Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - Episode 1: Tangled Up in Blue Reviews
Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy has smartly attempted to recreate the breezy feel and tone of Tales from the Borderlands in its first episode, and despite the strain of Telltale’s brand fatigue weighing heavily, they’ve basically manage to achieve this.
Reactions to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series will depend largely on how receptive a given player is to seeing more of the Guardians of the Galaxy in general. Unlike their successful big-screen debut, the narrative missteps in Tangled Up in Blue mean that players of the first episode won't immediately fall in love with this motley crew of ne'er-do-wells. Anyone that's already open to their cosmic antics will find a family that seems worth sticking with.
While there's nothing here that will cure Telltale fatigue, Guardians of the Galaxy also manages to stumble in its writing and visual style where the studio typically succeeds.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series is a Telltale game. It does what the studio does well, and falters where they normally falter. The first episode kicks off the overall story with some interesting moments, but Telltale's Batman adaptation had a stronger start and more interesting mechanics to paint over the formula.
The first episode of Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy series has an engaging movie-style pace that's interrupted by its game-like elements.
Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode 1 "Tangled Up in Blue" is a great introduction to this vast universe. It doesn't excel quite as much as Telltale's best, but it serves its purpose exceptionally well. Introducing us to the characters, the story, and delivering some laughs, it looks like we're in for another wonderful ride with Telltale.
Given their penchant for classic rock tunes, we'll have to see with the remaining episodes if Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series can evolve from an acceptable (but not stellar) cover song to something truly great of its own.
Strong voice acting recalls the movie version of these characters, but the humor and battles lack punch
It's a mixed bag, but there's cause for both optimism and concern after completing Episode One
The strength of these games comes from story, characters, and direction. Here, Telltale takes a terrific set of characters and puts them through an adventure that feels perfectly in line with both the movie and comic universes.
Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely starting off on the right foot, with a great script, great actors, and a universe packed with personality (and backed by catchy tunes) to explore. If it can continue to deliver the quality of dialogue and panel-perfect action over the course of the rest of the season, it may find itself seated in the upper echelons of Telltale's catalog. I just hope that now the series has introduced itself, the series gives its environments and characters just a bit more time to breathe in between speeding the plot along.
A new IP which offers some great laughs and a fresh coat of paint, but not a whole lot more.
Tangled Up In Blue is without a doubt one of the best Telltale Games episodes I have ever played.
It's not a bad game by any means, but I'm starting to feel fatigued by episodic games. The characters work well together, and there are some nice ideas, but I'm not finding anything beyond this to keep me hooked.
It takes a while to find its voice and stretches a three song soundtrack to near breaking point, but this first episode demonstrates a willingness to take a stand-alone Guardians of the Galaxy plot in intriguing directions. Most importantly: it pulls off just enough jokes.
Guardians of the Galaxy's story may eventually get someplace interesting, but it's a poor fit for Telltale's simple quick time events and stiff dialogue sequences.
Tangled Up in Blue lacks the narrative heft of many of the best Telltale games, and the individual Guardians aren't given enough to work with in the short running time to help distinguish them from the versions seen in the 2014 movie. There are flickers of hope – usually involving Rocket – that the characters will come into their own in future episodes, and some of the flashbacks and backstory hint that the storyline might go in interesting directions, but it feels like Guardians of the Galaxy-lite, lacking the irreverent humour, swashbuckling action, and the occasional heart of James Gunn's surprise hit.
For the first chapter in a new series, Guardians of the Galaxy doesn't make you want to keep going. Hopefully the story can pick up in the next chapters to let Guardians stand shoulder to shoulder with the other great Telltale games.
Telltale have crafted their own story from the Guardians comic-book lore, while keeping the flavour of the hugely successful movie. There are plenty of nods to both, and fans on the lookout for Knowhere, the Kree and other notable characters from the series will likely be more than happy. This is still a Telltale game though, and there simply aren't any new mechanics to be found here that'll convince detractors otherwise.