Head-to-head with the ‘Marathon’ game: Bungie’s shooter goes back to the future

When it comes to first-person shooters, Bungie — from Hello all the way to The future – it has long been in a class of its own. Now the studio is returning to the old game – Marathonwhich was first released in 1994.

After playing the 2026 version of Marathon 6 hours, my first impressions are correct. The gunplay is amazing, the art direction is captivating.

The slow pace of the game may not be for everyone – but personally, I’m hungry for more.

What is ‘Marathon’ about?

Marathon takes place on the world Tau Ceti IV, where human colonists upload their consciousness into disposable cybernetic bodies, making them “Runners.” The runners’ job is to go out to Tau Ceti IV, collecting resources, artifacts, and data to bring back to their teams.

Marathon it doesn’t put its backstory front and center; however, there’s a lot of detail on the teams if you’re looking for it, and it’s all incredibly interesting. This feature reminded me Concordwhere I found reading the in-game encyclopedia more fun than playing the actual game.

Thank you, Marathon and has solid gameplay. It’s a throwaway shooter, like ARC raiderswhere players jump around the map, collect items, and take out. If you are a person who loves to read The future player – if you tend to go guns blazing, in other words – Marathon he may feel unfamiliar to you.

You have limited supplies, and any items you bring or collect in the arena will disappear when you die. So you need to plan your routes accordingly and check carefully to avoid fighting at all costs. This creates a tense atmosphere of insecurity; it’s shocking, yet exciting.

Scattered throughout the arena are NPCs and other human players – and trust me, they are hard. NPCs are tough robots, while other human players show no mercy at all.

This does Marathon feel different in a different way Hello, The futureI mean ARC raiders. If you try to take on NPCs in a gunfight, you’ll probably get wiped out—which is not the case in Bungie’s other shooters. In ARC raidershe will come many players who are friendly people; in the middle Marathonthey will not hesitate to silence you.

Credit: Bungie screenshot

The way the guns explode feels natural, and leads to a lot of immersive experiences. Guns feel smooth and impactful, every minute of shooting is enjoyable. Overall, Ceta Tau feels like a stressful, but fun, place to be.

If you withdraw successfully, the items you return are automatically sold. You can use money to buy guns and other equipment, to give yourself a bonus when you resupply. But even with your shiny new toys, your character can easily die and lose everything they brought. Still, even if you die, you never feel like you’re too far behind. The players seem to be at playing level, more or less.

The big problem with ‘Marathon’

I love it MarathonThe beauty of retro-futurism. The font and menus are exactly like Apple interfaces from the 1980s, reference MarathonOrigins in the early Macintosh computers.

That said, the game’s biggest problems lie with the user interface, especially its clunky menus. They are arbitrary because similar actions do not use the same input. For example, you open a box with the square button on your controller, and then you have to put items from that box into your inventory with the X button. This doesn’t make sense and can mess with your brain in the long run.

The font is hard to read, even when playing on a large screen. There are no options to increase the size – something we hope will be fixed in an early update.

All that being said, I had a lot of fun with my first few hours Marathon. I can’t wait to see what else the game has in store for us when it launches on March 5 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Check back later this month for our full review.