Marathon, A Fantastic Extraction Shooter Worth Your Time

When I first played Escape From Tarkov in 2017, I saw a brilliant game buried under poor systems and poorly thought-out mechanics. The adrenaline in that extraction shooter format was fantastic, but almost everything else felt extremely off-putting to me. No matter how many other extraction shooters I chased afterward, none managed to surpass the experience I had in that game.

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With Marathon, things were different. I felt that excitement again, but without unnecessary waiting and frustration. That is essentially the entire game; it takes the best elements of extraction shooters without the genre’s frequent mistakes. But is that enough to attract players who have ignored this type of game until now?

If you're interested in something different, you may want to read our Planet of Lana 2 review.

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Somewhere in the heavens… they are waiting.

The original Marathon launched in 1994 and was among the first games to let players aim with a mouse. Its story was a wild, enigmatic adventure about the UESC Marathon spaceship and its volatile AI, Durandal. If you want to try it yourself, it’s free on Steam.

In general, Marathon shaped the design and mechanics of every later game made by Bungie. Many features, such as visual elements, weapons, and narrative motifs, originated directly from Marathon. Even the final words in the original trilogy were “You Are Destiny.” However, although this new game is a sequel, it takes place a full century after the original, so the connection to the original story is minimal.

Story is usually neglected in extraction shooters, but Bungie deserves praise here. The world of Marathon is strange, fascinating, and full of interesting characters, anchored by a central mystery that sparks curiosity. While this doesn’t affect the gameplay much, exploring an abandoned colony makes the strange signs impossible to ignore. Where did everyone go? Robots and synthetic Runners roam, but there are no humans—not even corpses. The atmosphere is eerie, and the tension increases, especially when playing alone.

Although all the characters you cooperate with are AI characters, the voice acting is still performed by humans. That difference is clearly noticeable. The characters have strong personalities, and I never felt the need to skip dialogue. If you want to learn more, there is also a full Codex system containing a huge amount of background lore and interesting information about the world that unlocks gradually. Considering that most games of this type have stories as thin as dental floss, such a thoughtful and interesting narrative is a refreshing change.

In Marathon, Death Is The First Step

Marathon constantly pushes players into difficult, exciting situations. A key feature of extraction shooters—losing your equipment on death—is also present here. While some games offer secure containers to store some gear, Marathon does not. If you die, you truly lose everything you were carrying. Every mission is tense, especially if you find a valuable item or bring expensive gear. There’s always that lingering thought: what if I die?

But the same applies to everyone else. You might die within the first two minutes of a mission, but you could also kill an experienced player and take all of their equipment. That famous “gear fear,” the fear of losing equipment, is not really present in Marathon. Even if you spend everything you earn, you can still take free gear and have a chance to win.

Bungie captures the euphoria of obtaining good equipment without the agony of losing it. Death becomes an opportunity for a new beginning. You’re only borrowing your gear, not truly owning it. That’s Marathon’s real charm—no matter how many times I die, I’m always eager to jump back in. Death isn’t punished too harshly, pauses between matches are short, and victory still feels extremely satisfying.

So what actually counts as a victory in Marathon? Maybe it is finding valuable equipment or completing a task successfully. Sometimes it is simply surviving.

Tasks push players toward small, tense locations across the maps, and when someone calls for an exfil, it remains active only until someone leaves, after which it shuts down. This means you cannot just wait for someone else to leave and then exit afterward. You can try a diplomatic approach, but this is not Arc Raiders. In 100 matches, I encountered a friendly player only 4 times, and all of those were on launch day. You must fight and risk your gear, which makes every match extremely tense.

Combat Evolved

Bungie’s shooters have a certain polish that’s apparent in every aspect of weapon handling. Sound design, animations, and recoil mechanics feel exactly as they should. Camera movement after firing, the thunderous sniper rifle, and pistol reload animations contribute to a comfortable shooting experience. From the first shot in Marathon, I felt at home.

The situation is similar to PvE enemies in the form of UESC robots. Their artificial intelligence is quite impressive. Robots with shields slowly approach you while others flank you from the side, snipers stay behind and restrict your movement, and invisible enemies will completely ruin your day. When enemies are alone, they will even run away from you. Honestly, fighting PvE enemies reminded me most of Halo: Combat Evolved, primarily because of these interesting enemy behaviors.

The PvP segment, however, is a completely different beast. Time-to-kill is very short, meaning your chances of survival are minimal if someone surprises you outside of cover, even with advanced shields. I would describe fighting other players as short moments of intense violence interrupted by long periods of silence and tense anticipation for the next encounter.

This fast time-to-kill can cause synchronization problems, but the servers run at 60 Hz, so such situations are very rare, and I never had the feeling that someone hit me while I was already behind cover. Some players may dislike such a fast TTK, but it makes fights far more explosive and the entire game much more tense.

Maps and gameplay modes in Marathon

There are currently three maps, with a fourth arriving soon. It’s not a large number, but each location can dramatically change the experience.

The starting map, Perimeter, is small and leads to frequent action. Dire Marsh offers open sightlines, making play slower but more tense. Outpost, a complex vertical labyrinth full of enemies, tests your navigation and survival skills. As if that weren’t enough, every few minutes, fire rains from the sky.

Marathon can be played solo or in teams of three. If you play as a duo, you must either bring a random third player or face full teams of three. A dedicated duo mode is being tested; it’s unclear why it wasn’t initially available.

Playing with a full team of three is the essence of Marathon. If you start shooting PvE enemies, expect someone to approach and eliminate you. There are not many moments of quiet tension; most of the time, you will be in open combat.

