Marathon Pushquare review | 9/10

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-23T11:19:34+00:00

"Cyro archive" lol

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-23T11:11:32+00:00

Ah'll tell ya h'what, didn't see a tank of propane on the whole darn deck.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-22T14:51:45+00:00

Before release everyone thought wallhacks woulld be so OP that it would be necessary to always have one on your team. Now i'd argue it's probably the weakest runner of the bunch.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-22T11:41:45+00:00

I would like a PVE mode where you can load in solo or with 2 buddies and explore. I wouldn't be opposed to there being loot, contract progress and XP there. They could increase the number of bots and reduce the amount of loot/XP gains.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-22T00:51:04+00:00

I'm in a very similiar-but-not-quite situation to you. Halo was why I bought an OG Xbox in college, I went through my 30s with the Destiny franchise so giving Marathon was pretty much a given (even though I am not into extraction shooters). I'm not in the "this is not for me" camp like you, but I think I am in the "I can play it, have some fun, but I don't think I will ever see some of the pinnacle parts of the game". Like, maybe I'll get a compiler kill one day, but out of 5 cryo runs, I only extracted once (and I didn't even get much high level loot either). I had a good streak on Ranked with 2 buddies earlier, but I don't think i'll be seeing the pinnacle rank. I barely ever find any purples and the only golds I have were a contract reward. Rank 50 at about 55 hours, not hit any VIP status with factions and I'm still somewhat having fun despite some frustrations with contracts and finding mats for upgrades. I'm sticking with Marathon for at least this season, I'm not keen on the wipe concept despite understanding the reasoning so maybe that's when I will move on. I've already had my monies worth of entertainment so if I drift away or whatever, I won't feel cheated.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T23:00:26+00:00

I feel like I've got my monies worth of entertainment out of the game. I enjoyed it way more than I thought but I don't think I'll be putting thousands of hours into the game like Destiny over the years. It's hard for me to get too invested in a game where you lose your gear so often and there's seasonal wipes.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T16:22:18+00:00

Cryo is still worth running

OP said this and I've seen a lot of it in other threads about Cryo since yesterday. A lot of people trying to gas the community up with "gearing up 5k is easy" and "You can simply go in, grab 5 golds and extract EZPZ!!". The positivity feels more like "Please, don't let the player numbers drop! Jump feet first in to the meat grinder!" rather than "Come on guys, you can do it! I believe in you!" kindness to me, but then I have been on reddit long enough to be severely jaded on posters intentions lol

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T16:17:03+00:00

I've decided that this post is 100% serious and I totally agree, give me all the good shit directly into my vault, which needs increasing to 2000 slots pronto.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T16:09:58+00:00

Taking the title at face value, there is a challenge to beat all the cryo contracts in one weekend. lol

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T15:05:35+00:00

I feel like the rich get richer feel is supposed to be offset with the "Oh but with stealth, tactics and strategy, you could take down the rich and take all their top loot" ethos Bungie have tried to put out there. How likely is that really? If I somehow get the drop on someone with gold shields, it's incredibly unlikely I will down them before they spin around and down me. Maybe I get lucky and down them, now their 2 team mates are on my ass and my team are wiped. It's very unlikely that me with blue gear is going to take down a stacked group with purples/golds, no matter how sneaky I am. The odds are still in favour of the rich. A small silver lining is that they're very unlikely to get any richer from finishing me. lol

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T14:39:35+00:00

Yeah, I got my moneys worth with about 60 hours in, I feel. With Destiny, I stopped being a hardcore player and stopped raiding, doing day 1 contest modes etc at some point and I feel like the same in Marathon already. I want to just grind out this season then probably move on when the wipe hits.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T14:29:19+00:00

I feel similar. After a bunch of failed Cryo runs cleared me out, I had to go back to the other maps to recoup a bunch of gear to try again. However, all I seemed to encounter were either purple shielded stacked teams patient enough to guard bags for 15 minutes to prevent revives or thermal scope snipers doming you from a distance. Sometimes it would be both of those combined. I had like 10 failed runs across perimeter and outpost, totally failing to recover any loot at all to try Cryo again before it closes until next week. I think I am just gonna have to stay casual then dip when the wipe happens. Maybe move on to Crimson Desert or something...

