The extraction shooter is still figuring itself out. That's a funny thing to say about a videogame genre that's been around for like a decade (Escape From Tarkov's first alpha goes back to 2016), but it's true. For a long time, there were pretty much two examples of extraction games charting their own path: Escape From Tarkov with its milsim realism and grind-friendly progression, and Hunt: Showdown with its narrow focus on intense PvP and temporary perks.
Then Arc Raiders changed the conversation. It showed us that extraction shooters are not just a potent format for PvP, but also thrilling venues for cooperation, roleplay, and survival horror fantasy. It demonstrated that these games need not be taken so seriously.
Article continues belowCalculated cuts
Why does it work? I think it comes down to a few design choices that I originally thought were terrible ideas: Marathon has no safe pockets, it has short round timers, and it restricts players to just one quest at a time.
Having come off 60 hours of Arc Raiders, it all sounded backwards. Do they not know that safe pockets are crucial for making hard losses less punishing? Have they never experienced the euphoria of ticking off three quests in a single run? Is 25 minutes long enough to get anything done? Is Bungie failing to read the room here?
Not at all, it turns out. These cuts aren't random, but calculated: Bungie is stingy with quests and time and loot because it doesn't want Marathon to become primarily a checklist. The factions and the quests are all just table setting, and we're not here to eat the plates. Bungie, which has made a few quality multiplayer shooters in its time, wants the very best part of this FPS to be front-and-center: The PvP is the reason to be here, so go out and find it.
That's the realization that made all of Marathon's pieces fall into place for me. Whereas a round of Tarkov or Arc Raiders can sometimes feel more like a grocery trip than a proper adventure—not to throw shade at that, I like grocery shopping too—Marathon forces me to pick one or two things to care about. I have my one contract, which is usually as simple as hacking a datapad in Overflow or something, and I maybe have a few earmarked materials to look out for.
All the while, my head is on a swivel waiting for some real action to break out. This is where I find it interesting to compare how Hunt: Showdown and Marathon use its different rules to engineer confrontations with other squads.
Clash royale
Hunt matches revolve around bounty boss targets that all players are racing to find. As squads dig up clues and converge on the same one or two boss locations in the first 10 to 15 minutes, showdowns become inevitable. The first squad there has to make the choice to pick a fight with the boss and risk alerting nearby players, or lie in wait for an ambush. It's a clean and quietly brilliant format, but it wouldn't gel with a "backpack game" like Marathon.
Bungie wants the loot lust and the constant action, so instead of forcing players to converge in the same places, it simply made maps with fewer overall places. Both games have similar max playercounts—Hunt is always 12 and Marathon between 12 and 16. Hunt divides those players between 10 major compounds while Marathon maps like Perimeter and Dire Marsh have more like five or six.
Despite everyone entering a Marathon run with different goals, squads clash as a matter of course
The result is that, despite everyone entering a Marathon run with different goals, squads clash as a matter of course: In 45 hours of playtime so far, I've had maybe four matches with no PvP at all. It also helps that Bungie's compounds are these large, incredible multi-level facilities that you can easily spend 10 minutes picking apart.
So now I see the vision. Because most contracts can be completed in just a few minutes, Marathon matches have this bouncy quality where a three-person squad hits up a handful of compounds so everyone can check off their task—and share in the XP—while having a very good chance of scrapping with other teams along the way. You can have a complete Marathon experience in like 15 minutes and then matchmake into another one in seconds. It's pretty slick!
It's funny how these divisive design choices end up explaining each other: Match times are only 25 minutes because maps aren't that big. Maps aren't big to ensure PvP is frequent. Contracts are limited to reinforce PvP and encourage teamplay.
Gear fear
And as for safe pockets, I'm surprised how little I've thought about them. I think it's because Marathon doesn't really need backpacks with insurance policies when its base format already caters to successful extractions.
When I consider that exfil points are never more than a two- or three-minute run away, or how several more can spawn throughout the match, how generous team revives are, or how I only have to hold on to my gear for like 20 minutes maximum to take it home, a safe pocket would deflate tension I'm glad to keep.
Much like both Hunt and Arc Raiders, Marathon bypasses gear fear with generous free loadouts. You usually won't go "zero to hero" with a single Punch pistol and a wimpy white shield, but you'll leave better than you came in.
There is wiggle room to all of this, of course. Solo play is a different beast entirely. Matches are a little emptier when I only have the one contract to hit, which is why I've mostly used solo mode and Rook runs to focus on salvage. And when revives are off the table, it does feel a little cruel to lose everything. Bungie warns that solo play is supposed to be harder than squads, but it also says changes are on the table if the community feels strongly.
But overall, I'm just surprised how well it comes together. Marathon is methodical, yet explosive. It's a backpack game where teamfights are constant. It's the only game I've played that balances the motivations of an extraction shooter this well, and that's largely thanks to the ways it cuts against the grain.
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