\u201cIt\u2019s just not for me!\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How many times have you said something to that effect to write off an entire genre of games? I know I have. I\u2019m still haunted by the experience of trying to play Dota 2<\/em> for the first time, only to be yelled at by my team for not immediately understanding its multitude of nuances. My hasty takeaway at the time was that MOBAs, as a whole, probably weren\u2019t my thing. I\u2019ve had similar instincts about the extraction shooter for the past few years. The careful and cutthroat nature of games like Escape from Tarkov <\/em>felt inherently at odds with the kind of fast and fun shooters I tend to enjoy. They just weren\u2019t for me.<\/p>\n And yet, here I am impatiently waiting for my work day to end so I can load up Marathon<\/em>.<\/p>\n Bungie\u2019s new extraction shooter got its hooks in me in a way that no game like it has before. I\u2019m in multiple Discords dedicated to finding squadmates. I\u2019m watching its ARG components unfold like a hawk. I\u2019m even obsessing over in-game lore when that kind of storytelling usually puts me to sleep. After two weeks, Marathon <\/em>is instilling a valuable lesson in me. There\u2019s no such thing as a game genre I don\u2019t like; all it takes is a game that puts what I\u2019m doing in the right context to win me over.<\/p>\n Marathon <\/em>works the same as many of its genre peers. Players take on the role of Runners, undying mercenaries who are dispatched to the planet Tau Ceti IV to retrieve valuable materials on behalf of warring factions. In practice, that means dropping into a hostile environment, picking up as much loot as possible, and successfully escaping without getting killed by computer-controlled robots or other players who are out to steal your stuff. It\u2019s tense, competitive, and often ends in runs where you lose everything.<\/p>\n On paper, it sounds identical to last year\u2019s hit Arc Raiders<\/em>. It is in some ways, but there\u2019s a major difference: Marathon <\/em>is not friendly. Where Arc Raiders<\/em> fostered a surprising community of peaceful players who wanted to coexist with their neighbors, you will usually get shot and killed on sight the second you are spotted by an enemy in Marathon<\/em>. Everything, and everyone, on Tau Ceti IV wants you dead.<\/p>\n That difference in dynamic isn\u2019t an organic accident. Marathon <\/em>is filled with laser-focused design choices that guide players towards hostility. Chief among them is that the main progression hook is less about grabbing gear and more about completing contracts for faction vendors. You\u2019re often tasked with downright cruel mini-quests while out on a run that require you to ruin another player\u2019s day, like finishing off a downed foe instead of giving them a chance to crawl away. Doing so nets you a shower of rewards, like shiny new guns or credits that can be spent on skill trees that in turn unlock more gear you can buy from vendors. If you want more stuff, you have to abandon mercy.<\/p>\n And stuff <\/em>is king in Marathon<\/em>. Credits are more valuable than humans on Tau Ceti IV. An overflowing vault is a status symbol. Your gear is your life, and if someone takes it all from you, it\u2019s like they\u2019ve stolen your soul. In a world where corporations run the show, you’re worth exactly as much as your loadout\u2019s credit value. Popping into a run with a free Sponsored Kit, a sparse starter pack containing one gun and a few grody healing items, feels like an embarrassment. How undignified is it to take charity scraps from a shady pharmaceutical company!<\/p>\n Everything in Marathon <\/em>is designed to push the limits of your humanity as you struggle to make a decent living…<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n All of that brings a psychology to Marathon <\/em>that sets it apart from other extraction shooters I\u2019ve tried. There are high narrative stakes behind all the looting and backstabbing. If I don\u2019t make desperate moves to get the work done, I\u2019m going to be left behind. In a sharp bit of analysis on the game, ReaderGrev\u2019s Mikhail Kimentov identifies Marathon <\/em>as a darkly comedic satire of the IRL modern gig economy. That read is spot on based on my experience. It\u2019s a game about \u201cget the bag\u201d culture, and the lengths we\u2019re willing to go to in order to survive. Everything in Marathon <\/em>is designed to push the limits of your humanity as you struggle to make a decent living at the expense of people who are more powerful than you\u2019ll ever hope to be.<\/p>\n It\u2019s that narrative grounding that has sucked me into Marathon<\/em>, though it took me a few rounds to fully get there. I spent my first days with it wondering what the point of it all was, just as I have in other extraction shooters. Why fill up my inventory with all this assorted junk? Just so I have a better chance of getting more junk next round? It\u2019s a cyclical loop that begs for some extra motivation in games like this. If you can\u2019t make a convincing case for why I should care, I\u2019m not going to willingly stress myself out. That\u2019s not just something that\u2019s specific to extraction shooters; it applies to any video game. The magic trick of design is finding a way to make the pretend play you\u2019re engaging in meaningful.<\/p>\n I\u2019m continually finding that meaning in Marathon<\/em>. The more I embrace the act of role-playing as a Runner in this hostile world, the more I feel the real anxiety underpinning the action. I feel what it\u2019s like to be a cog in the machine. To be tossed around by corporations. To be so desperate for survival that I\u2019ll do anything to make a buck. I don\u2019t need a video game to show me that when I live it every day, but simulation helps me better understand my resentment by deconstructing it in game design terms. My mentality has slowly evolved alongside the game itself for the past two weeks; I\u2019m gradually becoming radicalized in-universe and waiting for the moment where the Marathon <\/em>community discovers a way to rebel together instead of killing one another. (Though that would require a fairly drastic shift to what Marathon <\/em>is. Catharsis is hard to come by in a live-service machine built to slow-fade rather than crescendo.)<\/p>\n In its most powerful moments, Marathon <\/em>even pushes me to be a more empathetic person. In one round, my team moved towards an exfil beacon after gathering a ton of gear. We were met with gunfire from an assailant we couldn\u2019t see. After taking cover in a building and waiting for our ship to arrive, we decided to make a run for it. After all, you can still escape with your gear even if you\u2019re down so long as you\u2019re in the exit radius. We pushed into the departure circle, and I was shot down immediately. Injured, but still capable of escape. Then my attacker threw a smoke grenade on the exfil, ran in, hit me with a finisher, and disappeared without touching my teammates. \u201cWhy the hell would someone do that?\u201d I thought. It was a ridiculous level of risk just to screw with me specifically.<\/p>\n A few sessions later, I unlocked a new contract from one of my bloodthirsty faction vendors. I had to perform 10 finishers to progress the quest. I instantly remembered my ruthless killer. Maybe they had that same contract active. I pictured them loading into matches, round after round, struggling to pull off the difficult job. The only way out of that dead end was to risk their own life for a few measly credits. Getting turned into swiss cheese by my vengeful teammates would be worth it so long as they checked a box for the people pulling their strings. Hell, that fate might even have been preferable. At least they would have been punished for their sin rather than stuffing the guilt into their vault.<\/p>\n Or maybe they were just an asshole. Maybe I am too.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/marathon-vs-arc-raiders-hauler.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Bungie via Polygon<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2025_dec_marathon_press_kit_compressed_001.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Bungie<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n