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Marathon Developer Insights - Runner Shells + Bonus Soundtrack

Faltherion

Member


Bungie has released another video showcasing the Runner Shells and explaining their purpose and what some of them do. I was a big hater when they first revealed this game, but after the delay and them going radio silent for a bit and now coming back I have to now say I have made a complete 180 turn and I cannot wait to play this game.

There is something oddly satisfying about the way Bungie does gunplay in their games. You can feel a bit of Destiny in here due to how smooth everything is. The art style is also much improved. I am not sure what did they with it when they delayed it, but they must have done either another art pass or just fixed things up and everything just looks more consistent art style wise.

Most importantly though, just by even watching the trailers the game looks like it could be mad fun and addicting. This has become one of my most anticipated titles alongside RE Requiem, Gears E Day, Fable, and now this.

One last thing I'll mention is that the soundtrack sounds really good and if you are wanting to hear it on its own you can find it down below. I love the vocals and the synths, whoever composed it needs a fucking platinum medal.

 
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I fucking detest shooters with abilities. Delta force was pretty good (if you ignore the gigantic amount of hackers) until they introduced a bunch of characters that had build in wallhacks etc... fuck that shite. That's why ARC raiders is the best extraction shooter, everyone on the same footing more or less if you don't look at skill points.
 
Now they just need to fix the weapon models and we've got a solid shooter on our hands.

But man these Roblox lookin' ass weapons ain't it.

EDIT: No way I am I going to play this as an actual extraction shooter lol, shit looks like it's just a straight up Destiny PVP match, which I am fine with, but some of the abilities seem incredibly unbalanced; especially when having to worry about gear or loot acquired. I mean you've got movement abilities on a guy that has a shield, you've got invis which you can seemingly go in and out of on a whim? And then you have wallhacks plus a device which SEARCHES players and incapacitates them. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

It really is just an arena shooter with some extraction mechanics sprinkled on top.
 
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Now they just need to fix the weapon models and we've got a solid shooter on our hands.

But man these Roblox lookin' ass weapons ain't it.

EDIT: No way I am I going to play this as an actual extraction shooter lol, shit looks like it's just a straight up Destiny PVP match, which I am fine with, but some of the abilities seem incredibly unbalanced; especially when having to worry about gear or loot acquired. I mean you've got movement abilities on a guy that has a shield, you've got invis which you can seemingly go in and out of on a whim? And then you have wallhacks plus a device which SEARCHES players and incapacitates them. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

It really is just an arena shooter with some extraction mechanics sprinkled on top.
The abilities are on longish cooldowns and are very situational. But it is heavily PVP focused. Thats why the maps are medium sized but there is a fair amount of down time as well.

Honestly its plays really well.

Waiting for some super broken stuff with all the moving parts going on though for sure.
 
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The abilities are on longish cooldowns and are very situational. But it is heavily PVP focused. Thats why the maps are medium sized but there is a fair amount of down time as well.

Honestly its plays really well.

Waiting for some super broken stuff with all the moving parts going on though for sure.
Yeah eager to give it a go myself but so far everything I've seen of the game makes it seem more in line with Apex Legends rather than something like The Cycle (or others in that space).
 
Yeah eager to give it a go myself but so far everything I've seen of the game makes it seem more in line with Apex Legends rather than something like The Cycle (or others in that space).
They have just been showing the action bits, which makes sense. There is plenty of quiet moments as well.

It has a little APEX DNA in there, but not much. Never tried the Cycle.

Give it a go when the free weekend drops, I was very pleasantly surprised.
 
I still hate the art style, but it doesn't look quite as terrible anymore. If Sony puts enough into marketing and by that I mean as much as they do into blockbuster cinematics it might actually end up with a healthy player base.
 
"Give players ingredients but not a recipe"

That's a good philosophy, and I hope they can cook up an implementation that works. It's really hard to do in games where players make builds. The line between too much randomness and too much spoon-feeding is quite blurry.
 
"Give players ingredients but not a recipe"

That's a good philosophy, and I hope they can cook up an implementation that works. It's really hard to do in games where players make builds. The line between too much randomness and too much spoon-feeding is quite blurry.
Players will give themselves a recipe. There'll be a meta in 1 month.
 
I feel like this game will have a severe lack of content at launch.

Yeah me too, would be fine as f2p tho.
Why though? Arc Raiders did just fine. Technically this is launching with one less map, but much more substantial PvP/class+weapon customization/buildcrafting. And Marathon's fourth map will launch soon after release and supposedly provide a real endgame experience, which Arc Raiders doesn't have.
 
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Don't like the hero style/classes. From what they have shown some seem to be clearly better choices than others. Recon itself seems the most broken.
 
Why though? Arc Raiders did just fine. Technically this is launching with one less map, but much more substantial PvP/class+weapon customization/buildcrafting. And Marathon's fourth map will launch soon after release and supposedly provide a real endgame experience, which Arc Raiders doesn't have.

