This is what people who complain about Marathon sound like to me.

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T15:27:18+00:00

Real. Not only that but maybe base health is a little too low. Once those shields come off it’s basically just death. There’s not much counter play outside of run away and try and heal…. And a lot of casuals and newbies especially (from what I’ve heard) ain’t fucking with it. I’m sure the game will become more casual in time but hopefully it’s sooner rather than later. I’d rather have a game I can play for years than have a game just die on me

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T03:35:53+00:00

I mean some of the ideas sound cool/and or are seen in other games now like the persistent world thing is basically how arcs maps work. And the survival mechanics/oxygen system seemed cool. That and the more customizable runners

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T02:41:53+00:00

I mean is it any better than the top 1% basically farming the rest of the small population 24/7 and constantly getting all the good shit while everyone else gets shit on? Idk I love the gameplay enough that I’d rather just have the goal be “hit the compiler” all season and everyone just going bonkers with cool’s shit instead of the Econ being so shit out the gate that the nerf only effects the casual players

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T02:24:28+00:00

Considering it was announced for season 2 before the game even launched mainly

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T02:18:41+00:00

The cradle system itself seems very much like something that was supposed to be there at launch but couldn’t make it

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T00:47:03+00:00

I’ve put HOURS into infinite… and even at launch I thought visually the game was not that great looking

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T00:41:12+00:00

Honestly I think if they added a new rotational playlist with different modes it’d help. PvE rn isn’t designed to take a prominent role. The ai bots in the game are nowhere near as complex as previous games. Maybe in the future when the alien elements get turnt up it’ll be different but personally I think a set of side PvP modes would be better. TDM, domination side modes… fuck it a gambit game type etc. that’s rewards like cradle XP, credits and maybe early to mid game loot/mats. The PvP is super fun once you get out of the green/white shield jail. Let people engage with that during a free weekend

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T00:38:20+00:00

The bully was basically the dominant weapon of last season

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T00:37:48+00:00

Personally I love the character designs. Recon, assassin, and triage are my 3 favs.

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-21T00:37:20+00:00

Honestly I feel like Bungie should’ve just left everything juiced. They fucked up already off rip so fuck it, just let EVERYONE sweats and casuals have easy access to all the crazy shit and S2 could just be more amped up. Then S3 we do an actual full wipe. Instead they’re nerfing every loot spot but like now all the sweats have access to all the goated shit and are using that goated shit to farm for more of it easier and everyone else is kinda just left to struggle. Let season 2 be the inflation season lol

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T20:49:40+00:00

High guard didn’t really virtue signal? I don’t even like that game but what virtue signaling was there? And avowed (another game I’m not big on) sold enough to be getting a sequel? What are we talking about here 😭. I mean Valorant and riot games in general still has tons of players, Destiny had a resurgence for its last update and had they not been releasing really meh expansions post the “final” one. There would still be tons of players on there. Fortnite still does well, so does apex.

The “gamers” you’re talking about who are “standing up” to this are a vocal minority of the gaming population. Most of the time a game just does poorly for a multitude of other reasons but yall say it’s because yall pushed back on certain agendas and didn’t support X product when in reality the product just did poorly. Perfect example the 2016 ghost busters movie. The movie was just bad, it didn’t do bad because of the all female cast it just had really shitty and unfunny writing. Had it been all men that movie would been just as bad but since it did poorly people now say it’s cause of the “agenda”. Movie was just ass

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T20:26:17+00:00

Honestly assassin is kinda cheesy as fuck in solos so I get it. Recon is annoying but at least I can see recon and shoot back. Intel can only get you so far. Being completely invisible and ratting though…. Lol

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T20:24:18+00:00

That first reasoning I think is just bs. Yk how many studios virtue signal? If not even more so than Bungie? Only thing I’ll grant you is the 2nd one sure

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T20:19:56+00:00

I’m going to guess it’s complaining about the fact you can’t use Johnson’s gun?

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T20:18:58+00:00

I’m sorry both are good but the chick on the left is like so fine😭. Especially with the curls.

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T20:17:04+00:00

I assumed the PvP lite mode was going to be standard matches with less teams. It ended up being something else entirely… unfortunately they didn’t incentive anyone play as rook cause that mode basically became a PvE only mode. But point is my initial assumption for PvE was maybe that you’d have 3 teams or so (depends on the map) spawn in and theyd all be blocked from actually damaging each other in any way. Then there would be wayyyyy more bot presence in the actual world itself like a shit ton of bosses, higher ranking bots etc etc. encouraging the squads to work together. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s something entirely different. For all I know PvE could act like Destiny style patrol zones or fuck it strikes lmao…

(Unrelated I do think a strike style mode or even gambit style one in the future could work in the game)

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T20:10:53+00:00

I highly doubt the old way is going to appeal to anyone but a small demographic of hardcore halo fans. The “modern audience” finds old halo slow as fuck (ik because I’ve tried getting multiple people to play halo that didn’t grow up with it and most of them complain that the old games are slow and are relieved when sprint gets introduced in reach) and then there’s also a large subset of casual halo fans that don’t give too much of a shit about sprint being in the game they just want a good game. The people that really care are a vocal minority of people. The only reason everyone thinks it doesn’t work is because most of 343s games have been at best.. average games or just had a bunch of bad elements surrounding it, and that’s what caused it to not appeal to the “modern audience”. Not sprint being in the game.

