Matavatar@Matavatar
My thoughts on Marathon :
(Before that, bit of context on my extraction shooter player profile)
I really miss The Cycle Frontier. It was my most favorite Extraction Shooter as it had some of the most innovative mechanics for the genre at the time. The game had lots of "QoL features", yet it was quite hard in terms of survivability. And the pace was really good.
I liked Arc Raiders, but had enough of the game after 1 alpha + 2 beta (prob around 60h total). Third person view + lack of interesting progression (except gear wise) + friendly oriented gameplay didn't hook me mid/long term.
After playing Marathon the whole weekend, I can definitely say it's much more than I thought. First open beta was a shit show, I definitely didn't believe the hype before the server slam considering how bad some meta game decisions were. But this time I'm hooked. Knowing Arc Raiders opened the genre to SO many players and SO many "casual / chill / coop" players, I'm not shocked lots of people are refunding Marathon. It's a very different game, much more difficult both in terms of survivability but also in terms of how un-intuitive things can be.
So here are my lists of cons and pros...
🔻 Cons :
- UI not intuitive (tho you get used to it after ~2h tbh). Some icons are hard to understand at first
- Weapon mods management is horrible (let me drag out mods + inspect weapons mods without having to equip them)
- We need a damage on runners counter in the raid summary
- I'd like to be able to batch sell (can we?)
- I genuinely think we get too much free stuff (especially agents chests)
- First map can feel boring at first. Especially compared to the other two.
- Let me zoom-in on the mini map!
- Vegetation / rocks props definitely aren't as good as interiors
- I'd like to see more UESC non-biped bots types
- Too much turrets on map 3 :')
💚 Pros:
- For the vast majority, PvP feels fair
- PvE is challenging which is good! (C'mon guys, it's really not that hard)
- The game feels very much like a Sandbox. There's a lot of mechanics combo to do
- Raids pacing is on point
- Weapons feel varied in types / gunplay
- I love how attachements make weapons rarer
- At around lvl 30, I've almost exclusively played triage. It's still fun and I still have a lot of fun time ahead discovering other shells gameplay.
- Factions skill trees are well designed and progression is quite deep.
- Meta progression is quite different from other extraction shooters. Which makes the whole thing more interesting to me. Arc Raiders cache progression and loot felt like a chore compared to this one, somehow.
- The more you progress, the more theory crafting you can do with ur shell.
- Rook (scav) cross progression with regular progression is super smart!
I really like how the game makes us find quests objectives! It's not too hard, but also don't put a marker across the map.
- Cool to have a little bit (1/3) of friend's quests xp
- Maps have events! (Most people might not know)
- Map 3 is insane in terms of level design, puzzles and dynamism
- Factions designs are all really cool. Loved their trailers
- Lore is quite deep and I'm enjoying listening to agents between quests
- Codex missions add extra progression and there's free cosmetics to unlock
- Art Direction is insane to me
- In-game atmosphere is really good
- Gameplay sound feels on point for me. Easy to hear enemies and pint point their position.
Can't wait to see what's next!
