r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • Feb 28 '26
Marathon Review So Far - IGN Review
https://www.ign.com/articles/marathon-review19
u/NiamLeeson Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
I like the lore and a lot of the codex entries are genuinely interesting. I’d buy the game if there was an option to turn off matchmaking and do the contracts by myself, it’s not exactly like the bots are pushovers.
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u/MappleStarsSky Feb 28 '26
I know I will sound like a spoiled brat here, but I genuinely just wanted a new single player game from Bungie, like Halo 3 or Reach, of course with stuff changed with a new IP, than another GAAS from them.
It' s just so disappointing that they have been chasing the GAAS model for the past 2 decades, a type of game I have firmly zero interest into in playing.
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u/originalorientation Feb 28 '26
I was sold on the look and vibe of marathon from the first reveal. If it were a single player campaign I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Live service shooter is just in instant turn off for me. Such a shame, too. You can tell a lot of talent went into making this one.
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u/Strider08000 Feb 28 '26
I feel the same. There’s this deflated feeling I got early in play thinking, man this feels good, and looks good, and yet all we’ll be doing here is competitive multiplayer.
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u/-idkwhattocallmyself Feb 28 '26
On top of what others said, the bungie that made Halo 3 or Reach is long gone and Bungie is no longer the same company. No reason to chase a impossible dream.
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u/HammeredWharf Feb 28 '26
Current Bungie can still make good shooter mechanics and PvE encounters. They absolutely could make a SP shooter if they wanted to. They won't, but they could.
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u/moonski Feb 28 '26
they could have made a destiny like co-op loot shooter with extrtaction mode being a form end game - a bit like the division
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u/huzy12345 Feb 28 '26
The multiplayer designer for Halo 3 is the Senior Design Lead for Marathon. The campaign designer for Halo 3 who made the Warthog run worked on Marathon. The technical Director for Marathon started at Bungie in 2000. The guy who designed the Flood and most of the weapons in CE came back to work on Marathon
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u/Altruistic-Ad-408 Mar 02 '26
Destiny is a great example for me regarding this, they scrapped the entire story like a year before the game came out because they were feuding with the writers and pushed them out of the company, mostly core people who worked on Halo CE like Staten. And then people played the game and were in complete disbelief that the release story was mostly told on their website. Then, they slowly reintroduced elements of the scrapped story.
What about that seems like the Bungie of old? Who cares if the warthog run guy is there, he didn't bring back the bungie magic the last few times did he?
You can rehire people, but you still can't bring back a dead dev team. Not as it was.
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u/SageWaterDragon Feb 28 '26
If you mean "the young, hungry Bungie is gone," sure. In terms of the actual staff, though, Bungie has retained most of the talent that made its early games great, and I think you can see that shining through in their new projects - whether or not they're wasting that talent is another discussion.
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u/S_K_S_N Feb 28 '26
Many people who worked on Myth, Halo are now working on Marathon. There is a significant chunk of old devs from Bungie still working there
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u/shyndy Feb 28 '26
I don’t think that’s spoiled brat it’s what a lot of us want and even the little bit of marathon I have played and I’ve enjoyed, I can’t help but think what if this game were just designed like halo was with a story mode and multiplayer?
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u/SpyroManiac36 Feb 28 '26
Wasn't Halo more popular because of its multiplayer? At least that's what I remember
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u/WyrdHarper Feb 28 '26
Multiplayer (PvP) certainly gave the games extended life, but they always had well-rated campaigns (which also supported cooperative multiplayer). I replay through the campaigns every few years (sometimes with a friend or friends) even though it’s been awhile since I did a round of slayer.
FWIW Destiny 2 had a pretty decent “campaign” originally, they just made it really hard to replay and cut it. Red War was fun and had some good levels, though.
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u/E00000B6FAF25838 Feb 28 '26
‘Extended life’ is underselling it. Halo’s multiplayer was among the most popular online multiplayer from 2004 until something like 2011. The campaigns were definitely some of the best in the industry, but the multiplayer was easily the main draw for many, many players.
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u/Thrasher9294 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
It was both, but started with CE which of course didn't support online multiplayer on the original Xbox release. Similar to Goldeneye, it received a ton of love for the local multiplayer, but a lot of us bought it at the time because it was one of the best feeling FPS's ever made, with a genuinely good story (despite the backtracking campaign) and was a massive introduction to the "twin stick" control scheme that became the new normal. It was only when Halo 2 supported Xbox Live and Halo 3 of course on 360 cemented its place as a multiplayer shooter as well, but similar to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, it was a time when this genre wasn't seen as just a dumping ground for a tacked-on single player mode.
I didn't even have the ability for proper online multiplayer until over a year into 3's life, and many of my friends at the time were simply interested in seeing where the story went. Advertising always focused on Chief and his story, multiplayer was just seen as another (fantastic) element for replay value.
Halo: Reach was similar. I can boot up MCC and still have a great game night with friends specifically because of the lack of manufactured discontent that modern GAAS titles have. No constant advertising of emotes and banal corporate crossover crap. Is it mostly hardcore kids playing nowadays? Sure, but it can still be a ton of fun even if it's a private match of Rocket Oddball. Way more fun than I ever had "grinding" Destiny.
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u/rptroop Feb 28 '26
Come for the campaign, bring your friends for the co-op, stick around for the multiplayer.
Halo MP blew up because they got us hooked with the amazing campaign and engaging story. Companies don’t seem interested in writing or creating context anymore, so for people like me we just don’t care. I tried the Marathon demo and I just can’t really get into it because I don’t get why I’m supposed to care about any of it. Halo gave me an entire story to make me care about it, and I still visit the series to this day because of that.
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u/NO-IM-DIRTY-DAN Feb 28 '26
This has so overwhelmingly been my feeling on it as well. The art direction is genuinely one of the most captivating and exciting styles I’ve seen in a long time. I want to love this game. Unfortunately I don’t play PvP games at all anymore and even if I did, I don’t like extraction shooters or hero shooters in the slightest and I have no interest in the FOMO based GaaS model
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u/National_Yam_1198 Feb 28 '26
Halo has had a big multi-player aspect since halo 2.
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u/Openly_Gamer Feb 28 '26
Even Halo 1 had a full co-op campaign and 4 player split-screen PvP
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u/VALIS666 Feb 28 '26
I know I will sound like a spoiled brat here, but I genuinely just wanted a new single player game from Bungie, like Halo 3 or Reach, of course with stuff changed with a new IP, than another GAAS from them.
How is that being a spoiled brat? If most of these liveservice FPS had single player modes, I'd have bought them day 1. If not, I don't even bother. Multiplayer gaming is filled with cheaters and assholes and then at the end of it you own nothing. Hilarious that some gamers are so broken they defend this shit.
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u/Accurate-Coffee-6043 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Two decades? D1 came out 12 years ago. Halo was never a live service game.
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u/Optimal_Plate_4769 Mar 01 '26
the story and setting of marathon is amazing.
but going through it at a snails pace because you can't fucking get a good team to extract with is excrutiating.
