Marathon: The Arrival of Hardcore Fortnite

There are many things to say about Marathon, Bungie's new extraction shooter, but one thing is certain: its gameplay structure is highly atypical. Yes, it resembles extraction shooters, and yes, it is fundamentally a hardcore reimagining of Fortnite. But it mixes various ingredients in a unique way, making it challenging, difficult to tackle, and absolutely reserved for a very niche audience of hardcore gamers.

The brutal gameplay structure gives meaning to every step and every decision, while all the "runs" have their own unique progression and story. Apparently, the gameplay structure is very simple: you enter the map, gather as many resources as possible, and exfiltrate — that is, reach a sensitive point from which you can leave the gaming session carrying what you've collected. However, if we encounter a particularly strong AI bot or another player, or to better say, another runner, and we lose our life, then we will leave on the map everything we have painstakingly collected, potentially even from previous matches. It should be noted though, that you lose what you have actually equipped, but the player always has the option to store something in the Deposit to not use everything in the next match but keep the items as reserves for more challenging future encounters.

It’s precisely the possibility of losing everything that makes every moment significant and requires great strategic planning. Therefore, the early matches turn into a race to run as fast as possible and exfiltrate as soon as possible, engaging the enemy only if forced to do so. One of the most successful components of this Bungie production is the sound: making noise, even to kill bots, risks revealing your position and exposing you to attacks from other runners. Every game element produces its own sound, and an experienced player will not only know how to leverage the positionality of each of these sounds but also recognize their source. For instance, the sound of robot footsteps is very different from that made by players' footsteps.

A determining aspect that adds depth to this gameplay structure and makes the runs more varied is the contracts assigned by the factions. In the Marathon universe, various factions exist that level up and with that advancement become permanently their own to have more stats essential for facing the more difficult levels.

The factions correspond to organizations that serve as the backbone of the game's progression system because they assign objectives to runners in exchange for rewards, perks, and narrative progression. With these rewards, even in case of death, the player will confront subsequent runs with a minimal arsenal, because it will be possible to "craft" new equipment, weapons, or various types of support items, at the cost of some resources, of course.

CyberAcme is the mandatory starting faction and the most important for new players: it is the only one that allows unlocking all the others, so it should be faced first. The other five are NuCaloric, Traxus, MIDA, Arachne, and Sekiguchi Genetics, each oriented toward a different approach — from looting to aggressive PvP, stealth, to survival.

Each faction offers two types of contracts: priority contracts are those that are harder to complete but also the most rewarding: they offer shields, heals, credits, random weapons, and high-level materials, and advance the narrative lore of the specific faction. Standard contracts, on the other hand, are simpler and primarily provide experience to level up the faction.

The fundamental peculiarity of the system is that contracts do not require extraction to be completed: objectives are fulfilled during the run itself, regardless of whether you survive or not. It’s a precise design choice aimed at reducing the typical frustration of more punishing extraction shooters.

This does not mean that Marathon is easy; on the contrary, the opposite is true. During the initial runs, encountering any human enemy, if not adequately equipped, equates to certain death, compounded by environmental risks, which are not always predictable.

Progression and Skill Tree

In addition to completing contracts, faction experience is also gained by extracting from the map, killing enemies, completing events, and gathering specific materials related to the reference faction. Each faction has a skill tree with improvements, perks, and abilities that can be purchased as you level up: unlocking all seven main upgrades of a faction is one of the long-term progression goals.

Nuclei, implants, and weapon modifications are equally important in build crafting. The role-playing component of Marathon, in fact, although not present as it is in Destiny, is very important and can make the difference between life and death during runs.

The nuclei are extremely powerful autonomous perks that radically modify the runner's behavior during gameplay. They do not simply enhance stats: each nucleus has "hooks" that connect to other systems of the kit — skills, implants, weapons — creating cascading synergies which Bungie itself has compared to a Rube Goldberg machine, that is, a mechanism where each component activates the next in unexpected ways. Some nuclei are found during field incursions as loot, while others are unlocked by progressing through factions: for instance, Sekiguchi Genetics offers some of the most specific nuclei for the main frames. However, the inventory has a physical limit of 10 transportable nuclei, so space management is an integral part of the strategy.

