Marathon Reveal, it needs to go back in the oven.

Bungie heading into outdated game design

I don’t have a hate boner for Bungie; this isn’t going to be some “lets just shit on the game” talk. I’m going to start with the very few things that I saw that I liked in the reveal for Marathon. I was in YouTube stream chat and there was almost nothing positive being said, mostly talking about how “Destiny died for this.” Kind of a dumb take, in my opinion, just saying. But I’m just some random dude giving my thoughts on the game, some positive and some negative.

Personally, I really like the aesthetics of the game/world, even though the in-game looks a little dull compared to the promotional material. I really like the Cyberpunk genre or the dystopian future-type vibe; the hermetically clean look of the runners is really interesting visually. The talk about “sockets” and “cores” did peak my interest and what that can mean for diverse gameplay. The cinematic that was played at the end of stream was super amazing; personally I would put it in the tier of a Diablo cinematic. I would love to see more!

The class-based gameplay is something that I’m just not into for shooters anymore, and I feel as if it pigeonholes the player, an it just dated at this point. Not saying it can’t be done, because haven’t played it, but I was just hoping for more. I really hope it wasn’t designed that way just to sell skins, even through I’ve already heard from a playtester that there is in-game earnable cosmetics. But what kind of customization is it? A full skin or actual pieces of armor? Why have this unique art style if we can show off our taste?

I was really hoping Bungie would take a step away from the full-blown live service model and give us a solid campaign with a good multiplayer experience. Since it’s based off a single player game to begin with, my heart goes out to the original Marathon fans. As a Turok fan, I have no idea what Saber was thinking with the next Turok title. Like I said, outdated game design. Like when Destiny came out, it was so new an fresh; it really left a lasting impression on me. The reveal just looked like another live service game coming to the community looking for money for a cash shop, nothing new.

I get that mainstream studios simplify game design for “broad appeal,” but the amount of hand-holding for an extraction shooter was abysmal—a little harsh, I know. What makes an extraction shooter so exhilarating, borderline like smoking crack and getting chased by the cops, is that there’s so much to lose with lots of punishing mechanics. I just don’t think those two playstyles work because, from what I saw (which was little), it looks like a repurposed battle royale. It doesn’t help that so many people were saying “Apex 2.”

Why groups of three? That’s not really beating the Apex allegations. It’s really the revive mechanic that bothers me personally, like, where’s the risk? I think that’s what we didn’t get to see, and we needed to see that. Being an extraction shooter, the adrenaline of risk is what keeps you coming back. To get access to the next alpha to see and feel it for myself would be nice. The world just leaves me with intrigue, and I want to dive in. I think if they went more the route that The Division went with a PvE area, then having a PvEvP area, it could be better.

It’s 2025; why are we still just talking about the game? If it’s worth bringing up, you should have images, short videos—just something. It’s really worrying that in-game systems are just being talked about, and it brings back the bad taste of the era of games after COVID that were half-baked and took a year of updates to make playable. But I could totally be wrong, and honestly, I’d rather eat crow.