Marathon is a revolution, again - review

Marathon doesn't care for you, and Tau-Ceti 4 will not explain anything to an outsider. Your only card to play is that you can't actually die, and so a completely inhospitable world becomes the most cutting-edge playground in the modern FPS landscape.

Bungie's new extraction shooter has very specific set of rules; ignoring them means dying again (and losing everything you own), but following them is the path to heart-pounding fun I never thought possible. Marathon is complex, yes, but not complicated, and rewards players with achievements and a sense of satisfaction that the world of online shooters had almost entirely lost. Despite some flaws, the Bungie magic is still there, and never more so than in this title as its developers are listening to user feedback and doing something about it.

Marathon 101

If this review is your first point of contact with Marathon, let me summarize it briefly. In this game, you play as a mercenary whose consciousness has been digitized to inhabit bio-synthetic bodies and, weapon in hand, plunder humanity's first colony outside the solar system after it was struck by a cataclysm. There are seven classes available at launch, each with its own playstyle, and if you die in the game, you lose all the weapons and upgrades you were carriyng.

The goal of each match is extraction: reaching a point where you can return to orbit with all the items, weapons, and upgrades collected around the map or from the corpses of other downed players. As you play, you complete contracts and missions to earn the favor of the the factions, corporations with interests on the lost colony which unlock upgrades and other enhancements.

Marathon is designed for teams of three who communicate constantly with each other to decide whether and how to engage, where to go, and how to proceed. There's also a solo mode and a playlist for experimental duos, but the focus is and always will be on trios. Audio is everything, because hearing footsteps an instant before your opponent's is the difference between starting a fight with an advantage or a disadvantage. And no one will pity you.

Since Destiny, Bungie has made resolving the narrative dissonance of dying and reviving one of the cornerstones of its game design. This (along with the flawless gunplay we've grown accustomed to) is the key to making its PvP so brutal and compelling: other players are walking chests, nothing more, and killing them will only make them want to play again.

The highest of highs

Imagine your backpack is full of blue and purple loot, maybe even a gold mod that completely changes a weapon's behavior. Your teammates come out of a door and are vaporized by two sniper rifle shots. You're the only one left, but selected Triage, a Runner whose ultimate ability can instantly revive up to two fallen teammates.

As you activate it, you notice one of the enemies running at you. You adjust your aim slightly, and instead of reviving both allies, you revive only one, but you also take a blast at the opponent, who goes down because he may have already taken damage. Your teammate enters the small room where you've barricaded yourself, and a second later, the other two enemies burst in.

You pull out your shotgun, your newly revived teammate goes down, and after emptying both barrels on one enemy, you pull out your knife to finish off the other. You've single-handedly killed an entire enemy team, your colleagues are eternally grateful, and now all their loot is yours. For a moment you are the sharpest tool in the shed.

You exfill, absolutely pumped, and immediately start another game to advance your missions or try to loot a room full of treasures you've found a key to. You spawn in, and within thirty seconds, you're all down, mowed down by another team who heard you run and is now hoarding your gear.

It's 1:00 AM, and what do you do? Go to sleep after losing everything? No, you queue the most dangerous map in the game and aim for the best-guarded vault on the planet. Even when it stabs you in the back, Marathon can't make you lose the desire to play because in its brutality, there's always a mystery or new treasure around the corner to convince you to take another risk.

A hard and relentless end game

Bungie's new Extraction shooter rests on two separate "cyclical" foundations: those within each run and those that govern the endgame. Each match presents the player with a series of crossroads that can lead to more riches and/or objectives, or defeat.

Each match can focus on gathering resources, completing a mission, opening a room with a key, or completing an event. Since the game's regular maps (Perimeter, Dire Marsh, and Outpost) offer keys to open the Marathon vaults, every match always has the chance to progress the endgame, all in anticipation of that evening (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday) when the team reunites and attempts to beat the game's most difficult content.

Cryo Archive is a true endgame system, not just a map. Its final boss, the Compiler, can only be faced after opening all six vaults on the map and extracting the non-guaranteed Subroutines within them. Streamers have managed this in 12 hours in a race for the world's first live on Twitch; regular players have months to prepare, improve, gather resources, and take on the challenge.

It will be painful, but you'll realize that Marathon, expecially thanks to the punches it will throw at you, will defuse your FOMO (fear of missing out) because it will present you with a challenge that, simply, you won't be able to overcome unless you've learned, tested, perfected, and grinded.

Is it an experience for everyone? Absolutely not, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Cryo Archive is an incredible challenge, a masterclass in map design, a wave of frustration, and a visceral satisfaction when you solve its mysteries. It's proof that the "from the creators of Halo and Destiny" written in the trailer is a legitimate boast, because the DNA of the Seattle software house is still the same as it once was.

Verdict

To extract every drop of fun, excitement, and triumph from Marathon, you need a team of three friends, all of whom must have been infected by the virus of gunplay and mystery that the game exposes all its players to. Only then will you be able to find the synergy needed to hunt for secrets, improve your skills over time, and win impossible battles against those with better gear than you.

This doesn't mean the game isn't fun for solo players, and that it can't be the place where those aforementioned bonds are formed. Marathon has many ways to entertain and draw its players into its abyss of AI madness and alien mysticism. You just have to be prepared for a little frustration and to take one step back to take two steps forward.

Supporting you there will be a rock-solid technical foundations, dozens of codex entries (some of which are masterfully voiced by an exceptional cast, including Jennifer English and Ben Starr), a relentless progression system, and a constant sense of progressing your account.

The battle pass is a bit lacking, the RNG (randomness) in the endgame is annoying, the menus could be clearer, and some skills and accessories could use a balancing overhaul. But with a team (primarily game director Joe Ziegler) so responsive to community feedback, much of this will be ironed out in a few months.

If I had to distill all my thoughts into a single piece of advice, I'd say give Marathon the time it needs to first amaze you, then captivate you, and then improve your skills. Seasons last months, which means there's no rush to take down the Compiler or finish the quests.

You can die endlessly; the runs where I entered with a free kit and exited with an all-blue loadout are almost routine. Through progression, the game offers so much stuff that in a month you'll have unlocked a real buildcrafting system to get your favorite implants, cores, and weapons with you every run.

Marathon rewards consistency, tenacity, and inventiveness: give Bungie's extraction shooter a chance and you'll forge some of the best gaming memories of your career.