With Bungie giving us more details on “Marathon” to think of with a September release date, I’m really excited to see an extraction shooter that’s starting to play more with the genre in ways that finally have me excited for the results.
Today was Bungie’s latest stream to finally drop off some gameplay footage of their new shooter—the PvPvE Extraction Shooter named “Marathon” that was announced back in 2023. The game is surrounded by skepticism—at least from my view in the Destiny community, a lot of players accusing Bungie’s split attention between IPs as stealing funding and focus from their first live service game. Since the announcement in 2023, so little information has been available on Marathon that all the followers of Bungie and their work have been waiting with bated breath as the months continued to pass. Today’s stream not only gave us the details of the new game, but left us with the September 23rd release date as well as a coming closed playtest later this month. So, what’s the verdict?
Personally, I’m stoked.
I’ve gotten my fair share of battle royales and extraction shooters under my belt—even without the popular “Escape from Tarkov”, I have quite a bit of time spent in “Hunt: Showdown” as well as some of the other comparable games such as “Apex: Legends” and “Helldivers 2.” Despite it all, the entry of Marathon seems to shake things up with uniquely different design choices that, in all honesty, have me pretty excited for the release. I had a pretty solid skepticism over the game as a Destiny 2 fan who would have loved more production on Bungie’s star pupil, but an open mind left me really hoping that their game will succeed and live to grow into something beautiful. Even as we get more entries into the extraction shooter genre, I think Bungie has used their expertise to create an explicitly different style of game that solves a lot of issues that I personally have with these types of games.
The first of which appeared in conversation of Contracts, a new system for Marathon that involves objectives to complete within the maps. These objectives are linked to their Factions, a form of cross-match progression for the players and their armory. The objectives are seen as major goals for runs, developers on the livestream talking about their runs starting as simple quests that they then use to find high level gear or get into extended battles. The world of Marathon and each player in it are going to be working with their team to do different goals, some of which I anticipate are almost peaceful and may end up with players simply going their separate ways. Others, I assume, will be categorized by bloodbaths of all 18 players duking it out over a limited resource. I think this is one of the ways that the larger scale PvP shooters have been helping newer players still feel like they’re accomplishing progress. “Fortnite” is a great example of this, adding lots of quests and side objectives around their map to give you other reasons to play the game rather than being the last one standing. The contracts will probably change the way players interact with matches and will not only improve the replayability of the game but allow for players who are more engaged with the PvP or PvE sides of the game to focus more on what they enjoy playing. While fans of (technically) extraction shooter Helldivers 2 may find some love for the PvE of the game, others from exclusively PvP battle royales might also enjoy the other side. Marathon will likely not allow players to avoid one side or the other, but the focus can maybe entice players of strictly PvE or PvP bias to spread their wings a bit.
This also brings in the Factions, which are rewarding players for completing Contracts and supplying them with gear. A detail discussed in their Gameplay Overview Trailer lets us know that the Factions will provide us with “sponsors” that involve a “fresh loadout, so you can get right back into the fight.” This mechanic seems to imply a higher level of base starting equipment than the traditional extraction shooter or battle royale, allowing for faster gameplay by streamlining some of the early looting and allowing players to take on fights quicker. With the ways that Hunt: Showdown and other shooters can make major distinctions between their higher level and lower level gearing, Marathon is looking to keep it intact while also never leaving people without the option to go in with a reasonable kit for fighting. While other games might have you scrambling for a second best after your primary loadout gets lost in the field after an unfortunate fight, Bungie wants to keep your runs going fast and strong without taking away the power of higher level loot. This is a major upgrade from my time with Hunt: Showdown after a good 30 hours of building characters. One unlucky run with a smart enemy or an unfortunate misplay can take away a long time Hunter that feels agonizing to build back up, especially as someone with less mastery of the game.
Finally is the titular Bungie gunplay, a staple of their games since Halo 3 and their defining trait when it comes to satisfying first person shooters. They’re fast and action-packed, combining satisfying movement with easy to use and fun to master guns that are the pinnacle of the genre to many gamers. Marathon is fast, but devs mention that they want to implant costs to movement in order to allow the pacing of the game to match that of a large scale shooter without losing their characteristic flow. Their guns are also shown as smooth within the Creator Alpha Gameplay Highlights, watching creators like Skarrow9 and Dr. Lupo fire off rounds in weapons that feel familiar to Bungie while also appearing unique to the world of Marathon. I have no doubt that gamers will feel right at home with these guns, enjoying their feeling and taking down NPCs and players alike with satisfying clicks. In addition, they made smaller choices such as the ability to resurrect teammates even after they’ve been brutally stabbed in a finisher so that you’re never out until your last teammate falls. A lot of these choices feel specificly aimed at addressing some of the main complaints I’ve heard about critics of the extraction shooter genre, namely the Escape from Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown pace of games being incredibly slow and stealthy. With tactical play at the front and well placed shots from cover being enough to fell an experienced player, the name of the game is survival above all else. This creates careful and paranoid gameplay that doesn’t have the same adventerous feeling as a lot of gamers want from their shooters. With crisp gunplay and movement at the front of the action, Bungie seems to be aiming for a distinct pacing that will separate itself from other entries in the genre.
All of these new details work to propel Marathon away from traditional battle royales and extraction shooters to instead fulfill a new fantasy for gamers—a shooter with fast paced action and danger that can never stop them, but only leaves them with fuel for the next run. While I’ve had many of my days playing battle royales end with 30-40 minute walks that were ruined by single shots and leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, it feels that Marathon wants to provide experiences with less penalty for death while still maintaining the tense nature and joy of victory. Contracts were specified to allow for progress to be accomplished regardless of deaths, meaning players can safely lose gunfights while still having progressed Faction ranks and carry that experience forwards. With the “sponsors” from Factions to give us a level of gear, players can bounce back faster from losing a match and run in with determination to bring home another killer piece of loot without a slow startup. The fast-paced gunplay and action also means that less of the games will revolve around slower roaming phases of looting zones, instead allowing for run and gun shooting that keeps people engaged every step of the way. Bungie is working to make an extraction shooter that keeps the adrenaline going while giving players the opportunity to fail without it putting them so far behind that they’d give up and give it a try the next day. It’s a unique experience that, despite my hesitations to step into the genre right now, makes me excited for the future. As I punch my ticket in to see if I can snag a spot in their closed beta over on their Discord, I’m really optimistic towards the future of Marathon.
So, hope I see some of you as fellow Runners on September 23rd, where escape will make us gods.