We've been to a Friv2Online-hosted private gaming session, squabbled with Rocket, almost lost the Milano ship, and battled crazed Nova Corps cops to an effervescent soundtrack. We briefly describe what players will face in the future Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Even if early cold weather sets in, the second half of autumn promises to be hot as we finally get to see the next Eidos Montréal project, again developed in collaboration with Marvel. Our beloved Guardians of the Galaxy, experts in bickering and finding ridiculous situations, will once again go to save the universe, and you can not even doubt it - it will be incredibly cool.

In the demo session, we found ourselves in the fifth episode of the friv game, in which the Guardians arrive at the suspiciously deserted Nova Corps station "The Rock" to pay a large fine for illegal entry into the sector. As it soon turns out, most of the police personnel have become fanatics of the Church of Universal Truth and do not at all intend to support the heroes. To get to the ship, the Guardians had to break through the converted corps people, and here are some notes regarding the combat system of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy:

Directly, players control exclusively Star-Lord, using blasters and jet boots in battle. All other team members are AI controlled ;
Quill can dodge and fight in hand-to-hand combat, use elemental projectiles, as well as a special shot that knocks back most opponents if the player presses the hot key in time while the weapon is overheating;
The team gains experience, which is subsequently converted into skill points shared by the entire group. Each character, including Star-Lord, can have up to four skills, varying in radius, attack power, reload speed, and the degree of stunning of opponents;
With the help of special abilities, Quill will be able to fly for a while or shoot blasters like a machine gun, Gamora has the highest damage, Groot knows how to immobilize opponents and holds a blow well, Drax stuns enemies, and Rocket specializes in long-range attacks and uses explosive gadgets ;
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy will feature cooperative moves that Quill will perform with one of the Guardians, and spectacular group finishes when all the guards pounce on the enemy at once;
Some environmental objects can be used with the help of partners. For example, ask Gamora to bring down a suspended load on enemies or tell Drax to throw a barrel of combustible material at them;
Guardians will regularly face new types of opponents, who sometimes cannot be defeated by brute force alone. You will have to come up with a plan of action on the go, try different combinations of techniques and tactics.

By the way, in mid-August, we published an interview with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy sound engineer Steve Schepkowski. The speaker intrigued us with information about the many licensed and specially created music tracks that will be included in the upcoming Eidos-Montréal game. “There will be no lack of music,” Steve assured us, and we finally saw it for ourselves.

Atmospheric orchestral arrangements by Richard Jakes alternate with classic rock and electro-pop compositions from the 80s. And not only in peacetime: during the battle, the Guardian team fills in a special scale, using which it will be possible to arrange a “fly-fly”, during which the comrades will share their experiences with Quill, and the player will have to choose the appropriate motivational speech to activate a special mode.

In it, your team enters a battle rage, skill recovery counters are reset and abilities recover faster, and Star-Lord turns on his player, and the whole subsequent battle takes place to the accompaniment of one of the hits from KISS, Iron Maiden, New Kids On The Block, Rick Astley and many other popular artists. It turns out amazingly immersive.

Outside of combat, all the characters are involved in moving around the locations, actively interacting with the scenery and generally do not stop the beautifully voiced dialogue - this is another feature of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

The developers not only preserved the special chemistry between the characters, but multiplied it many times with an incredible amount of jokes, disputes and mutual jokes. A grouchy raccoon, a straightforward Drax, a sensible Gamora - all the characters are worked out very scrupulously and, according to first impressions, are much better than in the same Marvel's Avengers.

Quill can scan the environment, collecting information about certain objects, and find special components with which Rocket will make upgrades for his equipment at the Workbench. In addition, Quill will often have to make decisions about how to respond to a friend's remark or act in a given situation.

So, Star-Lord had to persuade the raccoon to break into another terminal from the door, since the Rocket completely refused to go deeper into the captured station. I called out to Gamora, Drax and even Groot, but they all seemed to agree with Rocket. Eventually he gave up, and then remembered to remind Quill of that moment when the team had fallen into yet another trap.

Players determine which of their comrades will help them overcome the next obstacle, and sometimes the Guardians themselves will take action before you have time to decide something. For example, upon noticing a large concentration of well-armed opponents, Drax simply picked up and rushed into battle while the team decided how best to proceed.

The developers have not forgotten about censorship either. All abusive expressions are accessiblely veiled, black humor is present, but coolly softened by the circumstances, and there is no blood (At least during the race there was none).

For the duration of the flights, the Guardians will while away the time on the ship "Milano", where something constantly happens. Players will have the opportunity to interact with guests and crew members, reveal their personalities, listen to music, and explore collectibles found during missions that Guardians will use to decorate their quarters.

It is still difficult to judge the visual and technical side of the product. In the test build, there was no ray tracing and the resolution left much to be desired, but I generally liked the animations. The friv game will at least look no worse than Marvel's Avengers, as well as feel the gameplay.

As a reminder, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is scheduled to release on October 26, 2021. The project will appear on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch.