Marathon looks really, really bad

Halo 2 was a technical achievement but it was FUGLY. Halo 3 was a jag fest. Reach looked plain bad. Destiny was more or the same. IDK. You don't go to Bungie for the looks, me thinks. At least this one has style unlike Destiny.
 
I think ppl should stop using poorly captured Closed Alpha Tech Test leaks to judge the quality of the Final Product

Here's a better captured video
I just don't understand what the gimmick is with this that's going to set it apart from every other extraction shooter
Transferring your soul to a new synethic shell and escaping death (yes that's a thing in this game) in a future ruled by ruthless corporations

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I just don't understand what the gimmick is with this that's going to set it apart from every other extraction shooter, other than it looking like roblox and minecraft had a baby

At first, I thought it must look like this because the maps are procedurally generated each game or something, but that isn't the case
Serious question, where are all those extraction shooter? Hunt, tarkov, marathon, ARC, hunger (upcoming), the cycle... I don't see many of them, why ppl keep talking like it is a so bloated genre?
 
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garish colors designed by the modern audience?

ignoring basic visibility, who approves of this?

how many billions was it? What a write off. Imagine that fundings could have gone to mark cerny team for ps6/psp2..
 
Let me make this clear: if they had shown me the Marathon reveal teaser, I wouldn't have paid 3.6b for Bungie; I would have paid fucking double. What a banger. Marathon haters are just ingnorant and tasteless retards.
 

holy shit how does it still look so bad

scroll down for all the videos
Its still the same game from beta tests half a year ago, ofc it will look and play 99% similar to back then :P
Think of it this way, cp2077 got bashed a tons for having bugs/all kinds of flaws at launch, it only took them close to 3 years to correct most of its systems and re-arrange that stuff right with sept 2023 launch of its expack, so 2,5years, and game still looked/played relatively similar despite all those changes- it was simply much better/playable game tho and customers saw it.

Now u think those 6 months of additional devtime of marathon gonna make some crazy difference in looks? Its impossible, they can tweak some systems/fix bugs/add some features and thats it.
 
I think Marathon is probably fucked and to me it's because people have decided it's bad for no real reason. I don't know why the knives are out for this, but I guarantee you that you'll see people saying things about it that don't make sense if you judge the comment and the footage objectively. From the moment I heard about it people were saying it was trash despite knowing nothing about it. Even things that are completely unremarkable and would just be accepted are getting sneered at here.

It's something that I think we might see more and more of, leading developers and publishers to play things even more safely. AAA games will become even more homogenous as a result.

Gg everyone.
 
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Not really, it used some decals as placeholders. Stolen, but more along the lines of a sweetshop robbery than a Mona Lisa heist.

Hard to tell whether they would have ever been replaced if they were not called out.

The style/design language influenced the art style of the game, there is a reason those assets fit in so well. They could have easily gotten away with it by only taking inspiration from the style without yanking straight assets. But they gave away that they essentially have an uncredited, uncompensated art director.
 
Serious question, where are all those extraction shooter? Hunt, tarkov, marathon, ARC, hunger (upcoming), the cycle... I don't see many of them, why ppl keep talking like it is a so bloated genre?
I can't see why there would ever be any need for any more than about 3 before other games in the genre start to suffer and lose players, I cannot see this game getting a foothold above the likes of Arc, Hunt and Tarkov, meaning I can't see how Marathons player base is going to keep it sustainable
 
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It looks like someone repurposed videos from an "Is my video card malfunctioning? See video!" Reddit thread.
 
I actually like the aesthetics, but there's a huge disconnect considering this a AAA+ title aimed to capture the mainstream market. It doesn't appeal to the target audience.
Id expect this art style in a niche indie title.
 
I've played it, and it's not a particularly attractive game, but for whatever reason, all the videos out there make it look significantly worse than it actually is.
 
I've played it, and it's not a particularly attractive game, but for whatever reason, all the videos out there make it look significantly worse than it actually is.
The videos are so low res that you can't even read the UI. I think it's because of the NDA. Normally during NDA tests they put an invisible watermark to identify the user leaking something but I guess if it's low res enough they can't tell who leaked it.
 
Why does it look bad?

This and arc raiders look the same style of game to me, idk.
It doesn't.

Pay attention to the posters hating on it and remove the comments from people who don't play PvP games. A huge percentage of the negativity just comes from resentful PvE players. They aren't to be taken seriously.
 
Yeah, my fears are sadly realized. I had hoped they had improved significantly since the last test, but the game still looks very low detail(not just the compression). The whole look screams low-budget, low-polish visuals; worse still, the lighting is very flat. One major selling point of the game was the bombastic, unique art style in the cinematics, which they utterly fail to translate to the in-game visuals effectively. It looks like visual vomit, with the color grading looking like crayons scraped on by toddlers rather than actual top-tier artists' output. Marathon is such a brilliant ip to draw upon for fksakes...

