Extracting MARATHON's Greatest Secret - a Full Review
It's More Simple Than You Might Think...
This review in video form:
Not to spoil the video right out the gate, but I full-heartedly recommend Marathon.
Read it folks, I’ve never embraced PvP in gaming. I have always enjoyed single-player or co-op games, and have gravitated towards those. I dabble every so often in PvP games, but it is not where I derive most of my enjoyment from the medium at large. Frequently, I avoid purchasing games that pit me against other players.
I was going to do the same with Marathon, but I couldn’t steer my gaze away from its bold design choices. The far future on Tau Ceti IV is filled with bright colors, stark UI elements, cool pixel-symbol dithering, and sprinkles of horrific unease. Marathon covers a broad stroke of some of my favorite sci-fi elements to boot, and as a fan of Bungie games my whole life, I decided to give it a fair shot. You can read more about my lead up to trying the game in another article I wrote here:
Marathon is a brutal game, for someone like me. I have had days when I feel confident about my progress, claimed by slowly maneuvering across the maps by myself, crouched and quiet the entire time for almost the full 30-minute match duration. Other days, I’ve suffered losses so great that, and I’m not kidding, I have audibly sworn off playing the game forever. The next day, the soundtrack comes through my shuffled collection of music, and I’m back at it again, in my mind. Wandering Tau Ceti IV for goods. Attempting to unravel the secrets of the Marathon ship. Exfiltrating with a massive score of goods that gives me a huge surge of dopamine. So, I think that, perhaps... I will play the game later. In this way, the game haunted me.
It’s a love hate relationship, but it feels deeper, and wilder than that. Like, I CRAVE the highs of Marathon. Besting my enemies, human and robot alike, through split second decision-making. Taking the loot from other players cold dead hands. Stealing from under UESC’s noses. Escaping a firefight, and a match by the skin of my teeth, with the goods. The fun highs of the game are compounded exponentially when you’re actually playing as a 3-man crew with your friends, and the crushing blows of defeat sting so, so much less. The gaming’s been so good some nights, that I find myself wishing I was doing nothing else but playing Marathon with my buddies every night. I really love the experience.
The lows of Marathon are not a simple, surface level hatred. It’s a full-on depression. Some player blows your head smooth off for the fifth match in a row, when all you’re trying to do is complete a simple objective for a story based quest line. You bring extra insurance for your next match and, of course, lose it all, from even dumb things like underestimating the non-player enemies. Maybe you’ll die by toxin from a plant, after forgetting healing items. Or an automated turret guns you down for running too long in line of sight. Perhaps another player crosses paths with you, and you fumble the dual with dumb rookie mistakes. Now, your stuff, gone.
The mental aftermath of defeat is devastating. The failures play back in your mind on a twisted loop. Should have used your equipment and abilities differently. Maybe you could have waited for a better window to attack. Need to stop making so much noise... And the torment, every so is often amplified when you’re with your friends, because now there are 3 inventories on the line instead of just yours. Maybe you’re okay with the losses that night, but there’s a chance your buddy is silently taking the brunt of the mental toll.
Through it all, you’re experiencing what I truly believe is the best FPS gameplay in any modern game, bar none. Every weapon feels so good to shoot, and they just get better when you slap some attachments on them. This is complemented with exceptional world building, environments, graphic design, and an original soundtrack which all have some of the most unique direction of any big budget game in recent years, all of it masterfully, artistically done.
Despite my initial hesitations, I personally had fun from the moment I started playing. Against all odds too, it seems, with my aversion to PvP. I really felt it pull me in around 10 hours. From there out, all the way to my 60th hour, it seemed like my experience would ebb and flow with those high positive cravings, and low depressions, about every 8–10 hours. No matter what, I always excitedly looked forward to being able to play with my friends. Over time, I solo queued less and less, until I stopped engaging with that mode entirely.
The one thing that does suck with Marathon is that I am “too employed” to completely enjoy it. Too mature in the sense that I’m fortunate enough to have a job that takes up the majority of my time during the week. I go home to my little family, in my podunk fixer up of a house. I’ve got community responsibilities, and still keep in touch with family in my area. While grateful for what I got, I’m not privileged enough in this life to simply come home from work, and give video games a majority stake of my free time. Nor are my friends.
The way Marathon was developed for Season 1, it wanted at least 1–2 hours from you every day to keep up with its live service seasonal model, IF you want to see EVERYTHING it had to offer. I can’t keep up with that kind of par, especially with other games on my plate. I can enjoy the vast majority of its gameplay loop, and I have! Don’t get me wrong. But I know, already, that I won’t make it to “the end” of some of Marathon’s offerings here, if things never change.
To be able to see “the final boss” Compiler in the Cryo Archive, requires a ludicrous amount of skill, luck, and time. I wish I could be in a position to see it with my own eyes, and defeat it with my own guns. But, just like I wish I could crew up with my friends every night, it’s one of those things that deep down I know is an impossibility for me.
This fact honestly gives me a lot of grief. But, I enjoy the challenge this game presents and in no way think Bungie should change for me. However, knowing how desperately they need the money to continue operating under Sony, I know that the core game will likely change, and become more accessible to a casual audience.
So, one future season due to such changes, I might miraculously have enough time for Marathon’s end game activities. Or maybe I’ll be more skilled in such a way to progress faster within the time I do have. So long as no content gets cut from the game, and the servers stay online, I am content with being unable to play all of Marathon, as a person who is pressed for game time. I’ve wrestled with, and enjoyed the difficulty of it, and I hope others can get the same gratifying experience as they overcome the challenges presented on Tau Ceti IV.
You know, that’s Marathon’s greatest, and simplest secret. Despite the discourse online, despite the end game being difficult to get into, despite every low it ever went through because of it... Marathon is a fun game, that I enjoy playing. The moment to moment thrills of its gun play, are so good that it will always be a game worth playing. Even if the time you give it, is not enough to experience everything in a season.
I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t take 300 hours, to “extract” that secret knowledge for yourself. Jump in on a free weekend. Give it a chance, and it’ll show you some of the highest highs, and lowest lows in all gaming. If you let it, you’ll find the journey is worth it.