Marathon 2025 - Bungie's new AAAA Extraction shooter

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You know, I have been meaning to play the Marathon games, the classics obviously but the question is...

Does this new game has ANYTHING to do with classic Marathon beyond the name? Is it a reboot? A soft reboot?


Because it is weird to bring back Marathon, in this format even. It really feels like they just didnt want to risk a new IP so they went for one that already existed under the pretense of bringing a "classic" back.

Thats like if WB brings back Blood but as an extraction shooter and Caleb isnt even a thing but there are vague "cult-ish" things about it that only VAGUELY tie it to the original...vaguely.

It is to the point where, well, why did they bother with the name beyond recognition? Which, mind you, Marathon didnt even have it since it is sort on the "lower" ranks in terms of classic boomer shooters.

Zenos Yae Viator said:
The reality is, we've gotten here because of Corpo-Culture.

No one, and I mean no one, is allowed to poo poo on anything in these companies, no one is allowed, or willing to say "its shit", and no one is allowed to admit fault publicly, as it can be used to fuck that person, or the company, its entirely an industry of both unforced errors, and errors that cannot be even pointed out in the making.
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The problem is that trying to not be a retard and inform the higher ups that this the ship is heading towards an iceberg will, more often than not, lead to you getting ignored at best or fired at worst.

And if you dare to blow the whistle, they will blacklist you at best or even sue you (assuming there was a NDA involved) at worst.

This is why everyone stays quiet and just hopes their careers will survive
 
>there are """people""" who genuinely think this looks good
grim
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The handsome tard said:
You know, I have been meaning to play the Marathon games, the classics obviously but the question is...

Does this new game has ANYTHING to do with classic Marathon beyond the name? Is it a reboot? A soft reboot?
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They were following in the footsteps of Doom 2016 but speedran into the dumb lore of Eternal and Dark Ages.
It is set in the same universe, with a lot of the same factions, but they're only loosely related to the first games.
 
Thomas Talus said:
The good stuff was largely contained in lore tabs and supplemental material, largely conceptual stuff like the Gardener and the Winnower and their game. The plots have always been mostly trite (the two twists in WQ were probably the only times I went, "oh, that's neat"), and the dialogue laughable. Lightfall was an absolute nadir, though, holy crap. A city that's just Reddit and the worst "quirky badass" character that was clearly some tranny writer's perfect special baby.
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God, fucking Nimbus. I don't think any character fried the redditors' brains more than him because everyone knew that he sucked and hated every fucking line of dialogue he ever said, but you would still have people running defense by bitching whenever someone called the obviously male character by masculine pronouns. "noooooo they're a heckin valid nonbinarino!" Fucking barf. And Bungie went on about how proud they were of having an enby for his voice actor, when it was literally just a fat pink-haired woman who could not sound masculine to save her life, so they weirdly pitch-shifted her voice and made it obnoxious and annoying. I think basically everyone who played the Lightfall campaign agrees that Nimbus should have been killed off and Rohan should have survived, both because he had a better voice actor and it would have made for a more interesting story, with him already being near the end of his life and either needing to find a replacement apprentice quickly or let the Cloud Striders end.

(I will say that the dialogue he had with Osiris in the followup story beats where they were listening to the Veil logs were better than the campaign, mostly because he wasn't written like a quirk chungus and was actually taking things seriously. A minor improvement, but still a garbage character.)

But honestly, as much as I hate Nimbus as a character, his voice is at least kind of tolerable even with the pitch shifting. The fucking worst character voice by far is Micah-10 from TFS, who in lore was just a woman Guardian who helped out Ghosts who hadn't found their partners yet, but was retconned into a tranny. Not only did they troon out a boy character from a nicely written and bittersweet lore book (just because they shared the same name, as though trannies don't immediately change their name to something like Lilith), they also decided that she needed to be voiced by a troon as well. And dear God, the troon cannot fucking act. The biggest problem is whenever he's trying to portray emotions because he's also trying to fake being a girl as well, and he is simply too retarded to do both at once. So every line of dialogue that isn't a monotone, you hear him straining awkwardly, and it's just so fucking grating to listen to. It got to the point where I had to mute all the dialogue while in the Pale Heart because I simply could not stand listening to the troon's stupid voice one more time. Oh, but they also implied she's some super special Guardian with some extra connection to the Traveler because trannies are heckin wholesome and valid and special! (Oh, and the VA's first name is Pooya, so that's funny.)

