Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, Episode 1 | Review | Tangled Up In Blue!
7I’m starting to wonder whether or not it’s worth reviewing Telltale Games anymore. Or at least until something in their paradigm shifts, which: let’s face facts, might be a very long time.
Telltale Games started out as a somewhat more traditional adventure game developer in 2004. Right from the get go, they established a reputation for borrowing popular licenses and wrapping them up in the dialogue and puzzle heavy world of adventure. They’ve done it for Jeff Smith’s Bone, Homestar Runner, Game of Thrones, Batman, and perhaps most famously, The Walking Dead.
Their choose-your-own adventure sense of play, and the sometimes illusory notion that every choice you make matters is what made Telltale the company they are today. And now, with their latest blockbuster entry, Guardians of the Galaxy, I’m beginning to wonder if there’s even a point in commenting on these any more.
That’s not to suggest that I don’t like them: quite the opposite. As the story-centric gamer I’ve always been, I’ve always respected what Telltale brings to the table. Telltale has some terrific writers, and they generally put together a story that you can feel a part of, even if the choices you make generally only effect the game in a skin-deep sort of way. That’s pretty much how all of these games go: so what’s there to review? Just the story? The balance of choices? How fucked up Clementine’s going to be when she’s an adult?
Let’s just give it a go, I suppose.
Guardians of the Galaxy, Episode 1: Tangled Up In Blue is… definitely… A Telltale Game.
I mean it. It hits all those beats. Which is impressive, when you think about it. Say what you want about previous games, they’ve got a staff that can cover pretty much any tone: whether it’s the ultra bleak murder death kill extravaganza of Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, or the comedy soaked fun of Borderlands and Monkey Island. Guardians of the Galaxy obvious fits into the latter, and I have to say: they got the tone right.
You play as human away from home and resident smart ass Star Lord as you attempt to understand the secrets of an ancient device known as the Eternity Forge. You engage in some quicktime combat, a few zingers, and possibly the most true-to-life plot conflict I’ve seen in a modern video game:
HOW DO WE PAY OUR BAR TAB??
Chilling. Truly.
By the end of this first episode, I felt like Telltale had set up a decent enough story, although the stakes only truly get raised in its final moments. However, I also wasn’t impressed by anything beyond the story. This could have been an arc in a comic book for all the gaming they threw at you. And I’m loathe to bring it up, because this has been a complaint of Telltale for a long time. However, I was genuinely impressed by the detective aspects that they did with Batman recently. I thought it was an appropriately creative way to shake up the “searching for the next cut scene” format that Telltale’s been all about for years now. It gave me hope that they were thinking about the future of their games, and attempting to do something, anything, to put a spin on the usual.
The closest approximation to something new in Tangled Up In Blue was a time sensor doodad that Star Lord uses to see how a fight went in down in one scene in order to gain better insight as to what to do next. Which, for the record, you do not need to progress. He mentions the time dohickey, and if you use it or not is completely up to you. You don’t really gain or lose anything through its use. It’s sort of weak.
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