“Bungie’s new extraction shooter got its hooks in me in a way that no game like it has before. I’m in multiple Discords dedicated to finding squadmates. I’m watching its ARG components unfold like a hawk. I’m even obsessing over in-game lore when that kind of storytelling usually puts me to sleep. After two weeks, Marathon is instilling a valuable lesson in me. There’s no such thing as a game genre I don’t like; all it takes is a game that puts what I’m doing in the right context to win me over.”
“Marathon is not friendly”
“Everything, and everyone, on Tau Ceti IV wants you dead”
“Marathon is filled with laser-focused design choices that guide players towards hostility”
“If you want more stuff, you have to abandon mercy”
“And stuff is king in Marathon. Credits are more valuable than humans on Tau Ceti IV. An overflowing vault is a status symbol. Your gear is your life, and if someone takes it all from you, it’s like they’ve stolen your soul. In a world where corporations run the show, you’re worth exactly as much as your loadout’s credit value. Popping into a run with a free Sponsored Kit, a sparse starter pack containing one gun and a few grody healing items, feels like an embarrassment. How undignified is it to take charity scraps from a shady pharmaceutical company!”
“All of that brings a psychology to Marathon that sets it apart from other extraction shooters I’ve tried. There are high narrative stakes behind all the looting and backstabbing. If I don’t make desperate moves to get the work done, I’m going to be left behind”
“It’s a game about “get the bag” culture, and the lengths we’re willing to go to in order to survive”
“Everything in Marathon is designed to push the limits of your humanity as you struggle to make a decent living at the expense of people who are more powerful than you’ll ever hope to be”
“The more I embrace the act of role-playing as a Runner in this hostile world, the more I feel the real anxiety underpinning the action. I feel what it’s like to be a cog in the machine. To be tossed around by corporations. To be so desperate for survival that I’ll do anything to make a buck”
“I don’t need a video game to show me that when I live it every day, but simulation helps me better understand my resentment by deconstructing it in game design terms”