Person Who Has Only Ever Played Marathon Plays Marathon “Wow, this reminds me of Marathon”

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Image from https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/marathon-releases-march-5-2026-new-trailer-and-more

This is more or less cleaned-up liveblogging from a single gameplay session on Sunday night. I edited for spelling, punctuation, formality, and especially context, which was greatly lacking and is probably still greatly lacking. Anyways... 

My brother and I participated in the Marathon server slam.

As background, Marathon is a Bungie IP originally referring to a trilogy of PvE FPS games  (with network PvP support) from the 90s that has now been rebooted into an extraction shooter (ie, a PvP game which in this case has strong PvE elements). I am not a sweat. I do not intend to purchase this game, but I have vaguely followed its rather troubled production. Fortunately, Marathon has hit number two (https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2026/03/03/marathon-hits-no-2-on-steam-revenue-list-after-server-slam/) on the Steam Revenue list after the server slam. It is $40 in the US. 

I was hyperfixated on the original games for a while, and their style and themes influenced some of my writing. This blog is named after a hidden line from the second game. 

The only prior FPS game experience I have is with the three games in the Marathon trilogy, some  Halo game I played at an arcade once, and playing some of the Marathon fangames (specifically Rubicon and Eternal, neither of which I have finished). The original marathon games were like Doom for the Mac, but with more immersed storytelling, the ability to look up and down, gratuitous latin, and the ability to rocket jump vertically. Of course, none of these advancements mattered because it was for the Mac. My brother has also played the original Marathon trilogy, and  more experience with PvP FPS games generally. 

I was obviously not in either of the closed playtests. There was anticheat to install and a lot of I agree type stuff. I opted for no voice chat because I’ll just be exfilling single anyways.  The game wanted an age. I am one and a half months short of becoming a legal adult, so I marked my birthday as some time in February. Before I could choose the year, my younger brother, who has also played the original Marathon trilogy and has other experience with PvP FPS games, intervened and scrolled all the way to the earliest available year, 1904.  

The music is creepy and atmospheric. They have an extended strange cutscene at the start with body/eye/seikiguchi genetics (ie moths and silkworms, the most devious 3D printers of all) imagery (but no bingus (synthetic neon pink cat mascot) rip.) 

“Bingus” (fan nickname). Image Credit: Marathon/Bungie (screenshot by Ishan Adhikary/Beebom)                                                                                

 

The cutscene is very neon and this kind of reminiscent of the trippy part of 2001 space odyssey.  The original Marathon usually used a muted color palette outside of terminals and the pfhor (evil space alien empire) ships. At the end of the intro there is a voice that says “somewhere in the heavens” The end voice is probably Ben Starr, who probably voices Durandal. Durandal is kind of like GLaDOS if GLaDOS majored in philosophy instead of physics, and also had a weirder sense of humor, no physical body, and fellow AI quasi-siblings. I have very mixed feelings about Durandal appearing in the new game, and to be honest I’d rather see Leela (another AI from the original games. She is more normal than Durandal, although that is not hard), because she only shows up in the first game, and the the last thing you hear of she’s… dismantled (according to Durandal, who said he was told this by Tycho (another AI), both of who are unreliable sources)?? kidnapped (according to the very cursed secret terminal in the Marathon 2 level Requiem for a Cyborg)??? or rampant and inextricable from the computers of 15 different solar systems (according to the Marathon 2: Durandal end screen).

Anyways, I worry that they might mischaracterize Durandal, but I word less about Leela for this because I mostly just want her to be relevant and have screentime again, and we can see how the aftermath of the original games have changed her. Durandal has more important things to do and probably does not care about human so much, whereas Leela I could see still caring about humans, or alternately giving up on them completely after going rampant (although the second option would be a pretty big downer).

I was, I kid you not, so bad I died at exfil because I got shot by UESC while trying to leave. I shot the first UESC guy I fought though, which made me pretty happy. Running away from the overhead drones and gunfire and having first tense encounters with the enemy was again somewhat marathon-esque. The door opening/closing and noises are accurate to the original games, although it is too fast. 

