Marathon from developer Bungie was one of the more embattled, engrossing titles to watch ahead of its launch.
The long-anticipated extraction shooter from the developer behind the Destiny franchise became meta, in a way. The linking up with Sony, going all-in on Marathon with Destiny 2 in the background and getting beat to market by wildly successful extraction shooter Arc Raiders created a compelling storyline in the video game space.
That story is far from over.
But Marathon’s early returns are just as captivating. The gameplay is as expected, the art direction is one of the most unique in years and the iterations on the niche genre are worth deep exploration, but a huge barrier to entry and some big questions remain.
As always, Bungie arrives with a bang, but the post-launch path will decide all.
There’s nothing on the market like Marathon in the presentation sense.
It’s a unique art direction that, like Destiny, thankfully, doesn’t attempt to be photorealistic. It’s got flair and almost cartoonish things going on at times, bathed in a cyberpunk-ish shell where an extrasolar mission sets big conglomerates and others in a tug-of-war for resources.
Visually, it’s simply a treat. The expected AAA flair is here, right on down to the most minute of details on the weaponry.
When we talk about environmental storytelling, well, Marathon is a case study. Unlike Bungie’s other big effort, there’s no running to a YouTuber for lore dumps. It’s all in the world right in front of the player (or tucked into an exhausting amount of written text in the menus, in a good way).
Distinct landmarks on each of the maps do make themselves known as players invest more time.
Sound design plays a huge role in the experience. It’s not just that every weapon feels distinct, or that the ambient noise and soundtrack are oh-so-fitting. It’s that making too much noise, like engaging with NPC enemies, or startling some wildlife, can lead very real players to a location for winner-takes-all combat.
It’s a strategic thing, too. More time invested in the game means a better understanding of each weapon’s sound design. Hear another squad in an engagement, figure out what they’re using and one suddenly has a major advantage not just via ambush, but understanding of the fight’s factors before it happens.
Again, storytelling via presentation, too. Enemy NPCs will chatter amongst themselves, mimicking real players using proximity chat. It’s tough to tell the difference between real and AI, not just because of realistic maneuvers, but the little tricks of the presentation that fit so well with the overarching setting.
By now, players know the deal with the not-so-niche-anymore genre of extraction shooters. Players choose what gear to load into a round with and, if defeated, will lose that gear for good. That’s keeping it very simple, but the game’s systems create tension during a run in a way most don’t.
As widely expected, this is an extraction shooter that feels like a Bungie FPS. That means best-in-market gunplay. Each gun is weighty and pops.
Where Marathon lags behind its Destiny cousin is in the movement. Things are more grounded by comparison, which is important when so many of the Crucible lovers will be trying the experience. Early, especially, it’s slower and more measured, though time-to-kill (TTK) is a respectable and not instant, like genre-mate Hunt: Showdown, for example.
Destiny 2 players will feel right at home, perhaps almost heartwarmingly so, given the presence of some manufacturers such as MIDA. Gear and other upgrades so attentively crafted to fill specific niches and crannies of gameplay styles is best-in-market stuff. There’s a lot of loot in this game, but none of it feels like filler.
Marathon veers almost fully into the “hero-shooter” space with its so-called runner shells. Think of them like different classes that excel in unique areas. There’s a thief, or more of a tank character. A medic, too. These aren’t new to shooters, but they are newish to extraction shooters and the effort works exceptionally well to keep players experimenting.
The one big negative is an unfortunate one: Marathon’s user interface (UI) is a mess. It’s a good-looking mess, but a mess nonetheless. Yes, players will get more used to it over time, but the investment is steep and keeps players from actually getting out there and attempting another run.
Story, Cryo Archive and More
Intriguing worldbuilding abounds throughout Marathon.
Tau Ceti IV is a runaway colony littered with intrigue in its own right. Just as interesting is the laundry list of runners, conglomerates and security forces grappling for control of its resources and secrets.
Narratively, players have passed on and merely get reinserted into another runner avatar upon death in a run itself. Fun, as are the unique factions players interact with on a minute-to-minute basis.
This worldbuilding neatly weaves in fun gameplay elements, too. In Dire Marsh, a lockdown event asks players to find key cards that let them into the barred-off area…which happens to house the best loot. The key cards…might only be found on other players.
Then there’s Cryo Archive, the endgame content getting the comparisons to Destiny’s Raids. There are elements of that here in terms of puzzles. Think, finding little collectibles to permit passage deeper into the space. Sounds simple, and in a way it is, but dropped into an extraction shooter formula, it’s a tension-inducing affair.
Players could literally get lost for hours in the game’s codex. It’s an exhausting, dense trip into the characters and overall worldbuilding with thousands, if not millions of words to explore. It’s drip-fed through progression and overall time gates, too, with updates likely to keep coming during the game’s lifecycle.
Which is to say, while we’re keeping it basic here, players interested in the story and lore will very much have various ways to explore it in-game.
Overall progression in Marathon is a bit of a mixed bag, mostly because of its genre constraints. Players largely progress through Contracts, which are missions that range from simple to complex.
Each faction in the game has reputation and upgrade trees. These nodes permit highly varied builds on a per-player basis. And in a breath of fresh air for extraction shooters, even small actions progress faction level. That way, even if a player has a bunch of failed runs in a row, they’re still making some measure of overall progress.
That said, Bungie has had problems with respecting a player’s time in the past. Only allowing players to progress one contract at a single time feels artificial here. Losing good loot, or even missing out on contract completion while accidentally doing something else that would have completed a different contract, only for it not to count, can be an exercise in frustration on top of the genre-specific angst that comes with losing multiple runs in a row.
Over in the Armory, Bungie goes with the standard-fare rarity system. This time, it’s determined by mods. They’re extensive and, like the progression of runner shells, encourage experimentation and time-investment.
For now, there are just three maps, not counting Cryo Archive: Perimeter, Dire Marsh, and Outpost. Given the time Marathon spent cooking, it’s a little surprising. But there’s always more to come in live service, right?
Speaking of live service, there’s a battle pass with a premium track, as expected. The first effort is underwhelming, for the most part. How monetization proceeds from here is something to watch.
To make Marathon feel even more uber-competitive, Cryo Archive and a new ranked playlist are almost bizarrely available only on weekends. It’s a formula that will need tweaking, as the gap between hardcore players and those with limited playtime might only grow.
What might uplift or sink Marathon isn’t just the continued quality support…it’s the dreaded “seasonal wipe.” Some extraction shooters have made it optional. Marathon, apparently, isn’t. Doing it all over at the start of a new season isn’t going to appeal to all players, especially in this genre.
To its credit, Marathon runs well and comes with the expected gamut of AAA options in the menus.
Marathon won’t stop being one of the most interesting storylines to watch in gaming anytime soon. It’s really, really good at what it does, but it almost feels a little more hardcore than intended, which limits its upside with a broad audience.
Similar to Destiny 2’s story and loot system as it aged, Marathon has a huge barrier to entry and questions about how it expands in the future, which could pigeonhole it as niche, as opposed to a breakout hit that dominates the extraction shooter space.
Yet, niche can be very good. Marathon is. It’s got the Bungie gameplay and a one-of-one art direction. It opens up new doors and means of progression in extraction shooters.
Marathon is a bit like Tau Ceti IV though, speeding off into the unknown. The upside is huge, but whether it grasps it for beyond its opening season or two remains to be seen.
