Classic Marathon Infinity

Jogar *Classic Marathon Infinity* hoje é quase como abrir uma cápsula do tempo — mas uma que ainda pulsa com ideias interessantes e uma identidade muito própria. Mesmo sendo um título antigo, ele não se apoia apenas na nostalgia: há algo aqui que continua instigando, especialmente para quem gosta de jogos com atmosfera densa e narrativa fragmentada. A campanha é, sem dúvida, o ponto mais marcante. A história não é entregue de forma direta; você precisa juntar peças, interpretar mensagens e aceitar que nem tudo será explicado. Isso pode afastar quem prefere algo mais claro, mas para outros é exatamente o que torna a experiência tão envolvente. Existe uma sensação constante de mistério, quase como se o jogo estivesse sempre um passo à frente do jogador. Na jogabilidade, dá para sentir o peso da idade. Os controles e a movimentação não têm a fluidez dos jogos modernos, e em alguns momentos isso pode gerar frustração — especialmente em combates mais intensos. Ainda assim, há um charme na simplicidade: aprender o ritmo do jogo e dominar suas limitações faz parte da experiência. Visualmente, é um título que claramente pertence a outra era, mas a direção artística compensa bastante. Os cenários têm personalidade, e o design dos níveis consegue criar uma atmosfera única, às vezes até desconfortável, que combina bem com o tom da narrativa. A trilha sonora e os efeitos sonoros também ajudam a reforçar essa sensação de isolamento e tensão. No fim das contas, *Classic Marathon Infinity* não é um jogo para todo mundo — e nem tenta ser. Ele exige paciência, curiosidade e uma certa tolerância às suas limitações técnicas. Mas, para quem entra no clima, oferece uma experiência memorável e diferente do padrão atual. Pontos positivos: * Narrativa profunda e interpretativa * Atmosfera única e envolvente * Design de níveis criativo * Identidade própria marcante Pontos negativos: * Jogabilidade datada * Controles pouco intuitivos para padrões atuais * História pode ser confusa para alguns jogadores * Visual envelhecido pode afastar novos jogadores

You are Destiny

This is a review of the base game, not how the port is or the possibilities with Steam Workshop content. It did not have as much improvement Marathon 2 had in comparison to it's predecessor. In fact, it's not really different to Marathon 2 in many ways at all. The atmosphere is more closer to Marathon 1 which I appreciated, a good choice. And the graphics in general looks maybe 5-10% better, again, not nearly the massive graphical improvement Marathon 2 was to 1. The only content they added at all (other than new levels and a story) was a new gun and an elite version of an already tough enemy. If I were to give this title a gimmick that sets it apart from the other 2, I would point out that the game is semi non-linear. There are secret levels, you can skip levels, you can go back to previous levels without savestating, so on. Now, the level design. I have heard that his game is the worst level design in the series. It's not that bad. I think they had a lot of good and unique ideas that they executed... ehhhh. Pretty much every level was gigantic and overly ambitious. Or maybe its a tiny level that you enter into multiple times as some sort of "hub world" almost. This game REALLY forces you to conserve your resources. Note; Energy(health) is a resource. Getting hardstuck with no oxygen to swim, or health to get through lava, or ammo to kill exploding enemies, is EXPECTED. You will likely need to go back multiple saves and redo multiple levels to be better kitted out. There is a 3 level sequence without a single oxygen refuel for example. This was already sort of a thing in the previous two games, but its a lot more pronounced in this game. Marathon 2 was basically the tutorial. There are no GOOD resources online for this game. The best you can do is watch speedruns and try to emulate their tricks. Which sucks, considering the game is just really not clear with what it wants you to do or where to go half the time. Call me a little baby gamer zoomer but god do I love markers on my map giving me a direction. oohhhh man. I would enjoy the game more with that instead of taking so many screenshots of terminals that dont help. For the story, it is just absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It's hard to understand what's going on you are switching between factions so much. And it doesn't help that, like Marathon 2, reading terminals does not pause the game. It wasn't much of an issue in the last game cause you could easily clear out the enemies and then read, but enemies in this game are everflowing, or I am wasting my extremely limited oxygen resources by even entertaining it. Making it so I am not encouraged to read through each of the terminals carefully. Which is pretty bad considering there can be some pretty important instructions in them. Now, I have watched a few videos about the lore of this game to make up for what I have lost, and I am now more confused than before. Seriously, I want to know what drugs the writers were on when they were coming up with this. It is so far removed from the story Marathon 1 had, it is actually unrecognizable to be from the same universe other than some familiar names. I do want to also mention that the glitches are even more common and awful to go through. The very end of my game got broken and I had to return multiple saves because somehow I activated the 2nd key card switch without ever picking up the 2nd key card, and the game had no idea what to do. Was just softlocked. I would often get stuck in a constant freefall in elevators, or they would break entirely and allow me to see a hall of mirrors effect with textures no human was meant to perceive. This could be because of the port.

