So a couple weeks ago you might have noticed that I didn’t post anything on the blog for that week. If you were wondering why, here’s your answer. I could not pull myself away from playing Marathon, the newest shooter from legendary developer Bungie! Now skipping a week for a game I’m really excited for isn’t something new for me, but this was different. Because, you see, I wasn’t really that excited for Marathon. I wasn’t expecting to dislike it or anything but I didn’t expect this either. I didn’t expect to absolutely fall in love with it and struggle to stop playing! But that is exactly what happened and let me tell you why.

First off, what is Marathon? Like I said, it’s the newest shooter from developer Bungie, creators of Halo, Destiny, and the original Marathon. Yeah something that a lot of people don’t know is that Marathon is actually a reboot of a trilogy from the 90s! Which I have gone back and played myself. Great games too, but nothing like the Marathon of 2026. Classic Marathon was a revolutionary first person shooter in the style of something like DOOM. You have lots of guns, shoot aliens, and run around maze like levels. But there was also a surprisingly deep and thoughtful story in the middle of all that. Modern Marathon is an extraction shooter, a relatively new genre that I’ll try to explain.

Extraction shooters are multiplayer focused shooters about dropping into an area, trying to get as much good loot as you can such as guns and upgrade materials, and then getting out alive. The twist being that you aren’t the only one doing this, there are other players gunning for that loot and if they kill you they get all of it! Of course, players aren’t the only threat, there will be computer controlled threats also running around, in the case of Marathon you have the UESC robots patrolling areas. This is why the genre is referred to as being PvPvE or Player versus Player versus Environment. The genre is known for being intense and brutal. Like I said, when you die you lose everything, not just the loot you found in the level but the loot you brought into the level too! Meaning you really have to weight the cost of bringing in a powerful gun for instance. On one hand it could save your life and easily beat other players, on the other if someone does manage to kill you that weapon is completely lost. This is often why the extraction shooter genre is so niche. Losing stuff like that hurts and is really demoralizing. This is also why ARC Raiders is the biggest and most played game in the genre as it has a lot of safety nets for players to not lose loot. And that is something I absolutely understand! As someone who always hoards rare items in games never using them because I’m worried about wasting them, the genre didn’t seem all that fun to me. But then I tried Marathon. And now I can’t stop.

As someone who always hoards rare items and doesn’t really like competitive multiplayer games, I figured I was not the target audience for Marathon. I think there are probably a lot of people who feel that way. So let me tell you why you should absolutely try this game and find a new addiction!

Lets start with the look of the game. This is easily going to be the most subjective thing about this review. Despite how popular and raved about ARC Raiders was I really had no interest in checking it out and this wasn’t due to it being an extraction shooter. I was turned away from the game because of how bland it looked. I don’t mean to bash on someone else’s art, and if you enjoy the look of ARC Raiders more power to you, but nothing really popped out about it to me. This was not the case with Marathon. While the original trailers didn’t do much for me, as the game evolved in development the look, aesthetic, and overall vibes really grabbed my attention. Honestly, it’s really hard to describe but it absolutely has it’s own sci-fi look that I really haven’t seen anywhere else. The world of Tau Ceti IV feels so perfectly lived in to almost a creepy degree. Something the game absolutely plays with in its fantastic story and lore! Most of which is told through audio logs and text, but even then it’s always so gripping. A lot of the environments are usually complimented by heavy rainfall giving the game an even more eerie and dreary vibe to it, keeping you on edge as you make your way through these places where you could die at any moment. Even better is the fact that this isn’t just set dressing either, all of these vibes play into the game and its story. Nothing really exists just to exist. Something that does feel rare nowadays.

This isn’t just exclusive to the environments either! This awesome art style also extends to the game’s characters or Shells.

In Marathon you are a Runner. Someone hired to drop into an area and get things done without your employer needing to get their hands dirty. In this case, lots of Runners make their way to Tau Ceti IV, the planet where the colony ship, the UESC Marathon, left ages ago in the hopes of making a new place to live beyond our solar system as said solar system is currently running out of resources. Nothing is heard from the Marathon until a distressing message is sent out. Something has gone terribly wrong with the Marathon and the colony on Tau Ceti and every big mega corporation not only wants to know what but they also want to make a profit too. Of course, not wanting to get in any legal trouble with each other or the UESC, the Unified Earth Space Council which is the government ruling over Earth, they instead hire Runners to do the dirty work for them. Which is where you come in! Runners operate by using Shells, think of them basically as bodies or suits Runners can pilot with their consciousness. This is because Running is dangerous work, but if a Shell is destroyed the Runner’s consciousness is fine, meaning they can just use another Shell to hop back in!

