In the past, I have avoided writing about first-person shooters unless I felt compelled to do so. This is especially the case with multiplayer-focused games. While I enjoy them, even with my limited skills, I never felt like I could write about them in any meaningful way. But, with my limited playing of Marathon, I wanted to discuss my frustrations as a newcomer. While I enjoy the look and gunplay, this game doesn’t feel suited for everyone.
Throw you in, and good luck
I’ve only played for a few hours of Marathon thus far, so again, my experience is by no means a definitive look at the game. I’m still trying to learn the ropes, but that’s part of the problem I’m finding with the game. They sort of just drop you into the game and expect you to learn through failure.
The game’s tutorial mission is short, but I still managed to bungle it up the first time. I died because I was still getting the hang of the controls and UI. I got to the part of the tutorial where you’re calling the Exfil to evacuate the map. But when you’re getting instructions about your special ability, I got swarmed by a few AI enemies. Their quick action caused my failure. What sucks is that if you’re playing solo, you have no one to revive you.
So, you’re stuck. You can let your life timer run out or give up. Rather than restarting you at an earlier point, you have to go through the whole process again. Meaning, you wait through loading screens and all the other parts you completed. They do allow you to skip this, but you miss out on any gear you collect. The tutorial is short, no more than five minutes long. But the entire process isn’t friendly to new players.
Overwhelming at times
On top of that, the menu structure, including the pre-match set-up, is overwhelming. There are so many things to keep track of: inventory, contracts, characters, and loadout. I doubt this is normal for these types of games. So, if you’re new at it, there is no way you’ll know what to do.
The story here feels inconsequential. I wasn’t invested in the AI characters that you “interact” with. These are static scenes that feel added in at the last moment. It doesn’t help that the contracts that they give you don’t seem to progress the story in any meaningful way. It’s a goal post to move you to the next goal post.
The “story” here is an afterthought. For a developer like Bungie, I am shocked at the lack of effort they put into that aspect of the game. It’s possible that your role as a runner starts to make more sense the longer you play. Unfortunately, I don’t have that hook early on to keep me invested.
Trying to understand things
Even trying to understand the different character classes is overwhelming. In team-based shooters, I tend to gravitate towards support classes. In Overwatch, I will love playing Lucio, Kiriko, Mercy, and other support characters. My skills are better suited for that class. While I have fun playing as a Tank or DPS, I know I’m not going to lead my team to victory.
Because there is no training mode, you don’t get a chance to learn the classes. There are seven character classes, which they call Shells. After you sample the default Destroyer character, I decided to try out Triage. This is the game’s medic, a character I should be good with. But I didn’t have a good grasp of their special ability. There is no way to sample their “Reboot+” skill. Had I known use it the right way, my squad might have been more successful.
I felt the same when I tried the Recon. Another character that shouldn’t get in the way and is better at ranged attacks. But I had to go in unfamiliar and hope for the best. The fact that you can’t practice with these characters to get a handle on them is a crazy omission.
The community is good so far
Of the few matches I have played with randoms, it hasn’t been that bad. I haven’t experienced a match with squads that get annoyed, which is nice. At this early in the game, I do suspect that we’re all new, so I’m not getting paired with higher-level characters. Since we’re close to the same point in the game, we’re all still learning the ropes.
I did notice that matchmaking is slow. It can take anywhere between 90 seconds and three minutes before I get into a match. This surprised me since I was playing on the weekend and was expecting a higher player count. I’m on PC, and I had cross-play enabled, but I still had to wait a bit before getting into a match.
This game also needs a better way of jumping back into a match. The menus pre- and post-match are too long. It would be nice to be able to queue into a new match immediately after a run. Let the game decide my next contract. I want to jump into a match rather than going through a set of menus. Again, this doesn’t feel designed for inexperienced players. I want to get better, but not have to spend minutes in a menu before I can play another round.
A lot to learn, if I want
Given my lack of experience with the genre, Marathon was a game I was eager to play. I picked it over Arc Raiders because I enjoyed Bungie’s past shooters. I still need a bit more time with the game. I’m willing to get better, or at the very least, stick around for a bit longer to see if the game starts to click.
Unfortunately, I’m also worried that I’m going to get left behind. Those who are good at the game will advance, and I’ll be stuck behind. Meanwhile, those who aren’t willing to take the time to learn the ropes will give up. Meaning I won’t pair up with similar players and get better.
Yes, this game needs a single-player mode for the rest of us. At the very least, a better onboarding or training mode to help grow. Heck, I don’t mind playing solo, but then have a way to recover from death. Why not copy Borderlands “Fight For Your Life” mechanic? In that game, it allows you to revive if you kill a foe while downed. They could limit it to the solo Rook character, but it wouldn’t break the game.
There is a great game here, if you want to take the time to learn
Even though the majority of this blog has been critical of Marathon, it’s only because I’m a new player. This is the kind of game that I know I could love after investing 10+ hours. But I’m not sure if I can get to that point and break through the early woes. I can’t recommend this game if you only have a passing interest in extraction-based shooters. But if you’re looking for great gunplay, this has it.