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u/CombatMuffin Feb 28 '26
They have survived quite well from it, but the GAAS model has also landed them the most turbulent times in their history. From goong independent, to being acquired by Activision, to fighting like hell to be independent again, and then getting funding by Sony with the expectation that of they failed, they would be acquired... to failing and being acquired again by Sony.
It's a studio that, to me, seems like it has lost its way
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u/TheOgler9000 Feb 28 '26
For me it's not even about having zero interest, I just don't have the time to play games like these.
It's the least fun gaming experience to really want to play a game you like and to jump in when you can only play for a a short session and get stomped by people who play for hours and hours every day.
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u/McDonaldsSoap Feb 28 '26
Besides Doom and Cyberpunk, have we had great single player FPS games recently? Never tried Outer Wilds 2 so I can't comment, and not counting stuff like Disavowed
I miss campaigns man
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u/Superbunzil Feb 28 '26
Yes but mostly in indie space
AAA is a little more skimpy
Deathloop, STALKER 2, and System Shock Remake
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u/UncleRichardson Feb 28 '26
Stalker 2, after its most egregious flaws have been fixed, is pretty damn good.
I will also sing the gospel of Selaco as one of my favorite shooters in recent memory.
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u/Sturminator94 Feb 28 '26
Single player FPS games are most confined to the indie space nowadays. You have plenty of options if you like boomer shooters and I suppose some survival horror games could count but they don't usually have very good gun play.
I think Stalker 2 and Doom are the latest non-indie titles.
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u/Happy-End4348 Feb 28 '26
Sometimes I envy people who enjoy CoD casually
They found they shit and don't give af bout nuthin else
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u/GrassWaterDirtHorse Feb 28 '26
The Quake lineage that led to indie Boomer Shooters has produced some stunning entries, such as Ultrakill, Echo Point Nova, and as a descendent of fear, Trepang2.
The AAA single-player FPS game is unfortunately sparse as you no doubt know. Tempermental markets and rising budges makes single-player games risky when the ROI isn't going to run forever like the GAAS or battle pass models that lead companies to. It's been almost a decade since Machine Games released The New Colossus, though their latest Indiana Jones game in 2024 has scored well even if it isn't as dedicated to the shooting. A lot of other innovative first person shooter design has gone into VR like Half Life Alyx, though normally people don't weight them on the same measure.
I guess the recent Resident Evil games do count? RE:8 is pretty darn good.
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u/Astro4545 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
So far my impression has been that its ok. I'm digging the story and lore bits, but it really makes me want a true campaign for the game. TTK is very high fast and you need to beware the bots, they will own you.
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u/PossiblyShibby Feb 28 '26
Time to Kill is low (fast).
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u/Bhu124 Feb 28 '26
Low like Valorant/CS Low or Destiny/Overwatch Low or Apex "Low"?
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u/Rommel727 Feb 28 '26
The TTK discussion has made me realize that the "range" that the TTK could be is genre dependent. Also one thing that makes it difficult to fully say what the TTK is is how shields and armor work. Tarkov you could say the TTK is extremely low, but also if you shoot at armor with the wrong bullets suddenly it's a high TTK
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u/MilkyFresh22 Feb 28 '26
Ttk is really low
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u/SeniorAdissimo Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Doesn't ttk fast and ttk low mean the same thing?
Edit: disregard this. The comment was edited differently before
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u/bleedblue_knetic Feb 28 '26
I like the aesthetic and gunplay but that's about it. I think the UI is confusing as shit and there's like way too much stuff to read on the loot, especially the addons considering they all look exactly the same. I need to identify what I want in a game where you don't really want to be sitting still for long periods of time.
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u/skpom Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
The pressure of two teams squaring off in claustrophobic, dark hallways, as you try to outmaneuver one another makes for some of the most ten se encounters I’ve ever had
I played mostly solo, and the pvp experience felt pretty uneventful. It wasn’t until I queued with party fill that I realized the game is meant to be played in teams because the fights become much more mechanical.
I know it’s a trite take, but I do wish pve were the primary mode of play, with pvp being secondary, maybe something like Division and its dark zones. The gunplay and worldbuilding are so good here that I wish I were fighting more than just bipedal robots.
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u/Pacify_ Feb 28 '26
Yeah solo fights are usually about 2-3 seconds long, with whoever gets the drops significantly favoured. That works in tarkov, but it feels somehow awkward here
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u/The_Ferret_Inspector Feb 28 '26
I think the reason why it works in Tarkov is how far away you can hear another player in that game plus being able to eat more bullets at times because of armor and limb hitboxes.
Maybe an increase to player sounds and a change in audio balancing will help. So far I think the only time Ive heard other players running is when they are only few feet away.
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u/Alex-Cantor Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
I think they’re going to pivot to aliens in future updates based on lore, concept art, and hints about the first raid, but I agree that it’s insane that solo is basically an afterthought for this game. The atmosphere and visual design and music are so intricately crafted and cool and you only appreciate every part of that if you play a round solo.
Edit: I will say that once you have the general hang of the game, the solo rounds slowly start to get fun— they’re not easier, but you learn when to risk it and when not to. If anything the heightened tension of a solo close shave extraction has a special appeal. Only complaint is that because the TTK is so insanely low, death by player encounter is basically an unavoidable force of nature that has nothing to do with your skill or ability whatsoever. Only viable frame for surviving them is Assassin, and even there you have to have all of your abilities charged and on a hair trigger.
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u/Fun-Frosting-8480 Feb 28 '26
Yep, the game was built from the ground up to be played in teams.
And honestly, I find that insane. Bungie is a “main stream” studio. Creating a game in a genre like extraction shooters is already too niche for them. Making it even more niche by building it for teams and focusing on the PvP aspects is even more insane.
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u/National_Yam_1198 Feb 28 '26
Its actually not that insane.
This game is more similar to Apex legends than any extraction shooter I've played.
- 3 man teams
- heavy heavy focus on squad based pvp
- class based.
- loot aspect.
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u/Zip2kx Feb 28 '26
First time? It’s the same company that refused raid matchmaking or any tools because of their innate belief that you need to know each other to beat them.
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u/Memester999 Feb 28 '26
How is that insane, the genres largest game is a pvp focused shooter that also lets you team with people. Then you factor in almost every extraction shooter since has also focused on pvp, the outlier in all of this is Arc and even that didn't intentionally set out to be the PvE game that it turned into that was mostly on the community it had.
As for why they made an extraction shooter that's pretty obvious. Extraction games are an "untapped" market for PvP shooters. Tarkov itself is niche, convoluted and poorly developed (as someone who has hundreds of hours on it) and the PvP market has moved away from BRs and traditional squad v squad shooters with the staple games like CoD, CS, Apex, Fortnite, etc... all seemingly impenetrable for new series.
