DOOM (2016) and it's imminent sequel DOOM: ETERNAL have highlighted that people are still open to classic shooter gameplay if it is properly modernized and contextualized.
Would the modern gaming landscape be a ripe place for DOOM's old school contemporary competitor, Marathon (created by Bungie who would later go on to create Halo and Destiny) to make a return?
Marathon was a logical next step from DOOM. It took the core gameplay and crafted an interesting and complex story to give the gameplay a greater sense of purpose. In some ways, Marathon's story probably arrived too early. Technology in video games at the time meant that the complexity of Marathon's story had to be relegated to text boxes.
Fast forward a bit. Games like the Portal series tell stories involving a silent protagonist guided by an AI with questionable moral goals. Prey (2017) (while not quite knocking it out of the park) told a trippy, reality bending sci-fi story set in a series of space corridors. DOOM (2016) showed that classic FPS gameplay is still viable.
Is now finally the time to see a modern take on Marathon? Presumably Bungie still holds the rights to the series, and they announced last year that they want to do stuff other than Destiny. Now that they're on their own, i would argue they need SOMETHING other than Destiny to support themselves.
As a supplement to this question: Video game historians and journalists on Era who might be reading this: What the hell happened to Greg Kirkpatrick after Double Aught's Duality failed to materialize in the late 90's? It seems odd to me that someone with his talent wrote the story for the Marathon series and then literally just disappeared from history. Did he step into an alternate timeline himself?
Would the modern gaming landscape be a ripe place for DOOM's old school contemporary competitor, Marathon (created by Bungie who would later go on to create Halo and Destiny) to make a return?
Marathon was a logical next step from DOOM. It took the core gameplay and crafted an interesting and complex story to give the gameplay a greater sense of purpose. In some ways, Marathon's story probably arrived too early. Technology in video games at the time meant that the complexity of Marathon's story had to be relegated to text boxes.
Fast forward a bit. Games like the Portal series tell stories involving a silent protagonist guided by an AI with questionable moral goals. Prey (2017) (while not quite knocking it out of the park) told a trippy, reality bending sci-fi story set in a series of space corridors. DOOM (2016) showed that classic FPS gameplay is still viable.
Is now finally the time to see a modern take on Marathon? Presumably Bungie still holds the rights to the series, and they announced last year that they want to do stuff other than Destiny. Now that they're on their own, i would argue they need SOMETHING other than Destiny to support themselves.
As a supplement to this question: Video game historians and journalists on Era who might be reading this: What the hell happened to Greg Kirkpatrick after Double Aught's Duality failed to materialize in the late 90's? It seems odd to me that someone with his talent wrote the story for the Marathon series and then literally just disappeared from history. Did he step into an alternate timeline himself?