Wasnt happy with ark raiders being b2p either.
 
Wasnt happy with ark raiders being b2p either.
May i ask why you think they should give there hard earned work away for free?

Seems like 12.4 million people were happy though. That game is worth double if you ask me.
 
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Why though? Arc Raiders did just fine. Technically this is launching with one less map, but much more substantial PvP/class+weapon customization/buildcrafting. And Marathon's fourth map will launch soon after release and supposedly provide a real endgame experience, which Arc Raiders doesn't have.
These games thrive on content, this build crafting thing is way less complicated than what they made it look like, it's just some glorified hero skills.
Having less content launching than a direct competitor at its launch isn't a good look.

Reminder that this is also has significantly more funding than Arc Riders ever had.
 
These games thrive on content, this build crafting thing is way less complicated than what they made it look like, it's just some glorified hero skills.
Having less content launching than a direct competitor at its launch isn't a good look.

Reminder that this is also has significantly more funding than Arc Riders ever had.
Fair takes, I just don't agree. I like Arc, but it's already wearing out its welcome due to the dull loot and skill tree. Having six distinct classes with their own playstyles (+dedicated loot goblin option) and a wider variety of guns, plus tons of mods and cores to augment the above, is (to me) a lot more meat on the bones than what Arc has on offer. Having played the earlier Marathon tests, the fun will be in team synergies and using those abilities for repositioning and setting the terms of firefights. From what I've played, it also seems well-balanced with long cooldowns avoiding that hero ability spam feel. I'm also not convinced that four vs. five maps (within a couple months of launch) will be that big a deal in practice, again, since Marathon is teasing some sort of endgame activity which Arc currently lacks and has no roadmap for.

As for funding, Embark built a solid foundation but have admitted they wanted future development to be driven by player response and feedback, so certain aspects feel bare-bones currently. Whereas Marathon's focus is in mugh tighter PvP and class design/combat balance. That's where I really feel Marathon's higher budget and dev count coming into play, because what they've done on that front is much more involved than what Arc's offering.

Well, different strokes I suppose.
 
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"Give players ingredients but not a recipe"

That's a good philosophy, and I hope they can cook up an implementation that works. It's really hard to do in games where players make builds. The line between too much randomness and too much spoon-feeding is quite blurry.
Players will give themselves a recipe. There'll be a meta in 1 month.
The thing is they can tweak the items that appear to loot and the stats of the weapons or mods, so can easily keep tweaking all this and the meta.

Obviously like always players will like or dislike this or that and consider it the new meta, but considering that in this game the performance mostly relies in loot that you constantly lose, the rebalancing changes should be more transparent, organically introduced and less noticiable/dramatic for players.

So players should take (a bit) longer to find the meta, also because due to having a big amount of mods and perks allows a bigger amount of combinations.
 
Fair takes, I just don't agree. I like Arc, but it's already wearing out its welcome due to the dull loot and skill tree. Having six distinct classes with their own playstyles (+dedicated loot goblin option) and a wider variety of guns, plus tons of mods and cores to augment the above, is (to me) a lot more meat on the bones than what Arc has on offer. Having played the earlier Marathon tests, the fun will be in team synergies and using those abilities for repositioning and setting the terms of firefights. From what I've played, it also seems well-balanced with long cooldowns avoiding that hero ability spam feel. I'm also not convinced that four vs. five maps (within a couple months of launch) will be that big a deal in practice, again, since Marathon is teasing some sort of endgame activity which Arc currently lacks and has no roadmap for.

As for funding, Embark build a solid foundation but have admitted they wanted future development to be driven by player response and feedback, so certain aspects feel bare-bones currently. Whereas Marathon's focus is in mugh tighter PvP and class design/combat balance. That's where I definitely feel Marathon's higher budget and dev count coming into play, because what they've done on that front is much more involved than what Arc's offering.

Well, different strokes I suppose.
I agree with a lot of this. I've clocked in over 250 hours in Arc Raiders after it came out ane mostly played solo and then duo with a friend whenever he got off work.

It was very fun at first thanks to tight gunplay, good visuals, and just the cinematic moments and surprisingly good performance from UE5. We both did the expedition in December and reset our characters. However, after I only played a few matches and then just got bored. As you said, there is no real endgame motivation. At least not for my taste and I don't want to just keep repeating the expedition cycles. They need to implement something more in depth for me. Still a great game that got mroe than my $40 worth.
 
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Still a great game that got mroe than my $40 worth.
100%. I've already gotten a ton of enjoyment out of it and I'll always be checking back when there's new content. Marathon is aiming for something pretty different and more up my alley. There'll be some overlap with fans of both, but there's plenty of space for both to exist doing their own things.
 
Honestly, with them showing that they're trying to make improvements, it's made me more curious. I'm still not quite in though, I'm gonna wait and see what that roadmap looks like, and the overall reception.
 
Personally I find it astonishing that gamers will deem a game worth their time but not their money. Sometimes I really hate where this goddamn industry has ended up, but definitely not for the reasons you usually hear.
 