Playing solo is completely different. Marathon solo feels almost like a survival horror game. Sneaking becomes the primary method of success, and you never know when someone will appear. Patrols of UESC robots become a real threat when you are alone, and strong tactics are necessary for victory. Surprisingly, even to myself, I actually prefer playing Marathon solo. The experience is more interesting, more dynamic, and more tense.

Runners and abilities

There are six playable characters called Runners. Each of them has special abilities and tactical skills that can change the course of battle if used correctly. All of them are useful in their own way, and if you assemble a good team, you can become nearly unstoppable.

One particularly useful Runner is Thief, who can use a drone to steal equipment from other players directly out of their backpacks.

There is also an additional Runner called Rook. If you choose him, you cannot complete quests and are forced to enter matches solo against teams of three players. Rook primarily exists for gathering equipment and adds a new dynamic to matches. However, Rooks enter matches later, meaning that even if a team eliminates everyone else, a Rook could still appear and defeat them.

Marathon and an Escape to Wealth

The main progression system revolves around factions. There are six different corporations available, each asking something from you. By completing tasks, you increase your reputation and unlock new gear as well as passive upgrades such as faster running or resistance to status effects.

This might seem unbalanced, and it is slightly, but at the end of the day, a bullet to the head is still a bullet to the head, whether you run faster or not. In Marathon, unlike in Escape from Tarkov, even a new player has a chance to defeat an experienced one if they are skilled enough.

Tasks from corporations often force you to visit high-traffic areas or dash across the map repeatedly. Since players complete the same objectives, PvP conflict becomes inevitable. You’re constantly thrown into risky scenarios and challenged to leave your comfort zone to succeed.

One small issue is that rewards sometimes felt too frequent, meaning I had to sell a large number of items. Unfortunately, sales are very slow because you must hold a button for each item stack. When you need to sell a hundred items to clear your vault, this feels like wasted time.

As players progress, the game's entire ecosystem changes. In the first few days, everyone has cheap gear, but I already see much stronger equipment appearing on Runners. Extraction games are simply like that.

For that reason, Marathon resets its entire progression system every three months. Only cosmetic items remain. This will probably discourage many players. However, progression systems are practically mandatory in modern multiplayer games, and a complete reset means nothing is permanent.

Of course, Marathon is a live-service game. Each reset will introduce changes, and we are already receiving a new map and a Ranked mode just two weeks after launch.

Graphics of the 29th Century

Marathon truly stands out with its visual style. The art direction combines bright colors, simple architecture, and huge signs to create a futuristic aesthetic of the 29th century.

There was some controversy regarding alleged plagiarism, but the situation was resolved, and the artist who originally created certain designs now has official credit as a visual design consultant.

Attention to detail is impressive. Fallen Runners leave blood trails, and blood floats on water. Vegetation is completely interactive; if you see grass moving suspiciously, it likely means an invisible enemy is hiding there. Runner bodies also degrade over time, meaning that if you find a fresh corpse, you know you are not alone.

The game does not use ray tracing, so reflections are somewhat simple, but performance is excellent. The frame rate is stable and high, and I experienced almost no technical issues.

The user interface combines many colors, serif and sans-serif fonts, and various graphical elements. At first, it looks chaotic, but it fits the overall visual style. It may take a few hours to understand it, but it is actually simpler than it initially appears.

Sound design is excellent, and its functionality is crucial in a game like this, where every move can lead to death or victory. Gunshots can be heard across half the map, and enemies can be located very precisely by listening to footsteps. Which is why it was essential that we use our XP-RADAR800-SBR headset to fully immerse ourselves in the gameplay.

Marathon In Conclusion

It is rare for a game to simply “grab” you. Marathon is one of those games for me. The adrenaline of potentially losing equipment and the euphoria of finding rare items are the main reasons this genre remains relevant.

Even when I kept dying, my only desire was to jump back in again and try to find something valuable or at least try.

It is difficult to judge the final quality of a live-service game so early, but Marathon has had a very strong start. Within two weeks, we received two patches, showing that the developers are listening and able to react quickly. The core gameplay is extremely strong. Every aspect of the game is designed to put players in uncomfortable yet interesting situations.

The shooting mechanics are among the best in the genre. Enemy AI and player abilities are designed intelligently to keep combat unpredictable and dynamic. Progression is well-balanced and rewards players without making them overpowered. The audiovisual presentation is excellent, the art style fascinating, and the world and characters intriguing, even though many players will ignore these elements.

With a large number of quests and challenges, £34.99 (as of writing this review) is a reasonable price for this game.

However, extraction shooters belong to a very narrow niche. This game is not intended for casual players but for a small, hardened subset of FPS fans. Many Bungie game fans will not even try Marathon because of its PvP focus and the high entry barrier.

I doubt the game will ever have a massive audience with hundreds of thousands of active players. As with all live-service games, it is difficult to predict its future. Perhaps in two years, Marathon will be unplayable, and matchmaking will take fifteen minutes. But this review is not about predicting the future; it is about impressions in the present. And right now, Marathon is one of the best extraction shooters you can play.

Game Rating:8.7/10

The review strongly praises the shooting mechanics, tension, and atmosphere while noting the niche appeal and steep entry barrier.

Recommended Age for Kids:16+

The game contains intense PvP gunplay, high-stress gameplay, and competitive mechanics that younger players may find frustrating or difficult to manage.

Gemini-Style Summary

The review describes Marathon as a highly polished extraction shooter that captures the adrenaline and tension of the genre while removing many of its usual frustrations. Bungie delivers excellent gunplay, strong atmosphere, and dynamic PvE and PvP encounters, supported by a distinctive visual style and interesting narrative elements. The game rewards skill and risk-taking, but its unforgiving mechanics, steep learning curve, and PvP focus mean it will likely appeal only to dedicated FPS players rather than a broad casual audience.