It’s a bold move to stand up an extraction shooter game in this day and age. Many have come before and have fallen short of expectations, and the ones that have stuck around have effortlessly dominated the scene – I’m looking at you, Escape from Tarkov.
Regardless, Bungie is breaking into the genre with Marathon, an upcoming extraction shooter set in a sci-fi universe. In a recent interview, Gaming World Media’s Jake Lucky sat down with Joe Ziegler, the game’s director, to learn exactly why the team wants to try making a success of an extraction shooter when so many have failed.
‘Super Exciting and Super Unique’
The extraction shooter model ebbs and flows, but it’s fast becoming a staple of the wider industry, with many developers having thrown their hat in the ring. The next biggest studio working on an extraction shooter is Bungie, breaking into the vertical with Marathon, a reboot of a game from the 1990s.
Here’s the full interview:
When Jake Lucky caught up with Joe Ziegler after a session testing Marathon, he asked why the team had aimed to produce an extraction shooter when the market has a tentative reception at best for new games in that space.
Extraction shooters to us symbolise this rare circumstance in gaming where you have a lot of different choices inside of a game experience, and all of them become meaningful in a weird way. As you’re playing it, you get these really dramatic stories that occur about survival. Every decision you make kind of becomes a point of regret or a point of excitement.
This idea that behind the corner there’s this brand new light that could exist there or this dark hole that you will get destroyed in. That adventurous aspect of trying to survive a dangerous environment is just super exciting and super unique, and I think that’s really why the extraction shooter was such a perfect game for us to make.
It’s because, the studio likes to do these crazy FPS experiences that really have uplifting and very emotionally engaging moments – we wanted to take that to the next level with something like Marathon.
The team explained that, with Marathon, they want to create a social extraction experience that’s more enjoyable, accessible, and entertaining. It’s not trying to become the next Escape from Tarkov and it’s certainly not as punishing as the 10-year-old Battlestate Games extraction shooter.
Marathon is all about revelling in an adventure with friends, that’s why the core gameplay loop is accessible only in a team format – for now. Bungie wants players to have an exciting experience that never culminates in a depressing loss after an hour in a single raid, which can be typical for Escape from Tarkov players.
Are you looking forward to this new extraction shooter, or do you think the genre is done? Let me know in the comments or over on the Insider Gaming forum.
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