For two weeks, my life has consisted of nothing but Marathon – both the single-player sci-fi FPS from 1994, and this year’s multiplayer reboot. Despite sharing the same name, classic and modern Marathon are fundamentally different games. They represent two divergent philosophies on how to create an immersive experience using narrative, world-building, and weighty themes to keep players invested, and when that experience should stop.
Like other classic boomer shooters (Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein 3D), 1994’s Marathon is defined by its lightning-fast action, diverse weaponry, and non-linear levels. One of my favorite aspects of classic Marathon is how it uses tight level design and lighting to hide enemies either in darkness or behind corners. While the game never becomes a full-on horror experience, it leaves me constantly on my toes, especially when I’m low on health and haven’t saved in a while.
In fact, health and saving are often my biggest sources of fear when playing Classic Marathon. Since there’s no automatic saving or regeneration, I constantly have to run around to find a health/save station, which is especially stressful when I’m transported to a new level with low health and have no idea where enemies may be waiting. Combined with the fact that I can’t manually reload, and the result is a game that is as strategic as it is kinetic. One wrong move and I could lose substantial progress.
Then and now
Check out our Marathon review for our full thoughts
This stress is the defining aspect of my experience with classic Marathon, and surprisingly, it also applies to how I feel playing modern Marathon. Modern Marathon is too mechanically polished to recreate the exact nervousness I have playing the original, but it builds that sensation by leaning hard into its extraction shooter and PvP elements, in which all equipment is lost upon death.
Every time I am rewarded with a new gun or manage to extract decent loot, I always have to roll the dice on whether or not to use or invest in that equipment, especially when I lose far more often than I win. At the same time, if I decide to play with sponsored kits, which are pre-made loadouts provided for free, I don’t risk losing anything particularly valuable if I die, but at the cost of putting myself at a disadvantage compared to other players who use more specialized and upgraded weapons, or even compared to the AI enemies, who are surprisingly tough.
I often find myself needing to adopt on-the-run, strategic approaches depending on the circumstances of my environment, which isn’t dissimilar to how I play the original. However, it’s how both games realize this shared sensation of dread, using the strengths of their respective modes and mediums (fixed-order single-player vs online, map-based multiplayer), that makes them distinct.
Terminal entries
Classic Marathon begins fairly simply, as a nameless security officer boards a massive colony ship called the UESC Marathon to stop the Pfhor, an invading alien force. The game quickly treads into surprisingly contemplative and philosophically profound territory when the player is forced to work with a sentient, morally ambiguous AI called Durandel, who communicates via in-game terminals. I often found myself engaging in existential discussions with Durandal, unraveling the AI’s plans while also tackling concepts such as free will, identity, consciousness, and true freedom.
Modern Marathon’s main premise – of Runners being sent to a mysteriously abandoned colony, which the people on the Marathon ship created before they too went dark – is an interesting hook that ties this reboot to the original game while justifying its own existence. In Cryo Archive, modern Marathon’s latest map and endgame content, we return to the UESC Marathon, which is filled to the brim with references to Durandal and the events of classic Marathon.
Yet, as interesting as these lore bits are, they are only in service of propping up the game’s primary selling point: its multiplayer extraction shooter mechanics. Contracts may contain some plot or worldbuilding elements, but only to create an in-universe reason for why I need to complete random challenges like breaking 20 windows, and even then, they often prioritize tangible rewards over narrative fulfillment.
Bungie today
When the original Marathon was released, it opened the floodgates for a slew of immersive, story-driven, single-player games Bungie would go on to develop, like Marathon 2: Durandal, Marathon Infinity, Oni, and, of course, Halo. Bungie became synonymous with using the FPS medium to tell stories that, to this day, are uniquely complex within video games. Despite its age, I still became invested in Marathon’s universe, characters, themes, and pacing.
Modern Marathon, on the other hand, displays Bungie's continuing commitment to online live-service games. It’s easy to say that this pivot is a financial one – and it certainly has been lucrative – but I believe that creative ambition is just as much a reason for this shift.
As exciting as Marathon and Halo are, they are also one-and-done games that most, aside from hardcore fans, will only play for a certain amount of time before moving on to something else. While their universes are expanded upon and their multiplayer modes are improved in future installments, those sequels also have a limited window of engagement. This limitation is perhaps why Bungie has transitioned away from its roots and towards live-service, as it views the latter as the next step in storytelling, competition, and worldbuilding that aligns with its current creative goals.
With this year's Marathon following in Destiny’s footsteps, Bungie can now invest heavily in a single title that can be continually fleshed out with content updates that, if done right, can sustain engagement for years. Using the live-service model, Bungie merges its single-player and multiplayer strengths, offering fans of the former a lore-heavy setting that flourishes with new lore details and settings, while also appeasing the latter with new maps and challenges that hardcore players can engage with. The Cryo Archive update is the latest example of that merging, as it offers both a new map for players to compete in and new lore to expand the game’s universe.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with classic Marathon, but I'm unlikely to return to it soon – after completing the main story, my experience felt complete. Modern Marathon, meanwhile, remains ever-changing – and considering how much I've been enjoying this game, I suspect Tau Ceti IV still has plenty to offer.
