Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon, feels like an enigma.
I was not all that impressed with the game’s beta test earlier this year in April, and I was not alone. After a tepid reception and a lot of negative feedback, Bungie was forced to delay it from its initial September release date so it could run more tests and iterate on numerous changes.
But since then, a new juggernaut has entered the space: ARC Raiders launched last month and became an instant hit in the extraction shooter genre, bringing in a whole new swath of players who hadn’t really experienced the game type before. It’s consistently been a top-played game on Steam since its release, and it’s even gotten a hold on console players, too. And I can’t help but wonder what kind of effect it may have on Marathon’s potential success, or failure.
With players like myself now enjoying the thrill of deploying, looting, surviving, and extracting, Marathon could bring us into the fold if it can nail the gameplay loop similarly to how ARC Raiders has. Similarly, the success of ARC Raiders could keep potential Marathon buyers from taking the plunge if they’re still enjoying the new Embark Studios hit.
I do think there’s room for both, as one is in third-person and one is a first-person shooter from a company that has excelled in the gameplay feel of that perspective. They are both stylistically quite different, too, with Marathon sporting a futuristic and colorful aesthetic versus ARC Raiders’ grimy, post-apocalyptic setting.
Will ARC Raiders’ friendliness factor carry over into Marathon? That depends. Leaks from recent tests claim that Bungie is adding proximity chat to Marathon after all, which is a big reason why ARC Raiders has been so fun for so many who normally don’t enjoy the competitive nature of the genre.
I would not be surprised to see some ARC Raiders players now willing to try out Marathon if they weren’t before. I’m certainly more excited for it after now truly grasping the extraction concept, thanks in large part to how good ARC Raiders is. The rest is up to Bungie to deliver a product that engages players and hits on multiple cylinders as ARC Raiders has, so the hope is that these past few months of extra testing on the game will have made a tremendously positive impact.
It certainly feels like extraction games are quickly becoming the next “big thing” in gaming, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some established IPs continue to explore it. Before Marathon launches, we have PUBG: Black Budget running a playtest next month, which is the battle royale game’s spin on extraction.
Escape From Tarkov paved the way, but we’ve since had titles like Delta Force, Hunt: Showdown, and Dark and Darker twisting their own iterations, and I expect more companies to follow the trend, with rumors circulating that Call of Duty will bring back its extraction mode DMZ in next year’s game.
There may come a point when extraction games become saturated, but for now, I think the industry is rife with potential, and Marathon could end up benefiting from the influx of new genre enjoyers after all.
What do you think about Marathon’s potential? Will ARC Raiders help or hurt it? Let us know your own thoughts in the comments.
The post ARC Raiders is such a big success that it could end up helping Marathon—or hurt it just the same appeared first on Destructoid.
