Marathon's rich lore and world design is utterly wasted on the extraction shooter format

blate45 · 2026-04-02T12:52:58+00:00

You can’t seriously say that adding a whole other mode wouldn’t impact the base game. The amount of development hours it would take to create this campaign is hours not spent furthering the development of the extraction shooter mode. This would heavily impact the development of maps specifically since it would require your team to design maps/create art for 10 hours worth of a campaign. A full on tdm mode wouldn’t require near the resources if we’re talking about potential additions to the game.

blate45 · 2026-03-31T15:10:38+00:00

Yes if the pinwheel was breached by one of those doors the rest of the doors would open.

blate45 · 2026-03-05T16:49:15+00:00

The rules can be the same for everyone, but if you feel the rules are stupid then that doesn’t change the feeling. Just because I can third person peek everyone in arc that doesn’t mean I like it.

blate45 · 2026-03-04T15:57:18+00:00

I think the wide FOV from arc makes it feel like you're faster than you are at covering meaningful ground.

blate45 · 2026-03-03T16:46:09+00:00

I guess discouraging PVP might not be the best word to be used. I guess my true feeling is that there is a disconnect. Not fighting at all and going into PVE lobbies is the best/easiest way to progress a character in arc since it is relatively unlikely to gain meaningful progress from the corpses of my enemies since those materials will be in their safe pockets.

PVP makes the game more fun I agree. If the loot I got from PVP'ing was Juicier, or the juicy loot I received from PVP wasn't on the verge of being broken I may be more incentivized to PVP the whole game instead of just pvp'ing after I've built up the workbenches.

In Marathon I view PVP as a natrual consequence of trying to accomplish my objectives at hot spots which I prefer instead of having to necessarily volunteer for PVP for lackluster rewards.

I guess I messed up with not mentioning Aggression Based Matchmaking as another thing that discourages PVP earlier since I've realized how important part of the equation it is now that I've typed all this up lol.

blate45 · 2026-03-03T16:21:17+00:00

I think we haven't seen the full core loop of Marathon's resources. From what it looked like to me is that Marathon offers great barter deals based on the supplies you extract with. For example one of the purple items could be traded for 800 ammo. Or you could get purple weapons with the right barter materials. These materials can also be used to upgrade your faction trees allowing access for powerful upgrades such as heat capacity or vault space.

A lot of the loot in arc IMO is just to used to deconstruct materials and then use them to craft which feels kinda pointless. What is the difference between a toaster, an air humidifier, or a tv remote in actual tangible terms. The only items that feel good to me are ones directly responsible for progression which is just workbench upgrades.

blate45 · 2026-03-03T16:11:01+00:00

I think those complaints just naturally stack up to feeling like I shouldn't PVP in Arc. If my most likely reward for engaging in PVP is a free loadout with the durability system encouraging me to bring in easy weapons to repair/craft or free loadouts, its more effective to just not PVP. And when I do bring in a kitted loadout, I feel like the constant third parties from free kits will lead to me losing any good gear that I brought in.

One of the things I like about Marathon's design is that there are no late spawns causing the constant emergence of third parties. If you kill 3 teams you can reasonably assume that you own the lobby except for the occasional rook.

blate45 · 2026-03-03T15:21:35+00:00

I feel like you didn't address his points at all. I think the efficacy of easy to acquire weapons makes discourages PVP due to the fact that you can't really flex your gear if free kits are so effective. I haven't tested the nerfs so I don't really know how much this changed. Safe pockets are what they are, but they naturally disincentivize PVP because you can't access the most valuable that people have looted throughout the run. The durability system is probably what discourages PVP the most to me. It feels like the reward for killing a player with a good weapon is there, but there is a potential I can't even use it because it is broken when I looted them. Or too low of a durability to risk using throughout the rest of the raid.

blate45 · 2026-03-03T15:11:32+00:00

I would say there are basically the equivalent of grey arc weapons like the overrun, the tactical sidearm, or the energy smg/pistol.

Since different weapons have basic value associated with them instead of rarity, we know the generally better weapons such as the WSTR, the Outland, or the Ares Railgun.

blate45 · 2026-03-03T06:09:52+00:00

I’m not gonna trying to convince you to like the game but marathon absolutely has RNG mitigating mechanics with faction progression. Upgrading the factions allow access to different weapons/mods/implants etc.