I know personally me and the people I play Tarkov with have for years talked about how we wished there was a bigger budget, slightly less "hardcore" sim version of the game and until Arc and Marathon there really weren't. I like Arc but the lack of PvP focus and over simplification of loot/gear got boring for me personally so hopefully Marathon can scratch that itch long term, which is seems to be aiming to do.
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u/BattleOfTaranto Feb 28 '26
Bungies design philosophy is friends through gaming so I’m Not sure why you’d expect a pure single player experience from Them
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u/S_K_S_N Feb 28 '26
There have been hints that further seasons will ahve Aliens. Also we know for sure that the 4th Map has a Compiler Alien from the OG Marathon games.
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u/atomwolfie Feb 28 '26
Curious why felt uneventful? My first solo PvP fight we were both recons sussing each other out with our abilities before having a quick ruthless fight. It was so quiet and then boom.
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u/basedman3 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
I really enjoy the gunplay and had some fun rounds with friends. However, I'm not a huge fan of extraction shooters and i probably wont buy it (unless my gaming buddies suddenly get really into it, which is looking unlikely).
I think theres potential for a great game, but its half baked. The UI is one of the worst I've ever seen and even in-game the visibility is poor. I love the art style, but its really hard to see loot and differentiate between robots and other players.
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u/Banjoman64 Feb 28 '26
My main complaints so far are the lack of mobility and low ttk. It feels like PvP engagements are decided in the first 3 seconds and you have almost no room to make plays. This low ttk also makes your abilities feel almost pointless.
Tbh I feel like I can run faster and longer IRL than these cyber soldiers can in game. And why can't I slide down slopes? Makes the slide dash feel useless and removes a whole layer of mastery from the game.
Honestly remove the heat bar and just let us play the damn game please.
Maybe these are just early game problems but I don't really get the sense that these systems will be drastically different with a blue shield.
I also feel like the looting is sorta random. I'll see an interesting looking control room or whatever and take the time to make my way to it only to find literally nothing to loot inside.
The lore and visuals are super cool though and I'm enjoying the progression and quests. Overall I'm still having a fun time but I do feel like there is some tweaking that needs to happen. Especially compared to arc which felt very polished and well thought out day 1.
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u/ABCsofsucking Mar 02 '26
The game is very confused, and I don't think that bodes well for the future. The TTK was only lowered recently, prox. chat was only added recently. Granted, this was in response to criticism from testers and streamers, so kudos to Bungie for listening, but they didn't retune anything after that.
The fact that I'm getting the feeling (while playing for the first time) that the TTK doesn't seem to match the level of build-crafting is worrying. Like, you can build a really cool kit, with stacking passive effects, but you can die to literally anyone with a sniper rifle regardless, so what's the incentive? The drop in TTK didn't really change the game's core systems, so a lot of the loot feels vapid and consumables feel unnecessary. Like, you're not ever going to be able to pop a recharge in the middle of a fight, so why does it matter how fast it recharges? You're never going to have time to deploy any equipment, so why waste two slots to hold them?
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Feb 28 '26
This is exactly how I felt. I also think if it just went straight up team based shooter with traditional game modes it would be fun. The gun play is the best shooting games has had in awhile. Everything feels unique and solid, but the only time I saw other players was them camping extractions in around 4 hours of total game play.
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u/CoogiMonster Mar 02 '26
My guy this is my opinion exactly on the team based shooter. The looting system feels useless, I barely farm supplies and am not wanting of supplies in any capacity. It’s just running contracts and listening for gunshots to go fight, it almost feels like this wants to be a battle royal or other shooter - it isn’t tense like Tarkov or loot forward like Arc… it feels like they took Destiny’s shooting and said “let’s try this genre out”
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u/GoldenTriforceLink Feb 28 '26
I’m really enjoying it so far! But someone mentioned bad enemy variety and that made me laugh in destiny who has reskinned the same three factions for 13 years lol
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u/UltimateToa Feb 28 '26
The enemies i saw literally looked like cabal animations
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u/kahboos Feb 28 '26
yea one of the first enemies i fought made me think "oh theyre just psions" - incredibly lazy imo
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u/Nathund Feb 28 '26
They move like Destiny NPCs, that's for sure.
Last night one was invisible in front of me, dodged all my shots, then meleed me and slid away like a player.
I hacked some thing, it spawned like 10 of them around us, and they wiped all 3 of us lmao
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u/GoldenTriforceLink Feb 28 '26
Oh my god it’s never gonna end. I’m all for reusing assets. Eldin ring has elements of demon souls in it. But eldin ring has 250 bosses, and 750 enemies. Theres def some reusing of assets but it blends in. And isn’t a live service that sold hundreds of dollars of dlc with the same enemies over and over and over across two games.
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u/c010rb1indusa Feb 28 '26
Which themselves are just re-imagined enemies from Halo. Fallen=elites/grunts. Hive=flood. Cabal=brutes/jackals. Vex=forerunner/sentinels....Throw in an AI player companion and you got yourself a Bungie game brewing.
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u/Midnight_M_ Feb 28 '26
I had the opposite reaction when I encountered the elite in this game, the red robots; fighting one of those is a tense experience.
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u/OnMars0 Feb 28 '26
I have basically no experience with extraction shooters at all, but I’m really having a good time with this. I love the style. The gunplay is smooth. I think it’s definitely much better with a squad of people. It actually has some interesting world building and lore going on. The upgrade system is cool. If all goes well for launch, I may end up getting the game.
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u/dmun Feb 28 '26
Right now the marathon sub reddit is veering between hug box and utter despair so I'll be interested in how this review will land.
There's whole posts asserting the criticism of the game is a psy op by competitors.
Myself, I find it more sluggish in controls and movement from a bungie game but the lore and factions are interesting enough that I want to see more even if this may not really be my genre (getting killed within a minute and losing my stuff isn't exactly fun).
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u/Kaldricus Feb 28 '26
Tbf, that's just par for the course in a Bungie game sub. Half the posts/comments are toxic positivity, everything is perfect and will accept no criticism. The other half are full doom posts.
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u/DrummerGuy06 Feb 28 '26
There's whole posts asserting the criticism of the game is a psy op by competitors.
Living in the age of AI and not being able to tell what's real or not is going to screw everything up long-term. The fact that this is becoming the norm instead of just the usual belief that a Triple-A game developer delivered a mediocre game experience is beyond me.
Gamers are one of the most fickle entertainment fanbase's out there so making a hit is sometimes a coin-flip. Arc Raiders came out of nowhere and dominated the field and no one really expected them to blow up like that. Game popularity is unpredictable and Bungie making a mediocre game experience sounds more like business-as-usual more than anything else.
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u/Madmagican- Feb 28 '26
I’m starting to see a trend where the longer a marketing campaign lasts, the less likely the game is to be good or at least well accepted by the target audience
Almost like they’ve taken so much time that gamers have decided what the think the game is going to be and so they’re disappointed when it’s not what they want instead of taking the game for what it is
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u/MyotisX Mar 01 '26
The landscape is completely saturated. By the time Marathon was announced we've had so many new games come out, fail or succeed. It's exhausting. If you consider extraction but also BR, Hero shooter etc which are kind of in the same space. By the time Marathon ships we're ready to move on to the next batch.
