The Guardians of the Galaxy game flarkin’ rocks. I promise that line makes sense if you’ve played it, where the characters say ‘flark’ every other sentence in place of ‘fuck’, like some sort of edgy, less annoying Smurfs.
My review dropped earlier today, which you can check out for my full impressions, but I wanted to take a moment to single out Gamora, the best flarkin’ Guardian of the lot.
Gamora traditionally is my least favourite Guardian. She’s a ruthless killer, but so highly professional that her personality is rarely shown. Even her relationship with Thanos is less interesting than Nebula’s. I love Zoe Saldana in some of her other roles, particularly in smaller flicks like Out of the Furnace and The Losers, but the MCU’s Gamora just doesn’t do it for me. The Guardians game changes all of that.
While you play specifically as Peter Quill, it feels as if you play collectively as the Guardians. Much like in Mass Effect, you command your squadmates in battle, telling them who to attack and when. While everyone has their uses, Gamora is the most cinematic, either leaping into the air to bring her sword slashing down or darting between foes to cause death by a thousand cuts.
Rocket can blow people up or make them levitate, Groot can wrap people up in vines or toss them into the air, and Drax… well, Drax destroys things, either by jumping on enemies or bulldozing through them. As Quill, as well as choosing which Guardians will attack and when, you have a variety of power ups and elemental attacks, but mainly pepper the villains with weak pistol fire while calling the shots from a safe distance.
The combat will be divisive, because it’s spectacular when you have everything at your disposal but turgid and ineffective while you wait for the powers in cooldown. However, even when Quill has nothing to do but pick his nose while his guns recharge, Gamora always puts on a show. Rocket fights like Quill, relying on gunfire and tech, while Groot is more of a team player, boxing enemies in and providing a vantage point for Rocket. Drax runs around creating havoc. Gamora, however, is sublime.
Because Gamora attacks with her sword, she’s constantly where the action is, gymnastically leaping across the field to get up close and personal before slicing her foes into gooey, alien ribbons. Of all the fighting styles, Gamora’s easily seems like the most transferable to a single-player experience.
It’s not just in combat, however. Traversal is also where Gamora shines. Drax can push heavy things, Rocket can hack doors, and Groot can make bridges, but that’s not a patch on Gamora. She can run across walls, climb ledges and toss teammates upwards, and front flip across canyons. Again, she’s the obvious choice.
Every character gets their emotional moments – no spoilers, don’t worry – but again, Gamora’s prove the most interesting. While everyone else’s feel like part of their backstory (and some are explored within the game itself), Gamora’s past feels like it’s begging to be explored. I don’t think a Gamora game is particularly likely – more chance that Guardians itself gets a sequel – but there’s a lot of material to explore there.
Gamora has never quite felt ‘there’ in the movies. They’re caught between Quill’s love interest, human (alien, but you know what I mean) connection to Thanos, and the Galaxy’s Deadliest Woman. The game ditches the love interest angle, but otherwise manages to juggle all the parts of Gamora extremely well, and as a result makes her feel like the most fleshed out character of the lot. While Rocket is comedic and angry, Groot is sweet, and Drax is focussed, Gamora, much like Quill, is afforded far more range. In the movies, she’s an also-ran overshadowed by everyone around her. In the game, she steals the show. She’ll never get a game of her own, but I’d settle for a Gamora focused sequel.