Since Thursday, I have played 25 hours of Bungie’s Marathon, which might not be a lot for some of the top-tier gamers out there, but it’s a lot for me. It’s been a long time since a game has sucked me in so much to the point that I’m still full of energy after hitting 2AM. It’s also been a long time since something Bungie has released that has genuinely excited me.
Most of my time in Marathon has been playing in a duos team—which desperately needs its own playlist—or as a trio… consistently the worst trio group you’ll ever encounter. However, as my team and I work to sync up contracts to experience the game’s story at the same time, I’ve also been jumping into the game solo as Rook, a unique take on the extraction shooter genre.
For those unaware, Rook allows players to jump into an existing half-finished trios match on their own as the ultimate scavenger: with tools to self-heal and avoid UESC robots. As Rook, you trundle through a largely ravaged environment as remaining groups continue to fulfil their contracts, hunt down players, or just continue looting.
For a Rook, half-emptied cabinets and arms lockers become your best friend, corpses of fallen runners that have only been partially pillaged are invaluable. In one run, I snuck through Hauler in Perimeter, largely known for being the map’s biggest death trap, and it was completely unsearched. It was my greatest haul yet: multiple precision rifles, rare mods, and salvage galore.
As a match continues to crawl towards its end point, runs end up having less teams, and more rival Rooks, some friendly, some aggressive, and some just downright terrified. Weirdly, you can trust Rooks more than teams of rival runners. While some are the most horrific entities of death you’ll experience in the game, many just want to get the hell out with the loot they’ve scavenged.
In Marathon matches, every round is tense, but playing as Rook offers the most tension I’ve ever experienced in the game. The shell is designed to be a rat, skulking through plague-infested graveyards for any already opened lock-boxes or an unused supply drop—even better if it’s already been called and there’s a dead team in front of it.
Extraction shooters always promote a rags-to-riches storyline. You’re supposed to feel like a real scavenger, but that feeling rarely lasts long. While Rook upgrades do turn the sneaky little android into a more powerful build over time, he’s designed to be the lowest rung of the food chain, and that’s exhilarating.
Marathon solos are also quite fun, although they are rapidly paced with almost everyone jumping at each other’s throats. That’s why playing as Rook is so fun. While most runners are kill-on-sight, many Rooks are just trying to get by, desperately hoping that no one notices them scavenging an unseen lockbox key from the floor.
Yes, Marathon player numbers on Steam are not doing particularly well in comparison to Arc Raiders, but the extraction shooter is a bloody fantastic game. Without any real crafting between rounds, Marathon is all about the action (when it isn’t about its story), and Rooks exist purely to jump from run-to-run without a care in the world.
There are a lot of bad faith arguments about Marathon online right now with some gleeful at the game’s lower-than-hoped launch numbers. Nevertheless, the reality is that Marathon is amazing: it’s world is fantastic, its gunplay is sublime, its story is intriguing, and it may be the best damn extraction shooter around.
