Tau Ceti IV is a planet that deals in neon colors and a slick technopunk aesthetic. Disembodied voices and pixel figures talk to you through a screen, giving you direction as you embark on your journey across this vile wasteland, but really, they’re orders you can’t refuse. Designed to trap you in a vicious cycle you can’t escape. Marathon is a sci-fi exaggeration of the gig economy, but in today’s world, it feels more relatable than ever.
The loop of Marathon is simple. You drop into Tau Ceti IV, scavenge the environment for whatever loot you can scrounge up, then get to an exfil point to leave safely with your stuff. The catch? There are other squads doing exactly the same thing, and you can bet they’re gonna do everything they can to make sure you don’t get yours. Why all the hostility and unfriendliness? Well y’know, it’s all about corporate greed, selfishness, and the ugly humanistic desire to come out on top even if you have to step all over everyone else to get there.
Much like other games in the extraction shooter genre, Marathon isn’t a game designed to encourage cooperation among squads. Everything about its design screams sweaty competition. From the ugly corpos rattling off new orders at you, to the cold, sterility of the UI and how snappy and easy it is to end another Shell, Marathon encourages you to stay in the loop. Just one more run. Just one more good run so I can finally make my way to the next deadly map and do the same thing all over again. The higher those numbers go, the better I am, clearly.
You never really die in Marathon. Not really. There are several Shells you can take control of, and your consciousness is downloaded into those as you drop onto Tau Ceti IV. Die, come back, get downloaded into another Shell, then go again.
Triage ended up being my main, predictably, as I’m much more comfortable in a support role that allows me to heal my teammates and watch their backs as they, uh, do all the heavy lifting. Surprisingly, though, I ended up gravitating towards Rook as I slowly sunk more hours into Marathon.
You’re meant to tackle your runs in squads of three, with online matchmaking available for players joining solo. However, if you play as Rook, you get to enjoy a truly unique solo experience rarely seen in other multiplayer games. Rook allows you to jump into a game mid-run as a solo runner. You get a free loadout, the ability to hide from the PvE enemies, and the only catch is that you’re showing up late to the party. If you die, you lose nothing because your loadout was free anyway, but trying to clear a successful run is much more difficult and intense.
Every Shell has its own skill tree you can progress through, making the game just slightly easier to handle as the season goes on, though you should be aware that your progress resets with every season. I can see this being a sticking point for many players, particularly exacerbated by Marathon‘s poor tutorialization and weak UI elements, but I promise that if you’re able to buy into Marathon’s conceit, it all becomes worth it eventually.
As you progress through the game’s reward pass (also lackluster) and level up, you’ll also start to unlock higher intensity level maps. The loot is better, but the enemies and map designs also get trickier. Unlocking the main building on Outpost alerts every player, for instance, and you’re also forced to scrounge around for security cards that let you deeper into the compound. Every firefight feels like a life-or-death situation as a result, as you’re forced into close quarters encounters with nowhere to hide, with tons of loot and potential security clearance cards on the line.
Bungie’s prowess in level design is on full display here, but things really only come to a head when you finally make it to the Cryo Archive, an exclusive map that is available on weekends and requires you to come packed with a loadout value of $5,000. If you’ve played Marathon for any amount of time, you’ll know that entry doesn’t come cheap.
While I’ve only experienced it a couple of times, that’s been more than enough to show just what Marathon is all about. Think Destiny raid, except on top of the tough PvE bosses you have to deal with, you also have to think about the PvP elements of the game where everyone else is out to get you too. There are plenty of rooms littered about the perimeter of the Cryo Archive, but again, you’ll need security clearance to get deeper.
To complicate things even further, there is a central room in Cryo Archive known as the Panopticon that all players will eventually have to pass through in order to progress. The map is designed such that it’s impossible to avoid other squads for an extended period of time, and it’s always a delicate balance trying to stay out of the firefights while not falling behind in terms of scavenging. Even in its early days, it’s clear that there are still plenty of viable strategies to work out when it comes to tackling the Cryo Archive, and it’ll be exciting to see what different squads are able to come up with as time goes on.
It’s a shame, then, that most Marathon players will likely never see the inside of the Cryo Archive, as it’s the encapsulation of the best that Marathon has to offer, and what Bungie hopes to achieve with their new live-service title.
While I’ll still sit here, holding out hope for a Destiny 3 announcement sooner rather than later, I won’t deny that Marathon is the most smartly designed online shooter I’ve played in years. I’ve been in the market for a new multiplayer obsession, and I’m happy to report that Bungie has done it yet again.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on PC.
