Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is full of emotional moments, ranging from Drax being stuck in The Promise to Gamora’s confession about Nebula. While players will surely be laughing more than they get choked up, Eidos Montreal remembers to tug on players’ heart strings from time to time, crafting a narrative that gives Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy players a fair bit of insight into each character’s origins.
While the game does a terrific job of highlighting every character’s pain, the way in which Rocket’s time on Halfworld is handled is worthy of some extra praise. While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will hopefully peel back the curtain on the MCU version’s past, it will be interesting to see if the storytelling seen in the game can be topped, as Eidos Montreal explains the root cause of Rocket’s rage perfectly.
Why Rocket’s Story Works So Well
For those that cannot get enough of the top-notch dialogue seen in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, extra insight on each member of the team is provided through the many Guardian Collectibles players collect as they progress through the story. These include discussions with Drax about his supposed killing of Thanos, Gamora discussing why she collects dolls, and Groot revealing what happened to his people on Planet X. Star-Lord also discusses his time with The Ravagers and the nonexistent relationship he has with his father.
However, Rocket’s Guardian Collectibles show the full extent of his trauma, with one conversation letting players learn a bit about his escape from Halfworld and what it took for him to break free. After being shocked, tortured, and transformed into a weapon for years, Rocket and his girlfriend Lylla attempted to escape from the Kree. While the eventual Guardian succeeded in getting away, Lylla was killed when covering him, meaning he lost the only person he cared about during the getaway.
Other optional conversations see Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy fans learning about how Rocket met Groot, with the former rescuing the latter from The Collector. While this served as a brief moment of happiness for Rocket, he still carried the trauma from past events. This shows clearly about halfway through the game, with players learning about his hatred for getting wet.
While this initially seems like a small character quirk and Rocket being selfish, he is eventually forced to overcome his fear of water to rescue Groot and his other friends. He reveals why being wet bothers him so much, too, confirming that the fear is tied to all the time he spent trapped in a tube filled with water. This is excellent writing on the part of Eidos Montreal, as the developer goes out of its way to make Rocket’s trauma more than just a bit of backstory. Long after the experiments were done to him, he is still dealing with the repercussions, and Rocket is seen working through that damage during the main narrative.
Part of what makes the Guardians of the Galaxy such interesting characters is the fact that all of them are flawed and dealt with some kind of tragedy throughout their lives. The game draws attention to all these past issues, with the way Rocket’s struggles are showcased being a major highlight. While there is a lot that helps the game’s story work as well as it does, the careful balance between over-the-top humor and serious, heartfelt moments may be the biggest contributor.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
