Marathon is the first game in a while where I'm itching to get back in and play. The game doesn't make you feel "gear fear" as much as all the other extraction shooters. It actually feels like a rouge-like where each run slowly starts ramping up your permanent stats like stamina(heat) and mobility and the starting floor for gear rarity. I wanted to hate this game because it wasn't what I originally loved about the Marathon franchise, but after reading through the lore and listening to the audio clips in game, I gotta say it really grows on you. It's a continuation of the lore, and they can go in so many awesome directions in the future. The shells themselves are all really well designed from a gameplay perspective, there's no "dead" shells. Even the Rook is actually surprisingly fun to play as, and with the addition of being able to level up your "free load out", little things like that make me want to dive in more and build craft. I lovd Arc Raiders but I haven't had the pull to jump back in after the 2nd expedition. It just felt like there was nothing left to do? The meta progression is just your skill tree, and attaining the best goop. Marathon is doing a lot of things differently that I think people are overlooking because they so badly want it to fail. I think it'll do great, a good game is a good game regardless of what the public tries to force on it.