E3 2021: Guardians of the Galaxy Game Coming In October (Updated)

Square Enix kicked off their E3 showcase with the announcement of Guardians of the Galaxy, a game based on the Marvel comic and movie series that’s coming from Deus Ex developer Eidos-Montréal. It’ll be releasing this year on October 26 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and streaming via GeForce NOW (Update: The game will also be coming to the Switch on the same day through cloud streaming).

The game is a single-player, story driven, third-person action game that tells a completely original story with the Guardians of the Galaxy. This allowed the team to incorporate characters that are both popular in the cosmic Marvel universe, and also a bit more obscure and unknown. In this world, the team has only been together for less than a year. At the start of the game they create a problem that they believe to be pretty small, but as the story progresses they discover that it’s actually one that puts the entire galaxy at risk.

A lengthy gameplay demo was shown for the game, with the Guardians trying to pull a scam on a woman named Lady Hellbender. They land on a planet and do some traversal while also encountering some of the planet’s wildlife. This is when we get to see the game’s combat system firsthand. Players control Star Lord at all times, and during combat use his Elemental Blasters and hover-boots to engage enemies. Although you aren’t able to play as the other Guardians, you can command them to perform different abilities. After seemingly doing enough team-based actions, the team is able to “huddle up,” making everyone stronger and faster for a limited amount of time.

Throughout the demo, we also see moments where story decisions have to be made such as choosing to use Rocket or Groot as bait for the team’s plan. These decisions can have varying levels of consequences, though it remains to be seen if they will heavily impact the direction of the story.

Overall, Guardians of the Galaxy is looking to be the game that everyone wanted Marvel’s Avengers to be. A story-focused, single player game that isn’t a live-service game and takes the characters on a brand new journey. If the game is able to pull that off and be just as fun as it looks, Square Enix and Eidos-Montréal will have a success on their hands.