• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Marathon Server Slam (Feb 26 - Mar 2) 𝙄𝙩'𝙨 π™Žπ™€ π™Šπ™«π™šπ™§ / π™’π™š'π™§π™š π™Žπ™€ π˜½π™–π™˜π™ 

Men_in_Boxes said:
"I believe in Marathon. I see it's vision."

260937.jpg
Click to expand...
Do you now?? I can't keep up!! What a roller coaster of a ride this is.
 
CowboyLou said:
Isn't beginner Perimeter only available for two runs anyway? FIrst time I was in and out without seeing anyone, second time I got wasted by UESC and then the option was gone.
Click to expand...
It's until you hit level 3, for most people that'll be 2 runs but could be more if you do basically nothing and die (or 1 if you fuck everyone else up)
 
phant0m said:
It's until you hit level 3, for most people that'll be 2 runs but could be more if you do basically nothing and die (or 1 if you fuck everyone else up)
Click to expand...
I rewatched my footage from my second run when I thought UESC got me and what actually happened was my own grenade downed me :messenger_tears_of_joy: I'm legit retarded.

Still leveled up to 3 after that so idk what people are doing to be stuck on that map for so long.
 
CowboyLou said:
Do you now?? I can't keep up!! What a roller coaster of a ride this is.
Click to expand...
I'm having way more fun today. The build crafting and progression in this are *chefs kiss*. I'm pulling off clips that Bungie could use in marketing materials. Escape has made me God. Everyone is allowed to be a retard for 24hrs.

macgruber-im.gif
 
Last edited:
Loomy said:
I think the footsteps volume for NPCs not floating could be lowered, and footsteps for other runners should be turned up. Especially in buildings.
Click to expand...
I'll agree, but I hope they don't make it as loud as Highguard. Other players sounded like they they were wearing concrete shoes.
 
Found my first blue weapon and sniper rifle from a hidden cache in the tunnels below Perimeter. It was just me and a friend playing with no third and right when we were extracting we got downed by a full team. Luckily we got out just in time. It cut to their view and all they could see was the blue blood and broken Triage bots :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
ChorizoPicozo said:
I'm in again... Let's see if this shit gets any better
Click to expand...
I have played12+ hours.

I think excusing criticism or even "hate" (strong/cynical criticism) toward the game by saying, "It's an extraction shooter", it's not a valid argument or defense at all. Especially when the game is coming from Bungie ( AAA mainstream studio).

OK, so what is good design, in general?. To me, it's about effective communication. Whether it is an idea, a sensation, the function of something, or the logic-coherence of the world you are presenting. So, communication it's not about words per se, but the process of understanding even without knowing why or how (like music for example).

So, what's my main issue with this game? It fails to sell its fantasy, which is the worst criticism a game can receive , because it means that nothing works in harmony, nothing feels truly coherent.

There could be moments when it clicks and becomes satisfying, but when you step back and look at the bigger picture, the experience is ultimately disappointing and baffling... We are clearly experiencing a game with a troubled development.....and we know that, it shows.

So, what is my specific issue?. The game doesn't give you/have/enable you to play and engage/grow/progress in your own way. (when they sold the opposite).

From high risk, high reward to low risk, low reward play styles, there is no real balance or strategic space between them.

Now, I wash my hands of whatever happens next.
washing my hands of it GIF
 
I've put in over 6 hours now and I really love this game. Unfortunately it is one of those games where you need to put in a good 3 or 4 hours to get a good grasp of the mechanics etc. Well worth it though. I love how fun the AI is to fight. If you haven't seen them react in clever ways I can assume you haven't played long enough.
 
