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[lughnasadh123]

I'll be one of the odd ones that like the overall look of the game, like how the shooting looks, and am at least intrigued by the premise of the game. Still looks like a hard sale when they should have went free to play.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I can't remember which content creator said it, but apparently after the playtests they were talking to Bungie devs and said something along the lines of "Our vault space has enough for two full loadouts and a few extra med packs."

The dev told them that they appreciate the feedback and they'll likely be increasing vault size.

I can not fathom how a vault that small made any sense to anyone who loves this genre.

They also said that a solo player can get a team wipe (3 kills) and the backpacks are so small that you're forced to leave 80% of the spoils on the ground.

Again, I can't imagine in what context that would ever feel appropriate.

Both of those issues point to a studio that's uninterested in creating a PvP RPG...which this genre is.

 

[clarky]

I can't remember which content creator said it, but apparently after the playtests they were talking to Bungie devs and said something along the lines of "Our vault space has enough for two full loadouts and a few extra med packs."

The dev told them that they appreciate the feedback and they'll likely be increasing vault size.

I can not fathom how a vault that small made any sense to anyone who loves this genre.

They also said that a solo player can get a team wipe (3 kills) and the backpacks are so small that you're forced to leave 80% of the spoils on the ground.

Again, I can't imagine in what context that would ever feel appropriate.

Both of those issues point to a studio that's uninterested in creating a PvP RPG...which this genre is.

Base back packs are tiny, but they get much much bigger in size from what ive seen. Same with vault space, you upgrade it through doing the contracts.

 

[wolffy66]

If this game had a completely different art style... but I just can't. As soon as I see it my brain just says no.

 

[Eastwood_333]

The majority aren't even working on Marathon, they're working on Destiny. If the game fails, yeah, I'd expect a lot of layoffs, but I think the efforts would immediately shift to Destiny 3, which I think a lot of Destiny fans know and a reason why they're rooting for Marathon to fail. They dont' want to play an extraction shooter and they want D3 sooner rather than later.

I'd love to see them go back to making campaigns, but maybe they're legally not allowed to. Who knows if part of their release from Microsoft was to not make games that would directly compete with Halo and to make live service games only (ironic with Halo becoming a live service game).

It's weird how allergic to campaigns some studios have become. So it could just be that Bungie doesn't see the value in it.

The studio will have to transform I think one way or another through this. Studio leadership out and Sony taking over and rebuilding the studio.

Pretty sure there was a legit rumor by jason schreier that most of the Destiny team moved to Marathon following that last round of Bungie layoffs and that Destiny's last expansion underwhelmed.

There was an article about it.

 

[clarky]

Pretty sure there was a legit rumor by jason schreier that most of the Destiny team moved to Marathon following that last round of Bungie layoffs and that Destiny's last expansion underwhelmed.

There was an article about it.

There's 300 devs on Marathon out of about 900 employees.

 

[Eastwood_333]

If this game had a completely different art style... but I just can't. As soon as I see it my brain just says no.

I don't mind the artstyle. It's just generic, lack of modes, launching with just 3 maps etc... Nothing looks great or stands out, or will pull people away from Fortnite,Warzone, etc

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Base back packs are tiny, but they get much much bigger in size from what ive seen. Same with vault space, you upgrade it through doing the contracts.

I suspect the streamer I was watching already knew those two things.

It wasn't "starter vault and starter backpacks are too small". It was "I just got back from playing a ton of Marathon and these are some of the primary issues."

The comments struck me as more fundamental issues.

 

[clarky]

I suspect the streamer I was watching already knew those two things.

It wasn't "starter vault and starter backpacks are too small". It was "I just got back from playing a ton of Marathon and these are some of the primary issues."

The comments struck me as more fundamental issues.

What is it with Bungie and Vault space? it was fucking tiny in Destiny as well.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Text obviously doesn't portray what I was saying if you think that's trolling

Come on . It is just us few .

 

[Eastwood_333]

There's 300 devs on Marathon out of about 900 employees.