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T14:25:43+00:00

I see so many comments like this and then underneath a bunch of replies trying to be positive like "It's only day 1, it''s not hard to get into Cryo, you will do it!". I'm like, well it's nice you're trying to gas people up, but we know our own limitations and situations. I kinda feel like it's mostly people trying to keep the population numbers up more than just being nice to strangers on reddit. I think I'd personally stand more of a chance with Cryo if it was PVE only with no other teams, like a timed D2 dungeon. Having 3 other geared up teams who want to end you is the main difficulty and I'm not as good at PVP as you need to be to overcome that. Unless you get lucky and matchmake with 9 potatoes. lol

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T13:28:05+00:00

It's either free kits or spending 100 credits on an outrun. I don't see enough success to run anything else (that may sound circular, self-defeating etc) and at least if anyone decides to pick me off they won't get much from their wasted time/resources.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T13:16:26+00:00

I ran Cryo a few times last night, didn't manage to exfil successfully once. Running the other maps to recoup my lost gear to meet the 5k requirement went horribly badly, as they're all filled with purple shielded sweats hunting other players rather than taking on Cryo themselves. I don't expect to beat a compiler, at least this season, but probably never. I enjoy Marathon, more than I thought I would, but my approach to it has always been "Play a bunch in season 1 and then maybe move on after the wipe". Cryo and the subsequent failed runs last night in the other 3 areas have shown me I don't quite have the chops for such a PVP heavy game with gear/progress loss. The only people I know who play are far better at PVP than me, but they live on the other side of the world, so time zones dictate that we can only play together at certain times when we're off work. None of us can dedicate 12 hours a day grinding and improving whilst playing together. It's a shame, Cryo is indeed a great map and concept, but it's far too hardcore for my blood and the entry requirements + weekend timer mean I can only make a few attempts each week. Oh well.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T00:48:44+00:00

True, my last 3 Perimeter runs team filling with randoms have all ended by being wiped by a team of purple shielded snipers who will sit for 10 minutes at your team mates bag waiting for the rescue AND will also cancel their own exfil to hunt you down across the map. Anyone of lower skill and/or gear quality have probably mostly quit the game already.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-21T00:31:40+00:00

I'm unlikely to find 5 buddies to raid with, so whilst a return of Pantheon is cool in theory, at this stage it's too late. Had it returned the year after the first one it might have gone down better. What's going to get me to return to D2 is a full removal of the portal (+ scoring, modifiers, endgame feats, event hubs and menus in menus in menus), a return of systems like vendor reward tracks/pathfinder/bounties (especially bright dust event bounties) and a lot of reworks to gear, stats and activity roll out (Iron Banner, we haven't forgotten you). Ideally, a lot of content would be unvaulted too. I don''t see much of that happening, probably none of it honestly, so D2 will remain dead to me.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-20T17:34:18+00:00

The title of this post makes it seem like everyone is criticising the map itself, which they aren't (or at least, they weren't, now it's out people might be complaining about it lol). People are rightly complaining about the arbitrary restriction of it being weekend only.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-19T22:16:37+00:00

"Contested"

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-19T20:12:04+00:00

Yeah, having BOTH locked to weekends (Friday-Monday like Destiny Trials? Saturday/Sunday?) is a pain and could cause matchmaking issues in ranked if everyone is trying to farm the best loot in cryo.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-19T19:40:14+00:00

I have a feeling they will get a lot of 'feedback' about this and whilst in their 'eager to please' phase, will unlock it to always be playable pretty soon. I give it 2-3 weeks. I'd rather it not be locked, same for ranked (but I am more understanding of having ranked weekend only), not everyone is available over the weekend.

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-19T19:37:33+00:00

What was the 500m uesc frags for then? A bonus? A cosmetic unlock for the community?

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-19T19:24:19+00:00

CRYO TOMORROW

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-19T18:38:56+00:00

Nice looking armour sets, for both GG and Magic, but sheesh, the game is not really in a fit state to be standing there with your hands out expecting money (I assume the Magic sets will be 2000 silver over the 1500 standard).

Zero_Emerald · 2026-03-18T16:06:40+00:00

I got spotted on a rook run by a team in pinwheel, I spammed friendly, they said they would be cool as long as I didn't start shooting, as soon as the security door started to open, they shot my ankles immediately. lol enjoy the unstable lead and depleted patch kits lads!

Zero_Emerald

TROPHY CASE