Bungie's reportedly troubled FPS Marathon breaks 18 months of silence with a vague update from its game director: "We do this all for you"
Oct. 28, 2024When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Marathon,Bungie’s upcoming revival of the 1994 FPS, seemed like it could disappear afterserious layoffsplagued its developer. But, despite the sci-fi extraction shooter’s Twitter laying dormant for 18 months, director Joe Ziegler assures fansin a new videothat Marathon is alive and well.
That last line summarizes the tenor of Ziegler’s video, which feels, for the most part, purposefully vague. Ziegler emphasizes that Marathon will have “a ton of loot that you can find,” as well as “weapons” and “equipment […] that changes your stats.” Cool! It sounds like Bungie’s Marathon reboot was heavily inspired by The Division, or Hunt: Showdown, or Borderlands, or Call of Duty, or Luigi’s Mansion.
“There’s also consumables that help you sort of heal yourself,” Ziegler helpfully adds.
I’m assuming these aren’t the impressive updates Bungie fans were hoping to receive after more than a year of quiet, but Ziegler at least manages to offer a few details on Marathon’s production status. Sort of.
“There’s a variety of different things at different states inside of the game,” he says. “Our environments are starting to come together in a really, really beautiful way. Some of the character models we’ve been iterating through, so they’re coming together, but they’re not fully there yet. […] It’s a little early to show you all of it as one piece.”
Ziegler is able to share the codenames for two of Marathon’s playable characters, or runners: Thief and Stealth, and he suggests that both of these characters will be sneaky, much like Bungie itself when sharing news about Marathon.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
In any case, Ziegler is grateful for fans' patience.
“Our goal is ultimately to make a game that all of you feel like is worth spending your time [on], he says. “Thank you all for actually following us, and we do this all for you.”
Datamined Destiny 2 files namedrop Marathon pre-orders, spurring speculation that Bungie’s FPS reboot could rear its head soon.
Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.
A month after approving free versions of Unreal games that “started it all,” Fortnite creator Epic shouts out a group of fan devs “for their continued support in keeping the legacy alive”
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 makes headshots deadlier while cutting back on weapon sway and recoil: “We will be keeping a close eye on sniper balance after this change”
Dev behind new Doki Doki Literature Club-style psychological horror says it’s not “for those with weak hearts,” but with 98% positive Steam reviews, I’m not sure I can stay away
