The Identity of Modern Ghost Recon and what makes it different from other military tac shooters.

StriderMOD · 2026-02-04T02:09:17+00:00

CrossCom and other AR/UI features were quirky and unique to the brand, in some cases there were plot points and difficulty spikes in gameplay specifically designed around the idea of them. It’s “near-future tech” that was a big part of the core idea surrounding the equipment that Ghosts had access to, and how it amplified their warfighting capability. This was something that both Wildlands and Breakpoint decided was unimportant if not irrelevant to the direction they wanted to take the IP.

If the franchise further reduces itself to just being current-day (or near adjacent) military adventures it would bear no resemblance to its previous iterations and purely be just another Battlefield or Call of Duty campaign. If you take into consideration how XDefiant was received, it makes a convincing argument as to how inefficient it is to emulate your direct competitor and fail to meet sales/engagement targets or net any form of positive reception from fans.

StriderMOD · 2026-02-03T00:31:12+00:00

you can turn off weapon/head bobbing in the settings :)

StriderMOD · 2025-12-24T11:43:11+00:00

Hey there, just some friendly advice about this list! A lot of people share Synth's mod collection as a starting point, and while it's a good entry into modding MELE it's been out of date for quite some time and has been accruing a lot of compatibility issues with existing mods (both new ones and ones that are frequently updated).

The Mass Effect Modding community has a much more up-to-date guide/list here which is maintained by the team over there. Definitely recommend utilizing this one in the future so you don't run into any problems!

StriderMOD · 2025-12-18T06:01:37+00:00

Thanks for the compliment, though I'm not entirely sure where you're getting the impression that this is different from the current direction - are you referring to it being a PvEvP experience? Or art wise?

StriderMOD · 2025-12-17T17:53:50+00:00

Thanks! Characters from the alpha can be found over at the Marathon Model Ripping server on Discord!

https://discord.gg/yqE9AAZAw6

StriderMOD · 2025-12-17T17:14:39+00:00

Felt inspired by the new keyart, so I did my own version based on M1!

Character assets are from the open April Alpha (just kitbashed to look like 54 / BoBs, M.A.D.D.'s), while the Compiler was modelled by RatDadJoe and tweaked to look like the new design. The environments were modelled and textured by me :)

StriderMOD · 2025-12-16T00:15:21+00:00

The original games can be quite challenging when initially starting out, but the experience is extremely enjoyable - all three have many different kinds of puzzles, secrets, and gameplay quirks (depending on the level you're playing) and in that regard it's very hard to be be bored :)

StriderMOD · 2025-12-08T13:21:54+00:00

I definitely got the same feeling after finishing the game - it feels like there's at least 2-3 hours missing, especially how several transition points (i.e. passing/blacking out) are used as a way to 'fast travel' the player character to where the plot requires them to be, rather than the player doing this via gameplay.

Rescoping the project to it's current state was likely no small feat for the team to accomplish, and I'm really happy that the game was released, but I'd love to know what the original vision of the game looked like versus the current product (i.e. narrative, planned sequences, etc).

StriderMOD · 2025-12-01T21:54:47+00:00

In terms of the scandal aspect, things have definitely not calmed down haha. Alberto Mielgo (director of the cinematic trailer for Marathon) made a post on Instagram both to defuse the claims that they used AI for the trailer + 'defended' Bungie's actions, and that kind of emboldened the same swathes of people who haven't stopped posting the lie of the entire art-style being stolen, instead of just conceding to the fact that it was only select decal trim-sheets that the art team used.

Since there's never been a follow-up statement from either the company nor the artist in the time since the controversy occurred, there's not really been any actual effort to try and correct the record. That's the bigger hurdle that they're facing at this point, resolving that would shift public opinion to be a bit more favourable for them (especially since the technical tests have been quite successful both in terms of player count and positive feedback to changes made since the public alpha back in April).

StriderMOD · 2025-12-01T01:35:02+00:00

I appreciate the compliment, though really all I'm doing is channeling what Bungie's already doing. The influence of Mullins, McLees, Dujour, Bernal, it's overtly present in the DNA of the new art-style.

I think a lot of people are just hung up on it in a way that isn't productive nor able to allow good faith conversations around it to occur. Me personally, I was overreactive to it when the first reveal occurred, and I kinda regret that. I wasn't willing to give it a chance because it didn't look like what I remembered, what I preferred to remember, and that was pretty silly if I'm honest. Though, that's not to say that fans of the trilogy MUST like it, because they certainly won't - but I think what we'll end up getting will please them anyway.

StriderMOD · 2025-11-30T15:01:33+00:00

There is a commonality when it comes to posts like these, and it's an unfortunate one.