I dont know why people are asking for f2p when games like Tarkov, Ark Raiders, A Twister Path, Hunt, even Helldivers 2 are all above $30
People just want to continue to be negative towards it after everything. Like you pointed out, there are plenty of other games that exist in the same realm Marathon will exist in that have a price tag. Why should it be F2P over the others?
 
You have a solid foundation but it's a tall order, I'd be careful getting too invested in this marathon, it feels like a crossroads game to Bungie's bigger game, whatever that may be.
 
May i ask why you think they should give there hard earned work away for free?

Seems like 12.4 million people were happy though. That game is worth double if you ask me.

F2p games can make billions of dollars every freaking year.

They just ask a premium out of it for no reason.
I dont know why people are asking for f2p when games like Tarkov, Ark Raiders, A Twister Path, Hunt, even Helldivers 2 are all above $30

Like i said above those shouldn't be b2p either.
 
F2p games can make billions of dollars every freaking year.

They just ask a premium out of it for no reason.


Like i said above those shouldn't be b2p either.
Good to know that when publishers want me to pay for a game, they're doing so "for no reason". These aren't considered positions, you're just shitting noises out of your face. I gave you the benefit of the doubt earlier but now I have no idea what to think. I'll be generous and assume you're fairly young and simply haven't put any thought into topics like this, especially since you're referring to $40 as "a premium" when in reality $40 is nothing. I wipe my ass with $40, as does any responsible non-favela dwelling adult. I mean, you think Helldivers 2 should be f2p? Really?

If gamers weren't the cheapest mfers on the planet, this industry wouldn't be in the current state it's in.
 
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Yea there is an improvement , the Game moved from total trash to average Gaas FPS. Still far away from monsters like COD or Battlefield or new ones like Arc Raiders.

This Game wont save Bungie..they need somethig different ASAP.
 
F2p games can make billions of dollars every freaking year.

They just ask a premium out of it for no reason.


Like i said above those shouldn't be b2p either.
Why does any game charge an entry fee then?

Why isnt COD, Battlefield, Tarkov, Arc Raiders free?

Fuck lets make Exp 34 ftp, they are asking for a premium for no reason.

They ask for a fee because guess what? They are in the business of making money.

You buy a base game which includes the content in the box then the rest is funded by MTX. Its a common buiness model.
 
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This freaking logic needs to die. All games are not the same.
There's no "logic" at all to such statements.

It's a strange phenomenon with gamers. You don't really see it with cinephiles, audiophiles, etc. but you look anywhere supposed "enthusiast" gamers engage in discourse and this sentiment still pops up all the time. It's a two way street, but gaming failing to develop a culture of magnanimity towards those who serve their market has created a seemingly endless feedback loop of different financial models being attempted in order to keep games viable to produce, but lots of people are never happy regardless. I've noticed Japanese nerds seem much happier to support that which appeals to them, (games, manga, anime etc.) and as a consequence the Japanese seem to be the best-served consumer base in the world as far as I can tell.

Personally I've seen plenty of what "free" gets you in games and I'm happy to throw money at products that appeal to me.
 
Personally I've seen plenty of what "free" gets you in games and I'm happy to throw money at products that appeal to me.

spend around 1.000 bucks a year on games, but 90% of GaaS games aren't worth an upfront cost to me. There are rare exceptions, like Monster Hunter, but I wouldn't even compare those to typical GaaS titles.
It would be a different story if Bungie also invested in proper single-player content, but without that, it's a hard no for me. To each their own, you can spend thousands on your GaaS games if you want. I don't care.
 
spend around 1.000 bucks a year on games, but 90% of GaaS games aren't worth an upfront cost to me. There are rare exceptions, like Monster Hunter, but I wouldn't even compare those to typical GaaS titles.
It would be a different story if Bungie also invested in proper single-player content, but without that, it's a hard no for me. To each their own, you can spend thousands on your GaaS games if you want. I don't care.
Lots of titles offer content for free after launch in exchange for MTX instead of the old way of expansion packs. Most are upfront in the content your are purchasing.

I still don't see why this game should be free. I can pay an upfront cost and enjoy support and more content for nothing extra and probably will unless the content drops are really good in which case i'll throw the dev's a bone in appreciation.

I personally prefer games that evolve over time compared to static ones. Like you say each to their own.
 
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Lots of titles offer content for free after launch in exchange for MTX instead of the old way of expansion packs. Most are upfront in the content your are purchasing.

I still don't see why this game should be free. I can pay an upfront cost and enjoy support and more content for nothing extra and probably will unless the content drops are really good in which case i'll throw the dev's a bone in appreciation.

I personally prefer games that evolve over time compared to static ones. Like you say each to there own.
Can't reason someone out of an opinion they didn't reason themself into.
 
To me it just looks like an arena game with some extraction mechanics. This looks way too competitive for the extraction crowd
 
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