Marathon Review – Runner’s High

Marathon has been an odd game to mull over lately, not just because of my history with Destiny 1 and 2, or the fact that Bungie desperately needs a win, or even because of the controversy over stolen art assets. Beyond the extraction gameplay loop, I didn’t really get it. Bungie being…Bungie, for the past decade or more, also didn’t bolster my confidence.

However, after spending ample time with the Server Slam and full release, I have to admit: I’m enjoying Marathon. Not even in the “much more than I thought I would” sense, but with the desire to hop back in for a run, even after three rounds of farming and then losing everything I had immediately. Granted, that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone, much less those looking for the next best competitive shooter/live-service game (because the world surely needs more of those).

And that will perhaps be no more apparent than in the so-called story. In the future, humanity launched a colony ship called the UESC Marathon to colonize the reaches of space, and quickly lost contact with it. You control a Runner, a digitized consciousness inside of a Shell, who investigates the colony on Tau Ceti IV. It’s gone dark since the Marathon arrived, with murderous UESC bots crawling all over the place. What led to this bustling colony’s demise? What exactly is the UESC’s problem, and who is pulling the strings?

"And while I would have liked being able to take on more than Contract at a time (especially when solo), Marathon offers the next best thing: Sharing experience from teammates’ Contracts, which not only incentivizes team play but further softens any gear loss from death."

However, the story embraces more of a rogue-like format than your average Bungie narrative. Once you’ve re-established a connection with ONI, your virtual assistant, and CyberAcme, you open the doors to several other factions and corporations who want a piece of Tau Ceti IV. NuCaloric presents itself as oddly humanist, though it feels no sense of empathy for you. MIDA is all about rebelling against the UESC and general chaos. Arachne sees you hunting other enemy Runners and pushes you to do it as many times as you can (while sitting around looking sick as heck).

Of course, as you explore and complete Contracts, you’ll also unlock Codex entries which offer more details on just about everything, from the Runner Shells to their tech and even the factions. It’s all more ancillary to the actual plot, but still appreciated, even if the Codex could be less of an eyesore to read.

For now, I find Marathon’s overall set-up and mystery to be intriguing. The introductions and cutscenes for each faction are great, and each is brimming with personality courtesy of strong voice and snappy writing. Whether it will have a strong pay-off or not is anyone’s guess, especially with Bungie’s history, but I’m enjoying these little chit chats, as the layers of each faction are slowly peeled back.

You would think they only serve to offer Contracts, which are the equivalent of quests in an extraction shooter, but that’s not all. Each also has a unique progression tree. Rank up enough, and you can unlock access to their wares in the Armory, from higher-tier shields and weapons to daily free consumables and keys. There are also plenty of passive benefits to unlock, from more vault space for the rest of the season to higher heat capacity (which we’ll get into shortly).

And while I would have liked being able to take on more than Contract at a time (especially when solo), Marathon offers the next best thing: Sharing experience from teammates’ Contracts, which not only incentivizes team play but further softens any gear loss from death. The objectives could be made a little easier to spot when you’re near (which Bungie has addressed in a recent patch). Otherwise, they serve the core purpose of such quests in an extraction shooter – pushing you to explore the map and venture into populated areas to fight and survive. Or die trying.

"There have been runs with no other enemy Runners spotted, where the UESC have proven an outright menace, and solo runs as a Rook, which felt akin to a survival horror game – limited ammo and resources, avoiding anything that could cause any pain, and just hoping that I got out alive."

And make no mistake – you will be dying a lot. If the Rust Belt is more community-focused, where whatever goes into the matchmaking means you’ll encounter less PvP-minded folk, then Tau Ceti IV is no man’s land. It helps then that you’ll receive an almost embarrassing amount of riches from completing Contracts and ranking up.

As for the actual gameplay, Marathon proves Bungie’s first-shooting prowess yet again with some of the tightest gunplay since, well, Destiny. Unsurprisingly, several weapons are seemingly carried over (spot the Magnum), but even I was shocked by how the Overrun AR or the Stryder M1T felt so similar to the auto rifles and scout rifles of Destiny. That snappiness when gunning down UESC robots or even the subtlety of sprinting to shorten the reload animation is all here, and feels great.

But while the pace is much quicker than your average extraction shooter, Marathon is much more tactical than Bungie’s other multiplayer fare. Runner Shells have unique abilities with long cooldowns, which you can install Cores to enhance, but you’re unlikely to be throwing out multiple Seeker Bots as a Recon or keeping that shield up forever as a Destroyer. You also have Heat Capacity, which builds up by sprinting and sliding – if it’s maxed, then you’re unable to do either for a short period. Take a dip in a small pool or run through the rain, however, and it recovers faster.

So with all this in mind, what does a typical run in Marathon feel like? That ultimately depends on whether you’re playing with a team or solo, but one thing is always for sure: You never know what’s going to happen. I had a run where I somehow found a blue sniper rifle and, against all instincts telling me otherwise, equipped it and managed to save a teammate from an enemy Runner. I had a solo run where I died to the first Runner that I encountered because my ARC Raiders instincts took over. Unfettered, I embarked on another run and proceeded to shoot every Runner on sight…until the second one, and I mutually traded, and spent our last moments, shuffling on the floor, painting the town blue.

