Gideon’s Perspective
Marathon’s a fascinating experience for me. I have enough to criticize about it that I likely would have dropped a lesser game altogether. However, Bungie is good at shooters, and you can really feel that long running pedigree in Marathon, it simply feels good to play. So much so, that I’m continuing to play it despite the fact that I think it has a real identity issue. Not aesthetically, of course. The brightly colored visuals, unique setting and AI Corpo lore are another high point for the game.
You can find a video version of this review on YouTube!
No, Marathons identity crisis is related to how it doesn’t fully commit to being one kind of game or another. Obviously, it’s an extraction shooter, but I’m talking on a deeper level. Many of its mechanics end up clashing rather than being complimentary.
The main issue is its TTK, its time to kill, how long it takes to down another player. The TTK in Marathon, is short, very, very short. When a player opens fire, whoever they are aiming at is going down within a split second and a handful of bullets. A low TTK isn’t inherently a bad thing at all, but alongside everything else Marathon presents, it certainly doesn’t feel ideal.
| Gideon’s Bias | Marathon Information |
|---|---|
| Review Copy Used: No | Publisher: Bungie |
| Hours Played: 50+ | Type: Full Game |
| Reviewed On: Xbox Series X | Platforms: PC, Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 |
| Fan of Genre: Yes | Genre: First Person Extraction Shooter |
| Mode Played: N/A | Price: $39.99 |
What Type of Game Am I?
My early adventures into Marathon were riddled with very harsh lessons. You see, Marathon presents itself as a different type of game than it is. You have various shells, essentially classes that you can play as. These shells have various abilities, many of which are movement focused. Thief has a grappling hook, Vandal can double jump and power slide, while Destroyer has a super sprint and power dash.
When you combine those with a very fluid movement system, and an open environment that has many levels above and below ground. You might think that Marathon is a fast-paced game. I sure did, I went in moving around like I was playing Titanfall or Apex Legends, and then reality firmly planted my face into the dirt.
With the TTK so low, Marathon is very much a creep around carefully game. It’s slow, slower than Arc Raiders and much closer to Tarkov. Those movement abilities are meant to be used in small bursts as running around hastily looting will very quickly send you back to the lobby. This somewhat clashes with the theme. I’m playing a Sci-Fi game as a robotic shell with energy shields, why am I as vulnerable as a fleshy human in a semi realistic military setting?
The slowness alone isn’t a problem however, the slowness, taken alone, actually works for Marathon. However, It’s a symptom of rest of the game’s identity crisis. Firstly, is that it’s an extraction shooter. A game about risk vs reward as dying has consequences as you lose any gear you brought in and anything you picked up.
Creeping around for 15 minutes to be downed in half a second by a player you never saw isn’t exactly riveting game play. Yes, that is going to happen a lot. The maps are open with several angles of attack, and Marathon is a first-person shooter where you have a small 90-degree view perspective, these types of death are not just possible but inevitable when combined with the low TTK.
A low TTK works in games like Battlefield where you respawn quickly and keep playing. In an extraction shooter though? It can be grating. Arc Raiders longer TTK gave you time to respond to an attack, and that’s in addition to its wider third person perspective. Marathon’s low TTK and narrow perspective can be a recipe for frustration.
Yes, I’m aware that Tarkov is also like that, and that’s why I don’t play it, and the same reason I bounce off of games like PUBG. Yes, I’m also aware that those games are popular with many players. But this is my review, not theirs.
The next issue is the how the TTK clashes with the loot. The loot and gear in Marathon lends itself to all sorts of build crafting, with different stats and boons in addition to weapons and gear. However, it’s hard for me to care that a head implant increases my Aim Down Sights speed when eliminating an enemy when any given gunfight is going to be over within half a second anyway.
Some boons are definitely more geared toward fighting the robotic UESC, and the UESC were initially very threatening, much like the Arcs in Arc Raiders. However, within 6 days of release Bungie nerfed the UESC and now they mostly just function as alarm systems to alert other players to your presence, and that’s a shame.
Various implants have all kind of boons, but the low TTK means fights are over so quickly that most of them feel impractical. The biggest problem is, I have trouble feeling like gear matters at all in Marathon. It doesn’t matter what I bring in if someone turns a corner from one of my blind sides and sees me first. In that case it doesn’t matter what gear I have, I’m dead regardless.