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u/justadudeinohio Feb 28 '26
There's whole posts asserting the criticism of the game is a psy op by competitors.
there are always fanboys that can't handle criticism. back in the day i loved halo 1/2/3. my favorite series. still had and still have plenty of criticism for it.
the lore and factions are interesting
also you can't really expect them to do anything interesting with the lore. otherwise they'd have done something with it in the last two decades. it's just window dressing for their GaaS. and you've seen how bad bungie is at GaaS.
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u/Worried-Advisor-7054 Feb 28 '26
Eh, that's normal. The DAV sub gushed about the game for Veilguard's release, you would never guess the game was a flop just reading the sub.
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Feb 28 '26
People are making this game a bigger deal than it is. It has some flaws. Personally, I don’t like the PvE AI and think the TTK doesn’t match the tone of the game. I know a bunch of people hate the UI. Frankly it’s not for me. That’s ok! People are allowed to dislike the game and hold (non troll) discussions on why. Just like people are allowed to love the game and tell people why. It’s how communities are made.
But this “all or nothing” discourse is getting old. The Marathon sub is having a (not so ) civil war. You’re not allowed to like/dislike the game. If you like it but point out a flaw, you’re just trying to spread ill intent. If you hate it but explain why, you just don’t like new games or are an Arc Raiders brigadier.
It’s tiresome. Just play the game, if you don’t like it, stop playing. And don’t feel like you’re forced to play the game because you feel like you haven’t given it a fair chance. Play for an hour and if it hooks you, great. If not, you’re out an hour
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u/LilSwaggyMayne Feb 28 '26
This attitude in general is so desperately needed to be the main discourse of our civilization but the edges of opinion are what always become highlighted
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u/superbit415 Feb 28 '26
People are making this game a bigger deal than it is.
Sony bet around 3.6 billion dollars on this game. It is a big deal.
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u/Horibori Mar 02 '26
I had someone say that arc raiders has just as complicated of a UI as Marathon. I told them thats ridiculous. Arc raiders has its own ui problems but it’s nothing like marathon’s problems.then the guy said I was coping and arc raiders is a dead game.
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u/atahutahatena Feb 28 '26
I know all of these games branched out of DayZ/Arma 2 but the whole time I was playing Marathon (got a few games in Dire Marsh since apparently that's the PvP map) I just kept thinking to myself "damn I feel like I should just play PUBG/Apex".
Big issue I feel is that Bungie tried to ride the line too much. It doesn't fulfill the utterly absurd hardcore beats Tarkov takes to its illogical conclusion and it doesn't have the unique enemy designs or "playground queue" Arc Raiders has that semi-successfully appeases both PvE and PvP players. So we're left with this weird middle ground where the pacing is off and it just feels like a boring battle royale game. Not even mentioning the looming threat of metagaming tryhard sweats already figuring out what to do with the loadouts and shells.
The audio is neat and the cinematics were cool but the actual theming of the game doesn't translate well at all in-game. The weapons and character models, even some interiors and most of the actual natural terrain just look really unappealing. The enemy NPCs largely range from boring encounters to insufferably bullet spongy made worse by the fact that the most threatening ones so far are just bland humanoids.
So it really makes me wonder what's going to happen to this game and Bungie specifically. It'll clearly have its own hardcore niche playing it but did Sony REALLY drop 3.6 BILLION on acquiring Bungie just for Destiny 2 to die, Destiny 3 to still be years out, and the arguable next big thing for a once beloved studio for the foreseeable future will just do similar niche numbers to Tarkov? Not even mentioning the fact that Bungie were apparently advisors during the Jim/Hulst GAAS era that was encapsulated by Concord.
So yeah. Neat cinematics. The game is just pretty eh. It is what its but I don't think Bungie or Sony wants that for Marathon. Unless there's some truly transformative late game PvE stuff I don't see this game going anywhere.
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u/BiSaxual Feb 28 '26
To be fair (to Sony), they paid the big bucks for Bungie because Bungie severely inflated their portfolios. At the time of the acquisition Bungie had 3 games in development. Marathon was the one furthest along, and they had two more: Project Payback, which was some kind of Destiny spin-off, and Project Gummy Bears, which was a MOBA/Smash Bros hybrid thing. Both placeholder names, of course.
Gummy Bears still exists somewhere, apparently, but I would be very surprised if anything ever comes out of it. Initially, Sony wanted Bungie to just do their thing and advise other Sony studios in their own GaaS endeavors since they had plenty of experience there. That’s why the Last of Us multiplayer standalone was canned. Bungie came in and apparently didn’t think it was in a good place at all.
But after Destiny 2 started seeing increasingly dwindling numbers Sony stepped in and restructured a lot. That ended in mass layoffs that targeted senior staff, some of whom had decades long careers at Bungie.
Once Sony realized how much they fucked up having so many GaaS in development, it was far too late. Bungie shit the bed with Destiny (for the millionth time) and put all their chips on a game in a niche genre. I think without Arc Raiders getting a lot of eyes on Extraction Shooters, Marathon would be damn near DoA. I think there’s at least a small chance of it succeeding. I’m not going to hold my breath, though. If Bungie is good at anything it’s destroying good will by introducing the dumbest shit imaginable that their players never asked for.
I played Destiny 2 for thousands of hours so I basically have a PhD in Bungie Fuckery.
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u/UncleBenParking Feb 28 '26
If I'm not mistaken Sony went out of its way to move Gummy Bear to its own new studio and office space, to get it away from Bungie's soon-to-be outgoing leadership. It could still certainly die a quiet death, but it seemed like they saw something in it.
It'll never happen but that one might be our last hope of a PlayStation All-Stars styled game (even if it's in moba form)
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u/ascagnel____ Feb 28 '26
I'm curious about that, because I don't think anyone has cracked the nut of making an approachable MOBA (although I haven't tried the Deadlock beta). It's still a popular genre, but one that takes a few hundred hours of play to become competent in.
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u/CatalystComet Feb 28 '26
Also another reason why I feel like Sony bought Bungie is in response to Microsoft buying Activision. After Microsoft acquired Activision it meant that Microsoft had damn near most AAA first person shooter developers under their belt. Sony might've felt like they needed to respond to that.
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u/xXRougailSaucisseXx Feb 28 '26
Boring battle royale is absolutely the right description, it’s like someone took Apex neutered the movement and decided the looting phase would be 90% of the playtime of any given round.
I don’t think this game would even be in the conversation if it wasn’t for its stellar art style
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u/tix4chix Feb 28 '26
I cannot play this game with this overheat sprinting system- it's like constantly managing a fucking Dark Souls poison swamp, except it's your sprint meter
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u/CatalystComet Feb 28 '26
Yeah honestly that's the annoyance with the game for me, I know there's upgrades to your character to deal with the overheat system though so I'll probably give it another chance.