The more I play this the more I'm seeing it's strengths. At first it looks overwhelming with all the bits and pieces but you eventually start picking up on things that makes it quicker and easier to loot and get around. I've also been mostly ignoring valuables as it's all going to get wiped anyway. I also think positioning and tactics plays a much larger role here than simply having better gear. I just played for a couple hours in a full squad and for 3-4 matches we downed every other team we came across with mostly just sponsored gear. We geared up over several matches and then eventually we were taken out so we started again. Another thing I'm liking is that you don't see constant PvP. I think the most we saw was another two squads in a match. The rest of the time we were killing AI enemies. That's a good change from being overrun constantly in the hot areas on Arc Raiders. Lost count how many times you have 12+ players in your proximity. Some of the AI enemies have heavy shields and do take a beating to put down. Really have to focus your fire. I like that the AI can be quite rough here. Gives you a reason to play safe and use positional and situation awareness not just run in blasting.

Edit - This is after playing for 6.5 hours now.
 
Last edited:
Men_in_Boxes said:
I'm having way more fun today. The build crafting and progression in this are *chefs kiss*. I'm pulling off clips that Bungie could use in marketing materials. Escape has made me God. Everyone is allowed to be a retard for 24hrs.

macgruber-im.gif
Click to expand...
I wish some other people around here would get the memo. They've greatly over stepped the 24 hour limit.

I'm glad you're having fun with it.
 
Shubh_C63 said:
Soon it will become, No it's not that Marathon is underperforming, it's the ARC Raiders that overperformed and is an anomaly in an niche genre. πŸ˜…
Click to expand...
The game may not be a mega hit but it will launch with a solid player base. As a consumer, that is all you can ask of a GAAS game. Hopefully it gives the developers time to evolve the game for long term sustainability

People in the playtests said the end game is far and away the best part of Marathon. The depth is certainly here. I am curious if opinions change on the game at full release
 
ChorizoPicozo said:
I have played12+ hours.

I think excusing criticism or even "hate" (strong/cynical criticism) toward the game by saying, "It's an extraction shooter", it's not a valid argument or defense at all. Especially when the game is coming from Bungie ( AAA mainstream studio).

OK, so what is good design, in general?. To me, it's about effective communication. Whether it is an idea, a sensation, the function of something, or the logic-coherence of the world you are presenting. So, communication it's not about words per se, but the process of understanding even without knowing why or how (like music for example).

So, what's my main issue with this game? It fails to sell its fantasy, which is the worst criticism a game can receive , because it means that nothing works in harmony, nothing feels truly coherent.

There could be moments when it clicks and becomes satisfying, but when you step back and look at the bigger picture, the experience is ultimately disappointing and baffling... We are clearly experiencing a game with a troubled development.....and we know that, it shows.

So, what is my specific issue?. The game doesn't give you/have/enable you to play and engage/grow/progress in your own way. (when they sold the opposite).

From high risk, high reward to low risk, low reward play styles, there is no real balance or strategic space between them.

Now, I wash my hands of whatever happens next.
washing my hands of it GIF
Click to expand...

You have the ability to write this cogently?

shaq.png
 
coachmcguirk91 said:
The game may not be a mega hit but it will launch with a solid player base. As a consumer, that is all you can ask of a GAAS game. Hopefully it gives the developers time to evolve the game for long term sustainability

People in the playtests said the end game is far and away the best part of Marathon. The depth is certainly here. I am curious if opinions change on the game at full release
Click to expand...
Yup. People thinking Marathon will be concorded are crazy, it will live.

What interesting would be to see how Sony/Bungie reacts to Destiny considering anything short of "set the world on fire" for Marathon is underperforming in Sony's internal books with the Bungie buy.
 
icecold1983 said:
I see this thread has reached the bargaining stage.
Click to expand...
There's a common idea in the Hunt Showdown community that it takes a few hundred hours to understand the game. Actually, that's also a common idea in the Tarkov community too. "You're a noob until you play for 1,000 hours."

Don't be so sure a rough 5 days means the end for the mighty Marathon.
 
icecold1983 said:
Marathon won't be a concord. It will maintain some 5-10k regular players with peaks around 20-30k during big updates.
Click to expand...
Your close but double that. Still a fail in Sonys eyes but Bungie only needs a small team to maintain this. There next game better hit harder!