The only positive to these examples is that they are more or less self-contained to the expansions they were released in. That's not to say they can't ever come back (and I dread the day that they do), but as long as you're not free roaming in those destinations or doing one or two other activities, you never have to hear them at all.
Cnidarian said:
The dadaist art direction would have been redeemed if they were betting everything on a cosmic horror storyline. Think about it, it shows that the world isn't built for the humans who are supposedly conquering it.
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I'll bet nobody at Bungie even knows what a W'rkncacnter is anymore. Hell, I'll bet none of them even know how to spell it.
The handsome tard said:
You know, I have been meaning to play the Marathon games, the classics obviously but the question is...

Does this new game has ANYTHING to do with classic Marathon beyond the name? Is it a reboot? A soft reboot?


Because it is weird to bring back Marathon, in this format even. It really feels like they just didnt want to risk a new IP so they went for one that already existed under the pretense of bringing a "classic" back.

Thats like if WB brings back Blood but as an extraction shooter and Caleb isnt even a thing but there are vague "cult-ish" things about it that only VAGUELY tie it to the original...vaguely.

It is to the point where, well, why did they bother with the name beyond recognition? Which, mind you, Marathon didnt even have it since it is sort on the "lower" ranks in terms of classic boomer shooters.
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As far as I'm aware, it's kind of a sequel to the first game only. During the first game, one of the AIs sends out a distress signal to Earth, but it takes nearly a century to get there. Earth then sends a force to investigate and recover what they can from the Tau Ceti colony, which was wiped out at some point in the interim. By this point, Durandal and the security officer will have been long gone, with the events of M2 having taken place decades earlier. Hell, the security officer won't even be in that universe anymore thanks to Infinity's shenanigans...although, thanks to Infinity confirming many timelines, it's entirely possible that the new game is set in an entirely alternate continuity altogether, especially since (to my knowledge) there's no mention of the defeat of the Pfhor by the combined forces of Earth and the S'pht'Kr, which would have happened about a decade prior.

As to why they did it...I dunno, I guess they figured having a little bit of brand recognition was better than nothing at all. Sucks to be a fan of the original trilogy, but what is life if not a series of unending disappointments?
 
King Dead said:
(I will say that the dialogue he had with Osiris in the followup story beats where they were listening to the Veil logs were better than the campaign, mostly because he wasn't written like a quirk chungus and was actually taking things seriously. A minor improvement, but still a garbage character.)
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The exotic mission for Deterministic Chaos was a major bump in quality of characterization, just by making Nimbus having emotional responses to events that weren't bizarrely out of place like they were in the campaign.
 
moocow said:
You know how people bitch about military and government overspending? Like mythical $10k toilets and other stupid shit? lol ... fuckin' public sector's got nothing on the sheer waste that goes on in private enterprise. I laugh (openly, out loud, even at inappropriate times) when I hear somebody bitch about some "super-overpriced" public sector related thing. "Dude, I worked at a huge game studio that gave everybody unlimited Special K every morning and handed out movie tickets like candy. STFU about 'government waste.'"
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People complain about government waste because it is at a much larger scale than any private company can waste without any real penalties for failure. Even worse, it wastes taxpayer money.