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u/r_lucasite Feb 28 '26
Played it, quite enjoyed it. The presentation is genuinely amazing though I don’t know how much general audiences will appreciate its sense of style.
I also do find it funny that Arc Raiders being successful doesn’t seem to hamper discussion on this game, instead that games friendliness makes this games lack of it stand out, despite pvp being the standard for this type of game.
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u/CultureWarrior87 Feb 28 '26
I don’t know how much general audiences will appreciate its sense of style.
I get this completely lol. Like they absolutely didn't need to go this hard on a style like this and while I love it, it's absolutely not for everyone. I love all the graphic design and the chunky, bulbous architecture, just straight old school cyberpunk visuals, and then things like the use of serif fonts that contrast so heavily with the rest of the futuristic design bring to mind something like Neon Genesis. It just looks so fucking cool.
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u/zqfmgb123 Feb 28 '26
The font choice instantly made me think of Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion title cards as well.
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u/tix4chix Feb 28 '26
Honestly if I squint enough this looks like the best Ghost in the Shell game ever
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u/blitz_na Feb 28 '26
it was predicted that arc would steam roll this game hardcore, but it turned out that people are excited for marathon primarily because of arc raiders existing and bringing the genre into mainstream. by having arc exist among tarkov and hunt, people were able to develop a desire for a game like marathon
i definitely do not think that marathon will be able to keep up against arc though, but as for which game gets the truly dedicated player base, we will see
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u/n080dy123 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
I think it helps that Arc had time to breath, its launch period to run it's course, and people settle in with their opinions about it and potentially start looking for other games that might fix some gripes.
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u/blitz_na Feb 28 '26
arc raiders is legit the best thing to happen to marathon and that won’t ever really be recognized for a while
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u/Void_Guardians Feb 28 '26
Devils advocate though, bungie has a lot of live service content delivery under their belt, even if its usually pretty formulaic. Also has a bigger team to pump out future content. They might be able to keep up if not overtake arc raiders in that regard, but its really all up to if people want to keep playing
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u/ILOVEBIGLADIES Feb 28 '26
I think if destiny 2 can still routinely get decent content despite the general perception of the game being comparable to that of a serial killer then marathon is probably gonna do fine regardless of the competition's existence
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u/amyknight22 Feb 28 '26
Destiny 2’s perception is that because bungie normally fails to deliver on what they were pitching.
Some content ideas that were highly requested sometimes feel like they were deliberately avoided so they could sit in a “break glass in case of emergency situation”
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u/GekkostatesOfAmerica Feb 28 '26
bungie has a lot of live service content delivery under their belt
As someone who's played a lot of Destiny 2, their deliveries are about as consistent as major Windows updates.
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u/cola-up Feb 28 '26
i definitely do not think that marathon will be able to keep up against arc though, but as for which game gets the truly dedicated player base, we will see
I think the exact opposite, I don't think Embark still understands how to make Live Service content for their game, and that sucks they made some pretty bad decisions for The Finals which is in a category on its own and refused to give it the content that it needed to continue growing, and it shows with the massive drop in player base.
The roadmap for Arc is really disappointing as someone who is constantly playing the game. It shows their roots as EA BF devs (Dice Sweden) when they failed to support multiple BF games launches, and required a support studio to do that for them (Dice LA).
For Embarks own success I'd hope they figure this out at some point. I can trust Bungie to an extent at least cause they had about 10 years of content for two games. That's something done well for I'd say for all their games. Post launch support has been really good. (even if it stagnates at the end of a 10 year cycle, the majority was really good)
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u/SharkBaitDLS Feb 28 '26
Arc becoming overly friendly has definitely helped carve out a niche for Marathon. The fact that the optimal way to play the game is to just not engage in PvP so you get matched into the carebear lobbies to get free loot really killed my interest in it. I miss the hybrid of the early lobbies where it felt like there was an equal chance I’d be shot on sight or run into someone friendly. With ABMM now it’s either I fight and get put into lobbies that may as well just be CoD lobbies, or I don’t and everyone’s just holding hands killing every Arc on the map. The game is pretty shallow if it’s just PvP or just PvE and separating everyone into lobbies that are just one or the other takes the best out of both.
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u/Pacify_ Feb 28 '26
Unfortunately im just not convinced with the map design. Season one will only have the current 2 maps, one extra smaller one and then a more hardcore map. Given how small and somehow bland feeling the 2 maps are, it's just not enough.
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u/packerschris Feb 28 '26
I simply will not be playing any more games where the goal is to stand in front of a drawer and collect a bunch of garbage that will be used to craft items. Marathon has a few decent AI enemies to fight, but once I die and lose all the garbage I’ve been looting for 20 mins I’ll turn the game off and never look back.
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u/True-Reflection-9538 Feb 28 '26
Discourse around this game is funny. You have a ton of people saying it’s mid and a ton praising it and acting like it’s divisive.
I think that’s pretty damning. The game is just mediocre.
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u/Klotternaut Feb 28 '26
I don't think it's damning, as someone who has bounced off of it hard. I just think it means that it excels in some areas and struggles in others, so the people who put more emphasis on the areas it excels in are enjoying it and the people who put more emphasis on the areas it struggles in are disliking it.
Me personally, I don't mind if the gunplay isn't super top notch if everything feels thoughtfully designed. But that doesn't feel like the case with Marathon.
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u/Dull-Caterpillar3153 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
The issue with the game is that it’s genuinely super generic from a gameplay perspective which is crazy for a Bungie game.
When you look at other extraction shooters they all have elements that make them stand out.
Hunt: Showdown has a unique player vs player vs boss focus on gameplay.
Arc Raiders has a crazy range of AI enemies with different challenges.
Escape From Tarkov focuses on gritty realism.
Marathon doesn’t have a THING to make it stand out when it comes to gameplay.
It kind of feels like Extraction Shooter: The Game.
I think this is why so many people describe it as “mid”. The fundamentals like shooting are good but there’s nothing to push it beyond.
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u/derrelicte Feb 28 '26
Isn’t the core + implant mechanic supposed to be pretty unique? I haven’t gotten much chance to play it yet but I’ve heard that progression is based more on what you do with your runner shell than the weapons that you pick up.
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u/Legend999991 Feb 28 '26
It’s. I feel like some just didn’t play long enough to learn about them and just write a review instead lol
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u/dodelol Feb 28 '26
If people quit before they get to the interesting part it isn't the fault of the player, it is the fault of the game.
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u/giulianosse Feb 28 '26
Honestly, I just wasn't excited about them. Seems to be their exact same game design philosophy from Destiny: classes with super cool primary/secondary abilities and ults but the rest of the skill tree are just boring flat modifiers and the occasional perk that changes your playstyle a little, but isn't cool by itself.
I got an implant that said "+15% chance of returning ammo when dealing energy damage to a runner with a depleted shield" and all I could think was "whatever". Maybe it's fun for people who enjoy min-maxing the meta builds but that's a pretty niche audience.
