On the evening of February 26, the Server Slam of Marathon began, and MeinMMO editor Dariusz jumped straight into the new shooter from Bungie. Here’s how his first rounds went.
At the start of Marathon, I was initially met with a surprisingly long intro sequence, followed by a brief tutorial. It was once again made clear to me that I really find the art style of the game fantastic. It’s a great change from the gray-brown-green tones of most shooters.
After the tutorial, I played for a few hours and got a first impression. I would like to tell you about my first three rounds.
However, keep in mind that during the Server Slam, we only play a limited selection of the content. My full preview report will accordingly be available only at the full release of Marathon.
A mistake that almost cost the run
I played my first round in Marathon with two randoms, but without any communication. I looted stuff I had no idea whether it was useful or useless and shot down a few UESC robots. Then I completed my first mission and followed my randoms who were still working on a quest.
A few minutes later, my unknown teammates wanted to head to the extraction point, but I briefly glanced into that one room… briefly. Let’s put it this way:
“Briefly” turned into anything but.
Somehow it kept going deeper, and suddenly I was standing in a kind of underground complex. It wasn’t huge, but it had enough loot to keep me occupied for a few minutes. That took a bit longer than I expected, and the resulting battles with the robots showed me that I definitely brought too little ammunition.
After that, we finally headed toward the exit, where we encountered other players for the first time. My mates opened fire, and someone died – but apparently both teams extracted together… without me.
When I arrived, everyone was already gone. Unfortunately, an extraction in Marathon means that the exit is now closed. Under time pressure, I sprinted to the next extraction point, where I was downed by a robot with a shield because I only had ammunition left for my pistol.
The good news: Even in Marathon, you can escape while lying on the ground – I count that as a successful run.
A quiet start, with hope for the future
I played my second and third rounds with my buddy Jacob, who has much more experience in extraction shooters due to Escape from Tarkov than I do.
We stuffed our pockets with loot again, of which we still didn’t know how useful it was, and both completed a mission. By the way, it’s really cool that we can see and track our teammates’ missions.
As we headed to the nearest exit, we encountered a team of other players who were about to extract. I opened fire, Jacob – who was also suffering from ammunition shortage now – flanked from the left, and UESC robots attacked from the back, shooting at both teams.
In the chaos, an enemy was taken down, whose ammunition reserves we urgently needed. Unfortunately, the NPCs don’t drop any ammunition. After that, we extracted and started the next run. This one would offer much more PvP than the previous ones.
In my third round, we immediately focused on our missions, but while we were working on Jacob’s next quest, an enemy team appeared. We fought, but as soon as the opponents were shot, they took cover and healed themselves. One of them was constantly sitting on the roof of a building.
This became too stupid for us after a few minutes.
I provided cover for Jacob while he ran to our enemies’ building and pushed the opponent on the ground floor. Then I followed and took down a runner on the top floor. Finally, we took out the enemy on the roof.
While extracting, we briefly fought against a new team, but since we could escape safely, we did just that – our bags were full anyway.
Perfect for the hated side of ARC Raiders
The big question that hung like a giant billboard before my inner eye and shone brightly was:
Is Marathon good enough to be a serious competitor to ARC Raiders?
After my first three rounds, I am convinced that this is the wrong question. Marathon is, like ARC Raiders, an extraction shooter, but both games fundamentally play differently and target a different core audience.
- ARC Raiders focuses on PvE, with PvP as a backdrop to create additional threats and tension.
- Marathon focuses gameplay on PvP, with different classes and abilities. The NPC opponents are lore-relevant but have been rather secondary in battles so far.
Marathon is the perfect game for everyone who enjoys PvP in ARC Raiders but gets hated comments and insults from the PvE community.
In my first three rounds, no one used the voice chat. There was no sign of a “Don’t shoot” or “I’m peaceful”. No questions were asked, but shots were fired directly – not just from us.
Furthermore, Marathon leaves a good impression. The performance is good, the art style is awesome, the gunplay is successful, and overall the game has a cool atmosphere. I had no technical problems and the servers were stable.
Whether I will enjoy the gameplay in the long term, I can’t say yet. However, since I was spared from technical issues, I can currently recommend that you take a look at the shooter during the Server Slam. What you need to know about the Server Slam is here: The Server Slam of Marathon has begun – All important information about the final opportunity to play the shooter for free
