Marathon Review: Bungie's Serious, Stylish Extraction FPS Is One of the Best Shooters in Years

It is said, all's well that ends well. But what if you err right at the beginning? Disaster might not be fait accompli if you stumble right out of the gate, but you do tend to fall behind in the race if you hit an early hurdle. Marathon, the intense new extraction shooter from Destiny maker Bungie, knows that all too well. From the less-than-enthusiastic response to its closed alpha playtests to a damaging plagiarism controversy, Marathon was running on a rocky road before it even reached the starting point. The largely unwarranted hostile online discourse around the live service shooter in the lead-up to its launch wasn't helpful either.

Bungie took the noise around Marathon as a warning sign and hit the brakes last year. The game was delayed and operated upon, taking constructive feedback into consideration. Earlier this year, the developer announced a “new vision” for Marathon, promising a grittier, more treacherous extraction experience. And Bungie has delivered on its promise, despite the distracting din around the game. Marathon is one of the most hardcore shooters out in the market right now. It is tough-as-nails, immersive, and intense. And it features perhaps the most robust and satisfactory first-person shooting experience among its peers.

But its unyielding gameplay experience and its uncompromising visual style also perhaps make it inaccessible to the kind of wider audience a studio like Bungie wants and expects. Unlike its biggest competitor, Arc Raiders, the extraction shooter that pulled the genre into the limelight months before Marathon's release, or other multiplayer heavyweights like Call of Duty and Battlefield, Bungie's new game is not a mass market shooter. It doesn't necessarily have broad appeal. But its niche temperament, its complex systems, and demanding PvPvE experience also make it stand out among shooters that don't take their shooting seriously.

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Marathon's most immediately striking feature is its art style. Imagine the aesthetic of Formula 1 cars spread all across a video game; bold industrial designs, corporate branding, and cybernetic sci-fi flourish somehow making a coherent composite. The colours are neon loud and the atmosphere is ominously muted. The weapons are painted like Nerf guns and the blood is electric blue, but the world still feels violent and ruthless. Just like its oppressive online matches, Marathon's distinct visual identity isn't for everyone. But nothing that was ever good was made for everyone. The game's total commitment to looking cool and different even at the cost of being widely palatable is worth admiring.

The intentional art style particularly stands in contrast to inoffensive and homogenised video game visuals that are designed to appeal to as many potential players as possible. Every online shooter is either Fortnite or Call of Duty, assembled like IKEA furniture that can fill warehouses. Marathon, on the other hand, is boutique. It challenges the senses. It is sophisticated and frustrating and sometimes difficult on the eyes. But when you spend a bit of time with it, the totality of its art direction starts making perfect sense. From its bold choices of colour and the 3D-printed aesthetics of its biosynthetic Runner shells to its information-heavy UI and its multiple typefaces, Marathon's catalogue of ideas follows a deliberate theme.

Marathon looks nothing like any other game
Photo Credit: Sony/ Bungie

The maximalist art style creates a few issues, as well. Game readability can be a problem in Marathon in certain instances. In a frenetic, intense extraction shooter, even momentary visual confusion can lead to death and consequently the loss of all your hard-earned loot. The game's menus can feel complex and cluttered, too, especially at the beginning. But in time your eyes get used to the game's aggressive visual stimuli and both readability and UI navigation improve. Bungie has also pushed updates that address some of these concerns.

The initial confusion also extends to core gameplay loops and systems. With multiple menu screens peddling contracts, upgrades, and factions, Marathon can feel overwhelming in its early hours, especially to people new to the extraction genre. But these barriers are easily surmountable once you spend a little time learning the game. Marathon is a PvPvE extraction shooter where players drop into a map, explore points of interest, loot better gear, resources, and valuables, and fight off hostile AI and other players to extract safely.

