Marathon

An excellent concept, but lacks innovation, something Bungie used to be known for. Destiny 1 walked so Destiny 2 could run, so Marathon to fall flat on it's face. Thank you Bungie management for single-handedly Destroying your games and studio for fat pay packages.

So far, everything about this game interests me. The aesthetic is clean and nuanced, the vibes are immaculate, the gunplay and sound design are up to Bungie's standards. Except for the core genre that it is. Extraction games can be fun as co-op, with friends. They're even better when they're roguelikes. I have ZERO interest in interacting with the PvP in this game- people play like cowards when there are stakes, and losing everything to that kind of 'competition' is just a waste of my time. If Bungie can turn this around into a co-op roguelike, I can see it becoming a favourite. Hell, an offline / non-multiplayer version would be welcome with how long matchmaking can take. If they can't, the only thing Bungie will be turning around is their open sign. In either case, it's not worth the cost of Destiny, Bungie, or full price. Get it on sale if anything to give them the chance to make it good before the Sony guillotine or their own c-suite comes for the servers. I'll come back to this review if they can pivot to a good, permanent PvE experience with meaningful progression and a reason to invest time, but it will remain negative until then.

I was so invested in this game when I first got it. I fell in love with the artwork, the gunplay felt really good, the movement and combat also felt amazing. My friends and I couldn't wait to get home and log on together. Arc Raiders was my first extraction shooter, and I quickly picked Marathon up right after and never looked back. It's aged like milk though... The hype around Season 2 wasn't deserved because the content stagnated after a few weeks and its kept on some bs rotation schedule so you cant even get the mode you want half the time. The matchmaking is terrible (this is likely due to the very small number of players) and free kit casuals get chucked into the same blender as max level/max cradle/max gear squads. Every match goes one of two ways. Either you get rushed 2 minutes into the game (sometimes as quick as 10 seconds on Dire Marsh due to poorly optimized spawns), or you go an entire round with no contact. The point of the game is to try and grind out better loot, but the economy is so busted. Returning players got numerous free purple kits at season launch and newbies didnt get jack, completely defeating the point of the economy reset. Bungie is incredibly stingy with the drop rates and nerfed several of the loot rooms, rendering some of them almost pointless. There are fully gold teams just spawn rushing everyone and making sure nobody gets anything. The sad part is all the sweaty teams don't even take any of your stuff after they drop you, because they already have better gear. The endgame content on Cryo is practically unwinnable on a random fill team because half the players dont know what to do, dont have microphones, dont play together, and dont cover all the necessary roles in character selection. I'll be putting this one back on the shelf for a while. Maybe season 3 can shake things up, if the game lasts that long...

Fantastic art style and world Building. But is unfortunately too hardcore and inscrutable that it really gets in the way of itself.

I did not have fun :(

This game is unfortunately destined to die. The gunplay feels good, world-building is excellent, and the visuals are very unique. But there's not enough content for hardcore extraction shooter fans and it's too hardcore for any casual fans to pick it up and only play once in a while.

Too boring to keep me playing