The next shooting game from Bungienicknamed ‘Marathon’was officially unveiled at the PlayStation Showcase this year with a short CGI trailer. But the question remains: what exactly is Marathon?
Marathon is an extraction shooter for 3 people. There are features that you may find familiar if you play games like Escape From Tarkov. However, if you're not a fan of playing as a team, you can play as a duo or solo if you wish. But, you'll still be up against bigger teams. Extracting without your team is apparently also a feature.
One of the biggest and potentially controversial features within the game is an oxygen system. All players have a limited supply of oxygen which essentially acts as the match's countdown timer - once you lose oxygen, you start losing health. Extracting before running out of oxygen and health is the goal, but players can also find O2 cans in the match or later buy them at an expensive price on the market before going into battle.
The oxygen system is also somewhat linked to the injury system of MarathonHowever, there are some injuries that cause the player to suffer different effects. For example, being shot in the waist area can cause damage to your oxygen supply, which will cause it to deplete more violently. Another example given was concussion, which would cause the player's screen to blur periodically.
Bungie's Marathon will bring a well-known PC segment to consoles
Continuing, if your oxygen supply becomes too much of an obstacle, the capacity and advantage system of the Marathon can solve that. We're all familiar with advantages and abilities in shooting games by now.
Advantages include faster revivals, less use of O2, faster movement in water, etc. Skills are more revolutionary and powerful, allowing people like Night Vision to identify enemy outlines. The further the player progresses, the more perks and abilities they unlock.
Several other interesting details that were mentioned several times by sources were that the Bungie was hoping that Marathon fosse o “serviço ao vivo definitivo”. Para conseguir isso, a equipe pretende ter tempos de carregamento mínimos, com uma fonte dizendo que a equipe está visando tempos de carregamento de um dígito de “Readying Up” para jogar no servidor.
With regard to replayability, it has been said that the maps of Marathon will have many secrets for players to explore - presumably new secrets will be added to the maps over the course of the game seasons.
What is the gameplay loop?
The main gameplay loop of Marathon is as follows:
- Choose your missions (to complete in the game)
- Buy / Choose your loadout/advantages/skills/equipment
- Log on to a server
- Hunt for loot / Complete quests / Explore and find secrets
- Extract
- Spend XP on updates
- Repeat
The game features three different types of items, loot, implants and perks. In the current game, permadeath is a feature, but it is understood that players will only lose their loot (weapons, artifacts, currency, etc.), while implants are sometimes lost and perks are never lost.
It is understood that Bungie is currently developing three different maps for MarathonBut it is not yet known whether all three will arrive at the game's launch.
Marathon does not yet have a definite release date, but it will be launched on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
It's worth noting that all this information comes from Tom Henderson, a reliable source of Insider Gaming.
