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Of course the guns inMarathonfeel good.
Marathon is flexing those same muscles, thoroughly toned after 10 expectation-defying years of live service looter shooterdom.
Marathon is, predictably, wondrous in your hands and easy on the eyes.
I am not the PvP fiend I once was.
It’s not just the look and feel.
Marathon’s world is backed by the complexity and payoff of Destiny’s deepest dives.
Will Marathon go that hard?
Will it have community scavenger hunts and puzzles that send players down rabbit holes of math and lore?
I don’t know.
I asked a few Bungie folks and got noncommittal but not-dismissive answers.
Knowing when to uncork the Good Stuff and when to pack frugally is part of the learning curve.
There are three maps for now, varying in scale and the number of squads dropped into each.
Outpost is a close-quarters map we didn’t see.
Marathon is designed to get you killed.
Bungie expects average exfiltration rates to be comfortably below 50%.
You will lose a lot, and losing hurts a lot.
Extracts are snapshots of this unpredictability.
It’s not always a pleasant one, but it is a strong emotional hook.
The PvE side has a lot to prove.
I’m worried about variety.
Contrastingly, here’s an ingenious little thing.
The bigger your market, the better your minimum loadout.
Point is, contracts, whether basic missions or faction milestones, are always worth having.
The perfect setup
The Runners are fascinating characters and fun units.
Her skill is a knockback energy shot, and her ultimate briefly cranks her movement to 11.
Her skill lobs a cute explosive spiderbot that chases enemies down.
You have to be omnivorous in Marathon.
(I look forward to the starter kit and knife-only runs this game may inspire on Twitch.)
Guns might be the least important part of your loadout.
Better make it unfair.
Status effects like toxic and overheat are devastating.
Backpacks are transformative, letting you hold more of everything.
It is unignorably good, but it will also scare and infuriate and turn off a lot of people.
Marathon is still an extraction shooter.
This game will spark conversation.
It will have haters and devotees.
That’s a start.
But a good game does not mean a successful game; even good games can justdie.
And as fun as it was, what I’ve seen needs more variety and more to work toward.
In 2027, as Bungie hopes?
I have no idea.
Here are all the bignew games of 2025and beyond.
