Marathon 2025 - Bungie's new AAAA Extraction shooter

[Steven Chapman]

Seeing them in their weapons page made it even more apparent. The actual models are different but the geometry, from the components to the angles and curves is identical, obviously to facilitate the reuse of D2 animations, but you'd think they'd change something, oh I don't know maybe not making all pulse rifles bullpups or something .
I see these things and I know exactly how they'll handle.

eta: the shotgun is more like the old trials shotty, not the saint 14 rapid fire
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It’s crazy they literally just asset flipped the one aspect of the game similar to Destiny, the shooting. The thing that players are going to be doing for literal hours and hours and hours.

 

[United Abominations]

It’s crazy they literally just asset flipped the one aspect of the game similar to Destiny, the shooting. The thing that players are going to be doing for literal hours and hours and hours.

I might at least try Marathon if it had a campaign for me to get invested in the world, Fromsoft flips assets but does it in a way that makes each game od theirs feel distinct in some way. There are Bloodborne and Sekiro assets in Elden Ring but the worldbuilding makes that fine for me at least.

 

[Dead Gay Muppet Gangbang]

I think it looks really damn good.

I think it looks like Bozo the Clown had explosive diarrhea on this old Will Smith movie:

 

[Frightened Rabbit]

...I saw once where most buildings for space colonization would have to be 3d printed on world using materials on the planet...

Problem with this is that the way Marathon does is clear they are wasting materials away and their models aren't optimized.
If you are trying to waste as little resources as possible you'd want to make the most minimalist guns possible, shit like zero heat shields, as little blocks as possible, thin materials, but the guns and the architecture and characters themselves look like the opposite.

 

[Soggy Floppa]

don't forget the program the use to make content for Destiny 2 is so bizarre it takes hours to boot up or some nonsense (I'm paraphrasing from an interview from years ago) and it takes them eons to make new maps and guns because of what they program with and how they do it, its why they are so proud of maps like the one in Witch Queen despite it being tiny as fuck.

That was Destiny 1, the Halo mod tools have the same super long loading issue. They have a GDC talk on rendering for D2 and they completely rewrote their lighting system, moved to PBR and I assume updated the map editor tools based on the rare glimpses they have posted of their tools, and Destiny 2 got further engine updates when they deleted half the game in 2020 and around that time they started doing a lot of instanced level edits for seasonal activities, so they obviously don't need to do full level re-bakes anymore

 

[Professor Donger]

Extremely fucking pissed about that, Bungie said all of the content coming out would be free even battlepasses, and I bought the game for 40 bucks and launched to see a store with 20 dollar skins and a fucking 10 dollar battlepass. I nearly refunded out of anger but I've been waiting for this game since 2023 and have enjoyed every playtest so I said fuck it and stuck with it.

Gonna need a source on this because as far as I can tell they never said that the battlepass would be free and that they wouldn't have a in game store.

 

[Site of Origin]

I might at least try Marathon if it had a campaign for me to get invested in the world, Fromsoft flips assets but does it in a way that makes each game od theirs feel distinct in some way. There are Bloodborne and Sekiro assets in Elden Ring but the worldbuilding makes that fine for me at least.

Yeah, I don't mind the aesthetic honestly (aside from the character models which are just ass it seems), but I don't have enough time to sweat this game while trying to get some crumbs of Marathon lore. Really don't think strict PvP was the play here.

Aren't most Destiny players inclined to PvE anyway?

 

[Asian tech support]

Gonna need a source on this because as far as I can tell they never said that the battlepass would be free and that they wouldn't have a in game store.

This is not my post you have been BAMBOOZLED you have been LED ASTRAY somehow you borked this. @dltzk get back here

 

[Professor Donger]

This is not my post you have been BAMBOOZLED you have been LED ASTRAY somehow you borked this. @dltzk get back here

I have no fucking idea how that happened since I replied to him.

