This year's all-digital E3 conference saw a lot of exciting game announcements, and one that drew attention quickly was Square Enix's new Guardians of the Galaxy game. The game is coming as a single-player experience focused on narrative and seems a direct contrast to last year's Avengers game from the same publisher. From the first trailer, it seems obvious that developer Eidos Montreal is looking to emulate the MCU version of Guardians of the Galaxy's sense of humor to a degree. So far, it seems like it's done a good job of crafting a humorous iteration of the classic characters, but Drax the Destroyer holds some distinct challenges.
As one of the more high-profile games announced from E3 2021, Guardians of the Galaxy garnered a kind of tepid excitement from Marvel fans, as the Avengers multiplayer game has been divisive However, focusing on a single-player experience could be one of its greatest strengths. Players will control Star-Lord exclusively with Gamora, Rocket, Groot, and Drax serving as support characters that can take commands from the player. The narrative focus seems clear though, so interacting directly with Drax will be a large part of the game.
Drax Will Really Need to Shine to Compare with the MCU Guardians of the Galaxy
The MCU version of Guardians of the Galaxy already changed characters a good bit from the comics. A lot of that stems from painting the group as sort of lovable anti-heroes but tends to wash away some of their worse deeds and more powerful abilities. Drax is a prime example of this, as he has killed Thanos in the comics on his own more than once. Obviously, changes were necessary to build the drama of the Infinity Saga and to land Guardians of the Galaxy as more of a comedy, and in that, Drax quickly became a fan-favorite element of the comedy.
Drax's pure deadpan delivery and misunderstanding of various idioms were immediately loved by fans. Batista was instrumental in tying together both the humorous aspects of the story with the heavier plot points like the death of his family. That being said, Drax in the Square Enix Guardians of the Galaxy has a lot to do to match the movie version. Comedy can be hard to pin down in video games at large, just by nature of the medium. It would be hard to emulate something like the infamous "invisibility" scene in something outside of a cutscene. And while much of the game's comedic timbre will be presented in cutscenes, ambient dialogue will go a long way as well.
Guardians of the Galaxy was a surprising hit for Marvel Studios. Bringing together a group of misfits pulled from a fairly obscure series that started in the 70' was not a guaranteed recipe for success. The movies did it with aplomb though, and focusing on the single-player experience for Guardians of the Galaxy could prove to do much the same. Drax's performance in the trailers does seem to emulate Batista's in the movies. Hopefully, the game will be able to carve out its own version of Drax the Destroyer though, because the MCU version will be a high bar to reach.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy releases October 26, 2021 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.