Guardians of the Galaxy: Episode Three - More Than a Feeling Review (PS4)

More Than a Feeling is, unfortunately, more of the same for Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy. In our reviews for the previous two episodes, we've talked at length about how the Telltale incarnations of the popular Marvel superheroes feel like a watered down version of their big screen counterparts. We've mentioned the main narrative thrust of the series so far isn't particularly compelling, and seems to be barely moving forward. We've been disappointed by a fairly crummy hit to miss ratio for the gags, and we've spoken about how the prerequsite technical problems that come with a Telltale game are still rearing their ugly heads. All of this still applies to Episode Three - More Than A Feeling, and so if episodes one and two failed to sufficiently blow your skirts up, it's likely that this one won't do much to change that.

The last episode of Guardians left us with a little bit of a cliffhanger, as Star-Lord and Gamora were tracking down the source of the visions that our heroes had been experiencing, while Hala and her goon-squad were in hot pursuit. More Than a Feeling picks up right where we left the Guardians, and predictably, the cliffhanger isn't resolved in the way that Star-Lord was perhaps hoping for, instead serving as an introduction to a surprise bonus character that we won't spoil for you. From there, the overarching plot moves with all of the urgency of a glacier towards the next cliffhanger ending, with the Guardians once again only a couple of steps further forward than where they started the episode.

As with the previous episode, Under Pressure, More Than a Feeling deals more with the personal journeys and discoveries of the characters, rather than advancing the still threadbare plot to any substantial degree. Given how flimsy the narrative of the series is so far that's a wise decision, and while the more in-depth look at Gamora and Nebula's fractious relationship isn't quite as well done as Rocket's tragic back-story was last time around, it's still the strongest aspect of this episode. The scenes exploring the adversarial sisters are very much appreciated, but a couple of them are framed, needlessly, as quick-time event action sequences. These QTEs are still no more entertaining or necessary than they were in the previous episodes, and while they're not quite as egregious as some of the irrelevant fighting scenes in Episode Two, we could probably have cut one of them here and had a little more conversation to better effect.

Guardians of the Galaxy is at its best not when the characters are sword fighting or shooting at each other, but when they're arguing about what to do in a morally ambiguous situation, or when we're learning about what makes their various personalities tick. The big conflict at the heart of More Than A Feeling – and what the various Guardians think should be done – is a difficult moral quandary, not made any easier by the pleas from likeable characters like Rocket and Groot. While whatever you choose doesn't appear to have massive implications for the series going forward, it's still tough knowing you could potentially upset your favourite ally.