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  • Re: It's Marathon... but why?

    From rms@21:1/5 to All on Sun Apr 13 14:31:30 2025
    The new "Marathon" game -scheduled for a September release- will be
    none of that. It's a soulless extraction-shooter that looks like it
    was developed in RoBlox and will be extremely light on narrative and >atmosphere

    I watched some of the twitch gameplay video yesterday, and it appears to
    be another of the large crop of online military multiplayer squad shooters
    that are popular now, somewhat similar to cod or battlefield? The gameplay mechanics seemed competent and quick paced (I'm not a good judge of this),
    and unlike you I'm very much ok with the more comicbook blocky, less
    realistic presentation, as while watching I felt little of the stress associated with games using 'real' weapons shooting at realistic humans,
    which should make this title more appropriate for a younger audience (which
    I have no doubt their marketing department intended).

    But I guess like you, I simply have no interest in this genre, where the gameplay loop is online twitch shooting repeated to infinity. The franchise Marathon itself I have no history or connection with, but your complaints
    there seem correct. A big pass for me.

    rms

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  • From Ant@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Mon Apr 14 00:53:09 2025
    I couldn't get into that series.


    Spalls Hurgenson <[email protected]> wrote:

    So, Bungie is making a new Marathon game. The original Marathon
    trilogy was famous not only for being a reasonably good Doom-clone
    --on a Macintosh!-- but it was one of the first FPS to try and wedge a
    story into the game, moving the genre beyond 'shoot monster, find key,
    unlock door, repeat' style initially introduced by Id Software.
    "Marathon" introduced NPCs and multiple factions to the genre. It was
    quite the looker (for 1994), running at SVGA resolutions when DOS was
    still in the 320x200 doldrums. It was moody, mysterious and
    atmospheric, and it --along with games like "System Shock" and "Half
    Life"-- helped push the genre from the arcade shooter style to the
    more cinematic games we have today.

    The new "Marathon" game -scheduled for a September release- will be
    none of that. It's a soulless extraction-shooter that looks like it
    was developed in RoBlox and will be extremely light on narrative and atmosphere (it will have AI-controlled bots for you to shoot, though).
    Early review --its currently in early access-- indicate that its shooty-shooty bang-bang mechanics are fine... but it's utterly generic
    beyond that.

    So why make it a Marathon game?

    The people who know what "Marathon" is are just going to be
    disappointed. The ones to whom the gameplay will appeal will have no
    idea what the early "Marathon" games were like. Calling this new game "Marathon" only costs you sales with the former, and does nothing to
    attract new players. It's like announcing the next "Deus Ex" title
    will be a hidden-object puzzle game. It's such a disadvantageous use
    of a franchise. There are ways to leverage gamer nostalgia... but this
    isn't it.



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