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After all the cryptic teasers, brutal layoffs, and a thrilling, somewhat messy, not-quite conclusion to the story of Destiny 2, Bungie today finally laid its cards on the table with a livestream gameplay reveal of Marathon, its upcoming extraction shooter that continues the story of its mind-bending Doom-era series of Mac FPSes.
For the full lowdown on this formerly-mysterious project, PC Gamer brand director and Destiny sicko emeritus Tim Clark actually played the damn thing. But if you want the CliffsNotes, the game launches September 23—the same day as Borderlands 4, which aught to be interesting—with signups open now for a closed alpha on April 23 via the official Marathon Discord—as a note, this first test is for North America only, and you have to be over 18 years of age.
Here’s what the game actually is:
- Marathon is a PvPvE extraction shooter like Escape From Tarkov or Hunt: Showdown where you compete against AI and real opponents in the ruined colony of Tau Ceti IV, 56 years after the events of Marathon 1.
- The game is meant to be played in crews of three. You can switch off crew auto-fill and go in solo or a duo, but you will always be matched against other full crews of three.
- Different “runners” function as Marathon’s classes: Tank guy Locus, TF2 Scout-alike Glitch, info-gatherer Blackbird, and sneaky guy Void. More are to come but those are under wraps.
- Marathon will launch with three large maps: The smallest designed to support three to four teams in a match, the largest, six.
- There’s one final map being held back for a few weeks after launch, the UESC Marathon itself in orbit over Tau Ceti IV. Rumblings from bungie and NDA’d content creators is that it might be Marathon’s answer to legendary Destiny raids like Vault of Glass.
- There’s loot and loot rarity just like in Destiny: You can pick up weapons from fallen players, but they can only change hands so many times before going “poof.” You’ll also lose all the stuff you had on you when you die in a run.
- Individual matches last up to 25 minutes.
- Expect three-month seasons to bring loot wipes, new runners, and challenges, but likely only one or two new maps per year.
- Price-wise, Bungie has only said that Marathon will be a “premium” product.
- No proximity chat in this one: Bungie says it’s just too challenging to consistently moderate.
Marathon sounds like a very interesting, very hardcore sort of game, combining Bungie’s stellar PvE FPS chops with the punishing PvP of Escape From Tarkov or, indeed, Destiny’s own Trials of Osiris.
If that sounds like just the game for you, you can sign up for Marathon’s alpha now, with future tests planned for some time before Marathon’s September 23 release date.
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Kurt Indovina
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