In fact, there came a point where I was being lazy and didn’t bring in any gear at all, not even a free load out. Just me and my knife. I didn’t feel as if I was at a disadvantage at all while doing this. After all, if I see someone first in close quarters, my knife is just as effective as a gun. I left multiple runs with whole kits, despite bringing nothing in, simply by knifing other players in the back and taking theirs.
Extraction shooters are all about loot and gear, the low TTK greatly diminishes the edge that any gear gives you. It also feels like there is less room for skill expression. While I have had moments where I outsmarted or outplayed someone, a good 70% of my victories came down to me seeing them first, period.
I know I’ll get a lot of hate for this, but if Marathon implemented a higher TTK, I think it would be a much better experience. However, that is very unlikely, as they actually advertise the low TTK as a feature on its store page.
The decision to have a low TTK feels like it’s coming from some insular Reddit echo-chambers rather than thoughtful game design. Like someone read about how the internet hates bullet-sponges without understanding the context or nuance that should be involved in any game design discussion.
Finally, I want to talk about free load outs. You see, Marathon implemented this super cool concept called Rook. Rook is a shell that you can use to go in with free gear in order to loot stuff risk free. Rook can also disguise itself to hide from the UESC enemies, allowing you to get into contested areas easier. The catch is, Rook enters a group game in progress alone and can’t complete contracts.
It’s an incredibly well-balanced trade off. You have the means to go get some gear if you lost a bunch, but you are discouraged from trying to take down other players because you are outnumbered 3 to 1. If you somehow manage it, well you, earned it.
Marathon then proceeds to crap all over this idea, by giving you access to unlimited free load outs that you can take in as any shell and play normally with no risk. There isn’t a lot of incentive to use Rook over a free load out, except for a couple of niche instances. Marathon has its fingers in quite a few conceptual pies, without fully committing to them. This identity crisis can make Marathon feel a bit disjointed against the better parts of its gameplay loop.
Hardcore Shooter
A very important thing to accept about Marathon, is that it’s very hardcore, and at times brutal. If you are expecting to come in, announce that you are friendly and go about looting a building where another player is present, you will very quickly realize that Marathon is not Arc Raiders. PvP is the focus and intent, it’s the main driving factor behind the entire game and heck, there is even a faction that rewards you for it.
When combined with the low TTK and the all or nothing nature of losing your gear in an extraction shooter, the result is very much a game that is not casual friendly. That’s actually not a bad thing and I stand behind them for it. Marathon has a target audience and caters to it, which is not something I was expecting from a Bungie game. If more games catered to target audiences rather than trying to throw a wide net over literally everyone, the whole industry would be better for it.
What this means is, you are going to die a lot in Marathon, and it takes time and effort to get good at the game, and when you do, well, you’re still going to die a lot. The good news is, Marathon isn’t shy about giving you gear. Contracts in particular drown you in goodies, plus you always have access to free load outs
The end result, however, is a game that wants you to have high stakes invested in your success, and that makes for a very tense and exciting experience if you can get into to it. A successful extraction gives you a feeling of triumph and relief not often found in most other games.
Looting & Shooting
The actual act of playing Marathon is like the controller merging with your essence into a magical extension of your hands. To be less dramatic, it feels very good to control. The gunplay is snappy, weighty and buttery smooth. The way each individual gun performs feels great and each one definitely feels like it has its own mechanical personality, even without the 1000s of mods you can attach to them. Just like Bethesda RPGs have a signature feel that other games have yet to replicate, Bungie has a signature feel when into comes to shooters, and that feel is just straight up high-quality controls and gunplay.
PvP encounters may be short, but the act of actually firing your weapon at someone feels nice with plenty of nice feedback, such as the satisfying burst of someone’s shield when you break it. However, even fighting the UESC is good fun. The bots might have a limited enemy variety, but the satisfying pop of their shields and explosive head shots never fails to make the happy chemicals in my brain go weeee!
The audio design also does some seriously great work as you creep around listening for footsteps, distant gunshots and anything else that might let you get the jump on another player or team before they get the jump on you.
The maps themselves have some pretty neat designs that feature both, high verticality and underground tunnels, vents and other interesting terrain. You are able to smoothly jump and climb around the environment which also has some strategic value, such as sneaking in through a broken window on a higher floor rather than opening a noisy door. The environment isn’t just window dressing, it’s a fun staging ground to play in.
Different maps also have various events that can occur that offer rewards if you can figure them out, while also fending off the other players they attract, and it further adds to the tense risk vs reward nature of the game.
I admire the games aesthetics and colorful nature, the game world looks unique with its bright palette and blocky techno art style. It’s the complete opposite of grimy, but it’s also not childlike in its brightness. It’s a refreshing change from the grays and browns of most shooters.
