Latest news with #MarathonBungie
Forbes
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
It May Be Too Late To Fix Marathon's Core Problem
Marathon Bungie Marathon just extended its Closed Alpha for a couple more days, today making the AI more dangerous and unlocking a lot of upgrades for players so they can experience 'late season' play. They are allegedly sending out more invites for what they say will be a 'stress test,' but I'll believe that when I see it. There have been many positive and negative takeaways from the Closed Alpha of Marathon. The fact that it is a Closed Alpha means that many things can definitely be fixed by launch, whether that's weapon/class balance or the visual polish it needs. But a recurring issue that keeps coming up among players does not seem like it's something that will be addressed anywhere close to launch, and Bungie has said as much. That's the idea of playing Marathon solo, which often has the potential to be deeply un-fun for different reasons. There is no dedicated solos mode in Marathon. If you want to play by yourself, you either matchmake with randoms or you load in by yourself to a 3s game, with no one filling your other slots. That's it. Marathon Bungie The problems are clear with either option. Sure, it's certainly possible to have a good experience with randoms. I've had a few. But the nature of the game A) makes it way too risky and B) is formatted to work counter to this concept in the first place. This is not a battle royale or hero shooter where you partner with randoms and you win or lose, big deal. If your team fails to communicate or your partners simply throw a game, you will lose all your gear, as is the nature of the genre. It's a lot of trust to place in teammates you have met roughly eight seconds ago. These games can be great! But they can also be disasters where it will feel like you lost everything due to no fault of your own. Secondly, the way contracts work in Marathon actually encourages your team to work counter toward each other's goals if you have to go to one POI and someone else has to go to another one across the map. Either someone doesn't get their thing done, or you split up and inevitably lose. Nearly every contract I've done is like this to some degree, which is why I eventually just loaded in solo. Which leads me to… Truly solo play is harrowing, which can be fun, but it gets old quickly. You scurry around the map avoiding both AI, who can burn all your resources and overwhelm you, or other 3s teams, who will almost certainly kill you unless they are outrageously awful. It can feel good to get a few cool things and get out without being seen, but after a half dozen games like that it loses its luster quickly. Marathon Bungie It does not seem wise to me to design a game around the concept of playing with two actual friends on comms, and all the experiences outside of that being significantly lacking. Sure, playing with friends is always more fun in any game, but here, it feels mandatory in a way that is too demanding, as you'll need to convince two friends to both buy it and be able to play at the drop of a hat, or risk a much worse experience. The average age of a gamer now is what, 35? We've got stuff to do, man. We need at least options for a game like this. The problem is Bungie appears to be nowhere near addressing this in a meaningful way. Interviews repeatedly stress that the game has been designed with teams in mind and while they're not saying they'll never do solos, it doesn't seem in the cards for anywhere close to launch. Rather, they talk about improving the solo experience for when say, the rest of your team is dead. Great. Bungie says they would have to rebalance and redevelop all the spawns and gear and such on the maps, which were designed for 3s, and they said when they tested solos it was too much ghosting around with Void and barely any fighting. So when you don't develop a game to accommodate solos in any sense, you get a situation like this. And that does not seem like it can be fundamentally changed. Even if Bungie does add solos eventually (in a game not designed for it), this will come when, six months, a year after launch? That's a big ask for players who have avoided the game thus far because it lacks that kind of play to return for a mode that should have been there at launch. It's weird. Bungie designed this game to be overly social with this massive advantage playing with friends, but also anti-social in the sense that they didn't put in proximity chat. But for most players hopping in solo, I'm afraid that they may bounce off pretty quickly. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder
Forbes
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Marathon' Should Be Delayed In The Wake Of Its Closed Alpha
Marathon Bungie Marathon is now on its sixth day of its Closed Alpha, the test featuring tens of thousands of players with many more than that still are waiting to be let in. But even as new codes have been issued (and more are coming today), over this incredibly short period of time, interest has dropped dramatically, now less that 25% of what it was on launch day, The numbers falling each consecutive day, even over the weekend when those figures would normally surge. That may change with more codes issued today, but again, we already had one wave of that and it didn't change this trajectory. This, plus experiencing the game myself for close to 20 hours now, comes to one conclusion: Marathon is not ready for release in just five months. It needs way more time to 'cook,' as they say. Now, I'm going to stop you right there. You're about to say 'well this is an Alpha, don't you know what an Alpha is?' But the