Marathon is finally here, and the internet can’t agree on whether it’s brilliant or broken.
Bungie’s extraction shooter launched on March 5 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S at $39.99, and within a week it’s already one of the most divisive PVP launches in years. Steam reviews sit at “Very Positive” with over 19,000 reviews. But spend five minutes on Reddit and you’ll find players calling it “punishingly opaque” and “hostile to newcomers.”
Both camps are right. That’s what makes Marathon interesting.
The Gunplay Is Bungie at Its Best
Nobody shoots like Bungie. That’s been true since Halo CE and it’s true here. Marathon’s weapons feel weighty and responsive in a way that most extraction shooters — including Tarkov and Dark and Darker — simply don’t match. Every firefight has a snap to it. The TTK sits in a sweet spot where positioning matters but mechanical skill can turn fights.
The three Runner classes (Thief, Hacker, Breaker) each play distinctly. Thief is fast and flanky, built for players who loved Destiny’s Hunter. Hacker controls space with tech abilities. Breaker tanks and disrupts. It’s not quite a hero shooter — the classes are broad archetypes, not rigid kits — but there’s real build diversity.
The Onboarding Problem
Here’s where Marathon stumbles. The game does almost nothing to explain its systems. Extraction zones, vendor mechanics, Runner progression, the faction reputation loop — you’re expected to figure it out or alt-tab to a wiki. Veterans of Tarkov will feel at home. Everyone else will feel lost.
This is a solvable problem. Dark and Darker had similar complaints at launch and cleaned them up over time. But for a $40 game from a AAA studio, the lack of tutorialization is a genuine issue. Bungie’s post-launch roadmap mentions “guided experiences” but nothing specific.
The Extraction Loop Hits Different
What sets Marathon apart from the extraction shooter pack is pace. Where Tarkov is slow and methodical and Hunt: Showdown builds tension through sound design, Marathon is fast. Matches are shorter, engagements are quicker, and the risk-reward curve is steeper.
You drop in, grab loot, fight over objectives, and extract — or die and lose everything. Standard extraction fare. But the Bungie polish makes every loop feel tight rather than tedious. The map design channels players toward conflict naturally, and the PVP encounters are genuinely excellent.
Early Verdict
Marathon is exactly the kind of PVP game I want to see more of: a studio with best-in-class gunplay taking a real creative swing. It’s not perfect — the onboarding is rough, the economy needs tuning, and the endgame is thin at launch. But the foundation is rock solid.
If Bungie supports this the way they supported Destiny 2’s early growing pains, Marathon could be the extraction shooter that breaks into the mainstream. If they don’t, it’ll be another beautiful game that the broader audience never quite finds.
The gunplay alone makes it worth the price. Everything else is fixable.
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