I decided to try out "Classic Marathon" on Steam! I'm only a few missions in (currently on the mission The Rose) but I'm thoroughly enjoying it and I think it warrants a discussion.
So the Marathon trilogy is a trilogy of classic (like real, gun-at-the-center-of-the-screen-ass classic) first person shooters by Bungie, predating their Halo series. I'm not a Halo guy, I think I played the campaign in the first game a long time ago, but my understanding is that the Halo series could be considered a spiritual successor to the Marathon trilogy, with at least once concept (AI rampancy) seemingly transplanted wholesale.
The first thing that sticks out about Marathon is how it handles narrative. Much like other classic shooters of the era, the narrative is not presented in a modern, traditional way. There are no cutscenes, no real dialogue, there's not even an opening text crawl when you start a new game. You're dropped right into the first level with no context. Instead, the narrative is presented through terminals, some obvious on the critical path, others quite hidden) in which your characters communicates with the various AIs running the spaceship you're currently on (the titular "Marathon"). So far, it's been pretty straightforward (getting told the current status on the ship and your next objective), but I've already run into a few terminals that have some weird stuff written on them. I know Marathon's story is still discussed and debated by the community to this day, so I'm really excited to dig into it.
I personally love this style of storytelling. It reminds me of games like Metroid Prime or FROM's games, where it's up to the player to explore and put the pieces together, the narrative working in tandem with the interactivity of the medium. I think a lot of modern games could learn from it. I don't necessary think every game should be like it, but I think it's as valid of a storytelling method for this medium as big cinematic blockbuster stories are, and in some ways could be even more satisfying.
The level design is bonkers. Shooters of this era have a reputation for being big mazes, and Marathon is absolutely an example of that. To steal a phrase from Tim Rogers, the levels in Marathon are "headachy nightmares", and I love it. The map is absolutely a necessity in this. I also think it's really interesting how exploration is rewarded in this game. In many classic-era shooters, health packs are found on the ground. Marathon, though, places healing stations on the walls of specific areas of the levels, and, far as I know, they can never run out of healing. Save consoles are similarly placed throughout, with no manual saving otherwise (no quicksave or quickload, which is very unique for that time). This gives each level a bit of a metroidvania feel, in that you want to remember where the healing stations and save stations are so you can make your way to them when needed.
The only downside (though it's more of a mid-side, it's not really *bad*) is the combat itself. The guns feel great so far (only have two right now). Bungie has a reputation for shooting just feeling good, and I think Marathon shows that they could do that even way back in 1994. But the enemy design is very basic, and so far it's pretty easy to mow them down. It feels like a weird middle ground between a classic shooter and a modern shooter. It doesn't have the precision aim of a modern shooter, but it doesn't have the speed and intensity of something like DOOM. I'm still early on so this could definitely change.
Any Marathon fans here? Are my impressions insane ramblings to you? I'd love to get thoughts from series fans and newcomers alike.
So the Marathon trilogy is a trilogy of classic (like real, gun-at-the-center-of-the-screen-ass classic) first person shooters by Bungie, predating their Halo series. I'm not a Halo guy, I think I played the campaign in the first game a long time ago, but my understanding is that the Halo series could be considered a spiritual successor to the Marathon trilogy, with at least once concept (AI rampancy) seemingly transplanted wholesale.
The first thing that sticks out about Marathon is how it handles narrative. Much like other classic shooters of the era, the narrative is not presented in a modern, traditional way. There are no cutscenes, no real dialogue, there's not even an opening text crawl when you start a new game. You're dropped right into the first level with no context. Instead, the narrative is presented through terminals, some obvious on the critical path, others quite hidden) in which your characters communicates with the various AIs running the spaceship you're currently on (the titular "Marathon"). So far, it's been pretty straightforward (getting told the current status on the ship and your next objective), but I've already run into a few terminals that have some weird stuff written on them. I know Marathon's story is still discussed and debated by the community to this day, so I'm really excited to dig into it.
I personally love this style of storytelling. It reminds me of games like Metroid Prime or FROM's games, where it's up to the player to explore and put the pieces together, the narrative working in tandem with the interactivity of the medium. I think a lot of modern games could learn from it. I don't necessary think every game should be like it, but I think it's as valid of a storytelling method for this medium as big cinematic blockbuster stories are, and in some ways could be even more satisfying.
The level design is bonkers. Shooters of this era have a reputation for being big mazes, and Marathon is absolutely an example of that. To steal a phrase from Tim Rogers, the levels in Marathon are "headachy nightmares", and I love it. The map is absolutely a necessity in this. I also think it's really interesting how exploration is rewarded in this game. In many classic-era shooters, health packs are found on the ground. Marathon, though, places healing stations on the walls of specific areas of the levels, and, far as I know, they can never run out of healing. Save consoles are similarly placed throughout, with no manual saving otherwise (no quicksave or quickload, which is very unique for that time). This gives each level a bit of a metroidvania feel, in that you want to remember where the healing stations and save stations are so you can make your way to them when needed.
The only downside (though it's more of a mid-side, it's not really *bad*) is the combat itself. The guns feel great so far (only have two right now). Bungie has a reputation for shooting just feeling good, and I think Marathon shows that they could do that even way back in 1994. But the enemy design is very basic, and so far it's pretty easy to mow them down. It feels like a weird middle ground between a classic shooter and a modern shooter. It doesn't have the precision aim of a modern shooter, but it doesn't have the speed and intensity of something like DOOM. I'm still early on so this could definitely change.
Any Marathon fans here? Are my impressions insane ramblings to you? I'd love to get thoughts from series fans and newcomers alike.
