as guilty as any, its world-class story set against a backdrop of daily challenges and gear grinds. But Guardians of the Galaxy is refreshingly free of all that. It starts, it ends, you can play it again if you like or move on with your life. That easily-repeatable structure was always key to the appeal of Deus Ex—only by replaying its games could you truly appreciate the ways in which its plots diverged according to your actions. What do you mean Paul Denton can be saved?

Eidos considered making Guardians of the Galaxy cooperative, but preferred to surprise players with unpredictable scripted behaviour from their companions— which they’re forced to respond to as Quill, the Guardians’ so-called leader. Which leads us to...

The choices
There’s no expectation for action-adventure games to include branched storytellin—at least not since the post-Mass Effect boom in the late ‘00s, when even open-world knockabouts asked you to pick between the light side and killing a family member for kicks. So it’s a surprise to see Guardians of the Galaxy laced with conversation options—pauses in the dialogue which ask you to back certain companions over others, or decide whether to endorse a particularly dangerous course of action, like throwing a colleague over a ravine.

It was a principle of Jean-François Dugas, Eidos Montreal’s executive game director, that all missions in Deus Ex: Human Revolution have multi-path solutions. Though Guardians of the Galaxy’s moment-to-moment action definitely looks more linear, it’s a relief to see that philosophy survive in some form.

After all, there’s little more Deus Ex than making a call on a decision way above your paygrade, on the behalf of others who might not approve. Will Guardians of the Galaxy push you to pick the fate of an entire planet and species, as the original Deus Ex did? Actually, that sounds quite feasible. Only this time, it’d probably be played for laughs.

The chat fights
Eidos Montreal’s Deus Ex games were notable for their dialogue challenges—linguistic boss fights in which you attempted to bring the subject around to your way of thinking. While showing off the studio’s story chops, these were also real battles, broken up into rounds and influenced by timely blasts of pheromones.

In Guardians of the Galaxy, the equivalent is the huddle—an American football-style formation that can be triggered during an encounter with enemies. While huddled, the Guardians give you feedback on how the fight’s going, and the player can choose between different approaches for a pep talk—incorporating elements from Star-Lord’s favourite songs, for maximum comedy value. If Star-Lord’s speech meets the whole team’s needs, they’ll all be buffed; if not, only Quill will benefit, high on his own ego.

The regular quadrilaterals
Deus Ex fans love a box. Stack ‘em, throw ‘em, crack ‘em open for goodies. They are the ultimate enablers, blank tools used to solve problems in whatever way you see fit. It’s a fitting tribute, then, that the only enemies shown in Guardians of the Galaxy to date are gelatinous cubes.

The bathrooms
Bit weird, I know, but Deus Ex fans will know what I mean. Since that initial trauma of having our boss call us out for wandering into the ladies’ toilets at UNATCO, the series has become synonymous with lavatories. Eidos Montreal took up that baton—or toilet brush—with some extraordinarily detailed private spaces. Here are some of the finest examples, snapped by PC Gamer’s resident in-game photographer, Andy Kelly:

With a heritage like this, it’s heartening to see Star-Lord poking about in a bathroom right at the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy’s demo—picking food out of his teeth, emoting at his reflection, and generally appreciating the mucky ambience. There’s a dollar sellotaped to the mirror, photographs pinned to the opposite wall, and plenty of other bits of junk that recall Deus Ex’s granular level design and capacity for environmental storytelling. Very promising bathroom indeed.

There’s no replacing Deus Ex - certainly not with a Marvel movie tie-in, however promising. But for now, a few wistful reminders of life in Prague and Detroit might tide us over til a third part in the Jensen trilogy.

Getting the writing of Rocket right is prolly harder than that of Adam anyhow.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Cartoons and video game really should just keep Rocket Raccoon's British voice.



I know they're trying to keep it in line with the movies, but the British voice they were doing in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is better than Bradley Cooper knockoff voice they've been using in cartoons and games since the movies came out.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Nah, Rocket needs to be an American trash panda.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

He's a reference to a Beatles song, which is why he was British before.

 

[Brennus]

How many Mankind Divided devs are even left at Eidos Montreal, let alone Human Revolution devs? The AAA industry has only gotten worse since 2015. If a new Deus Ex was released today, would it even be good?

 

[karoliner]

Delete this thread inmediately.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I don't like the Marvel movies but I thought it was a well done trailer. Decent humor, nice blend of cutscenes and actual in-game footage. Watched it all the way through and left me wanting to know more.


[edit]
Huh, combat actually looks alright. Decent humor, some (what seems to be consequential) dialogue choices, reminds me a bit of Mass Effect/DXHR, hmm..

I think I'll keep my eyes on this.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[gurugeorge]

I'm wondering why they think kids will be interested in "Guardians of the Galaxy" that look nothing like the ones in the movies?

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I don't think looking exactly like the movies matters. Marvel's Avengers problem (aesthetically) wasn't that it didn't look like the movies, it was that the new designs they came up with sucked and made the characters look like some low budget TV movie version of the Avengers. This actually has pretty nice designs. It's a little weird how unified the designs are, like Gamora's costume has similar designs elements that many of the monsters have on the shoulders, but this actually looks good. It actually looks so good visually it makes you wonder what exactly the fuck happened with the Avangers game.

These characters aren't exactly a huge department from the movie versions either. Like Drax has a little extra weird business going on, on his chest, and his tattoos are different; but he's still pretty similar...it's too bad they didn't go for the older hulking look one if they were pulling from the comic like they are. Gamora is the only one not really wearing something like her movie version, but everyone else looks pretty close to how the movie versions look while also pulling from the comics. For some reason video games keep putting Gamora in her Marvel Now comic book look, (the Mass Effect costume) which is weird because it's both her worst looking costume and Marvel Now stared in 2012. Although the version of it here has been redesigned, and looks much better. But that Marvel Now costume is what gets used as the default for Gamora in Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and now this.

 

[gurugeorge]

I don't think looking exactly like the movies matters. Marvel's Avengers problem (aesthetically) wasn't that it didn't look like the movies, it was that the new designs they came up with sucked and made the characters look like some low budget TV movie version of the Avengers. This actually has pretty nice designs. It's a little weird how unified the designs are, like Gamora's costume has similar designs elements that many of the monsters have on the shoulders, but this actually looks good. It actually looks so good visually it makes you wonder what exactly the fuck happened with the Avangers game.

These characters aren't exactly a huge department from the movie versions either. Like Drax has a little extra weird business going on, on his chest, and his tattoos are different; but he's still pretty similar...it's too bad they didn't go for the older hulking look one if they were pulling from the comic like they are. Gamora is the only one not really wearing something like her movie version, but everyone else looks pretty close to how the movie versions look while also pulling from the comics. For some reason video games keep putting Gamora in her Marvel Now comic book look, (the Mass Effect costume) which is weird because it's both her worst looking costume and Marvel Now stared in 2012. Although the version of it here has been redesigned, and looks much better. But that Marvel Now costume is what gets used as the default for Gamora in Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and now this.

Oh I admit it looks kind of ok, I just thought it was funny that they went with not making them look like the movies.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[DemonKing]

Have to admit this game actually looks kind of fun (and I'm not a fan of the comics or even the Guardians movies).

 

[JamesDixon]

This game looks like shit and will probably be one of Square Enix's famous DLC cash grabs along with other monetization. They couldn't even get a decent voice cast either as the actors sound like who was in the office that day to record the lines. The character designs are awful that neither follow the movie or the comic books. I sense Marvel Avengers 2.0.