7 things you may not know about Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

We’re now just mere days away from the release of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy!

This new single-player action-adventure puts you in the jet boots of Star-Lord. Along with Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot, you’ll set off on an epic adventure with no less than the very fate of the galaxy in the balance.

But then you already know all that by now. So, as we watch the clock slowly tick towards launch day, we thought we’d dig into some of the information about the game that you maybe don’t.

Starting with…

Combat’s a team game… and you’d better remember it

They may bicker, disagree, and even go for each other’s throats at times, but when all’s said and done the Guardians of Galaxy are a team. That’s something you’d do well to remember.

During combat, Star-Lord calls on his fellow Guardians to help him out in lots of different ways, from disrupting or immobilizing enemies, to laying down a whole flarkin’ world of hurt.

What you need to remember is that these moves aren’t just cool things you use in a fight - they’re things you must use. While he’s no slouch in combat, Peter Quill can’t do it all alone - you simply won’t survive without the help of your team.

For example, you could call on Groot to entangle a mob of foes in his branches, causing them to freeze in place, and combo that with Rocket’s penchant for explosives to hit them all at once. Alternatively, you take out a target’s shields with your ice shots, call on Drax to do massive damage to their stagger bar, and finish them off with powerful slash from Gamora.

In short, it’s not only about like elemental blasters and jet boots - teamwork is your biggest power in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Star-Lord is an outlaw, hero… and diplomat?

Being the leader is tough. Being the leader of four strong-willed, volatile, and extremely opinionated spacefarers? That’s like herding cats!

Yet that’s the burden you’ll take on as Peter Quill. You’ll face many decisions throughout the game, and regularly find yourself having to side with one member of the team over another. It’s up to you how you want to handle these situations because your decisions do have consequences.

For example, do you reject some of Rocket’s less… socially considerate suggestions at the risk of his obvious annoyance, or go against Gamora and face her ire as a result?

That thin line of diplomacy extends to the many other people you meet over the course of your adventure. You’ll make choices throughout the game, which can change both how events play out and how people treat you.

It’s up to you how you approach these interactions - do you always follow your own code, or try to tell people what you think they want to hear? However you play, there’s one constant - you can’t please everyone.

There are loads of outfits to unlock

Want to change up your look? The good news is that the Guardians each has an extensive wardrobe.

You’ll unlock more than 40 alternate costumes for each as you play the game - inspired by the comics, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and more.

A particularly nice touch is that each one comes with information about where it originated, such as comics issue number, writer, artists and more. It’s a welcome wealth of knowledge, particularly for Marvel fans!

It’s full of familiar faces that Marvel fans may recognize…

It may tell an original story in an original setting, but Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is an unashamed love letter to the cosmic side of the Marvel universe.

Eagle-eyed fans will notice many references and nods to people, places, and races from the comics. One of the key inspirations for the game’s story is Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy run.

You’ll get to interact with some fan-favorites faces, such as Mantis, Lady Hellbender and Cosmo the Space Dog.

We don’t want to spill more here as part of the fun’s discovering it all for yourself but rest assured - the developers’ love for all things Marvel shines through the whole adventure.

You can customize your experience

One of the team’s core philosophies for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is that as many people as possible should be able to enjoy the game.

For example, the game’s difficulty is incredibly customizable - almost every element can be fine-tuned to provide an experience that works for you. You can alter how much damage Star-Lord dishes out, how much the team receives, how fast the shield regenerates, how often the game gives you hints on how to progress and more.

That’s on top of visual aids, such as outlines to objects, subtitle sizes, backgrounds and more. We hope all these accessibility features mean that players can enjoy the Guardians’ adventures their way.

There’s a New Game+ mode

We know this is something that a lot of you care about - so we can confirm that yes, once you complete the game, there is a New Game+ mode.

It lets you replay the entire adventure with unlocks and abilities you’ve accrued throughout the game. It’s a chance to test all you’ve learned, and all the skills you’ve gained, against stronger enemies in more intense combat scenarios.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. If you prefer, you can keep the same difficulty and just replay the game with your more capable Guardians. We must admit, it is intensely satisfying to revisit encounters that you barely made it through and turn the tables with a team of fully equipped, super-powerful heroes.

The soundtrack contains original songs!

You’d hope that a Guardians of the Galaxy game came with a good soundtrack, and that’s definitely the case. The set list is packed with 80s legends: Rick Astley, Def Leppard, Twisted Sister, KISS, Iron Maiden… just look at this lineup:

But did you know that the game also features original songs too? Peter Quill is a big fan of Star-Lord - a fictional 80s rock band that has an important place in the story, and in Peter’s heart - so much so that he adopts their name as his own alias.

Multiple Star-Lord songs have been written specifically for the game… and they’re glorious! Try listening to Zero to Hero and just try not to feel the urge to start headbanging.

Of course, if you’re a streamer, all of the above may be filling you with panicked visions of copyright strikes and takedowns. Don’t worry - there’s a dedicated in-game option that will mute licensed tracks, and even replace them in combat.

You can listen to the soundtrack - including the Star-Lord tracks - right now on streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora and more:

• Listen to the Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack

That was just a small sample of some of the lesser known elements of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy - but there’s a whole galaxy’s-worth of stuff to find in the full game.

There’s not long to wait now either - Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy launches October 26, 2021 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Steam and Nintendo Switch (cloud version). It’s available to preorder now:

• Preorder Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy