After years of development, Bungie has finally revealed Marathon to the world. As expected, it has been met with a decent amount of scepticism from across the gaming landscape. Ever since Bungie was acquired by Sony several years ago, it has scaled back development on its Destiny franchise after the underwhelming perform𒊎ance of flagship expansions and endured a number of high-pr🐻ofile layoffs. So, there is a lot riding on Marathon.
But considering the recent 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:high-profile failures of games like Concord and Sony cancelling a number of similar 🌜efforts in recent months, whether Marathon actually needs to exist is a question well worth asking. Is it going to carve out its own space in the shooter genre, or is it doomed to crash and burn in pursuit of outdated trends like Concord did? Right 🍬now, it’s hard to tell, but hands-on previews tell us it still has much to prove before its September 23rd release date.
Marathon’s Future Is Pretty Hard To Predict Right Now
Bungie is an incredible studio, responsible for two of the very best first-person shooter series of all time in Halo and Destiny. While the former has since been taken over by Xbox and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:h🍌as an uncertain 𝓀future at the time of writing, Destiny is mostly still going strong. When it comes to shooting things with cool guns in video games, few games feel better. Pulling off amazing headshots and killing aliens with magical powers is something that never♈ gets old, and I am expecting this level of gunplay and customisation to carry directly over to Marathon.ꦅ
Putting how Marathon actually plays aside, its .
However, we know it’s going to be a very different game than Bungie’s previous titles, with hands-on previews earlier this month delving into how it will have you taking control of specific characters along with items and equipment you will use over and over again in each match. You aren’t a guardian, but a pre-established character that will presumably grow and evolve after the game launches. It’s also been confirmed that Marathon will launch with six characters, three maps, and just one mode for a yet undisclosed price point. Bungie has confirmed it won’t be a $70 product but will instead be similar to something like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Helldivers 2. That’s the benchmark it has to aim for.
Helldivers 2 stood out in an oversaturated landscape because it didn’t just offer another spin on extraction shooters with the predictable routes of monetization. It was an experience with its own wonderful, satire-laden tone, shooter gameplay we’d never seen before, and focused on the chaotic nature of its challenging yet slapstick multiplayer to bring in millions of players﷽. While its popularity has waned somewhat in recent months, you can’t deny that it was all any of us could talk about for most of last year, largely thanks to how unique it was. It’s Starship Troopers come to life, executed in a way that stuck by modern trends while doing all in its power to subvert them. Marathon has an uphill battle on its hands, but it can accomplish the same feat.
I Believe Bungie Can Stick The Landing
Extraction shooters aren’t the easiest games to get into as a casual player. They require an intense focus on resource management, sharp r🀅eflexes, and a willingness to fail yet still have the power to stand up and try again. They can be brutal, but with its focus on PvPvE, it feels like Marathon could strike a balance to create something that combines the best of Destiny and Escape From Tarkov.
, it already has the gunplay and the characters to make it work, albeit so few at launch that paying for them might be a bitter pill to swallow. But, much like Helldivers 2, you are investing in the opening months as you know it will grow into something bigger, with updates bringing new maps, heroes, guns, modes, and more to the table. What those look like is unclear, but if Bungie can pull us into a compelling🔯 virtual world with mechanics and stories worth caring about, that won’t matter.
I’m willing to give this game a chance if its stunning aesthetic and fascinating world-building are enough to compel me to learn the ins and outs of extraction shooters and actually bother to🃏 stick around. Doing so will be much easier if Bungie treats Marathon as something it has the utmost faith in by interacting with its community, building out the world outside the game itself on social media, and keeping players invested no matter what is happening. If it tries to follow in the footsteps of Concord expecting better results, it will only fail, even with Bungie in the driver’s seat. We have grown tired of🥀 live-service titles like this, so if one wants to launch and capture our imagination, it needs to do so from the very start.
Helldivers 2 is one of the few l🐻ive services published by Sony to succeed in recent years, and it did so dynamically through the sheer quality of its gameplay, world, and community. Marathon is not going to replicate that by chasing tired trends with naive hopes of success. It needs to do its own thing, prove itself, and become something worth caring about. It’s a tough battle, but in learning from what came before, it’s more than possible.
