Gaming showcase season is slowing down now, and it’d be understandable if someone were to miss the odd announcement here and there due to the sheer number of them. If you weren’t aware, Bungie announced a return to one of their oldest franchises at the PlayStation Showcase last month with a short, if relatively uninformative CGI trailer for Marathon.
Related: PlayStation Showcase: Could ‘Marathon’ Be The Next Big FPS Game?
The original Marathon was developed all the way back in 1994 for the Apple MacIntosh, featuring players taking the role of a nameless security officer aboard a ship called Marathon, as they attempt to stop and put pay to an alien invasion.
What do we know? What should we expect from the new Marathon?
How much of the original story or setting the remake will take is unknown at the moment, with the trailer really not giving much away, other than stoking the excitement fires for long-time fans of the game and the developer.
What we do know regarding the game is that it’ll be a three-person extraction shooter – similar to Bungie’s own Destiny franchise -, set in space on a planet/ship like area. Players will be pitted against other teams and NPC’s in an attempt to secure packages and extract, similar to Escape from Tarkov, but whilst you can play solo or as a pair, it would be suggested to fight as a three, considering you’ll always be facing full teams.
Marathon will no doubt be bringing in some unique and forward-thinking gameplay mechanics to separate it from the rest in the genre, and we’ll come to one particular mechanic in a second, but don’t worry, it won’t be breaking the mold in some genre staples. There will be perks of course, with the usual faster reloading, night vision, dual weapons and the like. As with any online FPS, the more a player levels up in Marathon, the more powerful they become with more game-changing abilities and skills available to them. How the developers plan on balancing this is unknown, but likely that’ll be something that is tweaked after launch.
The earlier mentioned gameplay mechanic that will definitely set the game apart from other space-faring, future-set shooters is the oxygen supply. Hinted at in the CGI announcement trailer, the game will implement an oxygen limit. Seemingly designed to force players forward with their objective, the oxygen supply will deplete over time. When it runs out, your health will then decrease until you’re dead. This could be frustrating, but it may solve an issue that plagues FPS’s, as no-one will be camping and sitting around, otherwise they’ll suffocate. With that said, it’d be surprising if players weren’t able to extend their oxygen supply in-match, similar to Warzone’s gas masks allow players to trot out into the gas for a time.
Injuries also look to play a big part in the gameplay loop, which I’m sure everyone will agree is a surprise for a game in this genre. Different injuries to the player’s character affect the gameplay in different ways. Get shot in the leg? It’ll affect movement. Arm? Aiming is more difficult. Head? If you survive, it’ll affect the vision, so your screen will be blurry. Whether this is a feature that fans can incorporate into their strategies and enjoy for what it is, or whether it becomes an annoyance is yet to be seen, but it will certainly bring a different experience to a heavily saturated market.
Lastly, at least for now, we know the game will have it’s own version of permadeath, with players losing any loot they’ve obtained on the mission, implants they’ve purchased but thankfully they’ll never lose any perks they’ve unlocked. Permadeath in live service games is becoming a prevalent trend, and one that if not designed or implemented correctly can cause huge fan outrage, just see the issues Diablo IV is having at the moment.
Marathon is still a way away yet, with no release date, but it’s anticipated the game could be hitting consoles in 2025. This is one game we’re happy to wait for, and if Bungie have proven anything, it’s that if you give them time, they will deliver. Will you be picking it up come release?
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