MadCap's Game Reviews - "Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series" (Episode 4)

As I type these words, I have just completed a journey, dear readers. This journey has seen a father come to peace with the death of his daughter, two sisters reconcile, and a space flight out of the anus of a giant worm.

...oh, sorry, I've just been informed that it's pronounced colon.

Obviously, spoilers are to follow, so if you have not yet played Episode 4 - "Who Needs You" - go and do so now.  For everyone else, let's get down to brass tacks.



Episode 4 - "Who Needs You" picks up with the Guardians dealing with the after effects of either the restoration or the destruction of the Eternity Forge. In my case, it was it's destruction which resulted in the Kree matriarch Hala becoming a space zombie/energy vampire. With a touch, she can absorb the full life essence of any individual. Naturally, faced against such a foe...the Guardians hightail it out of there...or, rather, fall out of there in a rather well-crafted sequence set to Jackie DeShannon's "Put A Little Love In Your Heart".

In some tunnels beneath the Temple, they discover a colony of worms and here is where more elements come into play...albeit of a sci-fi horror vein. Go ahead and get your shots ready for the sci-fi film reference drinking game (for its horror equivalent, see my Until Dawn review from last year), and be careful...my games are always played to the death!

In the caves beneath the Temple, the Guardians - as I said - encounter a colony of worm-like creatures (take a shot) and find out they have some very peculiar eating habits (take a shot), some of them end up cocooned to walls because they fail to heed the Dungeons & Dragons credo of "never split the party" (take a shot) and have to be rescued, thereafter - following a vision of Drax's, which I'll get into - they attempt to escape from a giant space worm (taka...a shot) and end up in its stomach, where they have to blast their way out (taka a shoga) salvaging parts of other ships from a graveyard in the giant worm's stomach (taka shoga) before blasting their way out of its colon (rocks sure are pretty!) before careening their way through dangerous caverns and to freedom! (ARE YA DRUNK YET?!)

And this sci-fi cliche book is used as the action for a brief character piece on Drax as well as cleaning up some of the baggage that remains from Episode 3 for Gamora and Nebula. For Drax, it's a flashback to his homeworld and his time spent with his daughter before her training to become a full warrior...and her eventual death at the hands of Thanos. It's sweet and Drax, pretty much regardless of your choices, shows himself to be a rather loving and thoughtful father, thus making his tragedy all the more...well, tragic.

Gamora and Nebula, too, get a chance to finish up their reconciliation that's been building ever since Episode 1. It's good and doesn't drag down too much.

I will say, the actors in general seem far more comfortable in their roles. Not that the voice acting has been bad in the previous four episodes, far from it, but the actors seem to have a much better chemistry together than previously, which is a good thing. It's ironic, considering that this is where the Guardians are at their most discordant.

The QTEs remain a constant fiend, even one that Telltale tried to hide under Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy"...and almost had me fooled into thinking I was more involved than pushing a series of buttons.  Nice try, Telltale, but using Freddie Mercury to lull me into a false sense of accomplishment will do you no good!

What I will give some praise for outside of the story is the absolutely alien and rather horrific environment of the worm caves. While the giant worm's stomach ends up being your generic pit of stomach acid you see in...well, everything...the caves actually do give off a distinctly alien vibe. In particular, a segment where Quill has to creep along through a tunnel that serves as a nest for a large grouping of them, careful not to wake them...only to come through and find the Guardians who took a different fork in the road sedated and cocooned to walls.

It's absolutely eerie and unsettling, more so when you have to slowly pry open the cocoons to let them free...again, without waking the worms...

I'm very much looking forward to Episode 5 when it finally comes out, just to see how this crazy ride ends. I think the story will be worth suffering through a few more button mash fests...

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series is now available from Telltale Games for Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.

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