Not a bad game IMO. The menus being the worst ever is a joke. The menus are very simular to ARC. The graphics are actually good on max, but as soon as you turn it down to goes robolox real quick. The problem is PvP is to low I think if you add more players the 3rd partying will go thru the roof and they dont want that. They do have to crank it up a bit thou regardless.
 
Last edited:
Men_in_Boxes said:
There's a common idea in the Hunt Showdown community that it takes a few hundred hours to understand the game. Actually, that's also a common idea in the Tarkov community too. "You're a noob until you play for 1,000 hours."

Don't be so sure a rough 5 days means the end for the mighty Marathon.
Click to expand...
I think my takes are perfectly reasonable and not rough. It isn't a bad game but it isn't a good one either. It's a 5/10 at absolute best. No aspect of this game stands out as anything more than serviceable. Sony will view this as a financial disaster.
 
Last edited:
Here's some anecdata for the thread. My son pinged me a message to start the download of the playtest as soon as I got home on Thursday - I had no idea he was super interested but yeah ok. Given that there was no preload, the message was wasted but I was surprised by how much he suddenly seemed to be interested in this. We both adore the art style, but it's obviously very marmite (love it or hate it), for me it harks back to some of the designers republic work the only thing I think is a terrible mistake is the choice of serif font for the shell names - whoever decided in that font choice should be publicly flogged, it doesn't fit *at all*. I have the console-shooter skills of a mollusc so I left the actual gameplay to the kid brought up on fortnite etc.

It looks *amazing* and smooth on a base ps5, very clean and no issues keeping to the framerate. Both impressed by the look of the environments etc etc. But.. PoE reveal was happening so we parked it to watch something far more important.

After the amazing Mirage league and end game changes were revealed we tried Marathon out again, this time on PC - instantly my son was happier (obviously I brought him up well as he prefers kb+mouse for fps games). Menu navigation, looting etc all better with kb+mouse combo.

So after all that enthusiasm I expected him to hop back on when he got back from school again... yet he was more interested in playing Persona 3 for a bit, then he suddenly announced "I got a Deadlock invite and it's just finished downloading". Proceeds to spend 2+ hours constantly dying in Deadlock and not understanding how builds work, what the skills are, what the heros are etc etc.

Deadlock > Marathon test - not sure if he will actually want to go back to Marathon now he's found a stupidly deep game to learn all about. I love the Marathon style and could happily watch him play that but it's not for me.

End story time.
 
I refunded my pre-order.

I expected Apex meets Battlefield 4 meets PUBG.

Again I am met with looting nonsense gear to fill up stamp cards or reputation meters. This genre isn't for me.

It didn't click with Arc Raiders and it did not click with Marathon. A real waste of talent imho, because the art direction is absolutely incredible to me. And gunplay feels great.
 
icecold1983 said:
Marathon won't be a concord. It will maintain some 5-10k regular players with peaks around 20-30k during big updates.
Click to expand...
That's all it will need to be honest. I've been playing THE FINALS since release over 2 years ago and if you listen to the CCU clowns around here the game would be dead and buried but I've been happily playing all that time. And I'm in Australia where we have one of the lowest player counts. It'll be fine.

icecold1983 said:
It's a 5/10 at absolute best.
Click to expand...
lol
 
Last edited:
I tried but I didn't stick long and uninstall before the end of the tutorial. It feels overly complex for nothing. There's no good feedback on whatever you do so you have no idea what you are doing.
I might be stupid but I didn't even find how to put a marker on the map to find the exit.
When I found what I think was the exit, I have no idea what to do. I shoot few guys and then I died because I was trying to understand the game.

