Marathon game preview: Can the beleaguered shooter bounce back?
Beset by controversy during its development, Bungie’s latest big-budget shooter has an uphill battle to win over notoriously demanding FPS fans
In 1994, Bungie released Marathon, a Mars-set FPS for Apple Mac that offered single-player and multiplayer ‘deathmatches’, giving Mac owners an alternative to the original Doom (it was finally ported to PC for free 30 years later). Two sequels followed in as many years before Bungie moved on to bigger things with Halo and Destiny, two once-huge franchises whose standings have slipped in recent times. Now, Bungie is resurrecting Marathon as a big-budget extraction shooter, a genre currently dominated by the enormously popular ARC Raiders.
Set on a distant alien world, small teams battle each other (and the environment) on a shrinking map before, hopefully, extracting to safety. Originally due for release last September, the game was delayed until March following negative feedback during public testing. Development was further overshadowed by plagiarism accusations from a Scottish artist and a period of creative churn at the very top.
While things appear to have steadied since, publisher Sony (which bought Bungie for an astonishing $3.6 billion in 2022) will be desperate to avoid a repeat of Concord, its 2024 online shooter that was reportedly budgeted at $400 million and shut down after just 11 days. Featuring a large cast of high-profile voice talent and a multi-platform launch, with extensive live service elements competing against established rivals, Marathon represents a significant investment for Sony. There is huge pressure on Bungie to deliver.
Marathon is Released on PS5, PC and Xbox Series X/S on Thursday 5 March.