Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series rolls into the middle of the season off two solid episodes. Telltale’s take on this popular franchise has been interesting, fresh, funny, and hit all the notes that their other series had been missing as of late. With the feeling of a revived Tales from the Borderlands, which is seen by many as Telltale’s absolute best series, the question was only whether or not they could continue to deliver such enjoyable experiences. With Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – Episode 3 “More than a Feeling” that question has been answered with an emphatic “yes”.
Opening with a dual set of major flashbacks, Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – Episode 3 gives us even more background material on our titular heroes. Peter “Star-Lord” Quill once again gets a visit from his deceased mother, returning to a particularly troublesome time in his life. Afterward we get a long look at Gamora, specifically getting a look at the always contentious relationship she has with her sister, Nebula. These set the stage for the tough choices to follow, all surrounding the many members of the Guardians, their various personal relationships, and the Eternity Forge, which promises to either solve everyone’s problems, or make them much, much worse.
“More than a Feeling” represents the mid-point of this 5 episode series. This is an important time in most Telltale games’ runs, as it usually pays off a lot of the things that have been set up so far, while also cementing the path that the series will take going forward. Episode 3 is where The Walking Dead, the game that made Telltale a household name and crafted the formula for all their games to follow, really hit it out of the park. Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – Episode 3 might not be quite as impactful, partially because it’s about half as long, but it really does show that this will be remembered as one of the better offerings from the developer.
Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – Episode 3 cements this as another classic adventure
The story here is full of surprises, with payoffs to a lot of what we’ve been seeing and questioning throughout the first 2 episodes. While the answers aren’t always what the player might want, they do end up coalescing to form a fascinating and fun narrative adventure. The Eternity Forge is a brilliant MacGuffin for this story to center around, fitting perfectly with these characters and the issues that they deal with in nearly all of their stories.
There’s some handwavey stuff when it comes to the more intricate layers of the narrative, but for a Marvel property that’s not altogether unexpected. Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – Episode 3 really delivers a great story with some fantastic character moments. Once again Telltale proves that they have the chops when it comes to writing dialogue and creating great moments that will stick with the player long after the series has ended.
This episode also features a lot of choices that players will have to contend with. There’s one central one that feels a bit forced, but does actually fit very well with the characters and their various motivations. Players will likely know what the “right” choice is, but the emotional attachment that has been formed over the first 2 episodes might serve to override this feeling within them, just like it would for Peter Quill.
There were some strange choices sprinkled throughout though, particularly when it came to Gamora and Nebula’s relationship. If players watch everything and play through all the segments that feature them then it’s fairly clear what was going on between them, and how best the player should handle it. However, the dialogue choices featured some very strange options that I doubt many players will pick, except by accident perhaps. It just felt jarring to watch a scene and then see my character be able to pretty much lie about what happened, only to create more ill will between characters that I’m supposed to care about.
With a great, though short story, players might worry that Telltale might have dropped the ball in some other aspect of the game. Thankfully they haven’t. Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – Episode 3, like the first 2 episodes, features a great soundtrack full of classic rock songs. If this game doesn’t get a soundtrack release then we’ll all be poorer for it. Sure, most of the songs were featured in the movies, but the way they’re used here is great and really builds an enjoyable gameplay experience.
Speaking of gameplay, don’t expect any major departures there. The first 2 episodes had some really deep mechanics, and while none were removed, this particular episodes is mostly about talking and playing through simple scenes. In fact, there were a few stretches where it leaned a little too heavily on the “interactive movie” setup, with very few actions for the player to take. These were rare though, and if the episode had been a bit longer, they likely would have been forgotten.
The one time that the more intricate gameplay mechanics did factor it, they were almost a little annoying. It’s always tough when these games present players with “puzzles” where the solution is fairly obvious. The player then just has to walk through the slow, methodical steps of completing the task, without really having to think about any sort of solution beyond what popped into their head at the very beginning. This was really just one segment, but it does pop up near the end, and slows the climax to a crawl for a few minutes, so it hurts the story a bit more than it would otherwise.
The Verdict
Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series – Episode 3 “More than a Feeling” cements this as another classic adventure from the developer. Humor and drama are both on display in full force. The story also takes some great twists and turns, including some that are very unexpected. But it all comes back to Marvel’s characters and their fascinating relationships. You’ll face some tough choices here, and watching the face of a disappointed crewmember will not be easily forgotten.
