Marathon

Marathon is a ruthless and unforgiving extraction shooter that’s worth every ounce of hell it puts you through.

Even those frustrating losing streaks often just have me jumping back into another match, eager to replace the gear I've lost, and most battles are fun, tense, and tactical, pushing you to play smartly and work together with your teammates. How the developers support Marathon over the long term will determine whether it can sustain interest the way other successful live-service games have, but Bungie's fundamentals are incredibly strong, and Marathon is much richer and deeper than its 20-minute matches would suggest. Tau Ceti IV calls, and there are runs to complete.

With spellbinding combat and high-concept maps, Marathon is far more than a cool aesthetic draped over the bones of an extraction shooter.

Marathon is a brilliant distillation of what makes an excellent extraction shooter, and a glimpse at where they could go next.

Vandal's movement buffs are lethal in the hands of twitchier shooter fans.

Bungie's excellent audio design and gunplay, paired with increasingly complicated level design borrowing from over a decade of expertise designing Destiny raids coalesce into something special. Marathon is proof Bungie is still at the top of its game.

Despite the tumultuous landscape of live-service games around it, Marathon firmly carves its own place in the extraction shooter genre with an unmatched presentation and breakneck rhythm.

Even as someone whose best multiplayer skill days are behind them, and with all of the plentiful suffering Marathon has to offer within, I find myself wanting to squeeze in one last run all the time lately.

Marathon doesn't have that instant fun factor and casual appeal that an extraction shooter like ARC Raiders does. And for a lot of people, that likely means it isn't the game for them. But Marathon is a game that gives more to you the more you give to it. With impeccable Bungie gunplay, a gorgeous world and artstyle, and a gameplay loop much denser than its competition, we think Marathon is something special. The more we play, the more we love it.

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