Marathon: A Stylishly Merciless Video Game Built for Cut-Throat Times
A great deal hinges on the success of Marathon, the latest multiplayer online shooter from Halo creator Bungie. This DayGlo spectacular transports players to the distant planet Tau Ceti IV, embroiled in an endless battle for resources, where beauty and brutality collide in equal measure.
A World of Radiant Beauty and Clinical Brutality
In rare quiet moments while playing Marathon, you might find yourself captivated by the iridescently pretty planet Tau Ceti IV. This fictional world seems to radiate a chemical glow, with powdery pink skies and lurid green vegetation filling the screen, complemented by supermassive architecture adorned with ultra-stylish, neon graphic design. However, linger too long to admire the scenery, and you could catch a bullet, causing your character to bleed an icky blue substance. In such instances, the camera locks, forcing you to stare down at their unceremonious demise. Marathon's considerable visual allure is matched only by its clinical and unforgiving brutality.
A Contentious Road to Release
The journey to Marathon's launch has been long and fraught with controversy. As an extraction shooter, players must engage in as much shooting and looting as possible within a level before making their escape. First unveiled in 2022 with a ravishing trailer, the game showcased startling imagery, including tiny robotic bugs weaving a synthetic body into existence. Developed by Bungie, known for Halo and Destiny, Marathon appeared uniquely weird for a blockbuster shooter, sparking excitement among both shooter enthusiasts and art-game aficionados.
However, the initial enthusiasm waned as Marathon became entangled in an artwork-theft scandal. Compounding matters, feedback from an alpha playtest in April 2025 was so negative that the game, originally slated for release in September of that year, was delayed indefinitely. During this period, another extraction shooter, Arc Raiders, launched to critical acclaim and massive sales, setting a high bar for Marathon to overcome.
High Stakes for Bungie and Sony
Marathon arrives with significant pressure to prove itself, not least because it marks the first new game from Bungie since its acquisition by Sony for $3.6 billion in 2022. Sony's owners are also under scrutiny, having invested hundreds of millions, if not billions, into an online multiplayer strategy that has yielded only one major hit, Helldivers 2, alongside a series of cancelled projects and one costly failure.
With its thrilling, kinetic gunplay, tantalising sci-fi elements, and encouraging initial player feedback, Marathon may yet reverse this trend for Sony. Players assume the role of Runners, whose consciousness has been uploaded into artificial bodies. While this body-swapping premise technically allows Runners to escape death, their form of immortality is far from desirable. These gun-toting bio-cybernetic beings are contract-chasing freelancers, trapped in an endless purgatorial conflict on Tau Ceti IV, serving as mere grist for the mill in the cosmic wilderness.
Gameplay: Relentless and Demoralising
A recent gameplay session illustrates Marathon's intense nature. Dropping into Dire Marsh, a wet, gaseous level that lives up to its miserable name, my crew and I headed to a maintenance area to locate a mysterious metal rod. During the search, we battled successive deployments of mech enemies, with moments of being downed and revived. After five frustrating minutes of fruitless hunting, we abandoned the task and moved toward an exit, only to encounter other Runners with the same idea. A brief, heart-racing gunfight ensued, where I mostly cowered behind a door. Ultimately, another human player stabbed me in the chest, ending my run permanently, while shouting "Mr Silly" over the microphone—a stark reminder of the game's unforgiving spirit.
Marathon's gameplay loop is relentless and frequently demoralising, more so than its rival Arc Raiders. The genius of Arc Raiders lies in its facilitation of diverse dramatic tones, especially during human encounters, where players can communicate within a certain range, allowing for negotiations before or during combat. In that game, outcomes depend not just on marksmanship or gear but on generosity and smooth communication, with de-escalation as viable as armed violence.
In contrast, Marathon is less dynamic and, by extension, less interesting in its social interactions. Verbal discussions are consistently secondary to brute force, with cooperation seeming rare as everyone pursues self-interest. The speculative, dystopian concept likely fuels this fierce competitiveness. For newcomers to the extraction shooter genre, the question is whether such a dog-eat-dog experience will lead to fatigue.
A Reflection of Our Times
After 15 hours of play, I find Bungie's latest offering compelling precisely because of its ruthlessness. Much like the social deduction game Among Us resonated during the paranoid pandemic years, Marathon mirrors the era that produced it. We live in a mean-spirited, cut-throat time, where many global events feel driven by pernicious self-interest. This game provides players a way to navigate this cynical reality: you are either pulling the trigger or bleeding out with a mouthful of dirt.
Marathon is now available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 5, priced at £34.99.
