In July, Bungie officially announced Marathon, an exciting new entry to the series, coming a platform exclusive limited beta on September 23. This will be the studio’s first project in more than a decade, and its first game made under the PlayStation banner. Marathon is an extraction shooter that meshes tactical gameplay and Bungie’s trademark gunplay. It offers a thrilling blend of competitive and cooperative factors for players to experience.
Players face off against each other and the environment in a thrilling new PvPvE premise. During these skirmishes, they’ll not only come up against fellow combatants, but UESC authorities operating under an AI directive that will be explained further down as well. Players will traverse alien landscapes, exposing themselves to “otherworldly dangers” as they infiltrate bases and retrieve supplies to survive. In the gameplay reveal, we saw a sniper character using an invisibility ability, a small taste of the exciting and original mechanics players will experience.
Marathon’s gameplay similarly looks to support a more varied gameplay experience with supportive roles made possible through different equipment options like grenades, shields and medkits. This gives them the flexibility to customize their gameplay experiences depending on their play styles. The core of Marathon revolves around Bungie’s renowned “snappy and crunchy gunplay,” which has become synonymous with the developer’s titles.
Besides its theme, Marathon has a surprisingly similar structure to popular multiplayer experiences like Escape from Tarkov. It includes battle royale mechanics that force players to make strategic choices. Players have to devise devious secrets to hoodwink their enemies. Equally important, they have to do that while surviving in a fast-changing world full of obstacles to success.
Marathon adds its own twist to Destiny’s most elusive Exotics loot. This loot comes with the “best” version of certain archetypes, increasing the dark zone’s allure for players who want to earn those optimum rewards.
Ben Starr, a developer on the title from Bungie, championed the game’s open ended nature, explaining that
“You’re always free to experiment with team compositions, and the only limit to how you want to play your runner is your loot and imagination.”
The game will be following a seasonal structure, which means everybody’s vault will be reset when the game moves into a new season. This design decision goes a long way towards creating a more equitable playing field for all challengers. It puts everyone on level playing field, with no advantages from previous experience or gear earned.
Marathon is planned to launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, with full cross-play support. Save the date! A closed alpha test for the game starts on April 23, providing a chosen handful of players their first intensive, immersive look into the universe being built by Bungie.