This isn’t just lore though, this also plays a big part in the game! As of writing there are six Shells to choose from. Technically seven but the last one is a little different so we’ll talk about that one later. As you might expect, each Shell has its own unique things about it. In this case, each one has different abilities they can use. For example, the Destroyer Shell has the ability to put up a shield and block damage as well as fire off two explosive grenades. The Recon Shell has the ability to throw out a drone that will run at hostiles in the area even seeking them out around corners, they also have the ability to send out a pulse that will reveal hostiles in the area. Another Shell, the Thief, has a grappling hook, the ability to scan for loot in the area, and a drone they can pilot that can steal loot! I’m not going to go over every Shell here but you get the point. Each Shell basically has their own play style. They also get a few more unique things through the Core system. Cores being equitable items that can enhance a Shell’s ability. For example, one of the Thief’s cores makes it so their abilities charge faster depending on how much loot you’re carrying. What I’m trying to say is that each Shell has it’s own unique things and there should be at least one Shell you can latch on to.

Before I get too ahead of myself with the lore, art, characters, and setting I should really touch on the thing that is sure to keep players playing. That being the amazing game play!

Now I should be up front about something. Before Marathon, I had never played an extraction shooter. I already said why ARC Raiders didn’t interest me and the other big games in the genre, such as Hunt: Showdown and Escape from Tarkov, never pulled my interest much either. I bring this up for two reasons! First, I’m not going to be able to compare Marathon to other games in the genre since I don’t have experience with them. And second, hopefully this helps you understand that even if you haven’t played an extraction shooter before you may still end up loving Marathon! Regardless, let’s talk about that game play loop.

Marathon is still an extraction shooter at its core. Meaning the main loop is dropping into an area, getting good loot, and getting out. But there is a bit more to it than that! Before jumping into a run, the game will want you to pick a contract. Contracts are basically missions that one of the mega corps want you to do. They have rewards to them and even their own stories! They aren’t required though. You’re not ever required to complete your selected contract before being allowed to escape, or exfil as it’s called in Marathon. The contracts just provide you with something more to do and are honestly a great driving factor! I’m not sure how other extraction games do it, but the contract system really helped me get more invested into my runs, especially when ever I was running solo. And that brings us to another big choice when it comes to playing!

When starting a run, you can either run solo or run with a crew. A ‘crew’ being two other players to make a group of three. This drastically changes how the game is played! And there are reasons to play one way or the other.

At the start, I basically exclusively played solo and it was a ton of fun! The game does warn you about running solo telling you it’ll be a more punishing experience which I feel is both true and not. The punishing aspect comes from the fact that without a team you are all on your own, meaning if you go down you’re basically dead. However, I feel like it can be much easier to win fights when it’s just one on one, and it is absolutely much easier to avoid fights all together when you are running solo! There are honestly times where solo runs have felt like I was playing a stealth game. Not only from avoiding UESC bots, but from avoiding players specifically. I’ve even seen some players say playing solo feels almost like playing a horror game and I can totally see where they are coming from! I rarely rush anywhere when playing solo, unless the contract demands it, and instead move at my own pace being very careful of all sounds and little details around. In a way playing solo makes it much easier to experience these aspects of the game compared to playing in a team. Not to say sound doesn’t play a role in trios but I’ve never slowly stalked around with a group trying to listen out for others, mainly because I’ve never needed to since it’s not terribly hard to hear three people running around.

To me the big dividing factor between solo and trios is how confrontations work. In trios, if you see another squad nearby it’s almost always going to result in a shoot out right then and there. In solo, there’s a bit more thought that goes into. Things like trying to get the drop on someone at the right time or even picking your battles and letting the person just pass on by. This does also mean that most encounters in solo matches tend to come down to who sneaks up on who first but that’s something I don’t mind as it feels like it rewards being aware of your surrounds at all times. No matter how many times I’ve run solo I never feel like I can just go into auto pilot, I always have to be aware of everything. Which is certainly demanding but it’s also rewarding! Extremely so. And like I mentioned before, the solo experience does provide you a much better chance to appreciate the wonderful sound design of the game! All the little details each environment provides and how they differ from each other. Not to mention that going at a slow pace also gives you ample time to enjoy how beautiful the environments are as well! This is also another big benefit to running solo. While it’s not impossible to take all this in with trios, it’s certainly harder.

