Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - Episode 5: Don't Stop Believin'

Don’t Stop Believin’ helps to undo a lot of damage of previous episodes, but this more level-headed characterization is five episodes too late.

The finale's heightened pace plays to the series' strengths, removing much of what made previous episodes so frequently frustrating, and so perhaps if there is a second season of Telltale's Guardians -- and, like any Marvel movie, you should probably stick around until after the credits for hints as to what might happen next -- we can only hope that it follows the blueprint of Don't Stop Believin'. It's not perfect, but if you're a fan of Telltale's formula or the eponymous Marvel characters, the improved latter half of the series makes Guardians of the Galaxy just about worth playing.

Episode Five brings the season to a positive close, and while we all like a happy ending, it does perhaps paper over a few of the more negative choices you’ve likely made. The character-driven aspects of the series have been brilliant, as has learning more about each of the Guardians’ pasts, but it’s still been foisted by Telltale’s creaky engine and often dull interactivity.

Everything has seemed to us very diluted, schematic and, at times, even unjustifiably hasty.

This is not the ending we'd hoped for: for the whole series you will not care about the main villain and things are not going to change here. The feeling, when you are face to face with the ending credits, is that with five main heroes and with their amazing uniqueness, this series needed more time (and maybe more episodes) in order to be as meaningful and remarkable as it could have been.