While Bungie previously said they would be “heads down” on Marathon for the foreseeable future, they…really meant it. There has essentially be absolutely nothing publicly revealed about the game since a trailer and vidoc went live in May of 2023, a year and a half ago, and a vidoc that has since been deleted. Today, that’s changed. Kind of.
We have now gotten a new video from Marathon game director, Joe Ziegler, formerly the head of Valorant. The reason the old vidoc got deleted is because it featured the old game director, Chris Barrett, who it was recently revealed was quietly fired after allegations of inappropriate conduct with women at the company were raised. He was out shortly after that vidoc and Ziegler took over, something that was only acknowledged nine months after it happened. Ziegler said more would be revealed soon, and they’ve just squeezed a bit in before the new year here, albeit without many answers in tow.
In the video above, Ziegler confirms a few previously reported details about the structure of the game for the first time. Among the highlights, which did not include actual gameplay footage:
- You fight hostile AI mobs and other players in its extraction shooter format. The intro is essentially just describing what an extraction shooter is.
- Loot is weapons, equipment that changes your stats, tweaks abilities. There utility tools like mines and grenades. There consumables that let you heal yourself (wow!).
- You control “Runners,” each with their own subset of abilities, and you can customize them with different kinds of gear when you go on runs. This is addressing the “hero” idea.
- They are trying to modernize the Marathon story from 30 years ago. No details on what that means exactly.
- They have done a whole lot of playtesting thus far, which has shaped and shifted the game. Environments are more complete than character models right now, enemy models are in an early state. Again, this planned to be out in 2025, though he did not reiterate that, and no dates were given for future public or private alpha or beta tests.
- Showed a few Runners, just artwork, not gameplay. One named Thief. Another, Stealth. These are very much not final names, it seems. No information on kit details.
- You can now wishlist the game.
Look I’m sorry but…that was not good. It’s essentially explaining the basics of what an extraction shooter is, brushing up against the concept of heroes extremely briefly and without details, and only two pieces of concept art to show for a game supposedly out next year. I’d call this pretty disappointing on the whole, though my sources say a deeper dive will be some time next spring. Again, 2025 seems…questionable, at this point. As for the quality of the game itself, I have no idea what we’re supposed to draw from something like this.
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