Overall, you must embrace failure as part of your journey for reaching that Champion Rank you've always dream of to enjoy this game (NB: saying that as my rank is still Styrofoam V with hundred hours of playtime on both consoles and PC).

There's plenty of lovely adventures to discover in this wonderful experience : you'll die a thousand times from angles/destructible environments you didn't know it ever existed, find brand-new creatives way to blow yourself up with your own frag grenades, and finally be at peace with the fact that you have the attention span of a goldfish swimming in a skibidi toilet as your most "tactical mindset".

Sincerely, it's the sweetest experience you'll ever get from a video game. 100% recommend if you play with a squad or if you enjoy getting yelled at by teenagers with a 10$ mic.

This neo-punk dystopian video game feels exactly as if Destiny and Arc Raiders decided to have some very loud and rough hotel-room sex without protection, and Marathon became the beautiful mistake that resulted from that night.

You can really see all the genetics here : it inherited the "space-magic" mind of Destiny, for its Runners' classes, level design, and enemies. Meanwhile, it clearly inherited the "scrappy scavenger, tactical, 1980s-retro-future" traumas from Arc Raiders, by making you endure the constant stress of extracting alive with the specific resources you need for your next upgrade. However, the main departure from Arc Raiders is that you won't be able to sing "Why Can't We Be Friends" with strangers while playing with a doubtful flute; here, all randos are thirsty for your blood, your loot, and your tears.

The main result from this explosive mixture is a game that looks like a bunch of luxury sports car bodies melted into a Minecraft biome, but plays like a violent bar fight in a weird techno club from an 90's anime. I can confidently say that the audio design is just as immersive as both games combined, and while some robots look and sound like pieces of junk, they can still uproot every last source of life within you.

In a nutshell, Marathon is a beautifully cryptic game, especially when exploring the maps with their secrets and puzzles. However, the game is also tactical, sweaty, and punishing if you don't play smart. You'll be rewarded for being well-positioned and for your fighting skills rather than simply because you equipped the most powerful gear in the first place.

The real secret I found so far be succesful so far in this game is to learn what all the characters archetypes do and adapt your playstyle accordingly while figuring out how to be comfortable fighting naked like a worm.

I highly recommend to all filthy Extraction Shooter fans out there, and to all shady sci-fi nerds that enjoy medias with hidden societal critics.