With the general pessimism surrounding “Marathon” as Bungie’s returning and revamped IP, I think it’s important to remind people why we should keep open minds and try out games. That’s why I played Hole.
With us one day after the Marathon announcement from Bungie about their new PvPvE extraction shooter, we’re officially going into the insufferable social media period in which it seems that the only opinion you can find between fanart of characters is the doomed complaining that surrounds every new release. While the experience is likely better for those of us on Bluesky where a kinder audience is curated, it still is awash with some confusing details. And that also means, for those of you on twitter, that things are astronomically worse with a select group of people focused on the Gamergate-like opinions of the right wing grifters currently trying to propel their “go woke, go broke” mentality.
It’s an absolutely infuriating period of time for anyone who’s excited for what’s coming—rather than being able to share in the joy of a cool announcement, people are instead focused on the best ways to make their view known that they’re not supportive of the game. In a way, this negativity is important in some circumstances—with games like “The Day Before” and “Cyberpunk 2077” launching to incredibly harsh criticism over fairly glaring issues, being able to raise alarms of potential problems not only to other buyers but devs as well can be useful. The problem here is that, as is usual, people take simple preconceived ideas of things such as genre or development process and spin them into narratives of failure that do nothing but bring the mood down. With my discussion of engine worries before a game releases in my Titanfall 3 article and the recent example of discussing the ways Marathon is explicitly subverting expectations in my last article, it’s important to recognize the harm in some of this.
(The latter is, of course, also up for discussion. I’ve had some feedback discussions and tinkered that article to better explain how different Marathon is shaping up to be compared to other games in the genre.)
It’s here that I get to the main argument I want to put forth—I’m a very positive person and avoid spreading negativity about games regardless of my experience with them. As I’ve discussed frequently, I try to quell that side of me in order to leave room for people to enjoy the things they do. It’s this reason that I want to inspire similarly open-minded perspectives in approach to games that haven’t yet released and may surpass expectations, including but not limited to Marathon. I didn’t really understand how to explain this point, however. I was planning a systematic sentiment analysis of posts made about the game a day after the reveal, but even that felt like I would only succeed in defending a single multi-billion dollar corporation rather than helping instill the mindset I want to convey.
It was then that I found Hole.
I’ve teased it quite a bit, but I’ll drop the ominous and vaguely suggestive jokes I’ve been making to explain it: Hole is a PvE fps developed by Japanese indie dev Negafish, released in late 2024. I discovered it because as I researched for yesterday’s article, it appeared as one of the only games with “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews under the “Extraction Shooter” tag. For a $5 price tag, I gave it a try right after my article just to see how it felt. I think this mentality comes somewhat from my time in streaming—as a small creator, it always feels like you want to have people stumble across the content and give it an honest shot despite the low view count. As such, I attempt this courtesy for others in fields I enjoy—videos, streams, games, and shows that I happen across and decide to give a bit of time to see if I get hooked.
The resulting experience this time was incredible. Hole is an awesome tactical shooter, bringing a nice set of rules to gunplay that feel intuitive but nuanced in a way that demands at least a bit of your attention. It’s stylized in a way that makes the low-poly graphics never intrusive on the visual clarity, and the challenge of the game is pretty unique for a shooter. As a single-player extraction, there’s a sort of confidence I can gain for every enemy in a space but the variability and corner cases keep me always on edge as runs get longer. It’s a fantastic game that instantly took my attention away from writing to sink almost 5 hours into it just today before I got to making this article. Is it perfect? No, of course not. Some aspects feel sparse and I can imagine some of the replayability getting tedious. It also, as an extraction shooter, suffers from some of the slow exploratory phases and the time it takes to get back into the action after a failed run. But was it well worth a couple dollars and a Sunday morning? Absolutely.
I think giving certain types of games a try within a massive industry is one of the best things you can do for yourself if you’re feeling sick of the current new releases. Having a diverse library of games under your belt helps you appreciate the ones you like more, as well as helping build up the market in supporting the much smaller indie developers and inspire unique mechanics rather than updated graphics. While I am specifically noting indie developers, the same can be applied similarly to Marathon. While Bungie will be ok at the end of the day with their existing IPs and Sony’s support, giving them a chance to put their resources into something that differs from existing market products is a small step in making a more diverse industry. Even if you’re not worried about the economic impact of your purchases and what it signals to corporations, it’s still a good way to find something new you might like. Games like Marathon offer small spins on existing ones that can appeal to different audiences, something I’m sure we’re all familiar with. If you were having to debate the differences between “Minecraft” and “Terraria” or “Call of Duty” and “Halo” in grade school, I’m sure we’re on the same page with how a genre isn’t the end of someone’s tastes. Inspiring creation and bold strokes in media is how we end up pushing the limits and discovering whole new ways to make classics that will stick in the hearts of fans.
So take your hands off the keyboard for a while and close social media—nobody out there can tell you how to feel. Instead, check it out or give it a try when it comes out.