The implants are a second layer of customization, distinct from the nuclei but equally equipable on the runner. Unlike the nuclei — which often alter the functioning of skills — implants tend to modify the runner's base stats or introduce specific passive effects. The inventory limit is 6 implants that can be carried at the same time. The combination of nuclei and implants largely determines the identity of the build: setups can be created oriented towards survival, aggression, stealth, or support by complementing the two systems.

Weapon mods complete the trio. Every weapon collected during incursions can mount modifications that alter its behavior — firing rate, recoil management, special effects on shots — and these mods directly interact with the nuclei equipped on the runner. Bungie recommends prioritizing the Chip Mod on the main weapon as the first immediate upgrade, as it provides a transversal performance increase without requiring knowledge of the entire system. It’s also worth checking the weapons of runners fallen in battle: a weapon collected with an already optimized combination of mods can be superior to one found in containers.

At the base of customizing your runner on the map, however, we find the frame. Frames are the cybernetic bodies in which runners transfer their consciousness, and they are not just skins: each frame carries with it unique passive abilities and stats that define its role in the game. Bungie has designed each of them to be immediately recognizable even from a great distance, allowing players to quickly understand what type of opponent they are facing and how to counter them. At launch, seven frames are available.

Destructive is the melee tank, with boosters for quick dashes, a riot shield to generate presence and draw enemy fire, and a thermal-guided rocket launcher as its main ability. The Rogue is the most dynamic frame, with microjets for double jumps and enhanced sliding that can overload the movement system to chain all actions together. The Assassin frame is the silent infiltrator: it can become invisible and throw smoke discs, but its visibility increases with movement speed, requiring careful movement. The Recon frame functions as a tactical detective, with radar pulses to locate enemies, spider drones that overheat targets, and holographic footprints visible on the ground after neutralizing enemy shields. The Rescue frame is the field medic of the group, with capacitive gloves to transfer health and drones that share shields and healing with the entire team, and can even pass consumables to teammates. The Thief frame is optimized for loot: an X-ray visor allows seeing containers through walls, while a "mechanical butterfly" enables stealing items directly from opponents. Finally, ROOK is the easiest frame to use, designed for quieter or solo sessions with a focus on resource recovery.

ROOK is the frame designed for those who want to tackle Marathon solo but with a particularity that distinctly sets it apart from the others: when choosing ROOK, you enter a game populated by other teams alone. This is not a protected or isolated mode but an individual approach even though you are always in a shared arena, where the priority is to move cautiously, gather resources, and survive while avoiding direct confrontations. It is the ideal choice for those who want to explore the map and hoard equipment without the coordination of a group, yet accept the constant risk of encountering organized rival teams.

In Marathon, we find several maps, which differ in terms of challenge level. In each of them, aside from bots, there are also environmental challenges that can significantly complicate players' lives. Moreover, certain contracts must be completed on specific maps and cannot be completed anywhere.

Marathon currently has four playable zones, three of which are set on the colony of Tau Ceti IV, while the fourth takes place aboard the ship UESC Marathon and is dedicated to the endgame. Perimeter is the simplest map and the one recommended for beginners. It is set on the edges of the colony's expansion area, with open landscapes, long sightlines, and urban ruins alternating with dense vegetation. The map accommodates 5 teams of 3 players (15 runners total) and offers 5 standard extraction points plus one high-risk monitored extraction. There is also a Beginner variant of Perimeter — without other enemy teams — serving as a tutorial zone to familiarize players with the game mechanics before facing real PvP.

Doomswamp is the main map of the game and the largest available at launch. It is set in the swampy regions of Tau Ceti IV and mixes open swampy areas — ideal for long-range engagements with rifles such as the Twin Tap HBR or the Longshot — with dense industrial structures and closed corridors where shotguns and SMGs dominate. It supports 18 players divided into 6 teams and is the area with the highest PvP conflict rate, made even more chaotic by the periodic arrival of a high-value dropship that drops premium loot, creating spontaneous battle hotspots. The extraction points on the perimeter away from the dropship are generally safer but require longer rotations.

Outpost, on the other hand, is the most compact and vertical map of the initial trio, built around a central structure called the Pinwheel. It accommodates 9-12 players divided into 3-4 teams and is the area with the highest difficulty among the maps available at launch: USEC enemies are more aggressive, loot density is high, but confrontations are almost inevitable given the compact structure of the map. The verticality requires intensive use of the frame's movement skills to take elevated positions and control the Outpost levels.

