Bungie announced Marathon as the next major project it"s working on over a year ago, bringing back its classic branding but this time for a sci-fi PVP extraction shooter experience. While not much information about the project was revealed then, a developer update from Bungie today gave a sneak peek at how"s it"s is faring.
Per game director Joe Ziegler, Marathon will offer a class-based gameplay system that has players picking and customizing the powers of a range of characters, which are dubbed Runners. The loot that players find on their runs will be how they customize the abilities and loadout of their classes.
Ziegler describes the gameplay experience as "intense", saying that while it"s not for everybody, for anyone who likes the harsh survival gameplay of the genre where stakes matter, Marathon will be right up their alley.
While gameplay footage is still being kept under wraps by the developer, two Runners codenamed Thief and Stealth were unveiled today. As it can be gathered by their names, both are stealth-based Runners, with loot-stealing and deception being core aspects.
According to Ziegler, environments of Marathon are "starting to come together in a really, really beautiful way," but models of Runners and enemies are "not fully there yet."
"So, it"s a little early to show you all of it as one piece," adds Ziegler. "if you’re familiar with game development, all of these things are on track. They’re not all together, but when they all do come together, we really, really are looking forward to showing you what that looks like, especially in play.”
Looking to the future, Bungie will be expanding its playtests in 2025 to bring in more players. No release window has been shared yet for the title, which is not going to be free-to-play. Marathon is coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 platforms.