So, solo matches are slower paced and almost stealth focused affairs but what about trios? Trios feel much more like PvP focused fire fights! It’s possible to avoid fights and not run into another group on a run but it’s very rare. This is because of just how many teams are dropped in, which is map dependent. For example, the first map in the game, Perimeter, will have six players on the map including you. However, if you played on Perimeter in trios, this turns into six groups of players. Meaning there are now 18 players on the map. Like I said, this does change depending on the map, for example the map Outpost only has four groups, but even then you can imagine how hard it would be to not run into another team. As such, trios matches are way more about taking out other groups while hoping to not draw in more attention by doing so. The sound of gun fire carries far after all, it’ll be hard not to bring the attention of bots in the area or players! So while you could avoid PvP encounters in solo, your player killing skills will be put to the test in trios. But more players does mean more loot! And that does feel like the biggest draw of trios. Well, beyond the PvP! I feel like it should go without saying since this game is made by Bungie but the shooting and gun play feels absolutely amazing. Everything feels responsive, the weapons all feel different, and there is a good variety of them! I’m not like an expert on this sort of thing since I don’t play that many FPS games, but I had to at least mention it given that even with my limited experience, I can still feel how good it all is.

Those are the main drives to trios though! The loot and the PvP itself. If you’d prefer to avoid the PvP, or try to avoid it anyways, than you’re better off trying solo. You’ll obviously still run into other players and get killed, but you will get better at it. And you are always going to be paired up with other solo players instead of getting dropped into a lobby with people in groups. Well with one exception…

You remember how I mentioned that there were technically seven Shells in the game? Well time to talk about that seventh one called Rook. Unlike the other Shells, Rook doesn’t just have different abilities, Rook is basically a whole different game mode.

As Rook you aren’t allowed to bring in your own gear and will be instead given random gear you spawn in with. You also can’t complete contracts as Rook or play in a squad. This is because Rook is always dropped into an already on going match. And more specifically, an on going trios match. The idea behind Rook seems to be that you are meant to come in and quickly try and scavenge for gear and loot without drawing too much attention. You get in and get out without there being any consequences for dying as you couldn’t bring any loot of your own to begin with. The danger also being heightened given that you’re a solo player in a match of trios. A really cool concept honestly! Rook could be a great way to get some great loot and bounce back after losing so much. However… Whether or not Bungie intended this, Rook is not played this way.

Let me take a moment to talk about those mega corps you get your contracts from, and bear with me as this does relate to Rook I promise. In addition to providing your contracts, each one also has upgrades you purchase with credits and resources. These upgrades can be things like faster sprinting or faster healing as well as unlocking certain items for purchase in the store. This is mainly what you are collecting resources for! And along with the contracts, these upgrades provide a great reason to keep playing. Now the reason why I’m bringing this up now is because some of those upgrades do relate directly to Rook. They will provide things like giving Rook a better shield when they spawn in or a better backpack. Or most importantly, a shotgun. As of writing this post, the shotgun is very strong! Able to blow through most shields when fired at close range. This alone takes Rook from being a Shell that needs to hide and scavenge around into a death machine that trios need to be on their toes in order to take out! Granted, you do obviously need skill in order to pull this off, more often than not Rooks rush in and die when I play against them, but the ones that know what they are doing are truly terrifying…

I truly do not know if this was Bungie’s intent with Rook. There’s a chance they didn’t have any idea how crazy good the shotgun would be after all. But if I’m being honest? I hope they don’t change it! By which I mean I hope they don’t change Rook being terrifying, the shotgun itself might need some nerfs.

Rook provides a really fun and chaotic challenge for trios and kind of works like an additional timer on a match. Like I said, Rook won’t spawn in at the start of matches only when they’ve been going for like ten minutes or so, with matches being 25 minutes long. While I won’t say it’s fun to get shotgunned by a Rook out of nowhere I do think it provides a very unique challenge to trios. Especially since there can be multiple Rooks per match! Rook is easily the most unique Shell and provides a really cool challenge and I do hope it stays that way.