expectations I'm seeing from this group are too high. People are mixing up what 'being in Alpha' is compared to a preview Alpha. I'm even hearing people citing the GTA 6 leaks as some sort of evidence that gamers 'don't understand' development. Generally, that is true, but if you think this current Closed Alpha is comparable to leaked years-old footage of an in-development game, that is not what this is. Bungie has already told us what's coming. Visual polish, sandbox balancing, new gear, two new heroes, one new map. If you think there's some secret 50% of the game that Bungie isn't talking about that's coming for launch, I have some bad news. Marathon Bungie It's four months until the beta which will serve as essentially a fully developed ad for launch. This is not enough time to see the kind of changes that will dramatically increase interest. And I'm telling you, based on what I'm seeing from those who have been let into the game, interest needs to be dramatically increased. I don't think Marathon should be released until 2026, and it may even need something as significant as a 4-6 month delay past its September target. This would be a way to potentially address significant issues with the game, including but not limited to: Picking a Lane – Marathon needs to ultimately decide if it's going to make changes to make it an even more hardcore extraction shooter to go more directly after the Tarkov-like playerbase, or if it's going head the other direction to make an extraction shooter even more accessible than what we're seeing here, and for a period of time past the initial few weeks of launch. That may include some of the following. Solo Players – It is abundantly clear this is quickly going to be a game where you're running with a team of friends, who also must be convinced to spend $40 on Marathon, or you're not running it much at all. Random teams have counter-objectives when it comes to contracts or looting patterns. Solo players locked into 3s games are limited to skulking around in the shadows which can be fun for a while, but it's going to get old when you keep running into teams that will often auto-nuke you. This has to change in some capacity, quickly. Marathon Bungie The Magical Fourth Map – This map has been hyped up by playtesters as the thing to make Marathon stand out in this space, but it's not something arriving at launch. But if you push launch, there's probably enough time to get that ready (or even more than one cool map) even if the initial plan is to make it some sort of unlocked community puzzle, which is what I hear. Plans need to change. The Price – I'm extremely concerned about the conversion from a sought-after Closed Alpha to an Open Beta to a release that will then demand a $40 asking price at the end of the tunnel. It's a way to limit cheaters and promote a 'premium' product, but it's also a way to get a fraction of people playing your game in a sea of f2p alternatives. It is much harder than you might imagine to flip to f2p, but a delay would at least give it a chance to do that if that trigger was pulled. For months now I've heard about the push and pull of Bungie wanting more time for development, a 2026 launch, and Sony effectively demanding a 2025 launch. That's great Sony, but read the room. The publisher is on exceptionally thin ice when it comes to its live service ambitions with big cancelled games and the most spectacular launch failure of all time in Concord. Marathon needs to be given every possible chance to succeed and making Bungie crunch to fix things and throwing it into the wolves as a fall release (one that's literally on the same day as Borderlands 4, mind you) would be a pathetic excuse for support. Marathon Bungie None of this guarantees success. A six month delay, a year delay, you are still fundamentally trying to convince both casual and hardcore players to play this kind of extraction shooter, and that's not changing. But the game will be in a much worse position if it's forced out five months from now instead of taking a lot of time to absorb Alpha and Beta feedback and address larger, obvious issues. It would be nice if this was one of these 'the launch wasn't good but it got really good with more time' before launch happens instead of waiting for that inevitable reaction. I don't have a great feeling about any of this, honestly, but I do not think this game is in a position to have a strong launch in September, Alpha or not. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder
Forbes
25-04-2025
- Forbes
Bungie Addresses ‘Marathon' PC Aimbotting, Solos Mode
Marathon Bungie The Marathon Closed Alpha has been live for two days now, and has opened up to a good amount of players, but not enough for those who are still missing keys. There has been a lot of commentary about the first impressions the game has made, but a couple of issues above others. First is the realization that PC has severe aim assist with mouse and keyboard, leading shooter players to say it's essentially a built-in aimbot, and it's turned off many from the game. But this is where 'it's an Alpha' mode comes in, and after this feedback, it's already clear that this is going to be scaled back. Here's Gameplay Director Andrew Watts on the issue: 'This is something we're trying out as a lever to keep the parity close between mouse and keyboard and controller. We want to get it out and get a feeling for it right now. We don't think it's in the most perfect spot or anything.' 