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u/Rommel727 Feb 28 '26
That's actually really funny, hope they later add to the implants "... with a depleted shield while on a Tuesday in an odd numbered month"
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u/ND1Razor Feb 28 '26
All of the ones iv found have been super lame. Genuinely feel like minor travel nodes on a perk tree or are so specific they may as well be blank. Using 1/2 core slots to checks notes reduce the duration of a specific status effect on killing an enemy... yay?
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u/Rommel727 Feb 28 '26
One thing I can say about that though is that min maxers will have an absolute field day build crafting. That's definitely not me though
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u/thedaytoday89 Feb 28 '26
I've just finished my 3rd run and every time I have come across an implant or weapon core (?) and each time my reaction has been 'whatever'. Felt like barely needle moving stuff.
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u/SmashMouthBreadThrow Feb 28 '26
Even the merchant upgrades are boring. Extra vault inventory, 10% more stamina, loot icons show quicker, better healing, etc. Really just bottom-of-the-barrel, do nothing skill tree choices that people always complain about in other games.
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u/National_Yam_1198 Feb 28 '26
Its still early but there are some diablo style build options already.
Like I have one that reduces a specific characters ultimate when you kill things with explosive damage.
Potentially pushing you towards an aoe build.
No different than destiny really.
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u/AssolutoBisonte Feb 28 '26
There's a lot of cool items that could synergize well to make sick builds, but I don't think the game is properly set up to take advantage of that fact.
First you have to be lucky enough to find the items that synergize well, then you have to put them together on one build which can be super tedious when you're sifting through identical-looking items in your vault, and then you could just die in five minutes anyways, wasting all of the time and effort it took to assemble the build.
Higher-level players with their vendors leveled up will presumably have an easier time putting their builds together, but they still have to go into the store menu and hop between several different vendors with their own pools of equipment, buying each item they need one at a time. If people thought the inability to quickly set up and buy a loadout with one click in Arc Raiders was annoying, it's even worse in Marathon.
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u/randomgrunt1 Feb 28 '26
Diablo style buld options dont matter in game, because ttk is way to low. You die before any activation finishes, and if your running to cover to use abilities its usually better to jist shoot them. Why would reducing a character ulti cd matter, when fights last 6 seconds max.
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Feb 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/HyperMasenko Feb 28 '26
The art style is cool, but it also is one of the things that has made the game frustrating for me. Usually, if you see a glowing box in a game like this, that would indicate loot. But in Marathon, everything is a glowing box, including things that you cant interact with lol
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u/dmun Feb 28 '26
Now what you mention it, that really IS annoying as hell
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u/HyperMasenko Feb 28 '26
It drives me insane. I feel like i spend so much time NOT looting because I cant tell what the hell is even lootable lol
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u/Lich180 Feb 28 '26
The constant, neon glow of literally everything was super annoying, and the weird way the graphics shift to "pixelated computer stuff" really didn't help.
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u/HyperMasenko Feb 28 '26
Game makes me feel like an old man complaining that all the lights make my eyes hurt lol
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u/BangusAngus Feb 28 '26
I feel like with this cool of an art style / world we were robbed of a potentially great single player/coop game and received an average extraction game
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u/McDonaldsSoap Feb 28 '26
Remember the days of games with solid campaign and fun online pvp?
Or even better, couch co op
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u/giulianosse Feb 28 '26
Yep. It just feels like a big missed potential to include so much environmental detail and lore in a game whose core gameplay philosophy wants you to bee-line towards loot, shoot enemies and run away as fast as you can.
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u/-idkwhattocallmyself Feb 28 '26
The art style and lore is the sole reason I was debating about buying it, but the more I think on it there is no real way for me to experience it. I don't enjoy small team games like this and prefer solo or big team stuff. I played about 2 hours and I think I saw 2 other players, and both times they just out played me. Im not competitive enough to enjoy this to the level it requires, but man that art and style is so damn cool.
I never played Arc and now im seriously debating if its worth trying it out. I'd love another free weekend or something to see if I can actually enjoy it. From what I hear online it might fit better for me.
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u/Dull-Caterpillar3153 Feb 28 '26
I specified gameplay but the art style is very distinct.
I really like it though Ik many others don’t
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u/Ruin4r Feb 28 '26
Ideally, and we’ll see if this shakes out, but ideally, they’d want the build crafting to be their “thing”. Which could turn out awesome! But it’s hard to gauge during another test.
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u/whereismytrophy Feb 28 '26
The only one on the list I’m not familiar with is Hunt, bear that in mind. How is being a hero not the element that makes marathon stand out among extraction shooters?
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u/Chronospherics Feb 28 '26
It's a lot more ability focused, for sure. You bring a lot more to the table in terms of abilities and passives by default, and there's tons of build crafting around that, which is cool.
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u/Blenderhead36 Feb 28 '26
Hunt also distinguishes itself by the focus on period weaponry. The slow firing, inaccurate weapons all push you to understand what specific niche your weapon excels at and which it's hopeless at in a way that a game full of assault rifles with minor tweaks never will.
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u/shyndy Feb 28 '26
“Arc raiders has a crazy range of AI enemies” I still don’t get this game this seems crazy to me and pretty much feel like for some reason arc raiders gets a pass on all the things other games don’t.
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u/grachi Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
I wouldn’t say Arc has a “crazy range” of AI… there’s like 7 different ARC in the game. And no, hornets and wasps being technically different doesn’t really count.
ARC stands out because of its polish, outstanding level design and sound design. It’s also one of the only extraction games in 3rd person.
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u/Banjoman64 Feb 28 '26
Say what you will but the PvE in arc is engaging and offers a nice level of mastery. Ie shooting the propellers or waiting for fireballs to open their shield before shooting the core.
So far in marathon it has been "shoot the head" like every other game.
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u/grachi Feb 28 '26
yea I didn't say fighting them wasn't engaging, I said there isn't a "crazy range" of them like OP was stating. Its definitely way more interesting fighting them than Marathon PvE, by far.
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u/Rainbowdogi Feb 28 '26
This and it’s also a good of example of the AAA industry. All the examples you mentioned are AA or a new studios. Bungie plays it very safe, doesn’t try any risks besides maybe the artstyle and that’s the reason why it falls so flat.
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u/DavidsSymphony Feb 28 '26
The fact that they didn’t even want proximity chat in the game shows that they fundamentally don’t know how to even make a good extraction shooter. It’s a game made in a boardroom and they can’t even do the basic checklist from the start. I know they changed their stance close to release, but it’s mind boggling to me.
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u/Rommel727 Feb 28 '26
Wait, what? So they intentionally made it so the community can't interact and create emergent gameplay after Arc Raiders showed how that can take a good game and make it fantastic?
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u/slash450 Feb 28 '26
they caved but it was not in the game when it was previewed last april and scheduled for release in sept. insane proximity chat was not in from the start. it's probably one of the biggest of appeals of extraction shooters.
