(TL;DR)

Just finished it last night. (Bought in January. Started last week.) This game is pretty good! The visuals are amazing! The absolutely best thing about this game is they way it looks. The design, lighting and rendering. Near or far looks pristine and real. The characters look equally great. Everyone's all in on the (voice) acting. And there are so many characters.

The story is good. Lots of interesting, touching moments. I had no idea how long it was going to go on. Nor did I know who I'd encounter. I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn't a rehash of characters from the MCU movies. However, we're still continuing this trope started by MCU that Star-Lord is just BSing his way through life; has no special knowledge nor skill. He's just cosmicly gifted. I don't think that's cool but it's easy to ignore because of game/convo choices.

Again, there are conversation options and even game choices. Choices that determine whether you're going to get into a multi-level shoot out or have a prolonged awkward moment.

Interacting with the environment with different characters was cool at the time but not complex at all. Only thing I ever got hung up on was looking for a crevasse to squeeze through the first 2 times; and, having the camera at the wrong angle during a slide and falling to my death through a gap. There are also hidden collectables, costumes and upgrades to find. But absolutely nothing hidden behind a pay wall.

The combat is okay. Seems like a cluster F until you get a handle on controlling 5 characters at once. Control Star-Lord, mainly, and directimg special moves and then ultimate moves for everyone. There's different element attacks that Star-Lord gains as you go. I noticed some glitching during combat after 2/3s. Might have just been my system. Not sure.

Three downsides for me: 1) That there's so much conversations, walking and cut scenes that I wasn't 100% if I had control and would die 1/3 of the time. 2) All of the convos and in-combat banter was cool and interesting (because I haven't gotten a lot of non-MCU exposure to GOTG in decades). However, about 2/3 of the game through...I really wished everyone would shut up. And there's even a moment where Star-Lord loses it with all the bickering and I couldn't have agreed more. 3) And this is the biggest annoyance, the reload time. If you die--not fall but really die-- it's like 2 to 5 minutes to restart at your last auto save. That's a lot of time staring at a spinning icon. Really ridiculous.

Overall, I think it really good! It's okay to make just a really good game. I don't know why I haven't heard about this game until last Thanksgiving. It's a linear, single player with interactive convos, replayability and no multiplayer. And, of course, it has an AWESOME 80s soundtrack. The title screen is really chill. 😅 Additionally, there is a fictional 80s glam rock band in the game that's just outstanding! It's not worth $60 but definitely worth the current price.