Speaking of challenges though…

Easily the most unique and interesting map in the game is the Cryo Archive. A map set on the Marathon ship itself! Specifically in it’s cryo sleep area if that wasn’t obvious. This area is very different from the others though. For one, it’s only available on certain days, namely Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning. Not only that, it’s the only map with a gear ante, meaning the value of the gear you have on you must be above 5,000 credits if you want to do a run. This is actually something I have some gripes about but we’ll get to that later. Cryo itself is home to the best loot in the whole game. This is where you’ll be finding gold loot most of all! Mainly behind vaults that require keys and some puzzles to be solved. Not only that, the bots here are plentiful and deadly. While bots aren’t ever push overs, the ones in Cryo are out for blood! But they also drop some great loot to make up for it. That being said, bots are the least of your concerns as the deadliest thing of all in Cryo are other players…

Unlike all the other maps, you can only play trios in Cryo. Meaning you will basically be required to fight other teams as you cross paths with them. Though Rook is not allowed in Cryo so there is that! This right here, and the fact you can’t play it all the time, is probably the biggest complaint about Cryo. Not only are you going up against teams that are going to be strong, but you can’t run solo at all. And as someone who mainly plays solo, I would have agreed. But after having done a few runs in it myself, I’m actually a little more on the fence about this than I was expecting…

I’ll start by saying that I do understand people being upset that they can’t keep playing the way they like to play for arguably the coolest map (no pun intended) in the game currently. As someone who primarily plays solo I was also pretty upset about this but I do also get why it is this way. Bungie clearly has an idea for how they want Cryo to work, they want it to be a super tough, high risk high reward map and that can be a balancing nightmare. A lot of reworking would have to happen in order to make the map playable for solo players. The amount of tweaks to the bots alone would be crazy. Besides that, I can respect Bungie’s choice if they feel like this is how the player should experience Cryo. If they want it to be a tough as nails PvP crazy experience, that is their choice and they shouldn’t have to change it and ruin their vision. That being said, I wouldn’t be against them changing Cryo up to make it accessible to solo players! Again, solo is how I mainly enjoy the game and while I have been having fun with Cryo regardless, I do understand where people are coming fun. We’ll just have to wait and see what Bungie does.

That being said, easily my biggest problem with Cryo is the 5,000 gear ante. How this works is to access Cryo you need to have loot on you that is valued at at least 5,000 credits. You can do this in a number of ways. You could carry a super high valued gun that could cover the ante right there, or you could spread it out a little bringing in enough with a good shield, backpack, and a bunch of healing items. This feels like a way for Bungie to try and ensure players are geared up and don’t bring down their teammates when doing a Cryo run, something I do understand but I have a few problems with.

First, this means that you can’t keep trying Cryo over and over again. If you run out of high value loot you just can’t run it and have to build up again. Now this isn’t too bad since getting enough loot isn’t as hard as you think, but it does suck when you’re trying to learn the map and having fun doing it to have to stop and grind. Second, the gear you find in Cryo is super good! Even the most basic of bots can drop some great stuff, especially their weapons. Meaning you can get geared up pretty easily, making that worry that players will come in with not enough good gear a moot point. If anything, I think it would actually be more fair to make it so people can’t come in with any gear but I know that would have it’s own problems. Besides that, you only have so much inventory space as well so if you came in with good gear but find better gear, it can feel like a waste if you drop the stuff you needed to bring just to play the map. This ante system is easily my biggest gripe with Cryo and I do hope it’s something that Bungie addresses.

While we’re on the topic of gripes though, let’s discuss some of the bigger issues and worries people are having with the game.

I’d like to start by saying that most people who play the game are like me and are having an absolute blast! But people are having some understandable complaints and worries. One of which involves cheaters and hackers. I am honestly fortunate that I can’t speak much on personal experience with this. I have yet to run into any cheaters while playing, or at least any that are that obvious, but they are very much a real thing. There are more than a few videos of people running into blatant cheaters while playing the game, mostly in trios and in Cryo in particular as well as the game’s ranked mode. The reason why I personally haven’t run into cheaters is most likely because I’m not really at an extremely high level yet and I don’t play ranked. But like I said, people are very clearly cheating and ruining the game at a high level for people. Bungie has at least stated they are aware of the cheating problem and are looking to fix it but there hasn’t be anything put in place or any plan laid out as of writing this post. So we’ll just have to hope they remain true to their word!

The next big issue facing Marathon is getting more people to play! And this is a matter I can speak more on. While extraction shooters aren’t technically a new genre, it is still a pretty niche one. The only big, close to mainstream one is ARC Raiders and this is most likely due to the game being a lot less harsh. From what I understand, there are a lot more ways to save and protect your loot in ARC Raiders and dying isn’t nearly as punishing. This isn’t the case for Marathon. Marathon is seemingly built to be a more harsh ‘hardcore’ experience and I can respect that! Like I was saying with Cryo, if that’s the kind of thing Bungie wants to make, more power to them! But in this case I do think it can scare off players that might actually enjoy the game if given enough time. In fact, this almost happened to me!