Marathon's striking art style can cause issues with game readability
Photo Credit: Sony/ Bungie (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)

The online matches are 25 minutes long and can be played solo or in a team of three players. The latter, however, is the best way to play Marathon. In fact, it might just be the best team-based online shooter out there right now. Marathon encourages you to work together, but you must bring the team spirit yourself. Even when playing with strangers, I usually found myself in squads where team members watched one another's backs. Crucially, it's important to work together to fulfil your faction contracts. And a good teammate would help you complete your quests before extraction.

I had some of the best team-based experiences in recent times while playing Marathon. Getting into a match with random strangers who help you finish a contract you've been stuck on for a while is such a good feeling. And it feels even better to pay it forward. Matches where I put my active contract aside and helped teammates complete their missions before extraction were some of the highlights of my Marathon experience.

Marathon is primarily a team-based shooter
Photo Credit: Sony/ Bungie

That camaraderie, however, does not extend beyond your team. Marathon is an extraction shooter, but it's certainly not Arc Raiders. There are no friendlies here. In Bungie's game, the rule is to shoot first, then shoot some more. Whether you're playing solo or in a team, you will be going up against other players in deadly, tense PvP encounters. Death means you lose all your loot. Unlike Arc Raiders, there's no safe pocket where you can stick your most valuable item and extract it out safely even if you die. In Marathon, death and its consequences are final.

PvP in Marathon is one of the most hardcore FPS experiences I've had in years. First, the game's brooding atmosphere, the ominous music, and the ever-present threat of dying and losing your entire inventory create a stressful environment to drop into. Then, the aggressive AI-controlled enemies always keep you on your toes when you're exploring points of interest on the map. And finally, other players on the map present the biggest threat you'll face in Marathon. Time-to-kill in the game is fast. Too fast. If someone gets the jump on you, it's tough to recover your position and hit back, especially when playing solo. In a team, your squad members can fire back and revive you when you're downed.

Marathon is a hardcore FPS experience
Photo Credit: Sony/ Bungie (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)

Marathon is extremely tough, but also extremely fair. It's never over until all your teammates are killed. If you're downed but not dead, you can be revived by your teammates, or you can self-revive if you have the requisite consumable. If you're killed in battle, your teammates can reboot your synthetic body back onto the map after a brief lock-out period. So even if you're dead, you should stick around and hope your teammate brings you back.

The solo experience, on the other hand, is brutal. When playing alone, Marathon essentially becomes a horror game without the safety net of a squad. Each encounter is drenched in danger, whether engaging AI-controlled enemies or other players online. Like Arc Raiders, Marathon allows you to drop in with a free kit, sponsored by one of the game's six factions. That allows you to somewhat mitigate the risk of losing good gear, but also starts you out underpowered in a match and limits how much loot you can extract at the end.

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AI-controlled enemies in Marathon are no slouch
Photo Credit: Sony/ Bungie

Perhaps the best way to experience Marathon solo is by playing as a Rook, a special scavenger-class shell in the game that allows you to drop solo into the middle of an ongoing match. The Rook comes with its own distinct abilities and perks that make it a worthwhile playable shell promising potential major rewards with minimum risk. When playing as a Rook, you cannot complete contracts or access a full online match. But you do get to sneak into a map, test your solo skills against other squads, and extract out with good loot.

In addition to the Rook, you get six standard Runner shell classes that each come with distinct skills. The Triage shell, for instance, is a healer; the Assassin, on the other hand, comes with stealth-focussed abilities. Each Runner has two passive traits, a tactical ability, and a prime ability. The variety of these skills and their impact on your approach to a game adds incredible depth to Marathon that Arc Raiders lacks. Bungie has essentially blended a hero shooter with an extraction experience

Rooks are the best way to play solo
Photo Credit: Sony/ Bungie

In addition to bringing gameplay complexity, Runners also add narrative depth to Marathon. Each shell is a disposable post-human biosynthetic humanoid that inhabits the transferred consciousness of a former human who sacrificed their organic body in exchange for extra-human abilities. They are now essentially mercenaries — deadly freelance operatives taking on contracts from corporations that compete for valuable resources on Tau Ceti IV in the year 2893.

