After announcing the project in 2023, Destiny and Halo developer Bungie is finally ready to reveal gameplay for the next evolution of its Marathon franchise, which predates both of those. In a livestream earlier today, studio members offered early details about the project while sharing several videos that helped clarify how the game will look, play, and feel.
Marathon and its sequels were part of Bungie’s earliest catalog of game releases, with the first arriving in 1994. This new iteration is a dramatic departure, though some of the connected elements of lore suggest meaningful links between the original games and this new project.
The new Marathon is built as a team-based extraction shooter that includes both PvP and PvE elements. Each player takes on the role of a Runner, a cybernetic mercenary who has given up their natural body to inhabit an artificial form to explore and retrieve valuable equipment from a lost and abandoned colony on the planet of Tau Ceti IV.
Visuals have a bright and neon aesthetic, a notable departure from much of Bungie’s recent work on Destiny. Even so, seeing the game in action makes the Bungie connection much more apparent; from the way guns and scopes work to the sensation of running, sliding, and other movement, Marathon seems to maintain the tight and intuitive shooting action that is a hallmark of the studio’s work.
Each Runner has a name and a personality, including the likes of Glitch, Void, and Blackbird. Your choice of Runner appears to set a baseline of playstyle, even as subsequent matches, equipment selection, and upgrades allow you to dramatically reshape and build-craft a character that matches a desired playstyle.
Matches include up to 18 players, usually in crews of three, though there was a mention of a way players may choose to go lone wolf and attempt extractions solo. During a match, teams scavenge through the alien ruins while fending off computer-controlled robots and other dangers, as well as the assaults of real enemy players controlling their own runners. Each match has a time limit, and you must try to extract as much equipment as possible before the match ends; the retrieved equipment can then help fuel subsequent runs.
As a player navigates through maps, in addition to various weaponry, there are several special abilities and gear that add to the tactical complexity of play. In the brief snippets of gameplay shown, we saw things like stealth tools, explosives, agility implants, shield charges, and other enhancements.
Alongside an early look at gameplay, Bungie’s showcase also revealed a lengthy animated short by acclaimed director Alberto Mielgo, who some may recognize from his directorial work on “The Witness,” one of the animated shorts that was part of Netflix’s Love, Death, & Robots. Mielgo’s new Marathon short helped to layer in some tonal understanding of what Bungie appears to be going for. Elements of body-horror and existential angst are prevalent throughout the film, which sees a few different Runners moving through battles on Tau Ceti IV while questioning the nature of their own personal past and human nature. In keeping with some of the feelings of the original Marathon game, the film short suggests a disquieting and uncomfortable vibe about a future in which humanity has veered into some dark places.
Marathon targets a launch on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (Steam) on September 23. Ahead of that, Bungie has suggested that joining the Marathon Community Discord opens up a chance to interface more directly with the development team and get a chance to be in on early playtests.
Check out the gameplay premiere trailer below.
