Marathon

Sony

Bungie is a legendary game studio - I remember a time when it felt like they could do no wrong. But lately it feels like the only thing for which they have a legendary aptitude is taking some of the most beloved IP in gaming and running it square into the ground. Necromancing [i]Marathon[/i], a foundational video-game sci-fi franchise, simply to let it walk around wearing the skin of the latest flavor-of-the-moment genre - the extraction shooter - is yet another misstep in their fall from grace. Credit where it's due, even despite that embarrassing art-plagiarism scandal, the art style is easily one of the game's biggest strengths. Unfortunately, it's most readily on display in the menus, as impressive high-res portraits/avatars of your AI handlers for whom you becoming nothing more than an errand boy. Just like [i]Tarkov[/i], [i]Arc Raiders[/i], etc., your interactions start and end with pointing and clicking your way around these menu tabs, taking direction on what pieces of functionally-identical refuse you'll need to collect your next time out. And if you thought you might interact with other players, you would be sorely mistaken. Unless you take refuge in the PvE mode they tacked on in a panic as player counts steadily dropped, every interaction with another human will take place at the end of the gun. The existence of a proximity chat function is genuinely laughable considering the temperament of the players who inhabit this game. Say what you will about [i]Arc Raiders[/i], it's certainly not plagued by the kind of joyless self-seriousness that characterizes [i]Marathon[/i]. Communication is so vestigial to this community that it stings even harder that this game went the allegedly-fashionable extraction route rather than committing to pure PvP. Even Bungie's historical strengths are muted or tainted here. The guns feel great, but the best ones are, in [i]Destiny[/i] fashion, simply analogs of classic [i]Halo[/i] weapons. The environments are often overlaid in a drab haze, flat and unremarkable until they erupt into gunfire that is some of the least-readable combat Bungie has ever designed. The mobility differences between shells is really enjoyment-killing. And whatever sauce the core gunplay might possess is hindered by the classic extraction-shooter foible of granular upgrade trees, your entire progression nothing more than pumping points into minute percentage increases. As reasons to soldier on go, it's deeply unmotivating - and that's the tale of [i]Marathon[/i] as a whole. As it turns out, pulling squares of different rarity tiers from filing cabinets and waiting to be shot in the back by mute PvPers playing with all the whimsy of insurance adjusters... just isn't a real recipe for success. Who knew?