As a big fan of Bungie’s gunplay and game design, I was fully ready to embraceMarathonas my first extraction shooter. But after the closed alpha test and today’s newDestiny 2DLC reveal, I’m ready to move on.
While daunting since it’s yetanother complicated reinventionof the game and its variety of machinations,Destiny 2’s2025 expansionsThe Edge of FateandRenegadesboth look and sound awesome to me.Marathon, on the other hand, seems like it’s missing quite a bit to snag its target demographic of fans of the genre.
Destiny 2is definitely more my speed—and always has been. I have well over 2,000 hours logged in the game across Steam, Battle.net, and some dabbling on console, and it’s one of my all-time favorite games and series. And this is the only reason why I was excited to try out Marathon.
But after testing out the extraction shooter during its alpha test, I left feeling anything but hopeful about it. And then Bungie dropped an awesome reveal forDestiny 2’sYear of Prophecy and its two expansions, and now I’m ready to abandon the idea ofMarathonentirely.
WithThe Edge of Fatelaunching on July 15 and a major update “Ash & Iron” coming on Sept. 9,Marathon’slaunch now sits directly after it and in between the first DLC and its second,Star Wars-inspiredRenegades, which is coming on Dec. 2. I’m already overwhelmed by the amount of varied games I can and need to play, and this sort of launch window doesn’t bode well for me inMarathoneven if I was super stoked to get into it.
I’m really not sure what to think aboutMarathon,but it seems like a lot of the game’s target audience has made up its mind. Days afterMarathon’sclosed alpha began, anotherARC Raiderstest dropped and seemingly took up all of the talk after that, inevitably leading gamers to compare the two games of the same genre and leavingMarathonin the dust by comparison.
With only so much time and money to spend on games, I do really worry about howMarathonwill fare as a premium-priced title, especially since I know I’m not the only gamer like me who was keeping an open mind about the game if only because of my love forDestiny 2,and are now basically ready to abandon the extraction game for the classic looter shooter.
And maybe that’s okay? I’m not the main audience forMarathon,because that would be those who thoroughly enjoy the thrill of the game mode where you put everything on the line and can lose it all. Me? I’d rather just stick with my silly superpowers and PvE gameplay.
I don’t want to lose all of my hard-earned gear by someone who was sitting invisibly in a corner with a shotgun and waiting for me to go by. That’s not fun to me. If it is for you, then I’m thrilled, and I absolutely wish nothing but the best for the game and I hope it is a big success for Bungie. But it ain’t for me, I reckon.
Gaming in modern times is indeed a marathon and not a race. But as of now, I think I’ll find myself sprinting back toDestiny 2before long.
