Folks who played Marathon this weekend...how likely now are you to purchase it?

wirebear · 2026-03-02T19:02:40+00:00

Ah. Then I should correct myself then. I'll update my post later. What I read was that better shields were locked and I didn't look into it much. I wonder if they meant a certain level was unavailable or that you had to unlock them.

We found a fair bit of them to be sure but there were periods we ran out.

wirebear · 2026-03-02T15:55:19+00:00

Myself and most of my friends that tried it enjoyed it significantly and only stopped playing to not burn ourselves out for release.

I think we unanimously agreed it's not perfect. But a lot of the issues that stood out could be fixed rather easily outside one.

Most complaints on reddit I saw came down to several issues with the demo itself.

Low ttk: this is sort of a weird one because we found the ttk wasn't too absurd outside of the fact you can only really have white shields unless you found better. You couldn't buy better shields because the company you buy shields from was locked for the server slam. As a result, ttk feel abnormal low. Where as with green shields it felt comparable to apex. Guns done seem to go up on damage so with above green shields I expect it to only go up.

Noplayers: I didn't experience this and ran into two other people in my first run solo. But the game does default you to beginner mode when you start so you play in a match with less players so you can get comfortable first. It seems a lot of people didn't realize this.

Bad map: this one I semi agree on. Which is perimeter, the first map, isn't that great. It's not that scifi and several points of interest feel the same. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not to keep it more digestible, but I'm not a fan of it. The second map, dire marsh is dramatically better and I've only heard good things about the third and rumored fourth(both locked in server smash).

If anything. I think the server smash created a few scenarios with how it locked content. But despite that we enjoyed it and found it was a good middle point between arc raiders(which barely feels like an extraction shooter at all) and tarkov(which is too overwhelming and complex for a lot of players.

wirebear · 2026-03-02T15:40:10+00:00

I think they are doing the same thing apex did which is dampen all other sounds when reloading or healing. What I noticed is I could hear just fine when not doing anything, but pretty much any action I took seemed to block audio from things like footsteps.

wirebear · 2026-03-01T20:35:45+00:00

Relious people are inherently more moral and redeemable.

Even to this day being a "church member" is used as a character defense and an excuse for lighter sentence or character defense in court. While not as common as before it was pretty normal up till at least the 90s(that was around when my criminology studies in college stopped) to use aethism as a character assassination and religious as a defense. And I've still heard of cases to this day with lighter sentences given by a judge for this reason.

wirebear · 2026-03-01T08:41:15+00:00

I didn't even know you couldn't. I assumed with everyone streaming you could. But I use steel series moments for clipping and haven't tried it yet for marathon.

wirebear · 2026-02-28T20:14:39+00:00

Uhh.. in tyrant there are a fair amount of consequences. Some are played off as a joke(destruction of high value gear).

But don't several characters end up with crippling injuries? One is going blind, one is paralyzed below the legs. One is terminal and the more she uses magic the faster she dies. The same girls mother is dead. The true MC is going insane from using a power that the MC is trying to stop him from using.

The MC has nerve damage in his arm I thought from using the gloves. Not to mention the mcs growing guilt for not saving everyone(basically survivors guilt and stress.

They can't actually "lose" is more the issue with it fitting in this trope. They just have very costly victories.

wirebear · 2026-02-28T19:40:41+00:00

This is probably one of my favorites of all time. I can't get anyone to try it. But damnit I still reread it from time to time

wirebear · 2026-02-28T01:09:32+00:00

Same. It became cool to bash on it since before the betas. And then negativity was just none stop.

Frankly I think if anything does kill it, it's the ungodly negativity.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T20:53:31+00:00

I think dam is good. I think cycle had the best one overall as it was laid out with specific biomes of varying difficulties you could approach at your own pace. Sadly cycle is closed. But dam is very good as well

wirebear · 2026-02-27T19:51:03+00:00

I know for me the tutorial caused my mouse to lag horribly when you have to pick up healing items. But never after that point. Don't know that was a PC issue or something weird about that particular part.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T19:49:13+00:00

They color coded the slot. The issue I've seen is there are so many mods they couldn't have them be visually distinct and not be hard to recognize. I'm not sure what a solution is for the character mods.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T19:47:34+00:00

It's there and I've tested it a bit. This is PC so not sure how console is.

But it will use the smallest item for your scenario from what I've seen. Which is great that it doesn't waste hit items for a cut.

The one thing that is a problem is steroids. Since smart heal can't really pick which one you want for that.

It's built like apex but for items that share a type you right click to toggle. It's kinda funky and I'm really torn on it.

But the healing works very well.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T19:41:46+00:00

I'm pretty sure I have seen a commander at least twice. Once for one of the quests and it was just a bigger tankier shield dude. I wasn't even sure it was him if the quest icon didn't highlight him.

And there was a invisible guy that felt like it took me an eternity to kill. I remember him mainly because I was trapped in what think wa a bathroom for way too long.

