Bungie finally showed off their upcoming game, an extraction shooter called Marathon. The combat looked exciting. The art style looked incredible. The world looks unique and interesting, and something I’m excited to discover. Did I mention how cool the characters look? In case you weren’t sure, they look incredible. So what’s the problem? Well, as much as I’ve played games like Destiny, Apex Legends, and Marvel Rivals, Marathon helped me realize something. I don’t know what an extraction shooter is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a somewhat intelligent person who understands words, but having never played an extraction shooter, at best I’m only guessing I know what the game is. And for me, I think this is the beginning of a list of problems Bungie has found itself having to resolve.

When Bungie held Marathon’s big reveal event, I thought I’d get a precise, well-constructed hour-long video that broke down what Marathon was. Instead, I got a handful of guys sitting on a couch talking about the game, and from time to time, they would show off some gameplay. To say the least, it was an odd way to reveal the game. At one point, one of the guys was asked who their favorite character was to use in-game and then had the audience cheer for the character they named. It felt like I was watching an update video for a game heading into its 2nd year rather than the reveal of something brand new. You’re Bungie. You make games for the masses. I don’t care how popular something like Escape from Tarkov is, I don’t know what that is. The only reason I even know the name is because everyone who reacted to the Marathon announcement kept mentioning it.

So as dumb as it might seem, if your goal is to reach general audiences, you need to educate us on what this genre is. My understanding is if I have a successful run and actually extract something, I can carry it over to the next match, but if I die in the following match, I lose everything. Okay. Not a dealbreaker. I think the tension and high stakes existing in every match could be great and will make the moments when my team and I successfully pull off an extraction a truly memorable moment. I’m guessing those moments are probably going to be few and far between, though. So what else is keeping me going? If I’m constantly losing, what’s my motivation? The dream of one day winning?

Well, as it turns out, there are also permanent upgrades that players can add to their characters as they continue to play the game. What exactly are these upgrades? I’m not entirely sure, but I do know you get them from doing missions from the different factions that exist in this world. Factions you say? What’s that all about? Honestly, I don’t recall them explaining too much of that which is a shame because that sounds pretty cool. A concern I have with these permanent upgrades, though, is what’s stopping me from getting crushed by someone who has more upgrades than me and my teammates? Am I going to find myself stuck in a permanent cycle of grinding hoping that one day I have enough upgrades and loot that I’ll finally be able to pull off a successful extraction? Why am I here? JUST TO SUFFER!?!?

I know I’m complaining a lot about something that I opened the article by saying how good it looked, but I’m just so tired of the internet telling me every game will fail and this was Marathon’s only chance at a first impression. While they said we’re going to learn more in the Summer, probably in June during the Summer Game Fest, this was their chance to get into the weeds with everything. Show off as much as you can now and if what you have to show looks great, then I’ll be counting down the days for that June update. Instead, I’m only looking forward to the Summer update because I’d like to learn more about a game that I’m still on the fence about buying when it comes out this September.

With all of this said, I’d like to end on a positive note. The cinematic short they released is one of the best things I’ve ever watched. It doesn’t matter what your thoughts are on Marathon, if you’re a fan of Love, Death, and Robots, or honestly, just shit that looks cool, you should stop what you’re doing and watch it now.