Marathon Is The Casual Extraction Shooter No One Wants

People think Destiny players are biased against Marathon, but nothing could be further from the truth. With Destiny 2 seemingly in its waning years (we’ll see how next week’s Edge of Fate reveal goes), it’s easy to see Marathon as the new baby who’s causing mom and dad to neglect big brother. Destiny isn’t Bungie’s sole focus anymore, but that doesn’t mean we should wish ill on Marathon. And mostly, we don’t. Its success is Bungie’s success, and a successful Bungie is a lot better for games - and the future of Destiny - than a failing one.

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So while I’m rooting for Marathon from the sidelines, I’m still having a hard time imagining it becoming the next Destiny, Escape From Tarkov, or Apex Legends. I’ve played it, I’ve watched people play it, and I’ve heard what a lot of extraction shooter fans have to say about it, and the consensus seems to be one big collective shrug. It’s kind of fine, even fun at times, but does it have the juice to pull people away from their favorite shooters? From what we’ve seen so far, no.

The Extraction Shooter Boom

It seems like people are already sick of extraction shooters before the genre has even really had a chance to take off, or maybe everyone is just sick of all the trend chasing we’ve seen over the last decade. MOBAs, hero shooters, battle royales, roguelikes, and Soulslikes have had their chance to be the genre du jour, and now we’re either in the midst of, at the start of, or at the end of, the extraction shooter boom - depending, perhaps, on how popular Marathon becomes.

There are quite a few extraction shooters out there already, but if we’re talking about PvP FPS extraction shooters like Marathon, there are really only two big ones: Escape from Tarkov, and to a far, far lesser extent, Hunt: Showdown. For all intents and purposes, Tarkov is the Fortnite of extraction shooters; the yardstick by which all other extraction shooters are measured against.

To understand the extraction shooter genre, you have to understand Tarkov. Escape from Tarkov is - and I say this with as much affection and respect as possible - an absolute nightmare. It is heinously overcomplicated and sadistically unforgiving at every turn. There are things in Tarkov that no rational game developer would ever do. There’s never been a game like Tarkov, and once you’ve played it, it's easy to understand why.

If I asked you what an absurd number of ammo types in a shooter would be, what would you say? 15? 30? Escape From Tarkov has 185. Every single one of them has a different accuracy rating, projectile speed, penetration power, armor damage, recoil, and a whole bunch of other stats you don’t even see in hardcore RPGs. And yes, the kind of ammo you use matters a lot.

Tarkov is so hostile to its players that it doesn’t even have a map. There’s no GPS to extraction sites, there are no quest markers. There’s just a compass, and fan-made maps that you’ll need to have up on a second monitor while you play. They say it takes 1,000 hours of playing Tarkov just to suck at it. It’s not a game for everyone, but if it's for you, it’s the only game you’ll ever play.

Marathon, The Casual Player’s Tarkov

Bungie looked at Tarkov and decided that rather than competing with it, it would make Marathon be the opposite of Tarkov in almost every way. Attracting newcomers to the genre is a stated goal of the game, and Marathon does a lot to lower the barrier to entry. This decision is at least in part a response to the common complaint that Destiny 2 has become inaccessible to new players, but it’s also an attempt to offer something wholly different from Tarkov, rather than compete with it directly.

Now that people have had a chance to play Marathon, it seems evident that in its effort to make a beginner-friendly extraction shooter, Bungie has missed what makes the genre so compelling to people who actually play it.

Tarkov’s complexity is a feature, not a bug. It’s what gives the game depth and makes people want to keep playing. It’s so obtuse, so confusing, and so blatantly antagonistic to players, that just playing it feels like overcoming a challenge. That turns a lot of people off, but it’s also what makes those who get it so devoted to it.

We’ve seen developers fall for this trap before. A game made for everyone is a game made for no one. Marathon’s attempt at approachability has resulted in a game that lacks depth. Instead of committing to something specific and risky, Marathon is trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator; to be an extraction shooter for people who don’t like extraction shooters. You either boo or cheer at Tarkov, but Marathon is so focused on avoiding boos that it won’t get any cheers either - just an awkward silence.

Marathon

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