Just repeating what the article by Jason Schreier said. There's also been lots of layoffs and some devs moving to sony internal studios.

 

[simpatico]

Racking my brain trying to remember if Sony enthusiasts were extraction shooter lovers before Marathon announcement. I could have sworn it was all about 3rd person character action games.

I'm a pretty big Valve fan, but I didn't convince myself to give a shit about MOBAs when DOTA 2 was coming out.

 

[clarky]

Just repeating what the article by Jason Schreier said. There's also been lots of layoffs and some devs moving to sony internal studios.

Yeah we know all that, just pointing out that the majority of Destiny devs can't be on Marathon.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Borderlands and the 11th Hour Art Style Change. Or: Kids, Don't Try this at Home!

With Borderlands, Gearbox Software scratched an itch and crafted the first successful shooter-looter. The company made the decision to change the art style of the game they did this not in the concept phase, not in preproduction, not at the...

gdcvault.com

Bungie needs to look at historic changes and take the feedback here and decide to go in a different direction as hard as that might be to swallow.

 

[Neolombax]

I really hope there's an open beta. It looks fun. Also, lets see how fast Bungie can respond to legit player feedback on this. They've pulled off significant changes with Destiny over its lifetime, some weren't fast enough unfortunately. Marathon seems to have a pretty focused gameplay loop, so I hope they can respond fast.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

What is it with Bungie and Vault space? it was fucking tiny in Destiny as well.

It's really weird. Usually I can theorize the pros and cons of certain design choices but purposely small vaults & backpacks is just baffling.

The only thing I can come up with is "Our loot table is so small that we want to artificially stretch the grind as long as possible."

 

[Mibu no ookami]

 

[MiguelItUp]

Thought it was interesting hearing Jack Frag's impressions as well... Should post at 3:57:42 which is where he goes into it.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Thought it was interesting hearing Jack Frag's impressions as well... Should post at 3:57:42 which is where he goes into it.

He sums it up perfectly, its ok

Is just ok good enough for this type of game to get the support/content it needs to stay alive?

Is just ok good enough to stay alive with several banger games coming out last part of this year?

 

[Eastwood_333]

Yeah we know all that, just pointing out that the majority of Destiny devs can't be on Marathon.

At any rate, Bungie has 900 devs (if accurate) in one of the most expensive areas. They need a ton of money coming in just to keep that studio afloat. MS weren't kidding when they passed on them based on "high burn rate". They can not afford Marathon being a dud.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Pretty sure there was a legit rumor by jason schreier that most of the Destiny team moved to Marathon following that last round of Bungie layoffs and that Destiny's last expansion underwhelmed.

There was an article about it.

Paul Tassi for whatever its worth has "confirmed" that the majority of staff is working on Destiny.

There’s A Misconception About ‘Destiny 2’ And ‘Marathon’ Development

While this week has been all about Marathon, Marathon, Marathon, little attention has been paid to its younger brother, Destiny 2.

www.forbes.com

By last count, there are now 850 employees at Bungie proper, about half of what it used to be between layoffs, departures and Sony siphoning off some roles. But of that team, 300 are working on Marathon while ~550 are working on Destiny 2, nearly double. Yes, that is obviously less than there used to be, and we are heading into an era with less Destiny 2 content, but the narrative that the majority of Bungie has moved over to Marathon just isn't true. At least not right now.

Paul Tassi, Apr 15, 2025

 

[clarky]

At any rate, Bungie has 900 devs (if accurate) in one of the most expensive areas. They need a ton of money coming in just to keep that studio afloat. MS weren't kidding when they passed on them based on "high burn rate". They can not afford Marathon being a dud.

I don't know Bungies financials, I do know they released one of the top grossing games last year. They'll be fine.

 

[Eastwood_333]

I don't know Bungies financials, I do know they released one of the top grossing games last year. They'll be fine.

Schreier said it underwhelmed?

 

[clarky]

Schreier said it underwhelmed?

Not interested in what that chump has to say. I'm going of top revenue earners on Steam, which isn't even the games biggest player base.