'We're definitely trying to get folks' reactions to this as a lever for getting more parity without losing the skill ceiling and skill expression that you get with the input of your choosing whether it be mouse and keyboard or controller. That's why it's a setting you can turn on and off. We know there are players who don't want any kind of assistance with their aim and want that raw input feel, so that's why it's a toggle in the menu. We're not trying to make it a must-pick kind of thing. This is us getting it out there to get some thoughts on and iterate from there.' Marathon Bungie The goal of the aim assist was clearly to create some amount of parity with console players and their controllers given that the game will be cross-play. But this seems like a dramatic overcorrection and saying that 'it's a toggle' is not remotely a fix for the problem, as then you are just purposefully handicapping yourself against console and especially other PC players who are almost certainly not going to switch it off. The goal, however, does seem to be to scale it back, but it almost certainly will not be removed entirely, as that is not the case with PC Destiny 2. Though there it's nowhere near this intense. The other request is for a Solos mode, as right now, the only solo play you can do is loading into a normally 3s match by yourself. Lots of tension, perhaps, but far from a level playing field. But Solos does not seem to be in the cards anytime remotely soon. Here's Game Director Joe Ziegler: 'For launch, we're not going to have a solo. But what I mean by we're not going to have solo queue is that you can queue solo in our game — it's just we're not going to have solo-only lobbies. Part of it is there's just a lot of things we'd have to pretty massively adjust about the maps, the loot pool, and the balance of Runners in that kind of mode. Right now, we've mostly designed the game around there being trios or variables.' It's been said that they tried this but it just didn't work as it was mostly just Voids sneaking around being invisible avoiding other players. So it's more than just flipping a switch and throwing 18 solos in a map together to make this work. So one of these may be fixed for Alpha, the other may be years off, if it happens as well. We'll see what else changes from here. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Forbes
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Good And Bad Of The ‘Marathon' Alpha, So Far
Marathon Bungie Bungie reversed course on its idea that it would make tens of thousands of players sign an NDA not to record, stream or even talk about its Marathon Closed Alpha, and now I am able to do things like say, write this article about the game's strengths and weaknesses, as I see them, from this initial run at the game. But first, two disclaimers. 1) I am not an extraction shooter player. If you do not want to listen to anything I'm saying here because of that, that's totally fine. But I am going to try to keep my take on the genre out of this and not say things like 'it's bad you lose all your loot, it should not do that.' I get it, it's a different genre. 2) This is an Alpha, things will change. But we can only judge based on what we're playing here and we do not know exactly what will change. More things will be added, so I won't complain about a limited gun pool, for instance, but other things, we just don't know. So, let's go: Marathon Bungie The Interiors – I will get to the exteriors later, as it may not surprise you that those are in a different category. But the interiors is the one aspect of Marathon that I think has fully lived up to the art direction in the marketing, and some of these spaces are deeply cool. I love finding new ones, and in general, I really do like the expansive color palette which significantly stands out in the multiplayer space. UESC Bots – Killing bots is a fun dynamic, especially when they are more than purely fodder and can ruin your day if you don't pay attention to thinning their ranks. This can turn into truly PvPvE when they show up during a teamfight. Void Invisible Assassination – I've really enjoyed playing as Void so far and my favorite thing to do is stealth and go around knifing people or bots with an actually viable melee strategy. My favorite moment of the Alpha so far was getting in a harrowing knife fight with a UESC Commander which, surprisingly, I won. Marathon Bungie Glitch Mobility – There are a lot of complaints about combat in the game being slow, but Glitch feels like the one character that changes that with her super slides and double jumps, and even if I miss Void knifing, I've enjoyed playing her, heat issues aside (more on that later). Factions – I like this whole system, from the lore to the permanent upgrades to the care packages. It gives you goals to work toward even if you're not doing amazing extractions all the time (though obviously you will have to extract things for them at times). Map Events – This can range from anomalies to mass UESC invasion to creepy lore things like voices hacking into your comms. I'd like to see more of this and it does seem like more is coming as the game expands. Music and Sound Design - It's incredible in every way, possibly the single best aspect of the entire game right now. Marathon Bungie Exteriors and Character Models – As good as interiors look, both interiors and character models just look awful right now. This does in fact seem to be an Alpha thing to a certain extent, but the textures and lighting here is bizarre, with so many things so flat and smooth it often feels like these aspects of the game haven't fully loaded in yet. What they've done with exteriors I badly need them to do with interiors. Same for character models which can genuinely look like Roblox characters at times, especially the UESC. PC Aimbot – Easily the most common complaint about playing on PC, where in an effort to balance combat with controllers, PC