Let's Sperg Marathon 2025 - Bungie's new AAAA Extraction shooter

[Toolbox]

From what I know, there are very few devs left from even the later Bungie-Halo days. I know for a fact that they got rid of the two legendary composers (Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori) even though they were some of the best in gaming. They might as well be a different studio now.

With what Destiny ended up being and turned into should be evidence enough most of the original talent is simply not there and hasn't been for years. In all likelihood a good portion of them split right after Reach. I kind of want to do a breakdown of the credits between them to see.

 

[Riot Guard]

I know it's a schizo theory, but I can't help but think that Mandalore is responsible for this. That the only reason they are reviving the Marathon IP like a Frankenstein abomination is because of his videos on the original trilogy. Those videos are the main reason that people even know what Marathon is these days.

 

[Daddy's Angry Juice]

I know it's a schizo theory, but I can't help but think that Mandalore is responsible for this. That the only reason they are reviving the Marathon IP like a Frankenstein abomination is because of his videos on the original trilogy. Those videos are the main reason that people even know what Marathon is these days.

it honestly wouldnt surprise me, i mean we got Metal Wolf Chaos released in the west because of Two Best Friends Play, so thats not super farfetched, id have to know how long this has been in the oven for tho. I wouldnt be surprised if the devs have seen his vids and/or are fans.

 

[ScurvyRat]

Good news about the Dev team currently online on discord.

Out of 26 devs there are only 4 retarded enough to have pronouns in their lil bio and all of them are he/him

So that means the trannies who we know are involved in the game either aren't on the discord (lol), are pooners, or are smart enough to not wave the tranny flag.

 

[Gan Ying]

A Marathon extraction shooter where you play as B.O.Bs scavenging the wreckage of the Marathon while avoiding the remnants of the Pfhor could have actually been cool. As far as I know there aren't any extraction shooters where the enemies aren't just dudes with guns.

Instead, nothing in this looks or evokes Marathon at all. Neither visually nor in what they are passing off as "lore" so far. It's just colorful droids running around shooting other colorful droids. I never played it, but Destiny reminds me more of Marathon than this does.

 

[chincel]

So is this pretty much like the time Obsidian tried to pass The Outer Worlds as the successor to Fallout New Vegas?

 

[Jobama]

As someone who used to play a ton of Destiny, I really hope that this game bombs. Bungie is one of the most scummy and greedy companies in the game industry.

From what I know, there are very few devs left from even the later Bungie-Halo days. I know for a fact that they got rid of the two legendary composers (Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori) even though they were some of the best in gaming. They might as well be a different studio now.

I believe that the only the only two old (like Halo CE and 2 era) Bungie emploess who still work there are Jason Jones (who seems to be in a a upper management position and doesn't seems to have too much to do with game development anymore) and Shi Kai Wang, one of the main artists for Halo CE. There are only of handful of older Halo 3 and Reach Bungie employees left too like Lars Bakken.

Those videos are the main reason that people even know what Marathon is these days.

Honestly, I think most people only know about Marathon from the Security helmet from Halo 3.

 

[FieldPiece]

Edit: Format update fucked me up so I double posted cuz I'm a tard

 

[FieldPiece]

Greg Kirkpatrick is still alive and apparently works as a math professor at some university. I'm almost tempted to email him and ask what he thinks of this pile of shit.

With what Destiny ended up being and turned into should be evidence enough most of the original talent is simply not there and hasn't been for years. In all likelihood a good portion of them split right after Reach. I kind of want to do a breakdown of the credits between them to see.

Marty and Mike: Composers, Audio directors, gone
Joe Staten: Writer, Director, Cinematics director, gone
Jamie Griessemer: Designer, gone
Luke Smith: Designer, gone
Marcus Lehto: Art director, designer of Master Chief, gone
Alex Seropian: Co-founder, gone

Who is still there?
Tyson Green: Designer, been there since Marathon and Myth
Shi Kai "Shiek" Wang: Artist, designed most of the covenant
Lars Bakken: Gameplay designer, been there since I believe Halo 2
Jason Jones: Founder.
Dan Miller: Level designer
Steve Cotton: Level designer
Chris Butcher: Tech Lead

 

[MeltyTW]

Let's revive Marathon
- won't be single player
- no campaign, story will be in weekly short films so disconnected entirely from the experience of actually playing the game
- killing other constantly respawning in story and in game human opponents
- dystopian aspects that maybe had lore basis but not really what you experienced in the og games at all vs dealing with rogue ai and alien invasions and lovecraftian ancient abominations.
-completely different art style and look and feel aesthetically

wtf. also just on its own i just know the story will boil down to capitalism bad because of dumb reasons. i actually liked the trailer because it unintentionally was completely offputting, sterile and artificial looking with the characters being self and corporate approved altered to the point they start to lose themselves. thing is theyre trannies or tranny sympathizers so you know that any loss of humanity will be because of capitalism and none of it from the girl for example making herself into a plastic goth over designed toy rather than a human being, and none of the interesting themes about our own choices helping to dehumanize us will be present intentionally or if it is itll be because they embraced capitalism while making yourself a living emo action figure will be treated as just finding yourself in a corporate world.

