Back in 2017, Square Enix announced that they would be teaming up with Marvel to produce multiple games based on the increasingly popular universe from the comics and beyond. At the time, the only confirmed game was Marvel’s Avengers, which released last year to a mixed reaction. Shortly after the official announcement, however, rumors started to spread that Eidos Montreal would be shifting away from their recent work on the Deus Ex series to focus on their own Marvel game, with early signs pointing to that project being based on the Guardians of the Galaxy. Over four years later, these rumors can finally be confirmed as fact, as Square Enix used nearly half of their E3 2021 showcase earlier this week to show extended gameplay of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Set in an original Guardians universe, the upcoming game will put players in control of Star-Lord and will provide opportunities through the combat and choice-based narrative to inspire the actions of the rest of the crew, including Rocket, Gamora, Drax and Groot.

While a new game based on the beloved space-faring crew would seemingly be cause for celebration after the fan reception to the movies, Sunday’s reveal was instead met with caution from prospective players. This can partially be attributed to the aforementioned Avengers game, with our own review praising the game’s mostly single player campaign but lambasting its lackluster endgame and technical issues. Nine months after launch, the game has addressed many of its bugs, launched on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S and even added two new playable characters, with Black Panther arriving later this summer, but outside of its most dedicated fans, Avengers has struggled to provide players with any meaningful reasons to stick around after beating its infrequent narrative arcs. As a result, Guardians of the Galaxy has more to prove than what initially may have been expected of it, as Square Enix looks to justify its partnership and players hope to find another enjoyable Marvel title outside of Insomniac’s work with Spider-Man.

Fortunately, the team at Eidos Montreal have already established clear differences that should help offset some of the initial concerns. Despite also focusing on a team of heroes, Guardians of the Galaxy will be a single player-only experience, and has been confirmed to not include any microtransactions or DLC after launch, making the game a finished product from day one barring any necessary patches. Additionally, while the story of Avengers played out in a largely straightforward fashion, Eidos Montreal has looked to their work on Deus Ex and made the story of Guardians a choice-based narrative, with decisions that range from simple dialogue choices to more critical plot points that will have an effect on how each member of the crew and other characters treat Star-Lord. Finally, the period between the initial announcement and launch will be significantly shorter than the nearly four year wait for Avengers, with the large chunk of gameplay shown on Sunday representing a much more realistic vision of the final product that is set to release in just four months. With these clear distinctions being established alongside our first look at the game, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy can worry less about the influences of other games and focus on building upon its own strengths ahead of its launch on October 26 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One.