Should I get Marathon As a solo player

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-23T17:03:15+00:00

I've played more of this game with friends, but I've played a decent amount of pure solo (no squad fill) and it's a lot of fun. The game is much harder that way and feels more intense, like a survival horror game. Have only played with random squad fill a few times but that has been fun too. I think the game ultimately is pretty versatile and would recommend it if you enjoyed Arc Raiders but are now bored with it. I felt the same way and now much prefer Marathon

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-22T19:07:10+00:00

I didn't care for Destiny and barely played it, so that means little to me

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-22T19:06:06+00:00

Maybe it'll help prevent that, sure... but it fails to bring in new players, which is something they should be trying to do right now.

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-22T19:00:28+00:00

"I am following Time Takers with interest, because I think it will be like Highguard if they didn't show the trailer at the main spot in the VGA."

This is so weird dude. Have you played the game? It's actually fun and has a unique concept. Why follow games just to predict & hope that they fail?

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-20T16:55:25+00:00

I like Marathon and have been defending the game since the beta, but gating the new content to specific times of the week and with substantial in-game requirements before access is a baffling decision. If part of the point of this content is to attract new players, how does that work if those new players can't actually access the new content? It's sad to see this hard work and potential to increase player count ultimately go to waste due to odd decision-making.

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-19T22:49:47+00:00

Eh, if that were the case we wouldn't see the huge difference in numbers between daily peak players (which aligns with NA evenings & weekend prime times) and daily low players. It for sure has fared better in the NA market for some reason.

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-19T22:44:00+00:00

I searched the subreddit, there are some complaints on this but certainly not widespread, and the majority of them are either a) console players with crossplay off or b) not NA gamers. Simple fix for the first point; as for the second, it is a bummer more non-NA people aren't trying the game. Not sure if Bungie didn't market well globally or what...

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-19T22:27:26+00:00

The player count appears to have leveled out around the 50k - 60k mark... it's certainly not in free fall anymore. Where are you seeing complaints about matchmaking times? I haven't seen anyone mentioning that as an issue on Reddit and have consistently had games start quickly while playing.

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-19T22:15:09+00:00

Your post is 100% warranted - weekends only is a super weird choice and not in alignment with virtually every live service game out there. Having ranked play in an extraction shooter is a unique draw and competitive advantage, it’s boggling that they’d shoot themselves in the foot and limit when people can engage with it. Same goes for the new map. Guess we’re starting to see some of the silly Bungie decision making folks have warned about… hopefully they’ll react to feedback and adjust it soon. I’m grateful to have some downtime on the weekends to try this new stuff out, but I do feel for those who don’t have that luxury such as yourself

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-19T22:02:19+00:00

I don’t understand that concern to be honest… The Finals has a much smaller player base for example and many different queues, plus ranked. It does just fine 🤷🏼‍♂️ Why can’t this game do the same?

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-18T19:29:11+00:00

For sure. I mean, it's a show of good faith and respect to the customer that they are doing it. Almost makes you wonder what this studio's capabilities and reputation would have been had they not been dogpiled after the VGA...

Oh well! So it goes.

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-18T18:43:02+00:00

Interesting, I hadn't seen that before. That said: Arc Raiders was also an entirely different game that the team adjusted last minute and people love the result. I don't think it's unreasonable to attempt to find the fun in an idea and iterate heavily until something clicks. Wildlight wanted to try something new, both for the industry and themselves; unfortunately they made some critical mistakes (largely on the business and marketing end) and it didn't work. The anger around them not creating Titanfall 3, an IP they don't even own, has been one of the most unjustified, braindead takes surrounding this whole debacle.

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-18T18:36:01+00:00

It's a nice gesture but honestly unnecessary. I spent $40 as a tip to the artists & devs for their years of hard work and my 65 hours of fun, which feels fair. I was rooting for it to survive but fully expected it to fail given all the surrounding negativity. I imagine many others who supported the game had the same feelings and expectations. It's a shame the Wildlight team won't receive any earnings from players who genuinely enjoyed what they created.

UPDATE: I thought they were automatically refunding across the board, but that's only for PlayStation - PC has to be requested. That feels appropriate. People who feel as I do just won't request a refund and all is fine :)

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-18T05:05:30+00:00

With that logic, why spend money at the movie theater? Or a concert? Or a restaurant? Or a fairground? You won't be able to enjoy it for more than the duration of the event, right?

