Marathon

If Hunt Showdown, Fortnite, and Escape from Tarkov all three had a child this would be it. The only real bad thing I've noticed about this game is the lack of Linux support. Luckily, I had a spare terabyte that I could dual-boot windows off of. Most others, I assume, are not so fortunate.

fun game, good graphics and tight gunplay, maybe could use some less items sometimes or make them easier to tell whats what but otherwise i recommend and hope it does well

Fantastic game, but only after you play for a bit to understand what's going on and it's pretty much imperative you are a decent FPS player before touching this game or you will not have a good time.

An exceptional game that has been the target of the biggest and unjustified hate campaign I've ever seen. Please just try it for yourself rather than listen to the grifters online.

Decent game, ok extraction shooter but too sweaty for my liking

I love this game. Its an absolute blast to play. The gunplay and movement of Destiny and Tarkov-lite mechanics? Its a dream come true. Unfortunately it is HARD and my friends have abandoned the game as dead, and running solo is abyssmal. The PvE is a lot of fun, but the disparity between gear, casuals, and sweats makes this a tough game to keep coming back to.

much good yayaya

This game just oozes creativity and immersion. The game's systems are so well thought out and the gunplay is some of the best in any game i've ever played. It's punishing, but not annoyingly so, and i've had more insane moments than i can count in game. I'll be playing this game for the foreseeable future. Bungie absolutely knocked it out of the park with Marathon. Also, don't nerf the D54 lol