None of the benefits you mentioned costs any money. No amount of cereal or gyms can ever reach the cost of the CA high speed rail fiasco. Also EA's benefits suck compared to any other company that size. Most tech offices in the Bay area serve at least 2 meals a day for free, yet that tax deductible cost will never reach the magnitude of government spending.
The biggest issue isn't even wasting money, it's that the government never ends up with anything to show for the money they spend. You can complain about all the useless headcount. But the entirety of government headcount is a waste. This is how a government project usually goes. They get a project and fuck around for months to years before starting. The project is late and over budget and nothing they deliver works. After a while, they pay an overpriced contracting firm to redo the whole thing for them. Government employees are absolute garbage tier. They will actively antagonize you if you try to do any real work. You won't get fired for not working, you'll get fired because you were productive and that all your coworkers look bad.
 
Zenos Yae Viator said:
they can smell Chuds, even though that fucker doesn't even curse beyond accepted words.
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He's said vaguely pro america things in the past, plus this.
https://x.com/yoxics/status/2028138528195113127



Libtards cannot let this stand. They'll never accept him, no matter how much he shills for their game.
https://x.com/MaplePeache/status/2028185387865174126
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skibidi biden said:
The people have spoken, its concord 3
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Wow, professional reviewers are unironically waiting until the content drop at the end of March to release their scores? Or is Metacritic doing Bungie a favor? Holy fucking cringe.
 
The handsome tard said:
Does this new game has ANYTHING to do with classic Marathon beyond the name? Is it a reboot? A soft reboot?
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I"m so fucking sick of seeing this question so I spent the time to answer it.

Each season of the game is intended to introduce a new narrative arc.

Currently, you play as a sci-fi mercenary exploring the Tau Ceti system and investigating the disappearance of the colony. You take on contracts from the major powers within the setting such as CyberAcme, MIDA, and Traxus - each with their own agenda. Currently they are using you to gather intelligence, recover data, and advance their competing interests.

For example, NuCal tasks you with investigating a novel virus uncovered in corrupted colony data. The working theory is that the virus devastated crops and destroyed food security. As you dig deeper, however, you discover that while the virus did damage the food supply, it also coincided with the colony’s agricultural AI going rampant becoming paranoid and unstable.

In fact, nearly all of the colony’s AI systems appear dormant, corrupted, or otherwise compromised. Through your work, the factions piece together fragments of what might have happened, but the full picture remains unclear.

There was also some kind of geological event and from it emerged “the Anomaly,” an object or substance that seems to ignore the normal laws of reality, I really dont have a better way to describe this, the material it produces behaves impossibly as it seemingly reshapes the landscape, corrupts AI systems, and even causes cancer. It’s essentially a turbo MacGuffin with unpredictable effects.

Some factions see it as humanity’s ultimate solution. Others think it’s the worst disaster since Chernobyl.

The colony had been studying the Anomaly for years before everything collapsed. Beyond that, the details are still murky. I’m still progressing through the story and have only recently caught up to where I left off during the server slam.

Given the themes, I strongly suspect the Anomaly is connected to a W'rkncacnter. A lot of the narrative so far echoes the tone and cosmic horror elements of Pathways into Darkness with what is described.

Meanwhile, the colony ship Marathon remains in orbit over Tau Ceti. Runners haven’t yet figured out how to teleport aboard and explore it directly. The UESC has been sending drones to investigate, but recovery rates are terrible. Mission success is so low that continuing these operations barely seems viable. Despite locking down the entire system, the UESC appears to be struggling to maintain control.

Back on Earth, things haven't been going well over the past century. Tau Ceti may represent humanity’s future, and all the major factions seem to understand that. They’re positioning themselves to become the power brokers of a new era, you are at the center of it.

Recently, terminals from the OG marathon scattered across the maps began activating, playing cryptic messages believed to be from Durandal. Whoever is transmitting them claims to have been watching the chaos unfold on Tau Ceti and warns that this is only the beginning.

You can occasionally spot graffiti referencing Durandal having gone “rampant” or “mad.”

Anyways the terminal messages ultimately point to an ARG site featuring images of the Marathon and what appears to be a map set aboard the ship.

If people are actually interested in this shit I can post more, but I doubt it.
 