The sprint key is shift. In the original games, people would set their run key to capslock to auto run without having to toggle it. If you were a vidmaster (a really good player) you did not do this. To prove you could.  

I say “were” as if the old games don’t still exist, when in fact they are free on steam (hint hint). I like the fact that you can throw a bunch of stuff in your inventory quickly once it is determined—unsure if by RNG or if present but I’d guess the former. 

I like the different visual effects, such as being able to loo upwards and have rain splash on your visor, blue blood when you’re hurt, although I was disappointed to learn there is fall damage in this game. I should not be surprised by this, seeing as fall damage is probably the norm for shooter games. The original Marathon did not have fall damage, presumably because it would be annoying to work with. Durandal highlights this fact when he throws you down a really long shaft to fight aliens (read: run around in a circle while the aliens kill each other with friendly fire) in the second game. You would expect that cyborgs would become better and more fall resistant over time, but it is important to note that these runner cyborgs need to be mass-produced, and they are also not infused with jjarro tech (ancient society. Think the Forerunners from Halo). My dad, who played the original games, agrees that it is sad that they have fall damage. 

Perimeter (one of the maps) looks very misty in the first run, and it has some really nice VFX. The UESC soldiers slowly drain you of life and as you desperately try to escape them. 

My brother and I both died to the UESC who swarm you when you try to exfil but in my brother’s defense, he had run out of ammo at the time. I was just bad. 

Man, I forget if the colony was named in the original games. In the reboot, the colony is named “New Cascadia.”

My brother is getting good at shooting these UESC guys. 

Bro: “What do you mean my backpack’s full, I just dropped a thing” 

“It does look very Marathon-esque actually” my Dad, who played the original games. This is probably the highest praise the game will get, assuming the statement was genuine. 

“Do cats want to go in the closet.” Also my father. 

The drone-y things in the sky are the things that give you the debuffs. This took us too long to realize.

“Mr Marathon” the unnamed original main character, also referred to by players as “The Security Officer,” “The Marine,” etcetera, also never had overheating issues. This is because of different game balance, I think, and strategy, and presumably it being easier or at least more fun to shoot slower-moving players. 

I swear the load-in screen at the start is 2001 Space Odyssey inspired. 

The bright wall panel displays are also somewhat reminiscent of the original games. The original games had no voiceover though. Although there is some nice eerie menu music, there isn’t environmental music except for threat music a few times. The first original Marathon game had music in-game, and the others only had loading/end screen music. However, they also had environmental noises, like weird messed-up spaceship sounds. This game also vaguely has that, although to a lesser extent, probably so that you can focus more on the sounds of gunfire, footsteps, and the like. 

The ramps remind me of Portal for some reason, with the wet-ish lighting and the numbered floors. As you can tell from this, I mostly play 2D indie games. 

I realized you can shoot windows out, which is a very fun mechanic. It makes you feel important, because you successfully interact with and change the environment around you. 

It looks like exfil-ing (extracting from the game at a marked map location that can vary across games or over time within games) just takes a long time. But my bro did it!!! Yay!

Silk in currency: silksong brain activated in both bro and me seeing this. 

“Traxus is also real [ie in the original games]” me and bro talking about factions. 

After completing your first exfil, you get to see the main menu, and look at the different factions, the codex, the shooter setup (you can pick your base shooter and customize the gear). We ended up joining the CyberAcme faction. When you look at the CyberAcme faction page, ONI (the CyberAcme faction AI agent’s) eyes bore into your soul. Its face isn't lipsynced to the lines and it looks especially eerie as a result.  

I have heard Joy (as in Joyeuse. Durandal, like Cortana after him, is named after a sword, as Joy would be) will be in this game, so my soul is healed, but Joyeuse Halo already healed my soul, so now I have two souls.  