There have been runs with no other enemy Runners spotted, where the UESC have proven an outright menace, and solo runs as a Rook, which felt akin to a survival horror game – limited ammo and resources, avoiding anything that could cause any pain, and just hoping that I got out alive. I’ve also gone into some runs with the best equipment available at the time, and lost it all within minutes.

"Even after losing everything, you can dive back in within minutes with a new loadout. Or go scrounging on shorter runs. Or throw caution to the wind and see what happens, all to feed that desire for one more run."

And yet, the urge to jump back in and try again remained strong. Part of that is wanting to unravel the various mechanics of each map, especially the Lockdowns on Dire Marsh and the security clearances on Outpost. However, the core gameplay loop of jumping in, with a little or a lot, and just hoping to find good loot, if not a strong Credit haul, remained addictive. The fact that there’s some actual great loot to chase is great, but I also like how a weapon’s rarity can be effectively increased if you have the higher-tier attachments. It means that discovering or buying a specific weapon type isn’t a complete waste if you don’t have the right rarity.

I’ve seen (and had) plenty of mixed reactions to Marathon’s visual style, and no, not because of the sheer amount of color in the maps. Yet, actually being immersed in the experience, and learning more about the Runners and their consciousness makes the “graphic retro futurism” as Bungie calls it, oddly compelling. Am I saying the moth doesn’t freak me out? No, but you get used to it over time.

The actual maps that you’ll explore somehow balance that feeling of desolation from a wiped-out colony with the threat of danger lurking around every corner. It could be an odd tureet waiting to spin up; a squad of UESC soldiers just hovering around; or even those tick-like nests that pop up at the worst times. Initially, they may seem less imaginative than what you’d encounter in, say, Destiny or Halo, but each map serves the purpose of feeling like a previously livable area, where claustrophobic interiors meet wide sightlines and hostile flora and fauna.

An achievement of humanity now seemingly frozen in time – where the fog of war could just as easily be your worst enemy as the Heat Cascade or a Lockdown without an Anti-Virus or three. They don’t exactly feed that sense of exploration that an ARC Raiders map would, but that’s completely intentional, like the Contracts, to push you towards actual fights. It’s more PvP-leaning, where actual cooperation between other Runners and crews is about as likely as Destiny 2 surviving another year. Yet, it works. Even after losing everything, you can dive back in within minutes with a new loadout. Or go scrounging on shorter runs. Or throw caution to the wind and see what happens, all to feed that desire for one more run.

Now, with all the praise that I have for Marathon’s core extraction shooter loop, gunplay, and presentation, you’d figure that something’s gotta give. That would be the UI, the first major hurdle to really enjoying the game. Yes, I know its quality – or lack thereof – has been beaten to death, to say nothing of the “fontslop” complaints, but it is amazing how utterly lacking it can be in several situations.

"That said, while I wouldn’t call Marathon “great,” it’s still a very fun experience that can be just as rewarding as it can be punishing; where its universe seemingly rejects you in one moment, then pulls you at others; and where Bungie’s unorthodox style can just as easily repel as it can ensnare."

You can’t compare items on the fly, so you won’t know if that Core or Implant is better than what you’ve currently equipped. Equipment like Shields have similar icons, so if they’re the same rarity, you need to mouse over them to see if they’re any better, which is especially painful when having to examine numerous Implants. While transferring from my Backpack to the Vault, it’s Ctrl + Left Click, but from the Vault to the Backpack is Left Click (and if I’m confused between the two, then blame it on Bungie for not making them the same).

Why is there even a separate screen for Shell Select? Why is the Customize tab first when it’s my least used? Why don’t Backpacks get their own filter tab? Why can’t I press a button in separate tabs to quickly highlight what’s equippable, which would be immensely helpful for weapon attachments? This is far from everything, and while you can get used to it with time, it still drags the experience down, especially in the middle of a run. Maybe the intent was for players to become so bogged down with hovering and reading that they open themselves up to death. Well, mission-accomplished.

Then there’s the Rewards Pass. I’m long past caring about cosmetics in a video game, but it’s 2026, nearly nine years since Destiny 2 launched. Who at Bungie thought that bringing back one-time use weapon shaders was a good idea, and then extended those to charms and stickers? Why would I even use them at all then? Also, only one Runner skin in the Premium Pass, which you have to pay for and then collect SILK through gameplay to unlock. The base game offers its own unlockables, but if this is the Warbond-esque model for the future, Bungie needs to pivot ASAP.

Despite all the positives and the few negatives, both minor and significant, do I think Marathon has a future? That’s a difficult question to answer, and not just because of its Steam player counts or Metacritic user scores. It’s because this is a much more niche, competitive experience than a game like ARC Raiders. You could even argue that interactions in the latter are much more varied, since it’s more or less a given that other Runners will immediately attack in Marathon. As I’ve said multiple times, in today’s crowded live-service market, even great games have to fight tooth and nail to maintain an audience.

That said, while I wouldn’t call Marathon “great,” it’s still a very fun experience that can be just as rewarding as it can be punishing; where its universe seemingly rejects you in one moment, then pulls you at others; and where Bungie’s unorthodox style can just as easily repel as it can ensnare. And if it sounds at all like something you’d enjoy, then there’s no better time to jump in than now.

This game was reviewed on PC.