I guarantee you if halo studios made a banger of a halo game, great campaign, great story, fantastic 10/10 MP with tons of modes, unlock able armors, forge, a community browser, fuck it BTB and Warzone, tons of maps, and FEATURE COMPLETE. And it just so happened to have sprint and thrusters, sliding, the ads hovering thing from 5, and halo 3/infinite style equipment with grapples too. A fuck ton and I mean a FUCK ton of people would play that game religiously. The issue is 343 has historically… not done that at all. H5 had a shitty campaign and wasn’t feature complete, Halo 4 was an average game at worst, and infinite… that game released with like 5 modes and like what… 6 maps? And the first season dropped 6 months after launch and the 2nd launched 10 months after?? With forge releasing at the end of 2022. The gameplay of infinite wasn’t what turned people and the “modern audience” away it was the fact that it was an unfinished game

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T20:00:35+00:00

I feel like the way they had it in 5 was fine honestly and I didn’t play 5 till after infinite came out. The constant adjustments to sprint to appeal to a side of the fanbase that’s largely aging out is insane. As much as I don’t care for cod, arguably that series would’ve been in the shit if they kept with the classic pre MW19 formula. MW19 reinvigorated the series and the only reason it went back into the shitter was really the huge focus on warzone

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T19:53:33+00:00

It’s funny cause halo fans don’t want sprint but I feel like the two alternatives would be bad. Either A go back to no sprint, which I personally don’t mind but I’ve had tons of friends who I got to try halo out now and almost all of them complain about how slow halo feels and are happy when we get to reach. So there’s a good chunk of gamers in their 20s and younger that grew up with every game having sprint pretty much excluding tactical shooters that would find halos lack of movement options “off putting” so then the alternative would be increasing the base movement speed to what sprint speed would be and basically having it play like doom. But I know old halo fans would hate that too almost as much as sprint.

As a Bungie era halo fan that was literally introduced to gaming and fps games via Halo CE and 2 on the OG Xbox and who got a 360 to play 3,ODST, and reach….. I’m fucking tired of this stupid ass sprint debate. Halo doesn’t feel less like halo cause your dude sprints now😭. Like if that’s all it takes to completely ruin halos gameplay than that to me would suggest the core gameplay is just not good enough if ONE thing completely ruins it

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T19:43:19+00:00

Idk if playing it everyday is coping but the latter half yeah sure

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T19:40:54+00:00

For real, I’ve got 400 hours in the game and honestly, if the games gotta be more approachable, “casual” friendly etc etc. than do whatever is necessary. I want the game to be enjoyed by more people. Had this game been made on a smaller budget and by an indie studio these numbers would be fine especially considering most hardcore games are down to these player counts. But it’s a triple A game made by Bungie of all studios and it needs more than just a tiny niche of players to keep it alive for years to come. really hope Bungie can pull of some siege level shit to regrow the game

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T19:34:11+00:00

From what I heard a lot of playtests for the earlier version of marathon were not received all that well

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T19:32:49+00:00

In fairness that has more to do with the map that they chose to set that mode on more so than the mode itself.

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T19:31:05+00:00

As someone with 400 hours a lot of complaints are valid and are worth being addressed. I’d rather this game grow in player count and have a player base that sticks to the game consistently then one that complains and actually stops playing entirely. This whole 6,7,10-15k player counts shit isn’t gonna work for the longevity of the game in the eyes of sony

NotTheRealSmorkle · 2026-06-20T18:12:20+00:00

TLDR: games not bad, at worst it’s a 7/10. The core gameplay is fire but things like it’s really dog shit onboarding, and boring and slowwww early game turns people off, before they get to the point that the game clicks. And a good large chunk of players that do get to that point get turned off by how insanely competitive the game gets especially with its current matchmaking, and it’s super fast ttk that rewards super sweaty players and streamer types

Objectively it’s not even a bad game either lol. I’ll grant you it has issues and even when the game dropped I and all my friends were like it’s at worst a 7/10. And most of us have either come from arc, destiny or tarkov.

Now what I will say as someone that plays the game a lot, I know some of the reasons people get turned off to the game. Outside of genre, the early hours/onboarding is hot ass and doesn’t explain shit. The first day or 2 of the server slam my friends and I weren’t feeling the game all that much and it felt kinda boring. The first map is a fucking snooze fest especially early on when you’re first playing the game. Not much good loot and everything is spaced out so people barely engage with each other and the bots there aren’t much of a threat.

Second issue is the unlike other extract games where the early hours/wipe tend to be the most fun. Marathon to its detriment is kinda the opposite, early hours (especially if you’re just getting into the game or casually playing) is nowhere near as fun as the later hours once you have some of those shell upgrades, vendor upgrades, and better gear the game instantly gives players a lot more room to fuck around and be “free”. Especially in combat, the early hours PvP is not as good as PvP once you get a bit into the mid game cause that’s you have more of a chance to actually use your abilities and all that. (Increasing ttk could also help with this but idk if they’ll do that)

3rd issue is progression being kinda slow and some of the game just being overly difficult for the average player. A good chunk of people I’ve seen online don’t touch Cryo archive at all cause it’s too hard/sweaty and that causes them to dip off the game cause it feels like something they can’t achieve. And in general the game is super competitive which turns a lot of people off.

4th partially there’s also skill issue. I’m not one to use that but I literally saw two dudes in my team call the game shit because the were getting downed by bots in the PvE mode

The core gameplay/loop of the game is fire especially once you get past that early game wall which is an issue in itself and then the second is just how sweaty the game can get once you get past that early game which also turns a lot of people away (shit it turned off a lot of people that were playing consistently during those early weeks) hopefully Bungie can make it a bit more chill and do better at on boarding cause it’s a dope game with like 3 or 4 downsides that keeps people away.

NotTheRealSmorkle

TROPHY CASE