 

[creaturestorm]

I think that people who go on about popularity comparisons between Slay the Spire 2 and Marathon being unfair to Marathon take that prize.

Ehhhh... It's an extraction shooter that requires 2 other people to properly play being compared to a casual deck builder game?

What's Candy Crush's player count looking like? Several hundred million? Every one in the gaming industry is getting mogged by awful phone games.

Consider Tarkov's peak player count is 40k-ish, tarkov started the genre and it's being dwarfed by Marathon.

Marathon is doing just fine in player count numbers, the problem is they spent a gorillion dollars to do the following:

>Over the next 18 months, you dump an extra $200 million into its already bloated budget, now totaling over $400 million

That's a lot of cosmetic sales to make up the difference between initial purchase and cost.

Tarkov is a poor comparison because it's run by five drunken Russians with a budget of $500. They can afford to have a relatively small playerbase because it costs basically nothing.

They can afford to release the game because they kept fleecing the player base with bullshit. Lets not forget the abortion that is Arena and the... what was it called? edge of darkness battle pass? the 300 dollar version of the game? Its the one where you get a trench coat and deep pockets, a substantial number of people playing have it, you run into these people constantly.

 

[United Abominations]

I think it looks like Bozo the Clown had explosive diarrhea on this old Will Smith movie:

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Problem with this is that the way Marathon does is clear they are wasting materials away and their models aren't optimized.
If you are trying to waste as little resources as possible you'd want to make the most minimalist guns possible, shit like zero heat shields, as little blocks as possible, thin materials, but the guns and the architecture and characters themselves look like the opposite.

I cannot unsee Roblox aesthetics decided by the marketing team

I have no clue what the aesthetic is called, but all of Trivium's dudebro fans fucking hated it and called it fugly, and I know its a distinctly milennial aesthetic tied to hipsters and streetwear and Marathon is using it too

 

[Steven Chapman]

Yeah, I don't mind the aesthetic honestly (aside from the character models which are just ass it seems), but I don't have enough time to sweat this game while trying to get some crumbs of Marathon lore. Really don't think strict PvP was the play here.

Aren't most Destiny players inclined to PvE anyway?

Yes. While the crucible used to be a fun side activity especially in D1, it’s so actively felted these days that all anyone plays is PvE content, however, the endgame PvE stuff is still very good. I just helped some friends run through some dungeons and The Last Wish raid, very fun still.

I think that’s where Marathon will struggle with retention the most, which is the same as any other extraction shooter. That being what is the POINT? You gather all this gear and currency and for what? In D2 or WoW or even borderlands, you go through the grind to find god rolls and build craft and the reason is; it’s to fight the big scary bad guy in the big scary hard missions/raids/dungeons for usually cosmetics or super extra rare gear to show off. How do they do that in a PvPvE shooter? Force people into a PvE only instance? How’re you gonna do a raid like encounter knowing some nigga is just gonna blow your head off when it’s over? What is gonna be the reward? Skins? It sure as shit can’t be overpowered gear because that wouldn’t be fair.

It makes no sense man, none of it makes sense. Hope it burns.

 

[Jace on ice]

Are soydevs so chronically irony poisoned that they're completely incapable of making a single cool looking character?

I'm not even talking about coomer shit, Leon Kennedy looks like a stone cold badass in RE9 and the "men" in this game look like effeminate blobs just like every other fucking western game.

 

[Steven Chapman]

Are soydevs so chronically irony poisoned that they're completely incapable of making a single cool looking character?

I'm not even talking about coomer shit, Leon Kennedy looks like a stone cold badass in RE9 and the "men" in this game look like effeminate blobs just like every other fucking western game.

I mean, you hit the nail right on its non-gendered head. Everything has to be gender neutral, uninspired, and generally “blob”ish. Badass men are both 1. Not possible in their mindset and 2. Literally hitler if it is possible. A badass male character kicking ass is literally sickening to these people.

 

[United Abominations]

Are soydevs so chronically irony poisoned that they're completely incapable of making a single cool looking character?