idk dont really "hate" it it seems inoffensive enough just disappointing

 

[Caddo Cobgang]

Let's revive Marathon
- won't be single player
- no campaign, story will be in weekly short films so disconnected entirely from the experience of actually playing the game
- killing other constantly respawning in story and in game human opponents
- dystopian aspects that maybe had lore basis but not really what you experienced in the og games at all vs dealing with rogue ai and alien invasions and lovecraftian ancient abominations.
-completely different art style and look and feel aesthetically

wtf. also just on its own i just know the story will boil down to capitalism bad because of dumb reasons. i actually liked the trailer because it unintentionally was completely offputting, sterile and artificial looking with the characters being self and corporate approved altered to the point they start to lose themselves. thing is theyre trannies or tranny sympathizers so you know that any loss of humanity will be because of capitalism and none of it from the girl for example making herself into a plastic goth over designed toy rather than a human being, and none of the interesting themes about our own choices helping to dehumanize us will be present intentionally or if it is itll be because they embraced capitalism while making yourself a living emo action figure will be treated as just finding yourself in a corporate world.

idk dont really "hate" it it seems inoffensive enough just disappointing

if they were going to make a Multiplayer reboot they shouldn't have gone with an extraction shooter, the market has already rejected that and they just aren't fun because when you die you lose all your shit, if they really wanted the game to be a success they should have gone with a Halo-like, people want Arena shooters again and Devs just reject it in favor of Battle Royal and Extraction Shooter slop, it really sucks.

 

[Frosted Snowflakes]

Former Firewalk / Concord dev speaks out about Marathon.

 

[Commander X]

It looks like Syndicate and Mirror’s Edge had a fetal alcohol syndrome baby.

 

[OutInTheRain]

That sounds familiar.

Smash JT: Is Marathon the Next Concord? (archive)

View attachment 7219510

Hands up, don't shut!

Is she wearing clogs?

Listen, if I anywhere, for any reason came across something that looks like this. I'm shooting it. It looks like a fucking demon. Everything about this is off putting, the random splotches of bright color. The NASA punk aesthetic with the unsettling mall mannequins running around. It's a recipe for disaster.

Halo, Destiny all looked cool, they had a cool aesthetic to them. You wanted to see more, explore more. This is just nauseating and I want it go away. It's Halo by drag queens. Who is this meant to appeal to?

 

[regalterry]

Former Firewalk / Concord dev speaks out about Marathon.

Very brave of him to post the mea culpa on reddit of all places, really shows they heard gamers loud and clear and want raw, honest opinions!

I genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, hope this guy gets fired when Marathon flops.

Who is this meant to appeal to?

I don't think even Bungie has any idea.

A sane company would have strangled this project, like SEGA did with Hyenas, but Bungie is run by greater retards apparently.

I postulate that the single most important aspect of a game is the premise - gameplay, narrative, art direction et al are secondary to this one facet. The original Doom could have played like shit and it would still have sold well based on the premise alone, ditto for Halo, Metal Gear etc.

Any successful game you can think of had a cool premise people wanted to experience - be a badass marine on Mars stopping a demonic invasion, be a special forces member completing missions across the globe, be the chosen one destined to keep the Age of Fire going (or doom it to end)...

What is the appeal of "Marathon" here? Are you a super soldier attempting to save your colony ship from an alien invasion with the help of quirky AIs, while various other subplots are going on in the background and the story slowly beings to reveal there might be more going on?

No, you're some pastel-colored faggot with gay lipstick, running around an equally garish and bland corporate dystopia shooting repulsive freaks just so you can grind more ugly weapons and cosmetics, while being fed a retarded plot dreamed up by trannies.

I am sure people are desperate to line up for this experience.

Just compare the trailer for Doom: The Dark Ages and this abomination.

 

[Caddo Cobgang]

Bungie is run by greater retards apparently.

as a Destiny player you are 100% correct, they are relying on their brand name to sell this shit and its not going to work, Marathon is total Troonslop and not going to take away any players from the Live Service Shit currently available like Destiny,CoD,etc.

 

[Quiritium]

I can't understand how anyone still has any faith in Jason Jones. That fucker is the reason why Bungie and every universe they create turns to shit. Pete Parsons is nothing but a well paid front man for Jones, who granted has some good ideas, but always gets bored with the project at hand and runs to something new and shiny, splitting company resources and focus. This shit happened with the original Marathon, with Halo and with Destiny. It wasn't MS or Acti, it was Jones. And he uses Pete and the board to kick out people he doesn't want at the company anymore. He hides in the shadows pretending to be a mere creative director and visionary, but is the one pulling the strings of the board from the beginning. He's a manipulative little shit, and I wish Sony realized this, but I'm not hopeful.