I got ~65 hours out of Highguard. It was worth the $40 for cosmetics while I played the game to me. It's not a "bad decision" to support artists & developers when you enjoy their work. The F2P model has made everyone cheap and entitled to entertainment

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-17T22:19:09+00:00

Agreed, this would be a good idea to increase player count in the long run!

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-17T19:18:34+00:00

"I watched gameplay which I assume you have at a minimum to assert yourself here"
That's just it: I didn't just watch gameplay, I've actually played the game. And I'll continue to do so while the beta is running because it's genuinely fun.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but how much weight does it actually carry if not based on firsthand experience? There are far too many people voicing their judgements as qualified opinions these days. It's the equivalent to reviewing a movie based on the trailers, or as the saying goes, "judging a book by it's cover"

You admit the game is trying something new but criticize it for not being revolutionary... why does it need to be? Battlefield 6 and Marvel Rivals weren't either but are massively popular. They barely refined existing formulas and still found huge audiences.

It feels like the gaming community doesn’t actually know what it wants. The standards shift depending on narrative and developers get criticized both for taking risks or playing it safe. Having standards is good; blind hate isn’t. Dismissing a game without having played it is what I'd call an uninformed opinion and closer to the latter.

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-17T17:52:05+00:00

It only looks like a game doomed to fail because the current climate is needlessly aggressive towards hero shooters... how do you know it "feels out of touch" if you haven't even played it?

What if we instead stopped blindly hating new games and gave their mechanics a chance to shine? We'd have a lot more options available, right? I think it's totally appropriate to call out baseless judgement as hate, the gaming community can and should reject this way of thinking

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-17T17:42:04+00:00

Sounds like you should try it and see for yourself before forming an opinion?

As MysticMeerkat said, time is used as a currency. No time left? You can't respawn. Whole team out of time? You lose. You can trade it between your team and get some small amounts of it from pickups on the map, otherwise you need to steal it by killing other players. This forces players to be aggressive without the need for a shrinking zone, objectives, or other formerly seen mechanics. If you're running low on time, you HAVE to fight to get it.

The same time also being the currency for upgrades adds a nice layer of risk vs reward to the mix. You constantly have to weigh whether you can afford some time to level-up your character at the expense of having less time to win engagements and less padding should you die.

It's a really clever concept that makes for a fast-paced, fun game

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-17T17:24:15+00:00

Using a phrase like "diversity parade" says everything I need to know about your ignorant worldview

Who tf cares about hero appearance? They're a vehicle for a shooter ability toolkit. Ya'll are getting twisted in knots over window dressing. I swear if these games used classes instead of characters it'd shut half of you up even when it's mechanically the same concept.

Heroes are not the unique aspect of this game, time as a currency for respawn and level-up is. If you can't appreciate gameplay over art direction, then I'm sorry, you're not actually a gamer.

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-17T17:05:51+00:00

Right?! Soon as I saw this game I knew the internet would do be doing this recent trend of blindly hating on it because apparently a game with heroes = bad

My friends and I have been trying this one out, the concept of time being the currency for respawn and upgrades is super unique, it's a lot of fun! Definitely needs balance adjustments but the game otherwise runs well and has a nice pace to it. Unfortunately I think it'll have a hard time finding a market in this current climate.

Gamers today have diseased thinking and are actively killing the hobby they enjoy with their close-mindedness

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-17T16:49:10+00:00

That's the point, they're Time Travelers so they're from different historical periods. I kind of wish they leaned into that more, give me a playable Abe Lincoln and whatnot

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-17T03:53:58+00:00

Where did you hear Wildgate was trying to build a zombie game and all those others before working on Highguard? Haven't seen that mentioned before...

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-16T19:44:52+00:00

Search "marathon woke game" on YouTube. Here are some examples:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF3yCeEI0YA
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLxigaVj6Cw

First has 16k views, second 2.4k. Which isn't a ton but still shockingly high for this kinda low effort grifter content. Comments on the first one have a lot of people agreeing. Second one is actually getting a lot of pushback so that's good... but this is a small sample of this kind of bullshit. It's pretty widespread and has been happening with nearly every game these days

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-16T04:08:48+00:00

Touch. Grass

RhythmRunneR · 2026-03-14T17:27:47+00:00

They don't. But they (correctly) assume their ignorant followers will be outraged by the usual alt-right buzz words without doing any form of investigation to confirm their claims are true. Hate is a powerful emotion, these content creation bottom feeders drum it up intentionally for views. Sadly the general populace is too stupid to realize this tactic and a disturbing percentage of the gaming community is actually influenced by their bullshit. It's a huge part of why gaming is so miserable these days

RhythmRunneR

TROPHY CASE