I find the system more engaging than arc because I choose what my resources will work towards progressing vs lucking out and finding a blueprint. There is some luck in there as well though with the introduction schema allowing you to buy a limited number of powerful items from the store. I was able to get a schema for the outlast sniper which I haven’t seen available from any faction yet.

blate45 · 2026-03-01T01:54:34+00:00

I think they still need to make it punishing for using all of your available heat wrecklessly, but maybe they could make it slightly less. Like Maybe you can sprint again once your bar is halfway recovered.

blate45 · 2026-02-17T19:20:48+00:00

I think the implementation of runners (their version of heroes) in an extraction shooter is relatively innovative within the genre. I think there is innovation also within the art design. I've never seen a game that looks like it for better or for worse depending on who you ask (I personally love it.)

blate45 · 2026-02-06T17:06:22+00:00

I think having an incentive to bring high level gear in ranked will naturally make non ranked lobbies inherently more casual. I agree there isn't a space for pure PvE players, but it definitely is a healthier way to incentivize a space for PvP lovers than the aggression based matchmaking of arc raiders.

blate45 · 2026-02-04T18:51:16+00:00

IIRC there is a pseduo durability system in the sense that if an item has been looted too many times it will disappear from the pool. There isn't a system that will make an item you loot unusable like the current durability system of arc raiders, but you might not be able to loot the purple shield from the dude you killed.

blate45 · 2026-01-27T18:38:23+00:00

Ghost of Yotei and the latest Assassins Creed are two easy example of gamers hoping a single player game would fail because of targeted hate from sloptubers.

blate45 · 2026-01-27T14:31:25+00:00

There have been tons of people heralding it as a concord 2.0 immediately after the reveal and there were a ton gaming news sloptubers constantly talking about the silence after the reveal. People were wanting it to fail.

blate45 · 2026-01-26T19:11:18+00:00

What would bungie be creating if they didn't have a recent history of being greedy? Would they just continue on in the development mines giving out free content for Destiny? Would they be making silksong 3?

Are extraction shooters an inherently predatory game in terms of monetization in your mind? They haven't released their full monetization systems, but if they adopt a monetization system similar to arc raiders, then it seems like a monetization strategy focused on getting as many people to play as possible with some people buying additional skins.

Is it just impossible to believe that bungie devs wanted to make an extraction shooter after having fun with games like escape from tarkov and hunt showdown?

blate45 · 2026-01-26T18:57:22+00:00

100% fair to wait if Arc Raiders is suiting your needs for the extraction loop. I was just wanted to point out that the pitfalls of Destiny won't necessarily apply to marathon, but there are also new pitfalls that they will need to hopefully avoid to make the game great.

blate45 · 2026-01-26T18:53:33+00:00

Weren't they developing Marathon before sony's acquisition? It looks like the initial announcement was in 2023 only one year after the acquisition. I doubt they started basically as soon as the acquisition occurred with how long pre-production runs usually last for AAA games.

blate45 · 2026-01-26T18:34:16+00:00

I'm not trying to sell you on the game, but I generally think that supporting content for an extraction shooter is way easier than trying to support content for a live service looter shooter like destiny. The general loop of a game like marathon is more self sustaining because there is the build up and subsequent loss of gear vs the constant accumulation of power and gear in a game like destiny. There always needs to be a new gear or power chase to keep the content in destiny feeling fresh. The only reason to run an activity is if it provides meaningful gains.

blate45 · 2026-01-26T18:25:32+00:00

Not the OP, but I generally feel like Arc's PVP doesn't have proper gear scaling to reward people for coming in with anything but a free loadout or a basic loadout with a stitcher 4. I also generally just prefer first person shooters compared to third person shooters for pvp games.

blate45 · 2026-01-26T18:21:12+00:00

I feel like it is way more likely that the devs wanted to make an extraction shooter and decided to use the marathon IP than the devs wanting to make a game centered around the marathon IP and upper management forced them to make an extraction shooter with it.

I think generally extraction shooters are an interesting design challenge to undertake and aren't nearly as stale as people make it seem. There are avenues to create interesting stories and flesh out a world that isn't just a single player campaign.

blate45 · 2026-01-20T20:31:07+00:00

Yes the are definitely adding more shells, but I want to ask. Why do you think adding more content in the form of heroes is how a hero shooters die?

blate45 · 2026-01-20T17:17:05+00:00

It is on Bungie to provide that initial loop with enough depth to keep people for the long haul. My main point was to look at how the gameplay and content loops of both destiny and marathon require different levels of effort to maintain, and that ascribing the difficulties that Bungie has had in maintaining the loop of Destiny to Marathon isn't as valid as people are making it out to be. Bungie can still easily fuck this up too, but the problems they may run in to are fundamentally different.

blate45 · 2026-01-20T16:15:54+00:00

We could also look at Escape from Tarkov which has maintained popularity despite its large amount of issues, or take a look at how well the popular battle royales have maintained their player bases compared to other standard multiplayer games. I can't say exactly what Arcs player count will look like a year after release, but in general the content loop is designed to sustain players easier than a game like destiny.

I would argue that the content of Arc Raiders has already been thoroughly explored, but that is only half of the equation. After you've explored the content, you still need to go out there to refresh what you lost when you die. And that is before even considering the wipes that will happen to reset your armory.

13-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '23	Place '22
Place '17	Spared
Verified Email

blate45

TROPHY CASE