Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode 1 Review (Spoiler Warning)

-Gregg Dietz
Reviews Editor

​Telltale’s newest entry into their huge family of point and click adventure games is a blast. The story here takes place at a certain point in the comics but what's brilliant is it's also positioned for movie fans to enjoy as well. The major plot twist of the beginning of the story is the death of Thanos. Right away the games pits the team right in harm's way and on Thanos’ tail. Shortly after a fun action sequence, you take Starlord aka Peter Quill into a room playing detective to find a way to let Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot inside. This scene is interesting because it feels very much like the Batman reconstruction moments from last years Telltale games.

​My favorite thing about Telltale games are the characters, and Guardians has some of the best. During this part, you are freely able to communicate with Rocket, Drax or Gamora about Thanos. It's really a lot of fun to delve deeper into why each member wants Thanos dead. After a short exploration moment, Starlord let's the team in by explosion and they descend below the Kree temple to confront Thanos. This is the most action packed scene I experienced. It was a blast to kick The Mad Titan’s purple ass. The scene ends with Thanos’ death by Rockets BFG. This is when the plot truly begins. Thanos was after a Kree artifact called the Eternity Forge. However it seems useless after Thanos’ defeat so the Guardians do what they do best and that's celebrate hard.

​This bar scene is filled with Peter boosting egos of his team, regardless that the bar patrons already see them as heroes. The dialog is mostly fun and very funny. After the celebrations end, they then decide what to do with Thanos’ body. This is where the player makes the first major decision. Sell the body to the collector or hand it over to the Nova Corps. Shortly after making that choice, Peter makes the choice to sell or hand over (per player's choice) the Eternity Forge. Peter then has a very real flashback to when he was on earth with his Mom, where she tells Peter to come find her. After being jarred back to reality, a crew member and Peter choose to hold on to it.

After the scene with either The Collector's representative or the Nova Corps, the crew is confronted by the series’ antagonist, Hala the Accuser. After a lengthy fight scene, Hala obtains the Eternity Forge and damages the Milano. Peter take’s either Gamora or Drax to the Kree ship to retrieve the Forge. After a fun series of moments making their way through the ship, they finally confront Hala. She explains that it's the only way to restore someone she lost, after which she stabs in the chest Peter. After a small rescue sequence, Peter dies holding the Eternity Forge and is transported back to the day he left earth. Yondu tells Peter that he’s to come with him by force or “the easy way”. Adult Peter walks towards the casket only to talk to his mother who informs him that he is dead but she then heals him and says once more “Come find me Peter”. Back on the ship, the Forge is healing Peter and as he wakes up, the episode ends.

I adore how this story takes the idea of getting rid of a well known baddie and dropping a much lesser known one. I'm incredibly excited to see where this goes and what exactly the Eternity Forge can do. The writing is on par with Telltale games, and that is to say top notch. The visuals are a tad different than I think most might be used to because they aren't cell shaded this time around. The acting is very good as well, very happy to see that the directors haven't lost their touch on how to have their protagonists voiced by excellent actors. I give Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy Episode 1 a 9 outta 10.

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