Guardians Of The Galaxy Devs Explain Why You Can Only Play As Star-Lord

Square Enix is gathering its own team of rag-tag space scoundrel's for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. As a sort of spin-off from Marvel's Avengers, Eidos-Montreal is blasting off to the cosmos to bring together a very different team of heroes. While Marvel's Avengers let you play as everyone from Ms. Marvel to The Incredible Hulk, critics have already called out Guardians of the Galaxy for only letting you suit up as Star-Lord. 

Yes, the music-loving bachelor might be the de facto lead of the group, but who wouldn't want to zoom around as Rocket, kick ass as Gamora, or simply say, "I am Groot", on a loop?

Now, the game's developers are explaining why you can only suit up as Star-Lord and why it's an integral part of the game.

Why can you only play as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy?

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Senior Narrative Director Mary DeMarle and Senior Gameplay Director Patrick Fortier explained how a single-player focus on Peter Quill will set Guardians apart from Marvel's Avengers.  "Pretty quickly we stumbled on the idea that what really makes the Guardians unique are the characters themselves, how zany and unpredictable they are, the dysfunction that exists within them", said DeMarle.

"So we started thinking about what it would be like to actually be in the center of all that, so you’re hanging out with those characters and experiencing them in their full glory". Despite these single-player critiques, Fortier claims you'll still be able to control your AI teammates (in a way). He added, "You feel it more as a way of communicating with the Guardians after a while than just a pure mechanical function on a controller". 

Explaining what all of this means in laymen's terms, there will be a "huddle up" system where you can band the Guardians together. "That's why we wanted to have the conversation system", concluded Fortier. "The social filler is very important to our game. Yes, we have traversal mechanics and combat mechanics, but the social mechanics are part of both". 

What else do we know about Guardians of the Galaxy?

There are definitely some interesting concepts in play here. Although the interview doesn't go into detail, the "huddle up" mechanic is thought to add a temporary boost to Star-Lord and the other characters like a pep talk. Added to this, there's a mention of a "battle of wits" - where you'll presumably have to use Quill's signature sass to manipulate an opponent. 

In terms of what else we can expect, gamers have been told it will be a wholly single-player experience without microtransactions or DLCs. That raises questions about the longevity of the title, especially comparing it to the roadmap of Marvel's Avengers. As well as introducing heroes like Hawkeye, Marvel's Avengers is getting ready to add Black Panther, and even has Spider-Man planned as a PlayStation exclusive (expected in December).

We're hoping Square Enix has learned from the mistakes of Marvel's Avengers. As well as player data being leaked in a security breach, the game was generally called out for combat. Guardians of the Galaxy is clearly going down a very different route, but as everything tries to be the next Rocksteady's Arkham or Insomniac's Spider-Man, will Guardians of the Galaxy be left marooned in the cold abyss of space?

Either way, Guardians of the Galaxy is already grabbing headlines. After fans were left furious by the fact you can only play as Star-Lord and the game's soundtrack could be a DMCA nightmare, fandom has mellowed. Someone has already added Chris Pratt to Guardians of the Galaxy, and as the team start to unveil more details, it looks like the game could be a well-timed cash in on our superhero hype and the MCU team of the same name.