Like other extraction shooters, Marathon pits players against one another on raids to secure resources, defeat NPC enemies, and loot high-value locations. The goal is to drop into a game, complete your missions, and then get out alive with your gear. If you die in a round, all of your gear is left on your body, and anyone can loot it. Hence the thrilling sense of risk and reward.
There are lots of major differences, though. For starters, in Marathon, players select “shells” that define their class. Certain shells may excel at healing and damage mitigation, while other shells may boost your speed or offensive capabilities. The game is primarily structured around teamwork and choosing shells that complement one another well.
I spent three hours with the server slam last night on PS5 Pro and had a good time. Gameplay feels tight and fast-paced, and the variety of character shells is really refreshing. My biggest issue is the visual noise in the menus, and how you navigate them between rounds is very overwhelming. It’s got a very sleek and cool aesthetic, but it’s not very readable. Game balance could use some work as well, since time-to-kill seems way too fast at the moment, especially against other players.
It’s worth noting also that Marathon (2026) is sort of a reboot as well. Bungie previously developed the Marathon trilogy of first-person shooters for Apple computers in the pre-Halo days, set within this same universe. The first game was also called Marathon, but it was released in 1994.