Guardians Of The Galaxy Episode 3: Lots Of Backstory, Little Action

Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy has returned for its third episode, and like the previous two, More Than A Feeling continues to be very ho-hum. Continuing the adventures of Star-Lord and his crew as they uncover the secrets of a mysterious object, Episode 3 manages to spend more time in the past than the present.

Backstory is the name of the game for Episode 3, with More Than A Feeling exploring both Peter and Gamora’s troubled pasts. Those who have seen the Guardians of the Galaxy movies will know the just of Peter’s childhood story (or at least how it ends), but Gamora’s past sheds new light on the green assassin and her relationships with both her father Thanos and sister Nebula.

Seeing as this is a Telltale game, you should know exactly how gameplay works. The majority of time is spent in conversations with other characters, with players picking which dialogue choices to say or which decisions to make. There’s also minor walking around and solving puzzles, as well as some quick-time-event action sequences.

Without going too much into the game’s story (don’t want to spoil anything for you!), Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy continues to be about interpersonal drama instead of conflict coming from an outside source. To me, this neuters the enjoyment of the Guardians, who work best as a ragtag team of misfit superheroes.

I’ve said it in my past reviews as well – these episodes are just too serious to fit the characters. The only person who can get chuckles from me consistently is Rocket, but I mostly attribute that to Nolan North being the best at voice acting. Peter, Drax and the rest of the crew come off cold or awkward instead of funny and charming.

That said, Episode 3 felt like it is wrapping up all of the interpersonal drama between the Guardians and moving towards a big baddie to focus on. The end of the episode is the first time in the series there’s been a great Telltale cliffhanger ending that makes you want to keep going to find out what happens.

One of the oddest things I noticed when playing Episode 3 is the incredibly odd pacing. Each episode is broken up into five or six chapters and completing a chapter earns you a shiny achievement or trophy. Normally, you can use these chapter endings to note how far along you are in each episode. However, in More Than A Feeling, some chapters lasted less than five minutes while others were stretching well over 45 minutes. While some chapters can be expected to be longer if they involve puzzle solving or exploring, it’s not common to see chapters with difference in length this drastic.

While Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy has focused more on relationship drama so far, it seems that might change for the rest of the season. Hopefully Telltale can get this game back on course and end on a high note. If not, there’s always Batman to scratch that “good Telltale game” itch.

So what do you think? Have you been playing Guardians of the Galaxy as each episode has released? What do you think is next for our band of motley heroes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.