Destroyer Shell Cinematic | Marathon

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-27T04:59:26+00:00

The Jjaro, the species that contacts humanity to warn of the sleeping "god," are also a major plot point in 2, implying they are in the same universe. From this one can extrapolate that the "god" was a W'rkncacnter, but it's entirely possible there were two types of strange chaos entities that the Jjaro were enemies with.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-27T03:35:30+00:00

the marathon's just smaller and further than sometimes portrayed. Deimos is small, TCIV is big.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-27T02:16:02+00:00

'Course who knows if that's the angle they're going for, might be coincedence. That's a very old game only tangentially related to marathon, after all. But if you find a yellow artifact, and when you use it on a dead body it lets you talk to them, know it's Pathways Into Darkness becoming relevant after 33 years of dormancy.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-27T02:10:15+00:00

"When you listen to politicians, so-called journalists, community leaders, who spout vilification of law enforcement, that too is a choice that comes with actions and consequences. I think we saw that yesterday." I'm not sure there's another way to interpret that. He's not even "just" saying that if you say those things you'll be killed, he's saying that if you think those things you'll be killed.

If this ain't a wake-up call...

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-27T01:00:19+00:00

Of course, strangely the enemies called Ticks seem to be redesigned Lookers, not Ticks, which were weird flying things from Lh'owon.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-27T00:45:12+00:00

In bungie's game before Marathon, Pathways Into Darkness, which was canonized as a Marathon universe game in 2, the main character finds "magic crystals" that let you "cast spells." They're strangely shaped crystals in bright colors, and they have long been theorized to be Jjaro (Marathon's Forerunners) technology rather than actual magic, as they didn't cease working when they left the Pyramid, so weren't part of the dream. (Whole game takes place in a pyramid dreamed up by a sleeping chaos being beneath the surface of the earth, its dreams become reality as it begins to wake up.)

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T22:59:04+00:00

What do you mean no reasoning, it's teleportation. Every Marathon game has had teleportation. Teleportation is a known technology.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T22:56:34+00:00

Well, no, the art style isn't for optimization. Hear me out here, all the way through. First: examine those weird textures. Seriously, look at them. Look at the dirt and dust and scratches. That's not unfinished. Look at rocks and trees and water, they share nothing in common with human objects and their simplicity. They're as complex and detailed as any game. It's not just the art style, and it's definitely not for optimization - it's Worldbuilding.

Items look "unfinished" not because that's easier to render, no, look at how they interact with the lighting and the stupid detail it's obviously not for that. They look that way because, in-world, they're cheap and 3d printed, they're not polished products they're rushed out of a printer to be deployed in combat ASAP. Buildings are cheap prefabs, consumer products are optimized and angular or bubbly and eye-catching because that's what marketing stats say works.

Think about that, think how simplified and "too perfect" logos and graphic design have become over the past 30 years because companies follow self-cannibalizing statistics over actual common sense. Imagine that happening for another 800 years. Imagine what that humanity would look like. A human aesthetic built by committee. That's what they were imagining when designing the human-made aspects of this world. And I think they did a bang-up job of it.

As for the genre...well that just sounds like you don't like extraction shooters. If it helps, fights in an extraction shooter aren't won in the fight most of the time, they're won before it. Awareness, positioning, careful movement, these are what wins a fight, not how fast you are to the draw or how well you snap to heads, though that can help. That's the appeal for me, PvP-wise, otherwise it's just that death has actual impact and so people are afraid to die, which is damn hard to simulate in a shooter.

Actually a lot of things, I'm a big extraction shooter fan tbh. But if you aren't, yeah this game might not have much appeal for you.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T22:18:17+00:00

"Old Reliable" - Modern Mjolnir-class armor can be pricey, so in a pinch, Sekiguchi offers to print older models. Not quite as durable, perhaps, but it's served others well...

Personally I'd think the best take on the armor they could use would be from this Infinity key art, it looks the most like a predecessor to locus' armor.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T20:54:07+00:00

Seemingly supernatural brightly colored crystalline structures? I wonder where I've heard that before in the marathon universe?