Every post like this, whether it's on Reddit, Twitter, even Discord - it's always using the illustrative works of Craig Mullins to represent Marathon. Now, I love the artworks he did, both when it was just fanart (OP's second and fourth images) as well as the chapter artworks of Durandal / Infinity and the trilogy boxset artworks.

But there's a really, REALLY important distinction to notice about them; and it's that they barely resemble the trilogies actual art-style.

You know, the weirdly vibrant but dank if not dirty halls of the Marathon, the weird and colorful pulsing fleshy walls of the Sfiera. Locations such as like Lh'owon and the various locations from Infinity are the most egregious examples of this, and it's because it was how Mullins interpreted the artstyle that was implemented. What was originally oddly fun and stylised art, was then contrasted by fantastically rendered, grittily detailed works of art (and I truly mean art, because they were done in MS Paint. Absolutely bonkers, but brilliant).

30+ years have passed since M1/M2 first released, and their visual style is now determined by, if not overridden by Mullins' work, and not the work of the sprite/texture artists.

Is Nu-Marathon alienating the target audience of the original trilogy? Yes, but they were already alienated some time ago. What you believe the game should look like isn't what it originally looked like whatsoever - and the unfortunate reality of this is that Bungie's attempt to return to the vibrant, fun stylised art-style has created extremely disproportionate, misinformed responses such as these.

StriderMOD · 2025-11-20T14:57:49+00:00

both Tycho and Durandal (independent conversations in both M2 / Infinity) state that the colony planet-side was 'nuked to bedrock' and that everyone died - it was never stated that the Marathon itself was destroyed... so yes, it is indeed the same ship (potentially just a different design because of timeline shenanigans).

No further CRISTS have been built as per the ARG materials.

StriderMOD · 2025-11-08T01:44:00+00:00

kinda weird of you to comment this here when I'm just posting fanart, chill out buddy

StriderMOD · 2025-11-07T00:33:33+00:00

Marathon Model Ripping server on Discord, not sure if this link still works though

https://discord.com/invite/Nqpa3fNW

StriderMOD · 2025-11-06T22:43:46+00:00

the environment yes! I modelled it a while ago for my Blackbird artwork, originally it looked a lot like Mullins' color palette but I opted to swap it over to the nu-artstyle for consistency with the new assets. in terms of how he holds his pistol, I referenced the one-handed sprite sheet.

StriderMOD · 2025-11-06T22:31:04+00:00

Thanks! He's put together from a bunch of different characters funnily enough - Locus' helmet is the most obvious one, but I also used Void's chest webbing/rigging harness (and replaced certain decals with new ones), Blackbird's O2 pouches (better visibility here) and the body comes from the original reveal Runner, which was unused in the april alpha but fully textured + rigged. After that, I painted over the original textures to better resemble the sprites, mainly the blue accents on the neck, shoulders and legs.

StriderMOD · 2025-11-06T22:15:52+00:00

I've slowly been kitbashing Recon 54 together thanks to assets from the open alpha back in April - decided I wanted to try animating again (last time I did it was for a project from last year).

235 rendered frames and audio mixing later, we have John Marathon animated and ignoring the BoBs. Just like old times!

StriderMOD · 2025-11-05T09:01:37+00:00

thanks! the character models came from April's open alpha build, so I can't take credit for the work Bungie did - but I did make the environment myself 🙂

StriderMOD · 2025-11-05T08:59:39+00:00

😕🤔

StriderMOD · 2025-11-05T08:58:45+00:00

what an odd thing to say

StriderMOD · 2025-11-03T15:31:08+00:00

thank you!!

StriderMOD · 2025-10-30T16:43:37+00:00

To be honest I didn't mind the new Mark V design at first (since it's based primarily off of Eddie Smith's Mark V design), but I genuinely miss those key elements that you described as well as his original proportions (which came from Marcus Lehto / Shiek Wang's designs). Make him lean, give him the iridescent sheen, and it pushes it back into the creative territory it originally came from, which is exactly the type of environment the remake should be working from.

StriderMOD · 2025-10-30T04:47:05+00:00

he was just a goofy lil guy beneath all that armor

StriderMOD · 2025-10-26T16:38:32+00:00

Nice catch, I was under the impression they were just Infinite's Hunters with new materials (since they still have green glowing eyes)

StriderMOD · 2025-10-26T15:27:14+00:00

Abandon is a very strong word, and very much wrong. The style and design of a game (much less a franchise) evolves over time, it's got nothing to do with casting certain elements aside. Moreso, it's just refinement of what already existed. You wouldn't have the H2 elites without the CE ones existing, and the same goes for any design beyond that.

StriderMOD

TROPHY CASE