I’m a huge fan of Marvel United having backed 2 out of the 3 Kickstarter campaigns from CMON. It is a brilliant game, fast to play, quick action and has a definite end point. Heroes have to act quick in order to prevent the villain completing their master plan. The Guardians of the Galaxy remix, however, is extremely underwhelming as an expansion to Marvel United. It isn’t all bad, but I do not feel it is the first expansion set you should be picking up. Here is why.
The Guardians
The heroes (and the villain) are the only content you will really want from this set. The Guardians of the Galaxy Remix sees Starlord, Rocket, Groot and Gamora introduced to the Marvel United Universe and they are worth it. The minis are highly detailed and each of the characters brings unique attributes to any team of heroes. Groot and Rocket packing loads of firepower whereas Starlord and Gamora are a little more mobile as well as taking on a few more heroic actions. I’ve had a lot of fun using these heroes, that’s to be expected but they are great.
Ronan (the accuser).
A tough villain as you would imagine. We have all seen how powerful this character is in the first movie and so you would expect him to be a big challenge to take down in this game. His BAM’s deal 2 damage to heroes in his location as well as 1 damage to heroes in locations where civilians and thugs are overflowing because these locations have not been well managed. Normally your heroes can be KO’d as often as a villain can, however, against Ronan, 4 KO’d heroes will also result in an auto defeat above and beyond him completing his master plan. This could make for a ridiculously short game. Rest assured he is a handful for any team.
That is the only content really worth getting excited about from this set, the characters. Here’s what else you get.
Plan B
An alternative to playing the standard rules of the game. In Marvel United the heroes are required to complete 2 out of 3 missions before getting to strike the villain. This normally entails rescuing 9 civilians, defeating 9 thugs or completing 4 threats. Then defeat the villain to win. Plan B means the Heroes can win the game by rescuing 12 civilians, defeating 12 thugs and completing all 6 threats without throwing a punch at the villain. You do not need this expansion to play this rule and winning variation. You could manage without it so it is disappointing that this is all CMON came up with for the Guardians of the Galaxy. Disappointing as when have you watched a Marvel movie and not see the heroes battle with the Villain? It doesn’t happen (unless I’ve missed something.)
You also get some new locations to use, 6 iconic locations from the Guardians Universe which are cool but far from essential content for the game. It adds some variation though. That is, it.
Final Thoughts
I love Marvel United and the characters included within this set are awesome so I am not disappointed there. They have featured on the table top many times and are lot of fun to use, as you might expect from this cast. But the additional gameplay content really isn’t there in this expansion and some of the others offer far greater value for your money. For the die-hard fans of The Guardians of the Galaxy though, you’ll probably already own this Guardians of the Galaxy Remix set.