players have been gifted an aimbot that means you more or less cannot miss your targets. This makes firefights all about who fires first, more or less, and skill is mainly about getting the drop on people rather than being good at actual gunplay. I expect this to be toned down after the Alpha as it is the primary feedback for combat. Heat – I do understand that stamina, in this case heat, is a part of extraction games, which is fine, and I know you upgrade it in time. But with how little mobility baseline combat has already, things like a single slide burning through half your heat does not feel good, and especially hamstrings characters like Glitch who are supposed to be built around that kind of thing. It feels overly punishing. Marathon Bungie FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Too Much Freezing – Again, extraction-y things a bit here, but there is a lot of dead time spent pausing, going through drops, waiting for things to load, trying to select certain things over others from dead enemies. And you cannot do things like move while the map is up. I understand that it makes you vulnerable, but it feels like a bit much when there's so much looting and this state feels like half a run. No Solos - The only solo option being to load into a normal 3s game by yourself is bad. Not just in terms of people not wanting to play 3s, but there are so many missions and objectives that require going to specific POIs and doing specific events and if you're playing with randoms there's often just no way to convince them to do that. You really need a friend team to do those things with any efficiency. Apex-ish – I know some people hate this comparison already, but it is hard to get it out of my head that these 3v3 fights feel like a slower version of Apex Legends with less mobility and more aimbotting. The encounters don't feel unique compared to anything adjacent to this genre, and generally speaking are less fun that what Bungie has done in Halo or Destiny relative to its competitive there. I do not mind the slower pace of a run in general, but this feels pretty deritivate. The Hook? – Ultimately I'm not really sure why I'd play Marathon specifically over other multiplayer games. I was hoping Bungie would break out and do something hugely different with the genre, but that doesn't appear to be the case, at least right now. It feels mainly like a more 'mainstream' extraction shooter mainly trying to appeal to console players where that is close to a non-existent market. But after the massive franchises of Destiny and Halo, this feels like it's missing the Bungie of it all. I'm still playing, I will keep playing, and these thoughts will change in time. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Forbes
23-04-2025
- General
- Forbes
Can't Get Into The ‘Marathon' Closed Alpha? You're Not Alone
Marathon Bungie's Marathon Closed Alpha begins later today, starting at 1 PM ET. But it's not exactly a celebratory day for everyone. Some people will not make it into the Closed Alpha, at least not right away, and I mean that in two different ways, and both may prove to be frustrating for players. The first issue is the total number of Closed Alpha codes that have gone out. While I kept seeing people on my timeline or in comments celebrating that they finally got their code in their email, that was clearly skewed toward the positive, rather than those still waiting for codes. Best I can tell, there is a significant majority of Closed Alpha code applicants that have not received a Closed Alpha code despite applying, and despite there being at least two major waves of codes being issued so far. I just ran a poll on Twitter from my heavily Bungie-centric follower base, and the ratio that has emerged with thousands of votes in is about 80/20 in favor of not getting a code after application. 82% to 18%, to be exact. While I figured that Bungie would slowly spool up invites over time, they have not been spooled up enough to accommodate a majority of applicants, possibly not even close, so you're not alone there if you're stranded without a code. It is not impossible that more codes will be issued over the course of the Alpha, but I would not rely on that happening. At this point, it seems like Bungie may be straining itself to even accommodate those who have gotten in, which leads me to my next point. There may be a significant delay in getting into the Closed Alpha today even if your code is ready to go. Bungie has issued a statement that they will have a population cap when it goes live at 1 PM ET, so you may have to wait an indefinite amount of time to get in: 'For everyone eager to dive into the Marathon Closed Alpha tomorrow, we will be implementing a population cap when we go live at 10AM PT. We will slowly raise the cap and allow more players to join while we run some technical tests. We expect to have room for everyone who has access, but if you plan on playing right when the gates open, you may have to wait a bit as we get everyone in. We appreciate your patience and look forward to running Tau Ceti IV with you.' So if you've found this post and are wondering why you can't get in yet, this is why. I'm also at least a tiny bit concerted when they say they 'expect' to have room for everyone who has access, implying there's a chance they don't, but hopefully they will. If you're missing this Closed Alpha, as it appears a number of you are, there will be an Open Beta in the coming months, August, I've been told. Until then, you'll have to live vicariously through streams, which I know is not what you were hoping for. We'll see if more codes go out, but don't bank on it. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
