If the reveal of Marathon has left you a bit perplexed about its setting, the cinematic released today may help explain it in simpler terms.
Bungie: "We immediately investigated a concern regarding unauthorized use of artist decals in Marathon and confirmed that a former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game.
This issue was unknown by our existing art team, and we are still reviewing how this oversight occurred.
We take matters like this very seriously. We have reached out to @4nt1r34l to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist."
"However, one thing Marathon’s been almost universally praised for is its art style."
Eh, I've heard a lot of dislike for the bleak art style. "Universally praised" would mean that hardly anyone dislikes it. This is a pretty dishonest article. I'm personally not a big fan of it either.
https://gamerant.com/marath...
At least they’re trying to do right and admitted quickly that it was stolen. I give credit when credit is due.
I also dig the new art style, I know most people are mixed.
In the end, how did the Marathon Closed Alpha go? There are two components to this, how the game felt and how it was received more generally.
It’s an unproven trend at this point, but the new race toward live multiplayer games appear to be the genre of extraction shooters, and this week brought an unusual situation with two upcoming 2025 extraction games both running Closed Alphas and so far, eliciting different reactions.
The reaction to the Marathon Alpha has mostly been mixed to underwhelming. The initial reaction to the ARC Raiders Alpha has visibly skewed more positive.
I see those Microsoft owned sites posting bad articles about marathon like they feel it’s going to beat CoD and all other FPS 🤣
Edit: I don’t play FPS so I don’t care enough to click on the link 🤷🏿just a observation from this article and the windows central article
Most ARC Raiders preview articles/player reception's seems to be same? Even in Bungie fan threads?
Do you guys even venture sites outside of N4G?
Really? Seems to me like both are snoozers and people just aren't interested in these games.
Arc Raiders I had heavy interest in when they spoke of it being a Looter Shooter, with the aesthetic of the game it seemed like it was worth it, but personally I've now lost all interest in it since it's become a Extraction Shooter. I don't mind the genre, but here we go again with the oversaturation of one particular genre because they've decided to chase the new extraction trend and just make the game Streamer Bait. I wish they would just go back to designing these games for people who actually play them again rather than for an audience who just watches.
As for Marathon I don't even know what to say about it really other than, it doesn't look exciting or fun to engage with at all. Perhaps picking up and playing is different, but I doubt it.
I still don't understand whose decision it was to make a F2P game that is not F2P. The Streamers will farm it for content after this the game will have way below average numbers.
When Sony bought Bungie, I was secretly hoping that they would produce something magical like Halo for the PS consoles. an LS extraction shooter was not I had in mind
Would rather play Void/Breaker