Marathon Infinity is the hardest game in the series, and the most cryptic in terms of its story. It's also my favorite in the series. The story is still excellent, but this is Marathon at its most cryptic, disjointed, and postmodern when it comes to its presentation. Some things you'll have to pay very close attention to in order to understand what's going on, other things are really metaphorical and need to be interpreted based on what you know about the events, characters, and world in the previous two games. I personally love weird, complex stories like this, especially when there's enough depth to make putting all the pieces together feel meaningful, and Infinity absolutely fits that description. There's a ton of depth, detail, and meaning to be found in Marathon Infinity's story, even if it might just look like madness on the surface. I'm not going to get into any of the details of the story, but if you ever get lost, I can highly recommend MandaloreGaming's videos on Marathon since he does an excellent job at explaining the story in broad strokes. As for the gameplay, it's basically more Marathon 2, but with some new things added. You get a new weapon, which is a flechette SMG. It's powerful and accurate, but chews through ammo pretty fast, and ammo for it is pretty scarce on top of that. It's a neat addition to the weapon roster, even if I forgot it existed most of the time. There are also new levels where you fight against human enemies, which consist of hostile versions of the human soldiers from Marathon 2, and a new armored human enemy that uses an energy pistol. They're both pretty accurate at long range, they both hit hard, and they both have smaller sprites relative to the non-human enemies, making them a bit trickier to hit at a distance. At the same time, they don't have much health, and they're tracked on your automap like any other human NPC from the previous games, so it's possible to get the drop on them before they snipe you. They're actually pretty fun to fight and make up some of the more tense encounters in the game. In general, Infinity is also a much harder game compared to 2. Levels are bigger and more complex to the point where it is possible to get lost if you're not paying attention to your surroundings. The enemy count in each level feels higher, while your overall supply of ammo is slightly more constrained than before. It really pushes you to use all your weapons effectively, and to explore around more for secret ammo caches. Levels can have more devious layouts, with more opportunities for ambushes, fights in close quarters, and more awkward or limited cover to make some fights feel more tense and hectic. Environmental hazards are more plentiful, and oxygen stations are more difficult to come by, putting more pressure on you to navigate underwater sections and hard vacuum levels more quickly. At the same time, none of Infinity's levels ever felt unfair or unfun to play. Infinity has some extremely well-crafted difficulty that can feel very tense and even stressful, but never antagonistic toward the player. Even the worst level in the game is nowhere near the low points that Marathon 1 had. As for the environments, while Marathon 2 did a pretty alright job at making the levels feel like actual places, Infinity feels like it does this even better. There are more recognizable buildings and structures, more areas that feel like they serve a purpose, and some really nice use of level geometry to make more intricate details in the walls, floors, and ceilings of some levels. The level of detail in the textures feels on par with Marathon 2, but Infinity's art style feels much more dark and moody compared to 2. The color palette is more muted and desaturated, low-light areas are more common, and some areas feel like they return to that metallic, industrial feel that Marathon 1 had. The art direction fits the darker, more cosmic horror-oriented tone of Infinity really well. Infinity handles music the exact same way as 2, in that the only actual track in the game is used for the main menu, and everything else is just environmental soundscapes. However, it feels like Infinity has really cut down on the number of janky environmental sounds it uses, and has added some really nice ones on top of that. It feels like a noticeable improvement over 2, even though I still think Infinity would have benefited from a proper ambient music soundtrack. Infinity is a fantastic conclusion to one of my favorite series of FPS games, and it's also my favorite game in this series. I already thought Marathon 2 was really fun, and Infinity feels like a slight step up from that while also offering an increased baseline level of difficulty that I found really engaging. Infinity continues Marathon's already excellent story, while also bringing all the weird postmodern stuff that I love directly to the forefront. On top of that, it has some excellent environments and atmosphere that never felt like it had any of the more noticeable shortcomings that popped up occasionally in the earlier games. This game is excellent, and it's also free! So definitely check this out once you play through the first two games

CERTIFIED FLOPPY DISC FIRE. Have you ever seen the "Marathon" logo in Halo customization menus? That's right, welcome to Master Chief's ancestral rites of passage. Do I know who you are? [Note: Be sure to adjust your FOV settings, and maybe add a reticle]

Didn’t feel this one as much as the first two. there’s some great maps writing slacked a lot compared to durandal and i started to lose track of the plot and how my actions as the player affected the story

My least favourite of the three games and I was glad to be done with it. The story is weak and the level design borders on obnoxious with cruel design choices (teleporting you back to the beginning of the game & multiple levels in a row with no oxygen). Thankfully swimming takes a backseat here in favour of some more platforming challenges. The graphics really are elevated and the gun play is as good as ever. If you enjoyed the first two games then maybe you will enjoy this. I played with a plugin to add music which really helped the experience.