Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series - Episode Three: More Than a Feeling (PlayStation 4) Review

While the second episode focused on Rocket, giving a glimpse into his comic book girlfriend and his tortured past as a lab experiment, this latest episode focuses on the most dangerous woman in the universe. The daughter of Thanos takes centre stage. Daughters, in fact, as Episode Three delves into the history between Gamora and Nebula. The pair has already settled their differences in the MCU - well, somewhat - but here they're still at each other's throats. Nebula still can't accept Gamora killed their father, and Gamora is still petulantly holding a grudge for Nebula trying to kill her. Thanks to the Infinity Forge, Peter and Gamora are able to relive the day that broke the sisters apart and show exactly what happened. This is a history that once again blends aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the comics for a new and original story that's a solid tale.

It's not just Gamora's history here, though. Peter Quill has always been one to steal the spotlight, and there's no change here as his memories of growing up, dealing with his mother's illness, and even her funeral, are well done, too. The character that really steals the show, though, is a new addition to the team; one who was recently introduced into the MCU. Yup, Mantis is here! And she's the same shy, ditzy empath as in the movie. Surprisingly, she may be even better here.

There are some really great moments in this episode. The history of Gamora and Nebula is well done, if a little lacking in impact, and Peter's childhood scenes where he stands up to a bully are even better. The best of all is a silly little sequence where Peter tries to keep the peace on the ship so Mantis can concentrate. It's great and really captures the Guardians like the movies and the comics have, but until now the game had been missing. The problem is for every good moment like this, there are three moments that are poorly paced or just uninteresting. For example, from Episode One, the fracturing of the team that had been hinted at constantly in the background is still thrust into the forefront, but it is cheap heat, which seems meaningless. "Rocket will remember this!" the game tells you, yet 10 minutes later he's just as friendly regardless.

Another aspect lacking any real punch is the action/QTE sections, which are, once again, horribly easy to hit. This shouldn't be Dragon's Lair level, but the ridiculous windows are far too long. It's not just hitting the QTEs, either, it's their effects. There are quite a few combat scenes, but most are uninspired and hollow, the choreography is messy, and the impact of blows feels empty.

The decision making is another let-down here. Once again, the end of the episode brings up a comparison of the decisions made compared to the rest of the community. It's always a bad sign if these charts show a considerable weighting in one choice over another, and here that's definitely the case, with (at time of writing) every decision being over 75% decided by the majority, with some above 90%. It's not much of a story to craft when the decisions are so easy to make. Bring back the Telltale grey area and hard choices! It's another negative against this episode and indeed this series in general. There's an opportunity in this episode for a massive branch of the story for the final two episodes, but so far this could be just a superficial difference. It will take the next episodes to see if real effort is put into this branch or not.