The variety of shells you can play also does a good job of changing things up and expanding how you interact with the world and combat. Playing a Thief with a grappling hook, or Vandals double jump makes certain routes and tactics available that otherwise wouldn’t be.
While many gunfights are decided by who sees who first, that’s not always the case, and when it’s not, the combat really shines. I’ve activated Vandals super speed and leapt and bounced over multiple shipping crates to flank a team in the back with a shotgun. Assassins always go invisible in a smoke screen, and I watched one counter another Assassin by placing a claymore mine inside it. I’ve revived my team at a distance with the Triage shell, and it turned the tides of a losing fight.
Team fights in Marathon can be intense affairs of trying to outplay each other in a lethal frenzy of decision making. Much like the lows of getting knifed in the back from someone you never seen, Marathons combat highs, go really, really high.
The loot itself is exciting to find, from new shields, backpacks, mods and weapons to cores that alter how a specific shell functions. The way loot is distributed is also nice making the entire map viable for looting rather than a few key hot spots. Specific types of materials still spawn more often in certain locations though, so there is still some decision making in deciding where to go if you’re after certain resources.
In many ways Marathon gives me a similar feeling to play a rogue-lite. I’ll get wiped, lose a kit worth 5k, get mad and swear I’m done for the day. Only for that little voice that whispers “One More Run” to suddenly plague my internal monologue. Then one more run turns to two and suddenly it’s 3 AM and I hobble to bed from my digital stupor.
The foundation of Marathons gameplay looks, feels and plays great and is one of the reasons I keep coming back to it. The other, is the clever way Marathon handles progression.
Contractual Obligations
Marathons progression system is handled through 6 corpo factions with a fascinating amount of lore and interesting AI liaisons. Each of these factions has a series of upgrades you can acquire as you gain reputation with them, as well a variety of goods you can buy in the armory.
It’s an interesting system that I’ve grown attached to for several reasons. The upgrade trees give you a goal to set for yourself. In addition to reputation, you also need credits and specific materials to unlock each upgrade, and hunting down those materials is a fun carrot on a stick. You can’t do everything at once, so you have a lot of decisions to make about what is important to you and when.
To gain reputation with these factions you can take on contracts that give you objectives to perform during a run. Some contracts can be frustrating. In particular any contract that requires you to do several things in one run AND also extract safely. However, they offer an ongoing activity to boost your progression. One aspect that I really like is the fact that you passively gain reputation by just playing.
Each faction has a set of basic activities that they award reputation for anytime you perform them. One faction rewards you for extracting, another for calling in supply drops, one wants you to take out other runners while another wants you to take out UESC. Essentially this means that you are always making some progress, even when you fail. The closer your playstyle aligns with a given faction’s ideals, the faster you rise with them. It’s an addictive system.
Then as you unlock upgrades with a faction, they offer more and more items to be purchased in the armory, with each faction having a specialty. Another thing I like is the barter system, each faction has a rotating stock of items that they will barter to you, meaning you can exchange rare salvage for them. I’m always excited to see a faction offer a big stack of shield recharges for a Tarox Seed, and similar deals. The barter system adds additional value to the salvage you find, and I like that a lot.
The inventory UI certainly has some issues, like several items sharing the same visual icon but with separate abilities or values. But I do enjoy the routine of building my load outs piece by piece from my vault, and the armory. If I’m feeling lazy, I can always run a free load out. But kitting yourself out is part of the magic that I enjoy.
Verdict
Marathon has a solid foundation that cracks in places due to its identity crisis. Its tense extraction gameplay and high-octane moments are often punctuated by streaks of pure frustration thanks to its low TTK. That same TTK can also dampen its otherwise excellent build crafting, because what’s the point when a gunfight is over in the blink of an eye either way?
On the other hand, Bungies signature high quality shooter pedigree is a fantastic fit for the extraction genre. Moving around the excellently crafted and colorful compounds of an abandoned Tau Ceti colony feels fantastic. The gunfights, when they last long enough to enjoy them are incredibly exhilarating.
While I wish and hope that Bungie would tweak certain aspects, I still think Marathon is a solid shooter and I greatly appreciate its willingness to cater to a specific, if hardcore audience. I’m still addicted enough to continue playing it, despite my complaints. While I think it falls short of its competition, mainly another recent extraction shooter featuring robotic enemies. I still want to see Marathon succeed anyway and I look forward to seeing Bungie expand upon and tweak it.
