Marathon Packs All The Best Destiny 2 Features With One of Its Worst

Summary

Marathon shares key features with Destiny 2, such as buildcrafting and seasonal storytelling.
Marathon is set to be a premium game, possibly priced around $40 at launch.
The game is team-based, potentially alienating solo players due to the lack of a solo queue.

Today was a big day for Bungie and Destiny 2 fans, as the Sony-acquired studio finally unveiled the gameplay of its upcoming FPS PvP extraction shooter Marathon. Although the game underwent significant changes over time, with rumors placing it as a hero shooter game at some point and a change in its director, Marathon promises to be an exciting release for Destiny 2 fans due to which features they share. Even if they are fundamentally different games, there is quite a lot of Destiny 2 DNA in Bungie’s new shooter, but this can be a double-edged sword considering one big aspect of the game.

So far, the game has yet to receive all of its content in its alpha state, and only four Runners are currently playable and Marathon will launch with three maps, with a fourth coming later on. This has already sparked debate about the title’s price, as it is confirmed to be a premium game but not a full-priced one, meaning it may be in the ballpark of $40 at launch. Today’s livestream included a developer interview alongside a lot of gameplay sequences, and it seems to have some of the best Destiny 2 features, but also one of its worst.

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Marathon is History Repeating Itself After Destiny 2’s Trials of Osiris

Marathon will include buildcrafting, character customization, an immersive setting with seasonal storytelling, account-wide progression, new maps and updates periodically, in-game events, and bounties. These are some of the best parts of Destiny 2‘s endgame and current business model, but they come alongside the odd choice of making Marathon a team-based extraction looter with 3-player squads with a solo-player option. The reason this is a problem is that solo-playing is not encouraged by Bungie, and not only that, but there is no solo queue, and players will always either join other teams via matchmaking or go against matchmade/premade squads.

This is reminiscent of Trials of Osiris in Destiny 2, a game mode for 3-player teams with proper no solo queue, in the sense that players can very much go in solo but should not expect to be paired against matchmade teams. Instead, most of the matches are against premade squads of two or three, which inherently gives these players an edge over solo gamers – and Marathon is set to follow in these footsteps. Some Runners even have support-oriented abilities, making Marathon a game that is designed to be played in teams, no matter what. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is not good news for solo players or those who don’t already have friends and family to play with.

Marathon: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Giving players options to customize their character’s appearance as well as what they are capable of in terms of gameplay is a great addition to Marathon, and Destiny 2‘s builds have proven as much over time. Likewise, despite the FOMO-inducing nature of Destiny 2‘s seasons and episodes, many fans enjoy the way seasonal storytelling works. Features like constant updates with new content and progression regardless of the success or failure of a given extraction are great to see in Marathon.

Yet, even with its PvE elements and bounty-specific progression, Marathon remains a PvP-focused game, and building its entire identity on teams of three players can be in part problematic. For example, Elden Ring Nightreign‘s approach to multiplayer can make it hard for it to fulfill the needs of different types of players, such as those who like to play in pairs. Marathon can have the same problem, and it can be all the more complex to justify solo runs in this specific case. Given how negative the experience has historically been for solo players in Destiny 2‘s PvP, it doesn’t seem that Marathon will be doing them any favors – and in turn, this may be a sizeable downside for those still on the fence.