As a general fan of FPS games, I’ve long since had struggles with sticking to two very important subgenres of the shooter category: BRs (Battle Royales) and extraction shooters. While BR games still have an uphill battle to convince me to love them, Marathon has done something I didn’t expect: I think I officially get extraction shooters. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never hated them exactly, but there’s something about them that to me in the past has often felt like they’re just a genre that is intended to be a trial in masochism. Fun moments spattered between struggle, and otherwise I just felt like it was defeating and depressing to play any game in this genre without it being a mental battle to enjoy the value of the joy when the losses mean literally losing everything you’ve come in with. In the past, I would ask myself “why would I, someone with limited time to play video games, ever choose to play something where a single death means permanent loss? Spending hours grinding out a perfect gear set only to lose it all in 10 seconds because I lost one gunfight?”
But somehow, against all odds, whatever Bungie has done with Marathon has flipped a switch in my brain. Suddenly, I’m looking forward to playing Marathon. I’m looking into other games in the category with actual interest. Tarkov, Dark and Darker, the extraction mode in Delta Force: all games that I’ve had passing interest in in the past, but struggled with actually sticking to when feeling the crushing jaws of defeat rip it all away from me. I’ve always wanted to like them, but just never could find myself actually sticking to them. So what exactly has Marathon done differently? I… don’t know that I can paint it clearly, but let me get into the meat of what exactly it helped me learn and how I’ve applied that to now wanting to play more.
Marathon’s taught me that gear fear is pointless. It’s not about the gear you collect. There’s always more where that came from, and if you run out… just take someone else’s. Everyone dies relatively quickly, especially if you’re not sprinting around making a ruckus and get the drop on people. Gear is plentiful, and hardly the point. The point is completing your missions. Get in, do this thing, get out. Largely simple, but covered in layers of complexity that can only be given in the context of an extraction shooter. Your mission may be simple, but there are other players about… and those other players want your stuff. Maybe they have a mission themselves asking them to kill you. Now as you’re fighting the bots, you have to keep in mind the echolocation you’re providing everyone on the map as to your whereabouts. The map’s not a mile long; if you’re shooting, people are hearing it. Pray they don’t come, or make them wish they wouldn’t have.
Making the effort to complete your missions provides rewards more valuable than the gear you’re risking. Often, completing any mission will reward you with enough to gear yourself right back up. Guns, grenades, shields, a plethora of things that will fill your vault in no time, so long as you’re actually bothering. Combine that with faction reputation gains in general through various actions, and you’ll soon realize that, in the style of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” the game’s made up and the gear doesn’t matter. You earn permanent rewards by way of the faction levels and finding specific upgrade items, and those will often help you gain more of an edge than just having guns with better attachments. More stamina, faster looting speeds, and the allowance to purchase gear that is better by default all combine to create a symphony of flow that runs to make you see that there is actual progress being made beyond simple gear.
Marathon has also taught me that when you’re out in the world and see a million things you have no clue what are… you don’t know what they are for a reason. Forget about it and move on unless it has a high price tag or a higher rarity. Some items might be faction upgrade items, and bringing those in is nice and all, but when it’s just some gray rarity item you’ve got no idea what does… just let someone else waste the backpack space. Your goal is to get stronger, whether that be by finding upgrades to your arsenal through better attachments or shields, or by getting those mentioned faction levels up so you can buy permanent character buffs. The gear you find along the way is merely a tool to reach that goal, and dying only cuts down one part of the system. You will still have a stronger character, even if you end up losing the better guns. Bigger, better, stronger guns will surely accelerate your growth, but that’s all they really offer: being an accelerant. Search for better guns so you can more efficiently upgrade the things that actually matter most.
And the most important thing that Marathon taught me is that the NPCs are simply diversions to reveal your location. Killing the NPCs can yield some rewards, but what it really does is announce to everyone where you’re at. It taught me that even when you’re not actively fighting, you’re engaging with the players around you with your ears. You’re not alone, creeping through empty space; you’re listening for distant gunshots, nearby footsteps, whatever little audio cues give your opponents away. Where Marathon seems to take this away is in the sheer compact nature of the maps in the game at all. It is the purest condensed essence of the genre in its gameplay.
Arc Raiders won me over late last year because it changed something fundamental about the extraction shooter formula, but… what I know is that that fundamental change is what made me enjoy it so much. It was the friendly extraction shooter. The one where the players cooperated very often, and the NPC robots were often the real enemy. Marathon doesn’t do that. In my impressions article I wrote, I called Marathon “The hostile extraction shooter”, but in reflecting on this, I’m realizing what it actually is is the most concise extraction shooter. It wastes no time fluffing up and padding out empty space. You are always close to another player and they can always hear you, and vice versa. It gives you constant engagement with the world and looting in ways that many others simply don’t.
By easing into the genre by way of the most condensed formula of it in Marathon, I’ve found myself wanting to venture out more and finally actually take on some of the other big names in the genre. I’ve spent some of my free time watching videos of people playing other extraction shooters since getting into Marathon. I’m finally watching videos of Tarkov, realizing that a lot of what Marathon has beaten into me is exactly what I didn’t get about Tarkov in my past attempts. I finally want to branch out and play more of this genre. Marathon got me sucked into the genre, researching things when I’m lounging, watching videos when I’m eating. I find myself craving more extraction shooter time… but first, I just have to stop wanting to play Marathon, which apparently isn’t happening anytime soon.