The handsome tard said:
Because it is weird to bring back Marathon, in this format even. It really feels like they just didnt want to risk a new IP so they went for one that already existed under the pretense of bringing a "classic" back.
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That's exactly what it is, using the name and world of Marathon is just set dressing, because in their mind renowned name, even old and obscure, is better than a completely new IP. This game is just a cash grab, poor one at that.
It's obvious.
Professor Donger said:
Yeah, the lore in the game is surprisingly extensive
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Would've been nice if they attached it to a good game.
 
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1,4k hours hunt, 1,8k hours tarkov, 500 hours arc.

Marathon is good, grabs elements from all of those and supports playstyles found in each - in short shits good and that's coming from an extraction vet not some fake gamer trash looking for youtube clicks, sure the visuals are love it or hate it but there's no troon worship or whatever degenerate garbage going, if anything everyone is treated as disposable biowaste in-universe.

Ya'll can keep shrieking, but it's just nonsense, and unlike either of the other extractions it has actual lore that meshes in with the world nicely - something sorely lacking in all the others (don't get me started on arcs ai generated lore entries full of logical inconsistencies and broken words, fuck embark anyway those assholes clearly have no idea what arc should even be and it's a complete accident not design that gave them success).

Loads of these losers making vids about marathon are exposing themselves as being no different from leftist trash that has no valid points and just enjoys shrieking, and it's quite pathetic but oh well.
 
creaturestorm said:
If people are actually interested in this shit I can post more, but I doubt it.
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I appreciate it, the only reason I'm not interested is because I know it's going to fucking suck and I'm going to ignore its existence just like the 343i bullshit unless somebody tells me it's worthwhile.
 
Playing more it becomes clear how marathons poi's take hunts compound concept to another level - knifing the "grunts" (with enough faction/item upgrades the fatter bois too) and cleaning up the place before grabbing the local valuable (in hunts case either a clue, event items or bounty) which can be anything from a simple guarded lootbox to an event trigger basically feels like a full round of hunt crammed into one spot, and pulling it off feels just as good as a grand slam - with the bonus of having more to show for it than just $$ and bloodline xp.

It's pretty obvious there's enough playstyle freedom that rounds on the same map will play out differently, with some being straight up quake chaos and everyone blasting everything that moves without giving a shit about noise, while others become milsim land with long squad stalemates and jumpscares.

+ the ability to rez your team makes all the difference, as long as one of you survives you can just wait until its clear and still get out alive though you might end up having no gear since you'll be looted and teabagged.
 
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Site of Origin said:
The lore, and really the game itself is a retcon of 2 and infinity. Both clearly stated that the colony was left as nothing more than a smoldering crater.
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You start the OG Marathon thinking your just some normie security officer whose been brought out of cryo to defend the Marathon. The AI purposefully lie to you, manipulate you, and use you to achieve their own ends.

You are just 1 cyborg in Mjolnir armor wiping out the entire home world of the Phor, there were supposedly 9 others on the colony who fail to defend it. It has never sit well with me that the Phor, a race of slavers, just show up to glass a small colony. Either it's just simply lazy writting and it's a retcon or it's all another manipulation and something else happened.

Then we have the security officers ability to change the universe's fate, would he let the colony become cratered? I'm open to seeing this play out before I write it off as something else.

Most of Marathon's lore is the player/community filling in the gaps to make sense of what is happening. Things arent explained all the time, even the security officer, we dont know what he is or how he's doing it. You just roll with it until you can piece together an answer.
 
InDeArsche said:
what arc should even be and it's a complete accident not design that gave them success
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I disagree, almost every location in ARC are actually camouflaged incredibly meticulous death match arenas.
Just Research and Admin on Dam is very well mapped, tons of flank spots escape spots and angles that let you peak but expose your ass to a flank.

In Stella tons of corners are clearly purposely slanted so peakers get shot in the foot.. what in saying is the maps both look and feel like real locations, but the moment pvp is on the table you realize it's also designed purposely for it, even ARC are mostly at that point to cause tension and stalemate breaks by causing chaos or forcing you to give your position away.
 
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