Is it only me or is this game has really unintuitive controls?
 
dottme said:
I tried but I didn't stick long and uninstall before the end of the tutorial. It feels overly complex for nothing. There's no good feedback on whatever you do so you have no idea what you are doing.
I might be stupid but I didn't even find how to put a marker on the map to find the exit.
When I found what I think was the exit, I have no idea what to do. I shoot few guys and then I died because I was trying to understand the game.

Is it only me or is this game has really unintuitive controls?
Click to expand...
You push x on the map to place a marker. It tells you that when you bring the map up.

Reads like 'I tried golf and hitting the ball is really hard. When I did hit it when sideways. Oh well I tried for 5 minutes and I can only assume golf is broken'.

There is a really good game here but if you can't put in a couple of hours minimum to come to grips with it don't bother.
 
dreamstation said:
That's all it will need to be honest. I've been playing THE FINALS since release over 2 years ago and if you listen to the CCU clowns around here the game would be dead and buried but I've been happily playing all that time. And I'm in Australia where we have one of the lowest player counts. It'll be fine.


lol
Click to expand...
I don't think Sony will be happy with that and as far as Embark go Arc's success has insured their longevity but let's be honest Bungie are twice as big as Embark and their current GaaS Destiny 2 is not performing well.

So if Marathon is just as you say doing enough it certainly won't make Sony happy and let's not forget comparative budgets for each game. Finals would have cost a fraction of what Marathon has cost so far (let's not forget Marathon had a major delay as well).

Having said that as long as it has decent launch numbers it maybe gives Bungie enough time to save it but it's new Bungie we are talking about and I wouldn't hold your breath.
 
if this fails...i guess bungie is the next chopping block.

Hopefully Sony able to persuade asha to acquire bungie at a discount orice.
 
Okay, I gave it an honest try.

After ten hours here's my finalish thoughts

1. Never did extraction shooters but this game or genre in general really benefits from people who play consistently with each other. The amount of voice chat in parties I could tell were from friends made me feel like a third wheel.


2. They should get on tweaking for solo play


3. Art direction is great colorful yet dark in tone with a real sense of dread. The use of HDR doesn't come across in videos at all.

4. Its not for me, I as I said yesterday the shooting and movement are pure bungie and the concept is greatly executed but the reality is not everything is for everyone but I'm happy for those who found their new favorite game.
 
I haven't played this and don't know if I will just because it's not necessarily my idea of fun, but just from watching and paying attention to what people are saying it sounds like the barriers to entry are going to be what really hurts this game. First you have a $40 price tag when we already have many examples of players bouncing off it even when it's free, and second the UI and the confusion seem like huge issues. I've already said I think the game is DOA so I would love for Bungie to be able to prove me wrong, but for $40 releasing between what I imagine will be 2 of the biggest selling games of the year along with its issues does not bode well for it imo.

It sounds like it needs some type of solo mode where players can actually play and learn it before going against other real players. They need those rewards while naturally learning so not just a slapped together tutorial. Edit: and maybe it does have something like that? I don't really know.

Anyway good luck to Bungie. Destiny is one of the best of all time and they know how to do fun gunplay like nobody else so at least they have that going for them.
 
Last edited:
Absolutely incredible game. What is has over Arc for me personally is that I play this like an extraction game in that I actually creep around the area with actual care.
The game has a feeling of dread that Arc never really has for me.
I'm absolutely loving this, UI and everything else people are complaining about I'm actually loving.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Marathon Server Slam CCU Watch
15 16 17 18 19
923
6K
PeteBull replied
Marathon - Final Trailer Released | Server Slam ANnounced
News Trailer 
24
644
Felessan replied
Marathon Season 2 Trailers
2
76
821
Zacfoldor replied
Sony decided to have Horizons GAAS closed playtest this weekend. Same weekend as marathon server slam and RE4
News 
28
828
I collect VHS tapes replied
Marathon Releases March 5 '26 - $39.99
64 65 66 67 68
3K
14K
Slayer-33 replied
Top Bottom