Halcyon view

After quite a bit of hours played I feel obliged to leave a review. [i] Obliged [/i] in a way that I really really like this title and I was very lucky to pick it up when it came out as opposed to the misfortune that is happening to the game by the nature of circumstances and reception. I kind of owe it to the game I feel like. I had (and still do have) fun with it so I might as well add a little to the pile of positives. I am no professional reviewer so let's get on with it. I'll try to compress things as much as possible - I am primarily after leaving a positive review, not necessarily explaining everything to a new soul getting the game. [h3] Presentation / Aesthetics / Themes / Story [/h3] Quite a package for a single paragraph but it is all well connected I think. Marathon is superbly unique when it comes to [b] art-style, sound design, music, overall aesthetics and intended atmosphere [/b] imposed on the player. All this dystopian, product-designish, cyber/bio-synth -punk aesthetics, translated to the world, gameplay, and player control HUDs and whatnot - ahh, it's good and it's done with passion and with some serious craft. When it comes to this setting of sci-fi generational colonization and finding strange, esoteric anxiety, fear and uncertainty of a distant world, Marathon is super cool, mysterious, quite often scary (especially when you are starting, which is amazing). Also - corporate dystopia? How charming these days in the real world, am I right or am I right? With all seriousness, the game really puts you far from Earth - sensorially and spiritually as well I mean. There is something ♥♥♥♥♥♥-up with the whole Marathon mission and you are a super synthetic cog in the machine that is pulling itself apart while trying to solve what exactly happened (cool, no?). If you feel at least a tiny tug and pull towards the art-style and overall presentation, you'll be eating hella good in the full game when you actually start being the player (looking at this type of game on stream is not really my cup of tea). [h3] Gameplay / Technical State / Fun [/h3] As a piece of a genre - a unit of play, let's say - Marathon is still super amazing. Gunplay feels good (real good); characters are unique, interesting, dynamic, different in ways of possible approaches to encounters and whatever situations; enemies (beside players) are tough and bloodthirsty, always looking for a chance to ruin your sneaky approach, agile, moving to flank and ♥♥♥♥ you up in numbers if you're not careful, and variety is decent enough; maps are big, complex, interesting, layered (some more than others ofc), atmospheric (which adds to the gameplay, of course it does). You have different missions which vary more or less in difficulty of going through them and in actual interactions necessary to be done in respective maps. More than a few are quite samey, not that many have unique interactions or impact the current lobby too much when you do them but I swear it's not only fetch quests and you will actually have some fun traversing and timing when to do which objective and in which order to secure the contract without dying half-way through. What ill is there in things being similar when they are constantly put into interesting contexts regarding the current map, other players, your loadout, your info, possible better loot close by etc...? Actually [i] playing [/i] is just great fun. With a group of friends its perfect. In fill-in its hit-or-miss but I mostly had a good time and people more often than not want to communicate, coordinate and have some fun rather than sweat. Technically nothing is without bugs it runs well on my system. [h3] Meta-Game / Progression / Meaningfulness / Player Goals / Replayability [/h3] I like being in the world and explore, completing story and codex (lore) entries for specifically assigned stats or moves within lobbies. When I have seen a lot I moved to more combat oriented playstyle and having fun with encounters (Maybe I sound too jolly-goody - believe me that I am also very much frustrated in game - sometimes ♥♥♥♥ happens, questionable teammates, garbage aim, all of it - but that is us - the players. Game is still hella fun.). Progression didn't feel too grindy to me but this aspect is really dependent on your playstyle and available hours to play the game. We can do a quick calc with mine hours - I have like 170h and I finished all the story contracts and hit seasonal level 100. I didn't really hit the end-game maps and encounters but I have plenty of time to do that in the second season (or whenever) since I don't need to repeat all of what I did in season 1 (or maybe I can, if I would like to - its in my hands and its much easier to understand when you are in the driver's seat and not reading my review). You can just spend not that much time with it and work yourself up in the long run. Sure - seasons do resets but what you can and want do is mostly bound to how can you play and what you know about the game, not meta-progression that is being reset (you'll get plenty strong even without maxing out everything before end of the season). Meta-progression has changed in season 2 as did many technical aspects and UI elements (most for the better as I can tell which tells of so far of a good work on the development side of things). You get your [i] shell [/i] (and change it whenever you feel like it), gear up, progress some perks through progression and then dive in. I don't know how else to put it. It's a extraction shooter. Maybe not everybody's jam but nothing is and nothing should be. If you have courage to try this specific genre, this is a good game to have taste for it. It is still challenging but the progression and presentation make it worthwhile and not so heavy to start. Also, there are loads of approaches and systems that will get you up to speed real quick if you can't figure something out (tutorials everywhere if you need them, explanations, descriptions and so on - not that everyone needs those all the time, not necessary for playing). [h3] Thoughts / Worries / Recommendations [/h3] Ok, I got some points (more like ramblings) through. Now the hard part. The game is tough. The game needs patience and adaptation. The game is an extraction shooter. It's not anything else (even though many would want it to be). The game is a PvP. [b] The game strives (or strived, we'll get there) for specific atmosphere and specific feelings evoked in the player while playing [/b]. You can be overwhelmed with odds, enemies, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ timing, bad luck, and you will need to lose quite a lot, drop stuff you fought hard for and played your ass off. That sucks. You get up, drink something nice, hit a few push-ups and then… maybe you will feel it - that you want to go back, try some more, have fun some more, come up with something new, or just straight up shoot better this time and have better luck on your side on this run. Maybe for some out there this is stressful, boring, grindy, meaningless. I [i] understand [/i] but I [i] don't feel [/i] like that personally at all. I think it's worth it. If you win or learn something new or outplay someone stronger - there are certainly genres that can do this as well but maybe you'll find the thrill of it in this particular videogame? I did and can wholeheartedly recommend it. On the other hand. The game is losing players. People (some outside the game some inside of it) don't like it, don't stick with it, the anti-marketing is reaching mythological levels of determination. Nobody knows what is behind the scenes these days so who knows how many players does a game need to keep on being developed or at least run? It could have had been big and kind of epic but instead it is kind of small and the internet is ridden with people hating on it. Ok, hating is hating, that's cool. The question is if the amount of it will run the game to the ground, especially despite the fact that there is so much to enjoy (of course, if you h