There has been a lot of talk about “aesthetic” in games lately, particularly in the new PvP shooter market. Some games have it. Everyone loved the stylization that Marvel Rivals used for those classic heroes and villains. Some games don’t. Concord was torched for being exceptionally ugly, and the recently launched Highguard is accused of being generic and muddled. But Marathon? Marathon has the aesthetic. Marathon has aura.
This has been the case since day one, when Bungie released the first Marathon trailer that remains fantastic to this day. It’s a departure from the original style of Marathon, which some didn’t like, but the more we’ve seen from it, the better it’s getting.
The worst phase, of course, was the combination of the badly unfinished alpha visuals and the immediately-following plagiarism scandal. That was inexcusable, but it was decals on the map, and should not have been extrapolated to “they stole the entire art style of the game,” which it was by many.
Now, after a delay, Marathon has restarted its marketing campaign ahead of its newly announced March 5 release, and man, it’s going well so far.
Some of these trailers have created little story snippets that are intriguing at worst and terrifying at best:
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Then there’s an introduction to some of the factions. Here’s the Arachne, the “cult of death”:
Now, Marathon has started introducing little character shorts and the first one, focused on the Destroyer shell, is just awesome:
One question is how well all this translates into the game itself. Bungie has leaned on the idea that this is a PvP extraction shooter that will have a good amount of story attached to it. It actually ended up promoting a former top narrative director, Julia Nardin, to be creative director of the entire game. It has assembled a truly insane voice cast ranging from the actors who played Arthur Morgan in Red Dead to Maelle in Expedition 33. Plus dozens more.
The aesthetic also has to work in moment-to-moment gameplay. We have seen the previously flat outdoor spaces transformed with new updates, and the interiors have always been pretty cool. But I still see critics saying that they view this all as a “Roblox” art style. I disagree, but this is a big design swing and I can understand how it might not be for everyone.
I have gone on the record saying I don’t think Marathon is going to work long term, but I would love nothing more than to have that thrown in my face if I was wrong. Aura cannot make a game successful, but a terrible aesthetic can drag it down like an anchor. And I don’t think Marathon has that problem.
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