The Cryo-archive is set aboard the UESC Marathon ship and is the game’s endgame zone, as well as the most challenging one. The map is structured around progressively challenging vaults: the deeper you go, the more exclusive the rewards become, and the more relentless the enemies are. It is designed for experienced teams that already master extraction mechanics and have a consolidated build.

Access is not automatic: to enter the Cryo-archive, it is necessary to reach level 25, have a minimum loadout value in the current season, and establish a connection with all six factions present in the game — Arachne, CyberAcme, MIDA, NuCaloric, Sekiguchi, and Traxus. It is not required to complete every faction, but it is necessary to start narrative progression with each of them through main quests. A minimum loadout value is also required to access this map, which requires a certain investment of time.

Bungie has done significant work on the imagery as well. As mentioned, not only is the auditory component particularly well thought out, but the graphics are impactful and evocative. Many visual elements, moreover, recall the original Marathon by Bungie, released in 1994 as a kind of DOOM clone with an aesthetic that blends industrial cyberpunk and decadent sci-fi.

All the action takes place on Tau Ceti IV, an abandoned space colony approximately a century before the game events. The most recurring atmosphere is that of a civilization that disappeared abruptly — not destroyed, but simply vanished — with still intact structures, idle machinery, and environments that seem "frozen" at the moment of disappearance. This sensation of sudden abandonment is one of the strongest narrative elements of the game, as it creates a constant sense of unease: something has gone wrong on this colony, but exactly what is not immediately clear.

The visual tone is strongly influenced by a dystopian corporate aesthetic: massive industrial architectures, corporate branding everywhere on the structures, advanced technology but worn down by time. The factions operating on the colony — CyberAcme, Traxus, MIDA, and others — are all corporate entities with conflicting interests, and their visual presence is felt in every corner of the maps. The runners themselves are cybernetic runners, human beings who have transferred their consciousness into advanced mechanical frames, a narrative choice that evokes classic themes of man-machine transition typical of cyberpunk.

Bungie's legacy is well visible in Marathon, almost like a signature. A software house with a unique past, having first been part of Microsoft Xbox and now revolving around the orbit of Sony PlayStation (Marathon is a project fully financed under this latter label). It also mixes a bit of Destiny, as the movement mechanics and certain structures related to rewards are reminiscent of the title Bungie has focused on the most in recent years.

At launch, Marathon received over 24,000 reviews on Steam with 88% positive ratings, a remarkable achievement for an extraction shooter — a historically niche and challenging genre — demonstrating how Bungie has managed to package a product immediately appreciated by those who have actually played it. The peak of 88,337 simultaneous players on launch night was not striking for a live service of this scale, with a drop of about 25% already in the first week, but the base of approximately 60,000 active concurrent players remaining is a foundation on which Bungie can build.

On the pure gameplay front, players agree on one point: the gunplay is exceptional. The legacy of Halo and Destiny is felt in every firefight, with a refined weapon response and a fast-paced, brutal combat rhythm. The time-to-kill is perceived by many as excessively low, with situations in which even well-designed kits fall within seconds against a competent opponent — a divisive choice that rewards those with quick reflexes but can be frustrating for novice players. The weapons, it should be noted, do not scale the base damage based on rarity: what changes are the secondary stats and the available mods, a design philosophy that eliminates the implied pay-to-win of vertical loot but leaves puzzled a slice of players used to classic progression systems.

On the gameplay structure front, the choice not to have zones to deposit the loot collected during a run before the final extraction was initially criticized but has proven to be one of the most appreciated decisions in hindsight: every firefight has real weight because losing means losing everything you carry. At the same time, the 25-30 minute round timers are considered by the community to be too stringent, especially for those who prefer an exploratory and methodical style rather than an aggressive one.

The most cited weak point in player reviews is the onboarding: Marathon throws the player into a match with minimal tutorial, leaving them disoriented in front of a system of builds, factions, contracts, and currencies that requires hours to be fully understood. Bungie has already responded to some of the community's most urgent criticisms in the first weeks after launch, adding rewards in the Battle Pass, increasing the in-game microtransaction currency, and promising further quick interventions. It is a sign of reactivity that players have noticed, although the road to building a solid long-term live service is still long.

What is certain is that Marathon is not the usual competitive multiplayer title. Whether it will succeed and continue to receive attention over time, however, will need to be verified a few months post-launch.