• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Marathon - Reviews Thread

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Game Information

Game Title: Marathon

Platforms:
  • Xbox Series X/S (Mar 5, 2026)
  • PlayStation 5 (Mar 5, 2026)
  • PC (Mar 5, 2026)
Trailer:
Developer: Bungie

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 73 average - 63% recommended
Marathon - Not enough for aggregate yet

IghxyrCGVWxRMvwd.png
lACNVqyl2i2vN2cv.png


Critic Reviews


Cerealkillerz - Gabriel Bogdan - German - 7.3 / 10
Marathon is a strange experiment that, with its very distinct art style and strong focus on PvP, won't necessarily appeal to every fan of the studio. The overall gameplay loop delivers everything you would expect from the genre, but unfortunately not much more aside from well-designed AI enemies. If you've had enough of Arc Raiders, you might take a cautious look at this title, hoping for more content in the coming seasons. For the rest of the player base, however, it's unfortunately not quite enough at the moment.


Chicas Gamers - Daniel López - Spanish - 7.9 / 10
Marathon redefines the genre with its style and gunplay, but its chaotic interface and utter lack of forgiving nature for newcomers make it a gem reserved for the most patient players. A masterful offering from Bungie that borders on perfection, provided you're prepared to battle both the menus and the other players.


Entertainment Geekly - Luis Alvaro - 2 / 5
Marathon is competently built around a genre it chose not to challenge. It is a game that will reward patient players who bond with its loop and forgive its rougher edges. But for anyone spending forty dollars and expecting that investment to translate into a full experience, Marathon's storefront is waiting to tell you otherwise.


EvelonGames - Joel Isern Rodríguez - Kaym - Spanish - 8.4 / 10
Marathon is a masterclass in mechanical precision and atmospheric world-building, proving once again that Bungie remains the gold standard for first-person combat. While a cluttered interface and steep learning curve create early friction, the sheer tension of its extraction loops and the lethality of its AI provide a refreshing, high-stakes evolution for the genre. It's a bold, stylish, and unforgiving return to form that rewards tactical patience as much as raw twitch reflexes.


GamePro - Tobias Veltin - German - Unscored
It was a long road to get there, though, and I can totally understand if that puts many shooter fans off. I hope enough people give the game a chance and overcome the initial hurdles – for me, it was definitely worth it, and I won't be putting Marathon down anytime soon.


NoobFeed - Azfar Rayan - 68 / 100
Marathon shows a lot of promise for a shooting game. Its unique look, fun gunplay and high-stakes gaming loop make it very appealing. If people keep supporting and getting involved with Bungie's ambitious reboot, it could become one of the genre's most important games.


PPE.pl - Polish - 7 / 10
The project clearly lacks content, and the entry threshold for solo players borders on absurdity. At the moment, it's a half-baked product that simply loses out to the rival ARC Raiders in a direct competition for our free time. The developers still have a long way to go, and they need to implement significant updates to transform this promising foundation into a fully-fledged, functioning hit


Screen Rant - Chris Carter - 7 / 10
The extraction shooter genre is hard to get right.


VGC - Diego Arguello - 4 / 5
Despite the tumultuous landscape of live-service games around it, Marathon firmly carves its own place in the extraction shooter genre with an unmatched presentation and breakneck rhythm.
 
Who gives a shit about critic reviews with GAAS games? I trust steam user reviews and Playstation reviews much more. 87% on Steam and 4.65 on Playstation. The only reason critic reviews matter is when they are the only ones playing the game
 
Last edited:
Who gives a shit about critic reviews with GAAS games? I trust steam user reviews and Playstation reviews much more. 87% on Steam and 4.65 on Playstation

Yeah, these critic reviews really became meaningless to me. Especially as most of these critics seems to have a fundamentally different "gaming taste" than I have.
 
Who gives a shit about critic reviews with GAAS games? I trust steam user reviews and Playstation reviews much more. 87% on Steam and 4.65 on Playstation
You should trust reviews of people that after all this time and tests decided to buy the game.. not a chance at all this is a safe space of people that had already decided on the quality of it before buying and thats why they bought it and reviewed well.
 
A 75 wouldn't be the end of the World for a service game at launch. It's maintaining 50k CCU on Steam alone which is decent for a non F2P game after the current bombas.

Not my type of game at all. I wish they'd go back to making SP campaigns with MP modes as an extra like Halo. If this ultimately fails let them reboot Killzone as I don't think they'd be given the massive budget needed to create a new IP from scratch.
 
The problem is that we won't get more reviews until late march as devs suggested reviewers to wait for Cryo Archive and Ranked mode to debut before giving their full reviews. However, this early reviews can be updated later on, but I don't think the score would go much higher tbh.
 
The problem is that we won't get more reviews until late march as devs suggested reviewers to wait for Cryo Archive and Ranked mode to debut before giving their full reviews. However, this early reviews can be updated later on, but I don't think the score would go much higher tbh.

Asking to delay reviews for a product they're currently selling at full price because of content they're going to add in a month is just an insane ask. Unreal that anyone even considers going along with that request.
 
I really liked what I played during the free weekend, but I jut don't want to spend $40 right now….moneys tight atm.

Now if they made a D3? I'd drop $40 or $60 in a heartbeat.
 
This better be a cheap side-project for Bungie while working on something serious, be it a proper, ambitious Destiny or something with some fucking single player FFS.

This studio has so much freaking potential, this was such a waste of time that might have made sense if it came out 2 years ago.
 
The problem is that we won't get more reviews until late march as devs suggested reviewers to wait for Cryo Archive and Ranked mode to debut before giving their full reviews. However, this early reviews can be updated later on, but I don't think the score would go much higher tbh.

Asking to delay reviews for a product they're currently selling at full price because of content they're going to add in a month is just an insane ask. Unreal that anyone even considers going along with that request.

As if gaming journalism couldn't fall any further. Now we know exactly which outlets to avoid
 
Last edited:
This better be a cheap side-project for Bungie while working on something serious, be it a proper, ambitious Destiny or something with some fucking single player FFS.

This studio has so much freaking potential, this was such a waste of time that might have made sense if it came out 2 years ago.
I know that fans of the game don't want to hear it and I know that no one cares...but I was a huge Bungie fan. Loved Destiny 2 until weapon sunsetting and spent untold fortunes on it after that.

I always avoided pvp besides my recluse grind. Gambits were okay.

I'm kinda pissed at them and I know this hasn't even been talked about throughout all this, but I'm not gonna lie, it hurts being left behind.

They are basically abandoning me as a Destiny 2 player to chase after the PvP sweats in a stress inducing game that I could never play. And I'm supposed to not give a shit or just smile and take it.

I do feel betrayed. After all these years of Bungie making games for me, they basically shed me like an old snake skin trying to chase the sweats and the tryhards. Fuck em I guess. Enjoy their PvP centric hard core lobby game money grab.
 
Last edited:
Well hopefully bungie realizes the need for Destiny 3 by now which I always said they're big enough they couldve been working on D3 and Marathon at the same time.
 
The user reviews are hilariously useless. Either 10: this game is awesome, or 0: this game sucks.
 
Who gives a shit about critic reviews with GAAS games? I trust steam user reviews and Playstation reviews much more. 87% on Steam and 4.65 on Playstation. The only reason critic reviews matter is when they are the only ones playing the game
"I only trust reviews I agree with."
 
Top Bottom