Maybe the player retention/ MTX revenue disappointed, I dunno.

 

[mayham2199]

Played about 6 matches. Good gunplay as expected but that's basically all this has going for it. The extractions don't feel rewarding, the breadcrumbs of lore isn't interesting.

Struggle to even call this a pvp game as I think I ran into another team in like 2 out of the 6 I did, which begs the question of why this even exists. I felt like I may as well had just been playing D2 instead.

Sounds exactly like every other extraction shooter honestly. Lots of people were complaining about the PVP maybe the fact that it barely happens will be a good thing.

 

[Eastwood_333]

Paul Tassi for whatever its worth has "confirmed" that the majority of staff is working on Destiny.

There’s A Misconception About ‘Destiny 2’ And ‘Marathon’ Development

While this week has been all about Marathon, Marathon, Marathon, little attention has been paid to its younger brother, Destiny 2.

www.forbes.com

So IF Marathon bust, all is solely reliant on the success of a future Destiny expansion that is probably 1-2 yrs out? That doesn't sound like a good recipe.

 

[Forth]

I really, really wish they had stuck closer to the visuals of that initial trailer.
It would have been interesting to see Christopher Barrett's version.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Thought it was interesting hearing Jack Frag's impressions as well... Should post at 3:57:42 which is where he goes into it.

He says the AI in Hunt Showdown is more fun to fight?

 

[MiguelItUp]

He sums it up perfectly, its ok

Is just ok good enough for this type of game to get the support/content it needs to stay alive?

Is just ok good enough to stay alive with several banger games coming out last part of this year?

Exactly, and that's been the sentiment of the majority. Especially ones that aren't into ragebait content, etc. Which, in my opinion, is pretty concerning. Because with the hype behind this studio, the cost of the project, etc. it NEEDS to do better to be successful. If this was an indie project with a smaller budget it'd be a good place for them to be in, but it's not, and that's the biggest concern.

Even asking for a $30/$40 price tag sounds steep when you have games out (on PC) there that float around the same price point that provide the same experience, some with more of a unique twist.

For example...
Tarkov is $50
Hunt is $30
Dark & Darker is free but has a seasonal pack for $9, and a legendary status pack for $30
Gray Zone Warfare is $35
Marauders is $30

I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea. The biggest thing Bungie has going for them right now is their name/brand, Marathon's art/aesthetic (to those that like it), the mainstream, it's on console, and it's cross platform/progression. It may be enough for people, but it also may not. I think that's the most interesting part in all of this. I'm really curious to see how it all pans out.

 

[Generic]

There are a lot of negative people around Marathon

• Influencers that want ragebait
• Destiny fans that feel like Bungie is ignoring Destiny in favor of Marathon
• Tarkov players who don't want people jumping ship
• Xbox and PC fans who hate Sony
• Sony fans who hate Sony doing live service games
• People who are upset that there isn't a single player campaign mode
• Marathon fans who don't feel like this is Marathon at all
• People who think the visuals look really bad

There's nothing you can do about a lot of these people, but there are things that they can and should be doing and could probably do over the course of a year or two, like retool the visuals, make it more like the original Marathon, build a single player campaign. At the end of the day I think Bungie was expecting that they would just dominate because they have the only AAA extraction shooter on PC and Console, but on console it's going to require PS+ and Xbox Live, so the audience is going to be limited as a non F2P game.

I don't think Sony would let them delay the game without massive layoffs, but it's probably necessary for Bungie's long term survival.

Oust the leadership team, roll under PlayStation Studios, and start making games that people actually want.

There are zero reasons to create a singleplayer mode for a pvp game

"Oust the leadership team, roll under PlayStation Studios, and start making games that people actually want."

Bungie should listen to people who play battle royales and extraction shooters.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Even asking for a $30/$40 price tag sounds steep when you have games out there that float around the same price point that provide the same experience, some with more of a unique twist.