I'm not even talking about coomer shit, Leon Kennedy looks like a stone cold badass in RE9 and the "men" in this game look like effeminate blobs just like every other fucking western game.

Aesthetics of demoralization, the purpose of the genderless and flat design is demoralization to break down your sense of individuality as per the rules of Jantelagen like ikea enforcing minimalistic standardization

Valheim is supposed to be a viking game made by swedish developers but made sure that the women look manly as fuck and there are black vikings and pride events and its supposed to hammer in a feeling of sameness where there is no gender or racial distinction

Elden Ring is a viking game made by Japanese devs with literal valkyries and demigods with Aryan features and scandinavian red or blonde hair who are all related yet extremely distinct with their own diverse body styles and designs, Melania and Messmer are radically different from Radahn or Morgott and move and fight respective to their physicalities and are all unique

More "diversity" paradoxically leads to more sameness in designs and uniformity

 

[DickMain]

The guns also don't look too bad if you think of them as made primarily for function not form.

imo the guns look bad because they look bad. I'm so sick of Destiny-chic Matel-brand box guns.

 

[Steven Chapman]

imo the guns look bad because they look bad. I'm so sick of Destiny-chic Matel-brand box guns.

Destiny has some really cool gun designs, especially the exotics. What is different, cosmetically, from “Precision Rifle 1 - Green Rarity” to “Precision Rifle 1 - Purple Rarity”? Probably nothing. This doesn’t matter in something like Tarkov where you’re just using literal real life firearms, but in a stylized game like this, it does matter. Even Arc Raiders was smart enough to make the higher rarity versions of guns look shinier, have more parts, and generally look more well maintained than the lower rarity variants.

 

[>IMPLYING]

Are soydevs so chronically irony poisoned that they're completely incapable of making a single cool looking character?

I'm not even talking about coomer shit, Leon Kennedy looks like a stone cold badass in RE9 and the "men" in this game look like effeminate blobs just like every other fucking western game.

>masculine & feminine "forms" are intrinsically oppressive, as is the concept of sex/gender, and race, because they are social constructs meant to oppress and divide people
>don't ask who benefits from doing this, it's just a nebulous "elite" class of society which usually becomes your choice of bogeyman
>therefore creating androgynous amorphous blobs of indeterminate race and sex liberates society and is morally good
This is what critical theorists believe.

 

[Zenos Yae Viator]

Yes. While the crucible used to be a fun side activity especially in D1, it’s so actively felted these days that all anyone plays is PvE content, however, the endgame PvE stuff is still very good. I just helped some friends run through some dungeons and The Last Wish raid, very fun still.

while they are fun, they are all, all of them just Red Light Green Light, Simon Says shit, combined with "tell your teammate to do something or relay to them info that only you can see" or the simpler, "stand on the thing while someone else does the thing"

compare that to Final Fantasy 14 Ultimate raid encounters and they are blown the fuck out.

 

[Steven Chapman]

while they are fun, they are all, all of them just Red Light Green Light, Simon Says shit, combined with "tell your teammate to do something or relay to them info that only you can see" or the simpler, "stand on the thing while someone else does the thing"

compare that to Final Fantasy 14 Ultimate raid encounters and they are blown the fuck out.

I agree completely, Destiny is and always has been an MMO-lite for a reason. It’s very simple for console fags to understand, which is what led to its popularity (along with the generally agreed upon gameplay being top notch). But the gameplay being good can only take you so far, as marathon will learn very very soon kek

while they are fun, they are all, all of them just Red Light Green Light, Simon Says shit, combined with "tell your teammate to do something or relay to them info that only you can see" or the simpler, "stand on the thing while someone else does the thing"

compare that to Final Fantasy 14 Ultimate raid encounters and they are blown the fuck out.

And don’t forget the constantly fucking over used “mote” mechanic, if I never hear the word “mote” again before I die, ill die a happy man.