The Cyac (CyberAcme) thing when you’ve selected it and it comes alive is creepy man I love it. Good menu music just like the original games, although a lot calmer. Original music was EDM. This is more eerie. 

Brother: “It all gets wiped at the end of the season.”

Me: “So tomorrow.”

Brother: “Wait season like Fortnite?”

Me: “It’s all live service.”

Brother: “Oh my god are we playing fortnite?”

“You can quote me on whatever”

They have codex rewards for various achievements in-game like killing UESC.

Lore sheet from the new game: https://marathon.bungie.org/story/ 

They have lore terminals! The border scrolls now, but it exists, and they have the images offset to the side of the text. This is very very similar to the original games’ terminals, which were how all the information was imparted to you, whether that be some random Pfhor (pronounced “for,” evil enemy alien faction) who’s about to die’s log, or Durandal calling you to run a pep rally for himself. Both of these are real things. 

Image of original game terminal from : https://marathon.bungie.org/story/counterattack.html#9 (wiki rabbithole warning)

The green monochromatic image is in the same style as the images of Robert Blake (character in the original games)’s face. My brother says this is because they both use dithering. 

The achievement for beating another runner is Requiem for a Cyborg (the previously mentioned Marathon 2 level). This is amazing. They have references!!!

“I wonder if they’ll even have the Marathon 2 color scheme in boomer” Brother again. Boomer is Durandal’s ship. It is a crime against ocular implants everywhere. He got it from the Pfhor, and then he had it for 17 years and only had the name “Boomer” painted on the outside, and he left the inside as is. 

Durandal’s ship. Image from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUaGkOwRO4A 

What the heck how are the UESC saying Deimos wasn’t a moon. Is it because it might have crashed/was too small? I don’t speak legal. Anyways this is clearly bs so they can appropriate the moon from people on mars. 

The factions have AI agents; I wonder if that’s named for irl agents. They were not named that in the original games, but Leela, Durandal and Tycho mostly did other stuff and weren't megacorp mouthpieces. Lucky them. 

Cyac very involved in runner connection. Look at me diligently taking notes on the lore instead of playing the game. I think I’m too risk-averse for this genre. 

They’ve renamed some of the shells since the first playsets (Vandal was named Glitch, eg). 

I don’t think I’ve seen Triage before at all. The names are meant to seem more role-like and less character-like. A ot of people completed about this and not wanting it to be a “hero shooter” when the game was in development. Honestly I’m just glad the game finally exists, and I’m really grateful that I have the opportunity to look at this at all. I might keep up to date with the lore who knows. 

A lot of people thought Void/Assassin (invisibility guy) was the best shell in the earlier playtest (at least on reddit) and it was the most played in the Server Slam according to the server slam recap https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/server_slam_wrap_up). 

Playing perimeter as Assassin in solo queue watch me die. 

I was running off trying to head down somewhere and I got shot from behind and totally ragdolled. 

I love the eliminated screen it has Vampire the Masquerade vibes for some reason. The whole experience was  very tense and I found some minor loot and then tried to head to exfil. I should have anticipated that others would have wanted to exfil earlier. 

The death screen has very dissonant creepy music. It’s such a vibe. 

I’m going to play one more round and then call it a night. 

Went for another run and immediately got sniped by who knows where from who knows who. You get to see your killer play a little after you die. From this I conclude that I must have died from going out of bounds or something the first time, because I just ragdolled without a give up option and then I didn’t see who killed me. Unfortunately for them, the person I fought went to on have a tough time with the UESC. No clue if thee made it or not, or if they even looted my stuff. 

Overall I am unsurprisingly bad, but I have been successfully nostalgia baited. I haven’t played long enough to see whether I would have had fun, or just gotten fed up with losing repeatedly. I can generally be pushed to try new types of games, though, so I might have liked this, but again, I just am not super interested in being a sweat. 

Now that it’s over, I feel legitimately sad that I didn’t play more. 

If in any way Bungie has betrayed its old self, it is that this game doesn’t run on Macs. Otherwise it’s fine and I’m just glad it exists.