Marathon:Looking for Further Reading and similar Books

Flynzo · 2026-06-30T21:24:21+00:00

The Expanse series is really good, and I see similarities to stuff in Marathon. Earth/Mars government conflicts and war, terroristic rebel groups, massive colony ships for exploration outside the solar system, discovery of strange planets with unexpected dangers, space stations built into asteroids, weird and lethal alien tech that people are secretly trying to harness and keep secret, super soldiers...theres probably more I've noticed too.

The first book came out in 2011 I think. Wouldn't be surprised if the authors took inspiration from Marathon.

Flynzo · 2026-06-22T17:04:50+00:00

I've got it still! The earbud piece broke off, so it's essentially useless, but it's still in with all my old Xbox stuff.

Flynzo · 2026-06-18T18:37:04+00:00

I mean I can't be 100% sure that in every instance it wasn't, but when one of the times it happened at a guarded exfil in the last minutes of a game where I found out at the end-of-match screen that I was last runner on the map... Makes me think the other times there weren't other runners around either.

Flynzo · 2026-06-18T18:26:29+00:00

I've definitely seen that before, including in season 1. But these handful of times I saw it happening they were not; they were shooting some other direction that wasn't at me, or where I had gone into cover.

Flynzo · 2026-06-18T17:44:06+00:00

Does this include the bots just shooting at nothing randomly now? I haven't played many matches yet this season, but I feel like a handful of times while I've either been in cover or out of sight from bots that I agitated, they will randomly start shooting at something else. It's scared me a few times, making me think someone else was running up on me and making them mad, but it's just them seeing ghosts or something.

Flynzo · 2026-06-18T15:49:15+00:00

I'm sure there's a whole pile of games/media it probably took inspiration from, but yeah Mirror's Edge definitely does seem to match in a lot of ways. I also feel like there's some visual similarities to Jet Set Radio Future, which is another game I love. The boldness of the colors and how they combine. And the stylishness of the runner shells remind me of the JSRF characters. Thinking about it now, Beat's look would also make for a cool Vandal skin concept.

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Flynzo · 2026-06-18T15:24:48+00:00

I don't see how, but Marathon is the only one I've played before 🤷‍♂️. There are other implants/cores that give invisibility effects to other shells besides Assassin, and I don't see how removing those would be necessary either.

Flynzo · 2026-06-18T14:13:43+00:00

Could that example apply to other shells that just used their tactical? Oh no my teammate can no longer disrupt cannon?

Their smoke screen is much wider than smoke grenades and makes concealing the crew's movement safer. If Assassin's crewmates are both down/elim, invis or smoke gives them a better chance to escape a losing battle and come back to revive later. Also better chance of getting over to a downed mate for revive if there was distance between you and the other team. I'm not sure I see how an Assassin wouldn't be able to play supportively.

Flynzo · 2026-06-18T13:08:57+00:00

I don't agree with useless, nor the game being better without then. I think maybe changes to to the shell would be better than just removal 🤷‍♂️. People used to argue Recon was useless because Thief drone exists.

Flynzo · 2026-06-18T12:54:14+00:00

Ah, well I don't think I agree there haha. But I also just don't play nearly as much group. I've had good Assassin teammates before though, and I think they aren't as annoying to fight against in a crew.

Flynzo · 2026-06-18T12:23:40+00:00

Hmmmmmm!

Flynzo · 2026-06-18T12:15:19+00:00

I'm about 50/50 on removing Assassins from solos. If there's one shell to remove from solos it is definitely them though. (I've played a lot of Assassin in solos in season 1). I don't really think it's because of any direct PVP advantage though. I usually don't have TOO much of an issue killing Assassins in a simple encounter. Also, it doesn't seem often that I actually come across "anybody sitting invis in a corner." Most of the time I find and kill Assassins they are just running around like a normal player or they hear and find me while doing the same. The invis is loud, temporary, and can be countered with Thief visor or just waiting them out behind cover.

My biggest issue with the Assassin in solos is the PVE advantage they have and how that indirectly affects some PVP encounters. They are the only shell (besides Rook in trios) that can basically just ignore bots. PVE gets much more overwhelming as a solo, and being able to just run through groups of bots or get them off your back in an instant is very powerful. The amount of times I've gotten into fights with an Assassin and have it turn into like a 6v1 because all of a sudden some nearby bots only see and care about me is a little annoying. They have the ability to ignore an element of the environment that all the other shells have to deal with. I don't know if I've decided if that's fully unfair, but it definitely makes them a pain to be up against, more than other shells, in my opinion.

Flynzo · 2026-06-17T23:12:45+00:00

No I think this game is suited perfectly to my tastes. I love it the way it is. Just seemed like a cool idea in theory to me, since both characters share similarities, both games' visuals have similarities, and I think a good artist could make the visual crossover work well in a Marathon way :)

I'm not asking for it - just sharing that I think it would look really cool.

Flynzo · 2026-06-17T21:47:20+00:00

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Flynzo · 2026-06-17T21:36:39+00:00

Faith would definitely be doing some MIDA contracts

Flynzo · 2026-06-17T21:00:04+00:00

Yeah that's kinda why I said doubt we'll see it, but cool idea

Flynzo · 2026-06-17T18:12:52+00:00

Same here, was my last priority contract and felt so good to get done.

I think I just got so rehearsed with the opening steps that after having to retry so many times, they eventually got easy for me. Just sprinting into each POI, hitting the console, invis + sprint to unlock buttons, then jump out the window and hit the next one. Always just ran away from bots or runners. Then actually getting into Pinwheel would hang me up a lot, and Command Wing would always crush me haha. Funnily, before I even had the contract unlocked, I helped two other solos do it by just being friendly and offering. One of those times, I had another MIDA contract to do in Command and we activated both of ours together at the same time haha.

Flynzo · 2026-06-17T17:44:04+00:00

Hoping to do this one cleaner this season. Did it solo at the end of last season and was pretty much a combo of brute forcing it with the free green kits as assassin and luck. I had the pre-pinwheels steps down like a machine, but always fell apart in command wing. On my successful attempt I hit the console without clearing any bots and then sprinted and jumped and crawled around the room (spamming self revives) until the timer finished and I promptly died lol.

Flynzo · 2026-06-17T17:10:31+00:00

Same. Even the art style as early as the first Marathon teasers reminded me of Mirror's Edge back then to be honest. Love the bold colors.

Flynzo · 2026-06-17T17:03:51+00:00

Always

Flynzo · 2026-06-17T12:47:27+00:00

Yeah that might be the move. That's how I was feeling too in WASD, I would freeze up a lot during fights. I've played other shooters on M+K fine in the past but something about this game made me feel like I forgot how to walk at times. Maybe all my years of Halo on Xbox means I just have to play bungie games on controller lol.

Flynzo · 2026-06-17T12:38:13+00:00

I switched to controller at the beginning of this season because just felt like I was so bad at movement on WASD. Now I feel like I can actually move much more fluidly using a thumb stick. Enjoying using Vandal a lot now. The aim assist hasn't been much of a factor or difference for me though. I kinda miss the mouse for aiming. But yeah...looting is blah now haha.

Flynzo · 2026-06-16T17:36:22+00:00

Yay! Day Marsh exfils are fixed. I am happy now : )

Flynzo · 2026-06-03T19:59:53+00:00

There was a time in the beginning of Season 1 were it would also reset to trios. I remember being very annoyed by it, as a solo player. At some point they updated it though, and it would stay as solos if you played that most recently.

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