For example...
Tarkov is $50
Hunt is $30
Dark & Darker is free but has a seasonal pack for $9, and a legendary status pack for $30
Gray Zone Warfare is $35
Marauders is $30

On consoles though, this list doesn't hold up, as only Hunt is available.

 

[Pop]

Thought it was interesting hearing Jack Frag's impressions as well... Should post at 3:57:42 which is where he goes into it.

The AI in Hunt is better? Oh damn

 

[Mibu no ookami]

So IF Marathon bust, all is solely reliant on the success of a future Destiny expansion that is probably 1-2 yrs out? That doesn't sound like a good recipe.

A future Destiny expansion? Not sure what you're going on about.

 

[clarky]

So IF Marathon bust, all is solely reliant on the success of a future Destiny expansion that is probably 1-2 yrs out? That doesn't sound like a good recipe.

Eh?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

There are a lot of negative people around Marathon

• Influencers that want ragebait
• Destiny fans that feel like Bungie is ignoring Destiny in favor of Marathon
• Tarkov players who don't want people jumping ship
• Xbox and PC fans who hate Sony
• Sony fans who hate Sony doing live service games
• People who are upset that there isn't a single player campaign mode
• Marathon fans who don't feel like this is Marathon at all
• People who think the visuals look really bad

There's nothing you can do about a lot of these people, but there are things that they can and should be doing and could probably do over the course of a year or two, like retool the visuals, make it more like the original Marathon, build a single player campaign. At the end of the day I think Bungie was expecting that they would just dominate because they have the only AAA extraction shooter on PC and Console, but on console it's going to require PS+ and Xbox Live, so the audience is going to be limited as a non F2P game.

I don't think Sony would let them delay the game without massive layoffs, but it's probably necessary for Bungie's long term survival.

Oust the leadership team, roll under PlayStation Studios, and start making games that people actually want.

Good list. But if gamers feel that then there's concern. If a game company wants less pushback then make a game that limits what can happen.

Way back, EA released Apex Legends and Activision released Overwatch. Both companies already have established shooters like COD and BF, but added them as additional shooters to sell.

I think these games were universally praised from the get go. So they did something right.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Good list. But if gamers feel that then there's concern. If a game company wants less pushback then make a game that limits what can happen.

Way back, EA released Apex Legends and Activision released Overwatch. Both companies already have established shooters like COD and BF, but added them as additional shooters to sell.

I think these games were universally praised from the get go. So they did something right.

Times have changed. It's pretty difficult to have universal praise as a new game let alone a relatively new IP (yes I know it's not actually a new IP).

Gaming has never been in a more negative space than it is today.

You have to navigate that as a developer/publisher and even more so as a platform holder.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Keywords, 'most' 'recent.' Helldivers 2 is fantastic, still play it often. They messed up on the PC front by not sticking to the PSN requirement out of the gate like every single online game has, and in turn alienates dozens of regions. Then again, might be a good thing due to server load as well.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

He says the AI in Hunt Showdown is more fun to fight?

The AI enemies in these games are essentially environmental obstacles to facilitate PvP fights. Sound traps, land mines, the equivalent of that. It's not like you should be able to simply take away PvP and have a "normal" SP game with engaging PvE.

Zombies in Hunt only take a one melee attack and don't even aggro unless you're close. They're meant to give your position away with their loud shriek or fuck you during a rotation etc.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Times have changed. It's pretty difficult to have universal praise as a new game let alone a relatively new IP (yes I know it's not actually a new IP).

Gaming has never been in a more negative space than it is today.

You have to navigate that as a developer/publisher and even more so as a platform holder.

Looking at that Depression vs Gaming thread, it's like almost every Gaffer suffers from a despression.

Wouldn't be surprised if the covid pandemic mentally broke 80% of society and people just lash out at everything that doesn't fit their ideal.

I'm only honestly curious about how much overlap there is between those admitting they are despressed and those that whine about games all the time.

 

[SnapShot]

Are all AI enemies going to be Robots? want to see some weird alien shit in there

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Are all enemies going to be Robots? want to see some weird alien shit in there

I've seen some sort of spiders coming out of nests.
Also some birds that fly away when you're near them.

