Marathon Risks Self-Sabotage by Omitting a Key Bungie Feature

Bungie, famously known for the Halo series, is venturing back into a classic universe with their latest project, Marathon. Despite possibly seeming new to some, Marathon is a reboot of a long-standing Bungie title that dates back to the company’s early days. Initially, the Marathon games made their mark as first-person sci-fi shooters available exclusively on Apple Macintosh systems, serving as a precursor in many ways to the Halo series. While these original games would seem rudimentary by today’s standards, they were considered groundbreaking in their time.

The inaugural Marathon game launched in 1994 and stood out as one of the first FPS games to put an emphasis on storytelling rather than just relentless action. The narrative was woven into the game through detailed terminal logs, offering deep lore without the use of cutscenes. This intricate storytelling captivated a dedicated fanbase, spawning numerous fan sites aimed at dissecting its complexity. The upcoming Marathon reboot by Bungie, however, seems to diverge from its roots significantly, focusing less on solo narratives—a notable deviation from its predecessors.

Unlike previous versions, which were praised for a richly woven single-player story, this new iteration of Marathon is being developed as a multiplayer-only extraction shooter, which aligns it more closely with titles like Escape from Tarkov than Bungie’s past first-person shooters. You will find some storytelling embedded within its seasonal updates, akin to Destiny, but the absence of a dedicated single-player campaign is a noticeable void. Given how live-service games often struggle to maintain strong narratives—Final Fantasy 14 being a rare exception—this lack of story-driven content comes as a letdown, especially with the potential shown in its atmospheric universe set on the alien planet Tau Ceti IV.

In a throwback to their classic storytelling flair, Bungie recently unveiled an eight-minute cinematic short at the end of their Marathon reveal livestream. This short, directed by the talented Alberto Mielgo, best known for works like Love, Death & Robots and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, showcases a compelling art style and introduces players to the Marathon world. The narrative follows two characters, Glitch and Void, in their quest for survival and scavenge on a barren alien landscape. Remarkably, regardless of repeated deaths, they are continuously revived in new bodies and must reconnect with their humanity.

This short film succeeds in encapsulating the rich narrative potential and thematic depth expected from Marathon, raising expectations for a similarly detailed in-game story experience. Yet, while this cinematic effectively portrays Marathon’s gameplay cycle in an engaging narrative form, it also underscores a missed opportunity for the game to feature similarly high-quality storytelling. Without a comprehensive campaign, it’s unlikely players will experience more cinematic pieces as compelling as Mielgo’s work.

In the midst of all this exciting information, the news that the game doesn’t plan to offer much in terms of story content stands as a missed chance, especially when considering its intriguing setting and the artistic promise exhibited in the cinematic preview shared by Bungie. Without a robust campaign, the game might not deliver the captivating storytelling fans have come to love and expect from a Marathon title.