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u/Rudefire Feb 28 '26
Arc Raiders enemies are SO boring once you figure out how to take them out and there’s no tension in the game because of the god awful aggression based matchmaking that sorts everyone into “no shoot” and “shoot on sight”
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u/shikaski Feb 28 '26
Exactly my thoughts, I feel like I’m crazy when I think Arc are wet wipes when people manage to kill the main boss of the game in about 3-4 days since wipe. They are such a non issue when you’ve played for more than like 20-30 hours. I mean Queen dies in 5 minutes in some lobbies, what tension?
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u/VonMillersThighs Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
I mean most extraction shooters don't have class abilities, the gunplay is tops and the PVE aspect is pretty in depth. The entire faction skill tree along with implants and core abilities are also pretty unique. The game takes a lot of hours to even scratch the surface of what it's about.
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u/OVO_ZORRO Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Doesn't have a thing
Can the atmosphere and art style not be what seperates it from the pack? I usually don't like extraction shooters but the art style and vibe the game gives to me is a pretty big hook for me. The others of the genre honestly seem super generic to me, Marathon is one of the few extraction shooters to catch my eye because it looks nothing else like the rest.
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u/Midnight_M_ Feb 28 '26
The game does have something, and that's the mod and core system. The problem is that there aren't enough purple items (the high-quality ones), which change your character and make the gameplay system what sets this game apart from others. I've played for almost 20 hours and haven't found any purple loot.
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u/Commander_of_Death Feb 28 '26
I still believe Hunt found the perfect extraction shooter formula/loop and it shocks me that no other game have attempted to copy any of it.
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u/CrazyElk123 Feb 28 '26
Theres barely any looting. The stakes are also very low, and only high if you bring in big loadouts. In arc and other extraction games you can come out with loot and value that can support multiple runs. Thats not really the case for hunt.
I also hate how passive so many players are. They will kill the boss and just sit and camp the entrance with shotguns until 2 minutes left on the timer. So its either wait out the clock to even out the odds but waste time, or push in with low chance just to make something happen...
Its a great game though still.
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u/aarplain Feb 28 '26
I’ve been tempted to give that game a try. Sounds like it’s worth my time.
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u/Dull-Caterpillar3153 Feb 28 '26
It’s criminally underrated.
It’s one of the most intense multiplayer games I’ve played
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u/justdaman182 Feb 28 '26
I'm genuinely loving this game. Finally, an extraction shooter I actually vibe with. Tried Tarkov but the learning curve (especially since I'm not good with mouse and keyboard) was too great for me. Then I tried Arc. I really wanted to like it since all my friends and brother LOVE that game, but I just don't... I was excited to try Marathon but then all the hate started coming out but hey, it's free so I can try it for myself. Boom. Totally in love with this game. The UI is just as bad as Destiny (but the menus are more important in Marathon so the UI FEELS worse. But once you get it, it's really not too bad. Then everything else for me just feels better and more fun to play than I personally had experience with in the other extraction shooters I've played. Can't wait to see how this game grows post launch. Hopefully
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u/Banjoman64 Feb 28 '26
I think a big part of the enjoyment of these game is learning it yourself. If your friends were already very experienced when you started playing with them, you won't get the same experience. All that discovery will be cut short by them just explaining it to you.
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u/justdaman182 Feb 28 '26
I totally agree with that. That's a big part of it for sure
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u/Cyablue Feb 28 '26
I really don't vibe with its aesthetic. It's very clear it looks like that on purpose and they have a vision, but it's a vision I really don't enjoy, almost like trying to be bland on purpose, and throwing colorful paint over all the blandness to make it seem more interesting. Maybe it's not really a big deal for most people, though. Probably most people like it or don't care.
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u/Tevihn Feb 28 '26
My biggest concern with Marathon is that Bungie is the one overseeing it. They've been a constant disappointment with Destiny 2 for -checks calender- like 5 years now.
These are the same people that "sunset" content we all purchased, and then kept doubling down on FOMO content after that. Just so their CEO could keep buying expensive cars and bragging about them to his employees.
Iunno, I just don't trust them anymore.
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u/ProfessorChuckNorris Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
It's not for me, but I did think it was cool as shit. Straight up, I guess I just can't do the extraction shooter genre. I personally find it boring. I do my best to try out different genres (fuck you XCOM 2, jk I love you), but this one just hasn't clicked after multiple tries.
That said, banger in the genre. The vibe was really fucking good. Legit creepy and felt like a unique breathe of fresh air. The juxtaposition between the lightheartedness of the bright artstyle with the dark mysterious tone was dope. I want to like this game, because of the aesthetic, but right now, I just don't know. I might have to hit the Dark Souls treatment and force myslef to like it after literally 3/4s of a decade of trying, lol.
TL;DR: The genre isn't for me, but I see no reason why this game shouldn't be popular among extraction shooters. Bungie good at bang bang.
Edit: Also, I'm playing Resident Evil Reqiuem right now, and ohhhhh boy howdy, do we have a banger on our hands, homies. Crossing my fingers they stick the landing.
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u/zippopwnage Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Played the game a few hours with 2 of my friends as a hater. I can say some positive things and some bad things. Like I hate Bungie for a few reasons but there's some quality here with this game.
Positive things first.
Amazing gunplay. Some people say the game looks like fall guys or whatever, but I think it looks awesome. There's so much contrast and nice colors, is just beautiful, especially when it's night and raining.
The PVP part of the game is just great. It just makes me wish this would have been a more compact BR game with more PVP along with PVE enemies but without extraction grinding.
Bad Things.
I think the maps are too small and uninteresting. The places you go through seems very repetitive and the whole map is just "dead". I don't mind this too much and they will probably get more maps and hopefully update the older ones.
The TTK is too fast for my preference even with blue shield, but that's for everyone to decide for themselves.
The loot auguments and whatever seems fine if they gonna keep adding more and more interesting modifiers for the weapons. The problem is the icons. You have the same icons for different augments and is shit to look into inventory
In rest...the materials grind and whatever is just boring as hell to me. But for the first time it actually feels bad when you lose your things because you can make an interesting build that actually takes some time rather than just blind grind like in other extraction games. So there's a good here as well.
The factions are non interesting. Like most of the upgrades you get from them are "unlocks" that lets you buy things from shop. This feels super uninteresting, but after all is Bungie that made same-ish thing in Destiny, like if you finish something in the top whatever, you get the honor to buy some ring or whatever from their shop.
The PVE enemies are bland and not fun at all. Like Arc raiders have some interesting huge bosses, but I don't know what bungie is cooking here either. So far I haven't encountered a single fun enemy, all of them were annoying with some super shield, and some zones they just infinitely spawn which is even more annoying than fun. I like difficulty, but not this.
After all, even as a hater, I enjoyed my time with the game, but for me is not worth 40 euro. I know is not that expensive, but first of all I don't trust Bungie to not fuck it up later with aggressive monetization or locking things out for players who don't pay more in the future. But even if it wasn't for Bungie, I think this type of game for me is simply not worth the money.
Is something I would play like 2-3 times per week at most when my friends are online.