While there was never a point I felt the game was ever bad or too punishing, probably because this is my first experience with an extraction shooter, I did have times where I felt the game might not of been for me. These times very much came in the early hours of the game, where almost every run I had would end with me getting killed. Now, I can take losing in a game, I love playing Souls games after all, but dying hits different when you lose all the loot you were just carrying and feel like you are actively losing progress. It was honestly enough to get me to put down the game for a few days. Thankfully, after looking more into the lore, getting really into the art and music, I decided to keep trying a bit more. And while I kept losing still, it slowly didn’t hurt so much. This is mainly because I discovered how easy it was to truly bounce back.

I had a run where I came in pretty decked out! I had a really good backpack, shield, and most importantly a key to a locked room with even better gear! I was being extremely careful as I made my way to said locked room, but sadly after messing up my chance to get the drop on someone, I was killed and lost everything just like that. All that loot, that key, just gone. And only a few minutes into that run too! It really hit me hard. I was about ready to stop there and maybe pick it up again in another few days, but I decided to do at least a couple more runs. Two runs after that big loss though, I managed to turn things around.

While making my way to the Hauler, a pretty loot dense place on the map Perimeter, I heard someone else looting. I was trying to be super careful as I had very basic gear at the time and wasn’t sure I could win that fight. But due to how basic my gear was, I realized I didn’t exactly have much to lose! While hearing them looking through some loot, I popped around the corner and managed to kill them! Something amazing given how much better loot they had over me! And just like that, their loot was mine, but that’s not all. He also dropped one of two keys needed to get some great loot on the map. As I’m looking at that though, I hear someone else coming over. Hiding again, they beeline it over to the guy I just killed. And just like before, I popped out and got the drop on them too! And just like before this person had the other key! Grabbing both their gear, which included a better shield and backpack compared to the ones I had lost the run early, I took the keys they were kind enough to deliver to me and got that special loot drop! Extremely nervous now as I was carrying so much good stuff, I quickly made my way to the nearest exfil and promptly got out of there. And just like that, after one run, I had made back all I lost and then some!

This is when things really clicked for me! Not only was the rush of escaping with all that loot something I hadn’t really felt before in another game but now I understood the loop. Marathon is extremely punishing. Losing everything is not only possible, but it’s more likely to happen than not. However, making that loss up was also more than possible! This is the true loop of the game, terrible loss and amazing wins are both more than possible regardless of the circumstances. No matter how hard you fall, how much loot you lose, there is always a way back. And that’s how I came to adore Marathon! That’s whats led to me playing the game for more than 100 hours already. But could Bungie make this experience a bit easier to get into? Absolutely. And they seem to know it.

I was going to write a whole lot about how I hope Bungie tries to make it easier for new players to understand how much fun this game can be and how I hope they address this. But as I was writing, Bungie released a big new patch to Marathon where they did just that! Originally, the game would give you a pretty bare tutorial and starting area before throwing you in the deep end after just a few level ups. And while I can respect this approach it did scare away a lot of new players. Now, Bungie has changed it so that starting area is available for much longer in an attempt to help players get more familiar with how to play before throwing them into tougher areas with more players. Will this be enough? No clue, but the important thing is that Bungie is trying and not just with this issue either.

I have to praise Bungie for being so proactive with Marathon. They have been tweaking and changing things fast when it comes to addressing player concern but most importantly they aren’t changing everything. It’s clear they have a vision for Marathon but it’s also clear they are willing to change things that they agree need changing. They are listening to player feedback and actually changing things within a reasonable amount of time! I can only hope this is something they are able to keep up down the line as it’s so refreshing and making players happy too.

In the end, Marathon is absolutely not a game for everyone but I hope it is a game more people try! As of right now, this is easily my game of the year. I seriously can’t stop playing this game and get at least a few runs in a day. It’s a fantastic experience and only $40! So if you’re on the fence I would recommend trying it. I know I will be playing it for a very long time.

But those are just my thoughts! What are some of yours? Ever played an extraction shooter before? Interested in giving Marathon a go after reading this? I’d love to hear your thoughts so don’t be shy!

And thank you for taking the time to read the post! If you enjoyed it feel free to leave a Like or share the blog with a friend. You can also follow the blog on WordPress or on Twitter if you want to stay up to date on new posts. Also if there’s a topic you’d like me to discuss sometime, go ahead and tell me in the comments! Any interaction is appreciated, even just viewing this post, so thanks again for stopping by.