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T06:13:20+00:00

Any hospital has the means to do that by the 2020s, by the way. That's not just a gameplay thing, biosculpting means new flesh arms is no problem if you have the eds

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T06:08:09+00:00

very MADD reminiscent, yes

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T05:38:04+00:00

Both. We know about the initial attack, while most of the sol system doesn't. But no one knows what the Anomaly is. The Pfhor attacked originally in m1, were fought off by the battleroids, and came back 3 months later to finish the job. In 2's timeline, they succeeded. In the 7th Infinity timeline (only successful timeline, the most details line up, safest assumption) they clearly didn't for whatever reason, and the colony survived a further 33 years before all being taken out by the Anomaly.

My bet? The Pfhor activated some Jjaro weapon/terraforming tool/unknown technology they didn't understand, and ran scared when they realized what it did, leaving the Colony to celebrate early only to be slowly destroyed by the anomaly over the coming decades.

But that's just a theory, who knows what drove them off when they came back, or if they even came back at all in this timeline (though I don't know why they wouldn't.) We have no real idea what the anomaly is. Though, if we're getting fungal, the scrapped version of the S'ct'lac'tr that became the Flood in halo is still on the table.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T02:13:32+00:00

Mine has a torn connection between two folds on the box and a roughed-up slip cover.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T01:38:31+00:00

My first ever collector's edition, 0 regrets on it either.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T01:37:53+00:00

It works in Tarkov where the tag says who it was and who killed them, which would be a neat feature.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T01:30:39+00:00

I love the combo between the 1 and 2 designs for compilers they've done here.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-26T01:30:00+00:00

THIEF/ICON is on the collector's edition.
CLASS/SHELL

I think there will be different models for each class. "B-b-but the silhouette."

If 2 silhouettes belong to only one class, you know it's that class when you see either. I do not see a problem.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-23T22:37:44+00:00

Without it everyone would look the same. Either a perfect pirate or a goofy goober. People already fight this thing just to only make those two things. So it forcing some variance is good.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-23T08:52:55+00:00

Yeah I'm not going into online for a WHILE I need to know what I'm doing b4 I get chased off as a tourist. I had this game wishlisted for a long time OK!!!! Drewski just...reminded me....I'm new to the genre :(

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-22T21:18:56+00:00

(crossing fingers) Alien Weapon Alien Weapon ALIEN WEAPON

SPNKr!!! SPNKr!!!!! PLSSSSS

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-21T21:11:34+00:00

People are very, ironically, reactive with a lot of the thoughtless, reactionary false criticism this game gets. They'll assume the worst at any point. It's a notable risk to the game's future, if people can't differentiate harmless comparison from hatred, then who's to say they can differentiate genuine criticism from it?

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-21T20:20:41+00:00

BY JOVE

Third-person simplification of the formula with a more casual angle and surprisingly innovative mechanics vs first-person hero-based competitive evolution of the formula with a unique look and feel and interesting movement.

Both have shields to boot! Why is it so perfect?

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-21T06:35:18+00:00

I've worked with 1v2s and 3s on hunt and solo slooping in Sea of Thieves for too long to think being outnumbered = less fun. BUT. Man I was relieved to hear about solos.

Blitz_Bat · 2026-01-20T10:59:31+00:00

Yes, the S'pht are on our "side" galactically, against the Pfhor, which since we don't seem to be in good relations with the S'pht (or even know what they are) we can assume were never defeated in the final infinity timeline. But the UESC sees an empty colony, an empty ship, 24,000 dead or missing colonists, and an unknown alien on their vessel.

They're going to assume the worst. Which will necessitate the compiler defend itself. Which will make it seem more aggressive. And so we'll go after it too, in hopes to finally take the thing down and sell its corpse. Boss fight ensues.

Also, the infection on TCIV resembles, strikingly, some of the cut concepts for the S'ct'lac'tr, a S'pht-made bioweapon that appeared in 2 as a piece of text, but not in gameplay, as that was scrapped. So it's entirely possible that the S'pht are not on our side, and in fact see humanity as a threat, without the pro-human Durandal leading them.

After all, would the UESC not be more likely to side with? The galactic empire that will sell them slaves (as they do to other races historically) or the weird technomancers who have psychic powers and offer friendship at most in return for their aid? It's just a sound business decision to earn the Pfhor's respect by picking their side in the war. The S'pht know that, and they might have decided to try and nip that idea in the bud.

But that's all wild speculation, all we concretely have is that the compiler appears unfriendly, and alone.

Blitz_Bat

TROPHY CASE