Destiny's 10 year Light and Dark saga storyline shows what happens with Jones every time. The initial lore was interesting, mysterious, harsh. He got bored and moved on, leaving it to lame "writers" who turned it into marvel slop, full of "inclusive" messaging, and the most uninspired answers for every mystery. The latter two thirds of the 10 year story were pathetic, full of retcons of stuff that could be clearly understood in the initial lore.

The thing that annoys me the most is that the cinematic trailer checks a lot of boxes for me, I see a universe I want to spend time in. Then I look at the game itself and the people heading it, and I feel nothing. Because the game is devoid of what pulls me in from the cinematic trailer, and I don't trust the people making it, especially the creator.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Basic bitch opinion, but haven't seen it stated.

The aesthetics suck.
The world seems to be going for a Neil Blomcamp clean, hyper industrial sci-fi look. Kind of like Death Stranding, NeoTokyo, Starfield, or The Surge. The problem is the characters don't match their surroundings. The female cyborg in the trailer looks like yet another Harley Quinn clone. Her "punk" aesthetic fails because it's not cobbled together from random scrap (like The Surge) but it's also not got the clean, almost 3D printed look of Starfield.


As for the success or failure. I don't predict Concord level of failure. Maybe a Dragon Age Veilguard or Payday 3 level failure. 200k units vs a 150 million dollar budget sort of failure. Not a complete wash, but a disappointing launch followed by 6 months to 2 years of content updates before being abandoned.

Exact same art director as Concord btw
Joseph Cross

Another hack destined to fail upwards.

 

[Spilled Spaghett]

As someone with no investment in Marathon, but a massive Halo fanboy, both the reveal trailer and the gameplay trailer are a complete turn off. When they were making Halo they knew how to be "artsy" by being subtle and grand. Halo was striking and recognizable despite the main protagonist being a fairly generic sci-fi soldier in army green. The bold colors of the Covenant made a stark contrast between Humanity that reinforced their alien nature. And although there was always a hint of mystery behind Forerunners it was always clear what the story was fundamentally about. It was the galactic war between Humanity and the Covenant. The answers to these mysteries didn't need to be explained because it didn't matter. The rings will make everyone die, that's all we need to know.

I couldn't tell you what the fuck Marathon's about. Just like Destiny, Bungie thinks that the absence of story is the same thing as being mysterious. The story trailer tells us nothing, it shows us nothing, and it looks awful. I can best describe it all as vomit. Color was vomited all over everything, bright, in your face, and completely random.

The dialogue is word vomit. It's pretty words that have no actual meaning and fail to convey any kind of story, hint at any kind of conflict, reveal anything about the world. It's delivery is good, but they may as well have been reading a lorum ipsum for all it was worth.

The music has the hard punchy bass to try and mimic gunfire, which I don't hate, but it so overused it just becomes noise. It has no identity of its own. Marty really carried Bungie hard.

The animations are abysmal and the camera work is only making it worse. I wanted to vomit after watching it because it dips, and turns, and shakes constantly. It's like slop for kids where they think if they don't do a cut every second, shake the screen, or have bright flashing lights they'll lose your attention. The animations manage to both feel too stiff and too loose. Everything is flailing and bobbing around like ragdolls. When they are trying to be smooth it looks so robotic and awkward. I get they they are probably some kind of androids but it's in this uncanny valley of just looking like shit.

The trailer can look like it was made by an amateur as long as the gameplay looks fine. The trailer doesn't really reveal much of anything either. Shooters all have the same template for their trailers and it reveals nothing to get excited about. Person walks into a firefight, gets completely ignored by everyone so they can shoot people in the head. Everyone else stands very still or walks very slow so they can't miss. Then there's a big explosion. The go-pro POV on the guns is only acceptable one time. For some reason they felt the need to do it twice in one trailer. I learned only two thing. You will have a gun, and you will shoot people. Wow sign me the fuck up! I guess you could also tell it's an extraction shooter/battle royale game. We've been doing Battle Royale games for a decade now, can we do something else? What do you bring to the table other than being a different coat of paint on the same game people are already playing?

 

[Judge Dredd]

The dialogue is word vomit. It's pretty words that have no actual meaning and fail to convey any kind of story, hint at any kind of conflict, reveal anything about the world. It's delivery is good, but they may as well have been reading a lorum ipsum for all it was worth.

So on brand for Marathon (I only played Durandal on XBLA back in the day).

I couldn't tell you what the fuck Marathon's about.

Shooting aliens followed by 20 minutes of "where the fuck do I go" until you press a panel with a wall of text which opens the door to the next area.

Just like Destiny

Because Destiny's story was cut at the last minute, and the sequel was made from Destiny 1 left overs.