- Joined
- May 5, 2019
Y'know, if it wasn't for the kernel level anti-cheat, this might actually get me to play the gayme!!
Marathon 2025 - Bungie's new AAAA Extraction shooter
- Thread starter ScurvyRat
- Start date
-
Want to keep track of this thread?
Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
Create account
TrainWreckWatcher
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2023
Honest talk. Do you think this will boost their numbers at all?
I think anyone who wanted it has it already.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Maybe you can speak better to this than I could, since you have experience with this and other extraction shooters, but it seems to me like that was the intention with the design of Marathon. They wanted to have the structure of an extraction shooter but simplified and casualized for a broader audience so they could get as many people into the game as possible. Classes don't really matter that much, you can succeed with anything without thinking too much about it, so pick your favorite and have a blast. Tactics don't matter either when the only strategy is get the jump on everyone else as fast as possible and then go get your loot. Progression to the end is more a matter of time investment than anything else.
But then it turns out that even when you make it simpler, the audience for extraction shooters is still pretty niche, and not enough to support such a massive investment. And now they're left trying to figure out how to actually get more people to check it out while simultaneously dealing with the dumpster fire that is their reputation after killing off their other game to focus solely on this. It's not an envious position to be in, I'll say that much.
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2019
It’ll have an effect, for sure, but it’ll be hard to parse it between the new season bump and itself.
Will it be enough to save marathon? Doubt it. They’ve just kneecapped the larger space’s goodwill with Destiny 2, and extraction shooters are for the real greasy types generally - the sort of person who’ll casually join a game to check it out in it’s free week will be set upon like a pack of wolves.
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2021
Sure, its not like the numbers can get any lower. Do I think it means new people will buy it? Not in any impactful way
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2025
Yes, I agree.
I also agree with this, but they simplified/casualized the wrong part of the game.
Something to consider is in Tarkov a total trash item like a pack of cigs has no monetary value, but at the same time it does. Those cigarettes might become a barter item, a crafting material, or a quest objective. So while you might not scoop them up for their monetary value, you might scoop them up to make ends meet in another way. All the loot in Tarkov has some kind of potential to some degree within the ecosystem and being able to capitalize on that is what helps separate players from their peers. These things act like stepping stones in this greater resource ladder.
Marathon also has trash items like the cigarettes the exception is that they have no value what so ever. They are worth practically nothing and do nothing. Many of Marathon's items are like this.
Before I go on another Rant, my point is that they simplified and stream lined the part of the genre that shouldn't be.
For fucks sake, the new night time map has you spawn in with a flash light and you can permanently unlock a sort of night vision. They robbed the player of the decision making and uncertainty.
This is true as things are now, but this is largely to blame thanks to it being the path of least resistance. It's near impossible to build craft in an FPS that promised build crafting and the TTK is low enough that throwing the first punch wins the majority of fights. So the game is less about coordinating runner abilities and is more about positioning and aim.
I havent played arc raiders at all, but there is something about the genre that people do like in the hundreds of thousands.
I think you can make an FPS extraction shooter for the main stream, but you cant take a game that's uncompetitive and then try and make it an esport while ignoring the things that make it an extraction shooter.
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2024
Ok hang on. If they added a shell that let you input emotes into chat and they displayed on the visor externally, I think I would come play just for a weekend of memeing on people.
>Hide in bush with welfare kit
>Wait for retard to pass
>Grenade* *bang bang* grenade*
>Stand over them while they're in bleed out
>*Type /:^)*
>Last thing they see looking down at them
>"Are you having a blast?"
Let's be real, the trannies at Bungie would never let you BM on this level but God it would be funny.
No. This was proven by the server slam weekend where the numbers were still abysmal.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2026
This is another reason this entire genre has never been able to gain widespread appeal, if you weren't there to learn the game from the start it doesn't matter if you jump on during the wipe. With a playerbase this small, the guys with hundreds or thousands of game hours are going to frequently match with and stomp new players into the dirt even with bad starter gear. They have all the game knowledge and practice to make the gear difference matter less, and God help those casuals if it's not fresh wipe time and those tryhards have actual good gear to go with the skill disparity.
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2025
It's not that bad. It's not some crazy bullshit like Tarkov where within 10 seconds of a raid starting and just hearing a foot step means that you need to start prefiring a corner so by the time you swing out the guy will be instantly killed before you ever had a chance to see him.
Once you understand that a team spawns at practically every POI and making noise just compromises your position you've got half the game already figured out. Rotations and flow really don't fucking matter in this game either, the POIs don't have shit in them. You just keep rotating until you find some one and then you repeat until the map is clear.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2026
This is more generally about extraction shooters as a whole and why Bungle was stupid to bet everything on this game in particular achieving mass appeal. I'm also not saying Marathon is hard to learn on paper, but I am saying it's hard for a new player to learn while being hunted down in raid by more experienced players. With a playerbase as small as Marathons the ratio of new players to old sweats is going to tip farther to old sweats as time goes on and it'll just make it increasingly harder for new players to pick up the game unless Marathon achieves some steady new player growth and keeps it long term. You or I may be willing to get annihilated for hours at a time learning a new extraction shooter but that's not what the mass audience Bungies looking for are willing to put up with.