I swear they all seem like place-holder.
Can't imagine Bungie actually designing those so basic af.


Then again, I also thought the Destiny 1 alpha backgrounds were placeholder and that turned out to be the actual game.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Looking at that Depression vs Gaming thread, it's like almost every Gaffer suffers from a despression.

Wouldn't be surprised if the covid pandemic mentally broke 80% of society and people just lash out at everything that doesn't fit their ideal.

I'm only honestly curious about how much overlap there is between those admitting they are despressed and those that whine about games all the time.

This 1000% what's going on.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Looking at that Depression vs Gaming thread, it's like almost every Gaffer suffers from a despression.

Wouldn't be surprised if the covid pandemic mentally broke 80% of society and people just lash out at everything that doesn't fit their ideal.

I'm only honestly curious about how much overlap there is between those admitting they are despressed and those that whine about games all the time.

This is extremely depressive.

Post in thread 'Marathon Alpha Impressions'

Today at 5:05 AM

RIP Bungie lol

• near

• 
• 
• 

 

[DryvBy]

He sums it up perfectly, its ok

Is just ok good enough for this type of game to get the support/content it needs to stay alive?

Is just ok good enough to stay alive with several banger games coming out last part of this year?

I feel this is a major problem with modern shooters. They want to make these games like a store and the moment people quit buying, it gets shut down. Older shooters still are active for a reason and its because they're still up. They're not going to shut the whole thing down because people aren't buying some eBucks. The fact I can still find people playing Q3A or UT99 is amazing. Heck, I can even still find people playing Duke3D!

 

[MiguelItUp]

On consoles though, this list doesn't hold up, as only Hunt is available.

Very true! I meant to add that these were only on Steam. Will edit!

That's the other thing that gives them leverage, it being on console as the extraction shooter genre there is very limited there.

 

[DryvBy]

Aim assist for Mouse?

That's a first.

And it looks like it's fully magnetized to the enemy.

Wtf are they thinking?

COD has a magnetic aimbot too. They've been doing it for years. If the enemy is within a certain radius of the screen, it will attach to the player. I actually don't know of a modern shooter that doesn't do that now. And it's no wonder the FPS genre is going the way of the RTS quickly.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I feel this is a major problem with modern shooters. They want to make these games like a store and the moment people quit buying, it gets shut down. Older shooters still are active for a reason and its because they're still up. They're not going to shut the whole thing down because people aren't buying some eBucks. The fact I can still find people playing Q3A or UT99 is amazing. Heck, I can even still find people playing Duke3D!

Activision still has COD servers up for old ass games and there's no way anyone is buying map packs for it now. No MTX back then either and they are still up.

I know since I played World at War a lot and even still dabbled with it until 2022. Game is still up, you can find MP games and amazingly the stats still update. Even the lobby leaderboards so you can see other gamer's stats are mostly intact... I think there was some stat screens not accessible anymore, but you could still see their core stats so you know who played the most hours, had the most kills etc... And as much as I played the game, there were some with literally 5x more playtime! Some guys had game time of 300+ days!

 

[GymWolf]

He says the AI in Hunt Showdown is more fun to fight?

I mean i only played vanilla destiny 2 and like one expansion and d2 was kinda famous for having dogshit ai...

No idea how bungie went from halo ai to d2\marathon ai...

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The AI enemies in these games are essentially environmental obstacles to facilitate PvP fights. Sound traps, land mines, the equivalent of that. It's not like you should be able to simply take away PvP and have a "normal" SP game with engaging PvE.

Zombies in Hunt only take a one melee attack and don't even aggro unless you're close. They're meant to give your position away with their loud shriek or fuck you during a rotation etc.

AI can be so much more than simply being relegated to "sound traps".

I find the AI in Hunt to be a chore / bore so it's crazy that someone would prefer it over Marathons AI.

 

[rodrigolfp]

COD has a magnetic aimbot too.

For mouse???