Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy showed a hint of its strong narrative during its original E3 gameplay sneak peak, but questions lingered as to whether or not the action elements would be adequate. For the most part, they are. Not only did Guardians receive a glowing review from CBR and other outlets, it has gone on to receive numerous nominations at The Game Awards 2021, including Best Narrative, Best Score and Music, Innovation in Accessibility and Best Action Adventure game.

Despite the accolades, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is held back from being a truly brilliant action adventure game in one major area: replayability. Guardians is a game fans can enjoy again simply for the story, but many of its design elements become redundant when playing New Game+.

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For starters, Guardians has a simple, intuitive combat system. Peter Quill acts as a tactical commander, able to give orders to the other Guardians while maneuvering his way across the battlefield. The problem is that combat begins to feel repetitive. Guardians has a decent, but not great, variety of enemies to fight, and combat sections feel drawn out on a second playthrough.

Combat itself has elements of strategy, where players can use a different Guardian's ability to stagger enemies or prevent them from moving, but it begins to feel routine. Furthermore, each Guardian has different abilities that can be purchased with Ability Points. Players are meant to unlock all of them during one playthrough, and starting over in New Game+ keeps all abilities unlocked. Unfortunately, the lack of new abilities means combat performance points are no longer awarded, removing an incentive of combat in subsequent games.

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Similarly, players can easily upgrade all 14 of Star-Lord's Perks before the end if they actively hunt for component stashes. Some of the Perks are duds, such as the Components Localizer (which scans for crafting components) and the Tactical Scan (which scans enemies during combat). Players can find crafting components easily enough, especially if they make a habit of exploring every nook and cranny. The Tactical Scan isn't very useful simply because enemies already show what element they are weak against, and character interactions during battle tell players what they need to know about their opponents.

The problem is that crafting components are useless in future playthroughs. Players can keep collecting them, but they serve no function. At the minimum, a second unlock tier for New Game+ would give players something else to do with their components. Perhaps the rest of the team could also receive Perks to unlock instead of only Star-Lord, or players could unlock bonus galleries. Guardians does not pad its game world for the sake of filling the player's time, which is a blessing and a curse. While it makes for a tighter, more focused experience, it also means there's little less to explore, narrowing the game's scope and making it an on-rails narrative experience with little else to go back for.

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Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Star-Lord cave

In terms of its narrative, Guardians is a scripted game, which isn't necessarily bad. The Chapter Select is a necessary element that allows players to replay specific parts to look for Guardian collectibles or costumes. Players cannot, however, change major decisions they've made and have those outcomes reflected in later chapters. Players must replay the game in full to see what may or may not happen. That entices players to give Guardians a second go, but it's not helpful for players who simply want to explore different narrative outcomes without playing the whole game.

Ultimately, Guardians' New Game+ mode makes many of the gameplay elements present in the first playthrough irrelevant, leaving the main draw for playing Guardians a second time to simply re-experience the story with pretty much everything unlocked from the start. As such, unless players have a specific attachment to any of the costumes, it's almost advisable to skip New Game+ and simply start the game fresh. As good as it is, Guardians has a piece-meal feel that shows more clearly on a second playthrough.

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