Im honestly baffled with what the fuck they have been doing in terms of polish and production values....they arent some aa studio releasing their first game, they are a massive studio with a massive budget heavily funded by Sony and given a massive dev cycle time this is Sonys main multiplayer gaas title on the console outside of the surprise hit of helldivers 2 and yet it somehow looks on par with the initial no mans sky release in terms of visual flair and polish. It's basically indefensible when freaking Overwatch 1 on PS4 looks significantly higher budget, coherent, and more polished on the PS4 than this shit as a full next-gen release, not even cross-gen gen especially since they had such an interesting visual direction to draw upon, you can get things wrong in terms of gameplay direction etc but there is no excuse for shitting the bed in terms of visual polish and production values as a massive prominent Sony studio with a massive budget. I still don't understand why they didn't just release this on the ps4 as well, because this is unimpressive by even PS4 standards and would guarantee much higher sales.

I have loved Bungie in previous generations and have been constantly hoping they improve, but sadly, I have to admit they deserve what they are going to get...imagine resorting to stealing art and still delivering this....seeing Halo Reach and this....how the mighty have fallen.
 
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If the next video from Bungie has pronouns, it will mean those clowns still haven't learned, and mockery will be rightfully deserved.

The failure or success of the game will be entirely dependent on the market and quality of the game. Don't forget that.
 
When they showed the reveal trailer I was into the art direction. But in game I think it looks boring and unappealing.

I'm not interested in the extraction shooter genre, but if I ever give it a try I'm waaaay more interested in Arc Raider based on the style and presentation.
 
So, as someone who has taken part in the play tests, I can tell you that the game looks better than those compressed low res bilibili videos make it out to be.

The problems in the last play test had very little to do with visuals. The game is fine on that end. Obviously it's a very distinct art style and will not be for everyone, but it's at least cohesive and consistently applied.
It's Bungie. The gameplay part should be the least worrying. Everything else tho…
 
IMO that art style would fly in a single player sci-fi game with some horror elements, like Another World.

A multiplayer meant to monetize through skins can't look like that. It's just dumb.
 
Melt it down and add it to the other failed extraction shooters.
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Thanks, your post reminded me of when GoT was still good.

Regarding Marathon, I was just in shock when I first saw the new art style they went with. Just can't really get over it since it's so unappealing to me. I am not really the target audience for this type of game anyway so it doesn't really matter.

I will say, not sure about other people, but I laughed my ass off at that one trailer when the guy picks up that earpiece playing the music and gets dome-pieced by some random sniper. Shit was so nonsensical, but hilarious at the same time. Probably just me, though, lol.
 
I dig the colors and style, I just wish it was a single player game instead of this extraction crap. Single player with a real trippy story.
 
I dig the colors and style, I just wish it was a single player game instead of this extraction crap. Single player with a real trippy story.

The single player aspect of Marathon is what intrigue me the most. There is potential of great storytelling that can be made with modern game engine.



But alas, Bungie/Sony wanted to get into the live service bandwagon, butchered the original Marathon IP, and gave us another generic extraction shooter.
 
If only Bungie would make a co-op/single player game in the same vein as the Silent Cartographer that's a PS5 exclusive… then maybe Sony can finally act like buying them was a smart move.
 
Marathon looks really, really bad
But why does it look so bad? The compression of the videos?
No, it looks really good. It's just that these videos are awfully compressed. The recent beta had a clear improvement versus previous ones regarding lighting and UI.

Does Marathon have gameplay features that set it apart from other "extraction shooters"? I haven't seen anything intriguing in the trailers - just loot and dull combat.
Why bother upgrading if the combat and enemies are boring anyway?

As happened in Halo or Destiny, Marathon's gunplay (so the core gameplay of a shooter) is miles ahead of their competitors, making it way more fun.

The puzzles, narrative bits and progression of looting and upgrading plus the thrill of the extraction last moments is an extra, the core is the gunplay.

The gameplay side of Marathon (other than obvious things of any game, particularly an unfinished game like some balancing, tweaks and fixes) seems pretty top tier.

I think the questions are:
  • How aggresive is going to be the monetization? If they go Helldivers 2 way it wil be fine
  • How fast they will add new content like new runners, new weapons, new stages, new customization items etc?
  • What kind and when do they plan to add new features like other game modes? The main thing I miss here for my personal taste is a proper SP/PvE only campaign, that I assume if they ever release may be as a standalone game or as small episodic bits.
I just don't understand what the gimmick is with this that's going to set it apart from every other extraction shooter, other than it looking like roblox and minecraft had a baby
Less frustrating making it more appealing to wider audience (as Arc Raiders is doing) instead of just ultra hardcore players. And well, having way better gunplay.

Trend setters are normally the successful ones, not the chasers.
Thats the thing about trend chasers, the chance your game actually is successful is literally luck of the draw
Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Out Run, Street Fighter, Doom, Resident Evil, Halo, World of Warcraft, Destiny, Fortnite etc. were trend setters but before that were trend chasers.

They all had previous similar successful games of their genre as reference. Companies always build on top of what it works, what players like. In 99.99% of the cases when a game is too new and different gets rejected by 99.99% of the people, the gamedev graveyard is full of innovators.
 
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