Marvel's Forgotten Mass Effect Clone Couldn't Escape the Avengers' Failure

Guardians of the Galaxy was better than anyone expected

The Avengers are massively successful on the big screen, with four films collectively making nearly $8 billion at the worldwide box office. But that cinematic success hasn't carried over to the video game world. Crystal Dynamics’ 2020 Marvel’s Avengers was a disappointment, with a tepid response from critics and players both. While the character writing was on point, its combat was a repetitive grind built around superfluous live-service elements.

Avengers was the first game to come out of a collaboration between Marvel and Final Fantasy maker Square Enix. A black cloud hung over it that ended up overshadowing the next Marvel game from Square Enix: Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which was released five years ago on Oct. 26, 2021. It was better than anyone expected, yet was still a disappointment in Square Enix’s eyes.

Guardians of the Galaxy offered a new spin on the ragtag bunch made famous by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Everyone you’re familiar with is here — Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket, Groot, and Drax — plus some comic characters who hadn’t been adapted before, like Lady Hellbender. It deftly balances universe-at-stake storytelling with more personal looks at its characters, like Quill.

While Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord may never be mature enough to have kids, Guardians of the Galaxy’s Quill wonders throughout the game if he’s actually the father of his old Nova Corps flame’s teenage daughter, Nikki. The tension of “Is this mercenary who’s barely scraping by actually a dad?” hangs over the game, and results in some tender moments between Quill and his former lover, the Centurion Ko-Rel.

Gamora, Rocket, and the rest of the Guardians get great character work too. Some of that character work comes from your gameplay and dialogue choices as Quill; I’m especially fond of Rocket’s scenes when he’s branded a “monster” to be offered up for Lady Hellbender’s collection. The biggest strength of Guardians of the Galaxy is how well its characters are brought to life, and that goes for non-Guardians too; Adam Warlock’s alliteration-heavy dialogue makes him feel unique, and who can’t help but fall in love with best boy Cosmo and his puppies?

Guardians of the Galaxy has great combat too, with Quill directing his Guardians teammates around Mass Effect-style. Everyone has special abilities, and using them in tandem is key to success. The best bits of combat are when Quill yells for his team to huddle up and gives them a pep talk. An ‘80s banger will then play while the Guardians lay waste to their feeble foes. (The game also has an original, 1980s-inspired soundtrack from the fictional band “Star-Lord” that slaps more than it has any right to.)

Though it’s an excellent game, Guardians of the Galaxy failed to make much of a splash. Even I remember being wary of it pre-release, and I wasn’t quite sold on it until I read previews comparing it to Mass Effect. Now? It’s one of my favorite games of this generation, primarily because the writing is just so strong.

According to publisher Square Enix, Guardians of the Galaxy was a disappointment. “Despite strong reviews, the game’s sales on launch undershot our initial expectations,” Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda said a few months after Guardians of the Galaxy came out. By November 2022, it had reached over 8 million players, but it’s not clear how much of that number came from copies sold and how many players checked it out, however long or brief, on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus.

Guardians of the Galaxy developer Eidos-Montréal was sold to Embracer Group during the summer of 2022. It’s since undergone multiple rounds of layoffs, and hasn’t singularly developed a game since Guardians of the Galaxy. (It’s supporting Playground Games on next year’s Fable and is co-developing Grounded 2 with Obsidian Entertainment.)

It’s a shame that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy never quite landed with players in ways that other superhero games have, like Insomniac’s Spider-Man series. With its great character work and fun-filled action, it deserves to be looked at with the best of them.