It is kinda funny how one of the most interesting and compelling videogames of this whole year will not get an attention it deserves. But rest assured, it is definitely worth your time and money. First of all, it is the best version of Guardians of the Galaxy to date. I love both MCU movies directed by James Gunn, but characters here are so much more fleshed out, especially Drax, who is not just a comedic relief (sometimes still is tho), but deep, flawed warrior who cannot get over the loss of his family. And believe me, I can continue talking in the same way about Gamora, Quill, Rocket, even Groot (and he is just a tree dammit!) but this is something that you should experience yourself.

What really surprised me it's the plot in general. Well, to be honest, I did not know what to expect from it at all, even from watching the trailers, and, in my opinion, it captured the very essense of GotG - this story and personal and grand in scale at the same time, which is totally mind-blowing, so I guess we all should thank writers at Eidos Montreal for this, these are the same guys who worked on Deus Ex after all.

Presentation is top-notch across the board - environments are rich with detail and variety of places which we can visit during 20-hour campaign is impressive. And the soundtrack, man, the soundtrack. When I first launched the game the very first song that I heard was "Never Gonna Give You Up", so GotG rickrolled me and got my attention for the get go, the rest of OST is brilliant to and listen to "Final Countdown" by Europe during the battle it is just whole another level, as if we are inside Quill's head when he listens to his Walkman during the battle (or whatever cassette player he has).

Speaking of battles the combat itself is... fun. It is not flawless that's for sure, but it has a certain depth to it, which is enough to not leave you bored in the middle of the mission. All Guardians have a set of special abilities which we can combine into simple but effective combos. What I can say for sure - it can be a little jarring at the start of the game but I suggest to give the game some time, buy a couple of abilities for each member of the team and you will not be disappointed, it will be at least fun, just like I said at the start of this paragraph :)

---

If you are still hesitating about buying this game - don't. It is a well-crafted, solid experience that has something that most of the games do not have nowadays - beating and passionate heart.

It is a nice conclusion to a history of Lara before she became a "proper" Tomb Raider, but it suffers from the same "diseases" just like the original and Rise of the Tomb Raider: bland characters, unnecessarily mystified plot, questionable motivation of a villain - nothing changed on that front. But, on the other hand, SOTTR has great atmosphere, georgeous visuals, world that is interesting to explore and well-thought-out side quests. Is it worth your money full-price? No. With a discount? Definitely yes.