Late last year, Insider Gaming exclusively reported early details on Bungie’s new Marathon game and now we’ve reapproached our sources to get more in-depth details.
If you’re unaware, Bungie’s next shooter dubbed ‘Marathon’ was officially revealed at this year’s PlayStation Showcase with a short CGI trailer. Bungie’s Brian Ekberg dived a little deeper into what Marathon entails, including confirming all of the details we previously reported.
So what exactly is Marathon? Marathon is a 3-person extraction shooter with features that you might find familiar if you play games like Escape From Tarkov. However, if you’re not a fan of playing as a team, it’s understood that you can jump into a server as a duo or solo if you wish, but you’ll still face bigger teams. Extracting without your team is also seemingly a feature.
One of the biggest and potentially controversial features within the game is an oxygen system. All players have a limited oxygen supply that essentially acts like the match countdown timer – Once the player loses oxygen, you begin to lose health. Extracting before you run out of oxygen and health is the goal, but players can also find O2 canisters in the match, or subsequently buy them at an expensive price on the market before heading into battle.
The oxygen system also ties somewhat into the injury system of Marathon, with certain injuries causing the player to suffer different effects. For example, being shot in the waist area may cause damage to your oxygen supply, which will cause it to deplete more rapdily. Another example given was being concussed, which would cause the player’s screen to blur periodically.
If your oxygen supply does become a huge hindrance though, Marathon’s ability and perk system can solve that. We’re all familiar with perks and abilities in shooter games now, so I won’t bore you, but yes, perks include the likes of faster revives, less O2 usage, faster movement in the water, etc. Abilities are more game-changing and powerful, allowing the likes of Night Vision to spot enemy outlines. The more the player progresses, the more perks and abilities they unlock.
Several more interesting details that were mentioned several times by sources were that Bungie was aiming for Marathon to be the “ultimate live service”. To achieve this, the team is aiming to have minimal load times, with one source saying that the team is aiming for single-digit load times from “Readying Up” to playing on the server. For replayability, it was said that Marathon’s maps will have plenty of secrets for players to explore – Presumably new secrets will come to the maps throughout the games seasons.
The core gameplay loop of Marathon is as follows:
- Chose your missions (to complete in the game)
- Buy / Chose your loadout/perks/abilities/gear
- Drop into a server
- Hunt for loot / Complete missions / Explore and find secrets
- Extract
- Spend XP on Updates
- Repeat
The game features three different types of items, loot, implants, and perks. In the current game, permadeath is a feature, but it’s understood that players will only lose their loot (weapons, artifacts, currency, etc.) whereas implants are sometimes lost and perks are never lost.
It’s understood that Bungie is currently developing three different maps for Marathon, but if all three released on launch remains to be seen.
Marathon currently has no set release date, but will launch on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.