At the heart of the game's lore is UESC Marathon, a massive human ship that established a colony years ago on Tau Ceti. The ship and the colony, abandoned and gone dark for years, become the stage for Bungie's extraction shooter. Following a distress call, UESC — Earth's space council — and mega corporations that have a vested interest in the Tau Ceti colony, jump into immediate action. The corporations and some breakaway factions hire you — Runners — to infiltrate Tau Ceti IV and the Marathon ship in low orbit and retrieve precious data and valuables.

Marathon's Runner shells are biosynthetic mercenaries
Photo Credit: Sony/ Bungie

The story in live service shooters is often ancillary to the gameplay, and for good reason. Unlike narrative-driven single-player games, multiplayer titles are essentially playgrounds for players to create their own stories. But with Marathon, Bungie crafts a compelling and convincing world for you to inhabit. The tech-punk art style, the excellent electronic score, the game's maps, equipment, and weapons, are all in service to the overarching narrative. And each of these entities becomes an indispensable atom in the Marathon molecule.

The factions that hand you contracts and grant you rewards for completing them occupy specific ideologies. They each have their own purpose and politics. Sekiguchi, for instance, is a genetics company that manufactures the Runner shells you inhabit; Arachne is essentially a death cult that rewards you for PvP kills; and CyberAcme is an AI and data firm that acts as your handler and your link to other factions. Priority contracts handed out by each faction and Codex information you uncover as you explore Tau Ceti and the Marathon ship across four maps become the evolving narrative of the game. Each faction also comes with its own skill tree and shop, adding meaningful progression beyond contracts.

Marathon handles progression through contracts
Photo Credit: Sony/ Bungie (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)

The maps themselves lack distinct flavour aesthetically, but they add variety through difficulty. Each new map you unlock escalates the challenge through AI encounters, traps, live events, weather effects, and boss fights. Cryo Archive, the final map of the season that Bungie released towards the end of March, is the standout. A fully indoor region, Cryo Archive is set on the UESC Marathon ship, in contrast to other maps that are outdoor outposts and facilities on Tau Ceti IV. Cryo Archive hides great loot behind its many locked doors that are opened by obtaining security clearances. The map is a nod to Destiny's treachorous dungeons and sprawling boss fights, and presents the hardest challenge in Marathon.

Most importantly, as an extraction shooter, Marathon nails the fundamentals. The shooting is top tier. It's intense and heart-pounding. And it's extremely snappy and responsive, as expected from a veteran studio like Bungie. Very few developers come close to the feel of a Bungie shooter: tactile and robust, yet fluid and flexible. The loot game in Marathon, too, is excellent. Unlike Arc Raiders, here, if you manage to extract with great loot, you feel driven to jump back in with your hard-earned high-level gear instead of hoarding it all in your inventory. That way, you have a better chance of extracting the next time, too.

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Marathon features robust, responsive FPS combat
Photo Credit: Sony/ Bungie

Right now, Marathon's offerings are a little thin. Aside from standard queues of solo and three-player squads, Bungie has added a Ranked mode for a steeper challenge and better rewards. And new content is on its way as part of seasonal updates. But more ways to interact with the world of the game will go a long way in broadening the experience. A lot, of course, depends on Bungie's approach to post-launch content. Even in its early form, Marathon has an incredible amount of depth that its competitors simply do not have.

And yet, Bungie's extraction shooter has struggled to attract the kind of player base Arc Raiders enjoys. That's both understandable and unfortunate. Arc Raiders is fun and friendly. You can jump in with your friend and play a few casual matches where players aren't gunning for you and the contents of your backpack. Marathon follows the same extraction formula, but it couldn't be more different if it tried. It is hostile and difficult, and it demands you to learn and seriously engage with its systems. But the rewards waiting for you on the other end of that toil are top-tier gaming loot.