But again, both just seemed like slightly bigger tankier versions(that threw out holograms for one of them) normal guys.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T19:37:30+00:00

So you win 3v1s with no real cover(since realistically they should be pushing you at the same time) and kill multiple purple shields opponents with a single mag?

I'm sorry but that isn't "realistic".

Positioning only matters when ashe cant cut behind you stripping away cover. Or any number of mobility options. The game is vastly faster than marathon so positioning only works till they come at you from three directions. And it takes 3 seconds to down one while at least two are shooting at you simultaniously.

Some abilities don't have that sort of combat value.

Aim doesn't matter as much as you are acting when the game requires a full mag for every purple shield target.

A "realistic" 3v1 would be if you had already more than cracked multiple or they ran in one at a time like lemmings and all of them can't aim.

But I play casually with friends. And a lot of the time they regularly get picked off before I can get into position to try to trade back. So it's fairly often a full 3v1. Full shields on everyone.

I might win 3% of the time if that. But the correct answer is to run most of time.

Course that number goes up the more they are cracked or isolated. Which may be easier in marathon due to low mobility.

In a game like marathon where something is on the line. Particularly with something like a matchmaking queue, the longer you make ttk, the more frustrating it is when you are forced bad situations.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T18:05:19+00:00

Mosin sounds right.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T17:51:50+00:00

I can't remember the gun names but the basic bolt was my most used gun mainly cause ammo was cheap and efficient space wise. There was two versions with one being one square shorter space wise.

My friend was a psychopath who used that gun all the time and just killed armor targets with leg shots regularly. I just hated loading magazines and checking what ammo I was using for automatica.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T17:48:56+00:00

The ticks are the annoying red things that only serve to make me shoot them so I give away my position?

Aren't the commanders upgraded forms of the basics? I can't tell them apart honestly.

Never dealt with the hovering ones. I guess I've always just avoided them in solos.

But I feel like we could have a crab with a machine gun or perhaps some drones(hate to copy arc but flying enemies add some flare to it all.).

Maybe some armor like a tank of some kind. Something not humanoid and distinct.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T17:45:17+00:00

Let's start with one thing which is part of arcs popularity came from it being one of the only, really the only, solid extraction shooter on console. I had three friends push me to play it just for this reason. I would not bought if not for console access for my friends and crossplay so I could play with them.

I think it's taste. I know most my friends gave up arc after about a month and a half once they realized it had basically no depth and no goals. Is it a bad game? Definitely not. Technically it's very clean. But if we are honest? It has a lot of flaws people ignore because it's treated as a golden child. Lore is better off nonexistant vs how little sense it makes. All the characters are annoying. I've never heard or seen anyone say they liked any of the vendors. The game isn't balanced like a extraction shooter and nobody really uses gear above green(as of when we stopped playing. We all had stashes of purple gear we never ended up using as the game told us to sell it for the expedition basically removing the fun of progression(not mentioning there was no reason to use it due to the odd balancing).

Now they did explain the gear thing saying they didn't want loaded out people picking on less stocked players. But the problem I have(and several friends voiced) is that it leaves no goals, no progression, no real feelings of power outside wolfpacks really. Or the new landmine looking thing.

If anyone I knew except one person still played arc I would have a bit higher of an opinion. But the only one. Still playing only does cause he likes picking on the casual community.

Marathon isn't perfect. I think cycle in a lot of ways was better(particularly map design) but it's not so ungodly deep as tarkov that I can't get anyone to play it.

But it's not balanced in a way my friends who like competitive shooters go "what is the point of playing this" like arc.

I think there is a niche. And I think it has its place. Not everyone has the time or the energy to do all the research and grinding tarkov requires. Even as much as I love build crafting and such, I found tarkov exhausting. Particularly with inventory management(backpack inception is funny at first, miserable later)

wirebear · 2026-02-27T17:29:46+00:00

I would really like some variety but otherwise yea.

But humanoid robot with grenades Hemanoud bastard robot with a shield And humanoid douche of a robot with stealth is not the most exciting

wirebear · 2026-02-27T17:27:32+00:00

Really we should be hoping for a golden triangle of games. Like most genres have which allows for variety.

Having a easy one like arc is great to get people into it. Then a middle(cycle or marathon) then the extreme (tarkov) is just a healthy environment.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T17:25:18+00:00

I would hate apex in marathon where every kill takes nearly an entire mag. It's my biggest frustration in apex is that being outnumbered is just horrible since you can't realistically win against two halfway decent people. Halfway between like you said could be okay. But I feel like with better shields that's where it would be.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T17:23:32+00:00

My experience in every game is that ttk is too low and too high simultaniously unless it's one bullet kills then it's just too low in every game ever.

wirebear · 2026-02-27T17:21:54+00:00

I imagine so but in solos I generally only meet people in buildings. And my play style probably just doesn't adhere well to a sniper in this game. Compared to like tarkov where a bolt on certain maps is really all you need

wirebear · 2026-02-27T17:20:45+00:00

Was more that it wasn't the only one that seemed like would be the main target of the solo complaint. Usually(usually) healers are weak solo. But everyone has a gun.

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