Bungie is trying to bring one of the most demanding genres
When I arrived at Bellevue, Washington, in early April to visit Bungie’s headquarters and wander MarathonThe studio’s upcoming exploitation shooter, I remember the first time I played a PC copy of Halo When he was a teenager. Despite logging in hundreds of hours on the previous Xbox, I was still very bad with the mouse and the keyboard until a strange patient spent hours instructing me to win. I have another guide MarathonBut that’s not a random username hundreds or thousands of miles away from the Internet – it is Kevin Yanes, a former Destiny developer, who is currently the leader of the running game for the jog. Marathon.
And that’s in my victory with Yanes – and our final defeat – I started to believe that with MarathonBungie really can remove three peats by bringing another genre to the masses.
Road Marathon The work will be familiar to you if you are a Sicko shooting game and have played games like Escape from Tarkov. But even when it was not you, the game would still be familiar if you play a battle royale game like Fortnite or Legendary apex. What is the game Tarkov And now Marathon In addition to the Battle Royale genre – including a large group of players falling on the map where they plundered items and tried to be the last to survive – a booty that could leave the match with you. The goal of Marathon Not the last player in the lobby; It is to find cool shit (or hidden in a chest or stolen from other players), and then extract safely with the wonderful things mentioned above.
Each game of Marathon Start with you choose the runner you want to play. These athletes are basically a hero – each person has a separate view, some specific abilities and a fist of passive effects. Then you will put your load by pulling items from the past running into your warehouse, such as increased shields, higher weapons and Perk buttons. Or, if you are just starting and not have any items or currency, you can launch with a sponsored package, this is a free or cheap credit (in terms of credit, currency in the game) comes with the low quality versions of everything you need.
When you are ready, you will group (or matchmaking) with two other players and go to the map you choose – including some, each has different difficulty levels and limit players. Although Bungie told us that you can turn off the matchmaking match and jump into a round like a solo player or a duo, you will have a different disadvantage.
You will download it to the map with a different number of competitors, with the number depending on the map size. Dire Marsh, the map we have played for most of my previous versions, can hold 18 players – six teams, including your own.
The goal is double. First, you want to find the best loot you can on the map; You can earn a loot as a reward by completing events that appear, participating in AI enemies (all are very dangerous and will easily kill you if you lose focus) and solve small puzzles. Second, you will try to make progress on any contract you have with the big factions of the game. Although we have not interacted with the contract and the reputation of Metagame as much as I want, it has shown a lot of promises – especially for players who not only want to hunt for other teams to sport.
When your backpack is full and the contract is completed, it’s time to find an Exfil position. When you activate your mining light, it will shoot on a giant, please do not hurt me beams on the sky to warn all other players that someone is trying to escape with good things. If you survive until Exfil is off, keep your spoils, and all go to your tunnel for the next time you want to use it. If you die at any point in the match, you will lose everything You already have in your warehouse and can’t get it back.
If it sounds harsh, it is. That is the type of point. And while there are some more friendly factors to Marathon When compared to Tarkov And such games – for example, your allies can revive you some unlimited times – it’s the most demanding and punishment game that Bungie has ever done. But that’s where all the tension is, and that’s what leads to some moments of adrenaline pumping in my sessions, a real reaction that surprised me.
When I first came to Bungie, I thought Marathon Will not be for me. I am a guy with many big players when I was young, I ordered hundreds of hours PUBGplay a lot Topand basically not put down Destiny Or its sequel from 2014. But when I get older, I tend to participate with PVP and for that reason, the extract genre did not really attract my attention. Although Bungie tried to create games to speak to me throughout my life, my history with the studio was not enough to go beyond my skepticism.
After the developers guide us how Marathon The work, I was escorted to the play area to get the game. The teams were the premise, and I was taken into a group with another American journalist and one from another country, who fought to communicate with us. And so our morning began to be destroyed. Whenever we encounter other players, it is not suitable for us, in what admits it feels like a true random matchmaking experience of the Viking people.
When I went to lunch during the day, I felt contradictory. On the one hand, I am worried that my PVP disaster has been good at the basis, and that Marathon In the end, it would not be very happy if I could not be confident or confident in other teams. On the other hand, the game was as smooth as hell. Smooth mechanical aesthetics are amazing, and strong artistic direction has promoted exaggeration. As long as I am developing my contract and only in the world MarathonI used to be entertainment. My concern is what happens when those contracts become more intense and when not interacting with other players will not be a choice anymore.
Fortunately, everything changed after lunch, when Bungie decided to move my team around. Suddenly, we were participated by Kevin Yanes. Everyone will talk about Yanes as him Good In Marathon. It was a gentle way of saying, I was able to learn soon. Yanes changed the game for me and our third team, not because he could bring us while we were studying – although it was definitely a part of it, I would not lie – but because he could teach us things that would take hours to explore by himself.
When we fell into the first match together, Yanes opened the map and ping two nearby locations. We had a complex reproduction, he said, indicating where we were on. “There are two other teams Maybe Breeding here and here, so we need to be careful unless we want to pursue them immediately. It is overwhelming-and passionate. We have found all these wonderful things for you; Come to take it! And we did.
As my knowledge increased, my level was the same. In very short order, I found myself going from asking Yanes’s questions to put my new knowledge and put it into action. However, I was worried Marathon It would not be fun without anyone like Yanes as a team. That joy has been extracted with great things every time, not in the game. But even if we lose some extremely talented Valorant The player in the last match of the 2nd day, I find that I still feel good about my experience and my team.
It is bad that everyone who plays out there will have Yanes to teach them the game-like his colleague joking that they should send him to each copy of Marathon. But they will have me. And their favorite transmission. And instructions (on polygon). And Tarkov Friend. And Halo players. And the guard from Destiny’s Crucible.
From HaloBungie has not only rely on skilled developers, but the whole community around the world to help guide their games. For my friends, I It will be Yanes when it comes to Marathon – I I will be a stranger online I meet when I play Halo The first time returns the day.
Marathon is difficult. It was punishment, and it deliberately frustrated. It has low and high levels, according to the design. It is a difficult thing to sell to the masses – the most difficult bungie has been done. But what Bungie is always good at producing conversion people: players who see vision, are pulled inside and cannot wait to share games with their friends. I find myself unable to convert it into MarathonMy vision, and I left Bellevue desperately to get the game again – one of the best feelings you may have about something you’re playing when walking on the watch.
There are one million factors that can be sunk Marathon: The direct service market is crowded, the strategy of making money-all of whom bungie has confirmed that it will not be able to play free-the time of release and the status of the global economy. You will have to be an idiot when watching any upcoming game by 2025 and say, it is a solid hit. But what I can say, but not a fool, that is Marathon Make me really like PvP for the first time in nearly a decade.
Others have taught me to play Bungie games for 20 years, and even if I am not a good teacher like Kevin Yanes, I am very happy to pay for my friends when Marathon Coming to PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X on September 23.
Revealed: This article is based on Marathon The preview event was held at Bungie’s headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, from April 2-4. Bungie provided the trip and residence of Polygon for this event. You can find Additional information about polygon’s ethical policy here.