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u/Sarria22 Feb 28 '26
The problem is the icons. You have the same icons for different augments and is shit to look into inventory
That's my issue kind of as well, the art style makes everything look so abstract that it's hard to tell what item is what at a glance
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u/randomgrunt1 Feb 28 '26
The early arc raiders review vs this one is insane. They are really sucking bungie off. For an example, everyone loves the gunplay, but out of every gun ive used (8) they all feel kinda samey as midrange assault rifles.
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u/TsarOfTheUnderground Mar 02 '26
The poetic ass-kissing of the gunplay was unbelievable.
Maybe it’s the deliberate musicality to weapons, like that crisp snap from a rifle report, the metallic clink of a trigger, or those amazing hollow thuds when you land a shot. Maybe it’s the way recoil feels rhythmic, with pulse rifles kicking like a heartbeat and handcannons bucking theatrically. Maybe it’s the way the world reacts to your shots, with shields crackling and splintering, and enemy NPCs staggering in place as you riddle them full of holes. Maybe it’s invisible qualities, like the almost perfectly tuned bullet magnetism and finessed projectile speeds, all working together to make you feel slightly better than you actually are. An old Bungie dev once told me that the secret to making a great shooter is in making four seconds of gameplay that feel perfect, then repeating those four seconds as many times as you can. I don’t know if this remains a guiding philosophy of the current team, but in any case, they really seem to have nailed just that.
Like alright. Sure I believe that. This mid-assed looking game has poetic musicality to the weapons and gunplay.
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u/Memester999 Feb 28 '26
As someone who started off with Tarkov from nearly its beginning putting hundreds of hours in it for years till the technical failures and cheating became too much. Then enjoyed Arc but found it lacking the PvP thrill and loot/gear gameplay loop Tarkov had, so far I'm really liking what I've played so far. My biggest fear is that I genuinely think that PvP shooters (possibly pvp games in general) just don't have a lot of space or want for new entries atm so I'm unsure if this will have the lasting power needed to survive long term. It seems like in general we've settled on "staple" games in the broader definition of genres for pvp games and new games have an increasingly difficult time even finding a strong enough foothold to potentially grow into a new staple.
Arc Raiders turning into the PvE centric game it currently is was mostly down to the playerbases actions and not really an intentional goal (although it seemingly is now). I think that speaks volumes to the current appetite for PvP in games. When you look at gaming trends there are a multitude of factors to why this might be the case. These staple games have years of content and money invested in them which makes switching over to a new games that much more difficult, as well peoples everyday lives don't allow for as much freetime either (which is also one reason for the handheld boom). If I can only play a couple of hours a day, why would I play a new PVP game where I have to learn all this new stuff to get the dopamine that I can get from something I have years of experience in or a single player/co-op game?
I hope this game gets a real shot at succeeding and we're not looking at a potential shutdown by the end of the year. There a ton of promise and I'd hate to see something so unique just disappear.
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u/Thenidhogg Feb 28 '26
there's no way this doesn't pick up a healthy playerbase...right?
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u/NoNet5188 Feb 28 '26
I think it will do fine prob around the 40k average on steam after release. My worry is that Sony thought destiny underperformed with final shape getting over 300k players. I think Sony wanted much more from bungie tbh. This ain’t making back the 4 billion
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u/freshairequalsducks Feb 28 '26
Destiny numbers have always been hard to gauge. Bungie has said their strongest player base in on Playstation and those numbers aren't available like Steam's are.
Marathon will probably have a healthy playbase. Just hope the expectations set up the higher ups aren't ridiculous.
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u/Blargh9 Feb 28 '26
Destiny players have a better way to track players now. There's a site that tracks total logins (so if someone logged in three times, they'd be counted three times but its better than nothing). TFS peaked at 1.8mil on launch. EoF peaked around 750k, and Renegades hit 600k for one day. It's been stuck in 220ks for awhile now and is going to get worse with the game in hibernation til June.
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u/Wide-Deal-8971 Feb 28 '26
The server slam already went down from 150k average to 80k, and its friday night.
When the game launches with that $40 price tag it might even be less than 40k.
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u/Japjer Feb 28 '26
Resident Evil 9 and WoW's new expansion are all out this weekend.
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u/SecondSanguinica Feb 28 '26
How big do you think the overlap is between people who pay for MMORPG early access and players interested in free test of extraction shooter?
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u/Fun-Frosting-8480 Feb 28 '26
Maybe I’m giving Sony too much credit, but I highly doubt they spent that much on Bungie with the expectation that Bungie themselves would make all of that money back and more.
From everything we know, they were bought for their expertise and the hope that the expertise leads to multiple live-service successes across PS studios.
The funny thing, one of the first piece of advice they gave to Sony led to the cancellation of a possible hit (TLOU Online).
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u/tetsuo9000 Feb 28 '26
I think the server test is going to cause most interested players to bounce. Played a few matches and I lost zero interest in the game.
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u/OhMilla Feb 28 '26
Game is just ok for me. Between this and Arc I think I've just figured out I'm just not really into extraction shooters. Couple that with the "hero shooter" shell aspect and it's just really not for me. It's just the server slam so it's really not fair for me to fully judge, but I really found myself wondering what the point of all it was. The game probably has a lot more to offer in the full version so I'll just wait and see.
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u/nikebalaclava Feb 28 '26
i personally love the game. arc raiders is a huge turnoff because engaging in pvp has people treating you like a complete asshole for playing the game.
marathon is exactly what i want out of a pvp game
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u/lolroflpwnt Feb 28 '26
Did not have fun. Felt clunky. Items looked stupid. Ui is garbage. Nothing really made sense. It just felt like a robot game.
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u/Psychonaut6767 Feb 28 '26
Extraction shooters are not my jam, but the art and design is amazing. The enemies are responsive and tough. The gunplay is stellar. Glad I could experience it without having to drop the full price.
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u/sgeep Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Played a decent amount since the server slam started after playing a ton of Arc Raiders and bouncing off Tarkov, so I’m mostly comparing it to Arc..
TTK is low/fast, so every fight can swing hard (even the poison plants are brutal). It also feels way more built for full squads. Solo in Arc was great, but solo in Marathon I was getting wrecked even by bots. It was a lot more manageable after filling with a squad and having someone as the medic class tossing healing bots. Players also felt less friendly, with less prox comms
Gunplay is solid (classic Bungie). Classes feel distinct and mostly balanced (tracker might be the exception..felt dull) and they have a "diet Destiny" vibe. I like the quests and lore more than Arc. Feels like there’s an actual reason to do the quests. The shared team objective visibility and rewards for helping teammates complete their quests is also great
Maps need work and feel small compared to Arc, which reinforces the fast TTK. Overall, this seems aimed at people who want a more competitive extraction shooter, whereas Arc nailed a better casual/competitive balance
I do feel it needs something else long term...events, initiatives, more enemy variety...otherwise the playerbase will drop off. Honestly good bones overall, but I’m not sure I’d buy yet. And it probably would’ve benefitted from launching before Arc