The struggling player count leading to everyone left being sweats will also eventually drive off older players too. Extraction shooters need a mix of skill levels and experience in a lobby otherwise every match just feels like dropping into a Ranked mode and having to play at the top of your game every game, and it gets exhausting to deal with. Hunt Showdown is my extraction shooter of choice and it's why I take 3-6 month long breaks from the game now, eventually I always get filtered to the top bracket of the SBMM and the game becomes such an unbelievable ballache to play I lose all interest in it.
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2025
Unless they are doing Solo q (dont do that), they will most likely be on a team with other players who have some experience. Monkey see monkey do goes far here. I also cant tell you exactly how the match making works. I normally am paired with people of similiar level to me, but that could also be due to the game being so fucking dead all thats left are people like me. I'm by no means a no lifer, but I'm not the most casual either. I have a feeling they arent going to be fighting purple geared teams left and right for a long while unless they go into ranked.
You could just sit in a POI and wait for pvp to come to you, as I so often do. This is the most brain dead extraction shooter I've played so far, meta knowledge isn't worth much.
At times this feels like a milsim/swat shooter with the way fights are decided by positioning, patience, and 'violence of action'. That translates well into any team based FPS. If they have experience in other games, they will do fine here.
It's the PvE/Single player shooter only guys that will get mouth raped, but that's every multiplayer game they are going to log into.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
this is why the pve, lol.
they know exactly what is going to happen, especially since they did shit like iron banner on destiny where light levels did matter and you needed to be stomped or stomp people 3 times to get a light level power up.
they know too well.
BubbaRobot887
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2024
Does this game have anything to do with the trilogy of games from the 90s that share the same name?
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2023
Technically, yes. It is a sequel I believe. Spiritually? Ethically? Morally?
Fuck no.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
only if you like having a blast, other than that it's mostly memberberries to some of marathon's lore and the name.
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2021
I'll download it since I was sick the last time they had a free weekend, and I prefer to be an informed hater, but there's zero chance of me buying it.
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2019
Based on my experience as a player of videogames for many years and casual Steam chart enjoyer, they're delusional. Bungie won't be able to salvage this, they already got most of the playerbase that they'll ever have. People will come and go, but they'd be extremely lucky to recapture even half of their peak player number with major updates. As if it would matter if they did, considering the money at stake - they're fucking done.
I don't see why it would suddenly rebound, it's not like people are desperate for neon clown shooter. There's plenty of shit to play, more so with every passing day. Marathon is already old news, it's just us here laughing at it and bitter Destiny fans outside its constantly shrinking playerbase.
Tanner Glass
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2016
No, not likely.
You'll get an increase from the usual disaster tourists (people that played Highguard, Concord, Last Flag, etc) will check this out but Marathon's core problem is the audience is already captured. If you already play Tarkov/Warzone/ARC Raiders/etc there's generally nothing in Marathon to pull you away from those (and if you could be pulled, likely already are). The "check out or not" decision has already been made for most people.
Even the free-to-play weekend is extremely ill advised, because they're releasing the free-to-play weekend before they have the "meat" of Season 2 they want people to check out (the rushed out PVE mode) compounded with ill-advised Destiny 2 shutdown and the general incompetence around everything to do with Marathon paints a pretty clear picture of Bungie no longer being a company worth investing time/effort/care into.
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2025
Yes, maybe, not sure... We don't have enough information to tell yet.
See below for more details:
Reactions:
x 3 x 4 x 2
x 3 x 4 x 2
I'd suggest avoiding perimeter. It's the 'new player' map and it does an awful job at it. The POIs are a total rats nest of cover and the path in between them are totally barren open sight lines. You ideally want a sniper rifle and an SMG for that place, otherwise you will get caught lacking as you traverse the map. A new player isnt realistically going to have those options. The PvE events are also garbage. Gtfo of that map asap.
While on Perimeter, the locations known as Hauler and overflow are the most deadly due to terrain layout. Overflow is basically a fish bowl, teams can easily kill you shooting in at it. Hauler is very tight quarters, some one with a shotgun or a copper head will rape you.
I'd recommend sticking to Diremarsh if you want to experience the PvPvE part of the game, if you want just pure PvP go Outpost.
Not all weapons are made equal. The V11 punch drops off most enemies and will absolutely shred people if your shots are consistent. When it comes to free kits make absolutely sure the sponsor kit you pick has a green shield. This will be critical for your enjoyment, if youre going to have any.
Sekiguchi is the best sponsor kit IMO, you just need to hunt down an optic for the volley rifle which isnt hard to do once you know what a weapons mod container looks like.
This is assuming the Enhanced kits will still be free by the time the free weekend rolls around.
Familiarize yourself with this video, it will help immensely since everything in this game looks like absolute nonsense.
Last edited: