Marathon Server Slam Gets Underway Today - Here's Everything You Need to Know

I'm giving it ago and like I have said in the past I don't even like extraction shooters, but who knows maybe this could change my mind...

I’ll be there 👍🏻 now let’s go out there and lick some arse!!….. KICK some arse !!!

let's go. so ready

I’m playing it today hope it’s good.

That's my evening sorted.

out of curiosity, is this available for the Steam version as well? wanted to try Arcriders but not sure if extraction shooters are my thing, so giving this a go might clear that for me. and I dont like to play shooters on gamepad so was hoping for this to be available for the Steam version as well.
EDIT: just noticed the note about Steam, so I will try it later.

I'll play it tonight as its the only chance I'll get this weekend!

One week early would have been nice.

The fact that I don’t need PS Plus to try this out is an instant, “yep, I’ll be trying this out”. Smart move. Online shooters are definitely not my thing, but Marathon looks pretty cool, so giving it a shot!

I’ll be watching this via streams this week. I did watch some peanut couple weeks back. I did struggle to see what was going on tbh but that’s probably my age. It’s certainly not as easy to watch as arc raiders imo.

I think it will be a hit. From what I see the gameplay looks great.
I’ll give it a go , but my reactions are so bad now I’m flying through my 50s

I’m not going to have the time to give it a go but I look forward to seeing the response. I’ve seen a few people say that Arc Raiders being so good and coming first has destroyed alot of interest in Marathon but I think Arc’s popularity has actually turned a lot of people around on extraction shooters and drummed up much more excitement from the previously uninitiated. I certainly didn’t care 6 months ago but am now very keen.

I think the devs giving Peanut exclusive early access was a real attempt to try and get him to invest time in the game. I think Marathon unfortunately may have missed the boat with regard to that however. When he was playing it his entire chat was asking when he was getting back on Arc Raiders…. It’s very hard to switch to something else when his audience is so invested in Arc. Still the gunplay seems very decent on Marathon and I’m sure he will play it. Time will tell whether they can really take a large portion of that Arc player-base across or not.

Looking forward to giving this a go tonight. Hopefully the game will be a blast and enjoyable to keep me entertained and not a turkey.

@EfYI I think you underestimate just how much exposure a game gets by being endorsed and played by someone who commands 200k viewers every night religiously. There is a reason they were so keen to have him play early access and paid him to stream the game. You can belittle streamers all you want but they are VERY much a huge marketing tool in the industry today.

I have been out of the loop with MP games for many years. The main types I know are PvP and PvE, so what is an Extraction shooter?
Is it like Helldivers?

Oh yes I'll be on this evening..

@ZeD I think it’s where they extract as much money from you as possible over a certain amount of time 😅

I am veeeery excited about this. If it’s awesome I will absolutely be buying.

@ZeD you take equipment into the game (weapons, shields, heals, bullets etc) if you get killed you lose all the stuff you took in plus any resources you found in game. The idea is go in loot up and extract > build better equipment with looted resources.

@Boxmonkey that sounds pretty cool. Will have to give it a go.
Thanks

Never really understood the hate with this game or its visuals. Breath of fresh air, like Helldivers 2 and Horizon is looking.

As an aside, Horizon Hunters Gathering better get an extra year or so in the tank to iron out some of the issues I am seeing with it. I do think the NCSOFT game should've been the more arcadey one and Guerrilla make the realistic looking one but oh well.

Doesn’t seem like my type of game (too sweaty, you can lose all of your loot), but will definitely give it a go this weekend.

Good luck to them, but this one's not for me. It just seems like a skin/cosmetics store, with a thin veneer of game attached to it. Bungo have had enough of my money with D1 and D2. I really hope the industry moves away from live service micro transaction riddled games, and back to a model where everything you can earn is already in the game (Elden Ring is a great example of this).

Downloaded but can't get past the main menu. Keep getting errors

Yeah this is not for me. Took me 5 attempts just to do the tutorial 😂
Then a saw the load out screen and noped out

Wow, the visuals and art direction, cyberpunk/cybernetic vibes are incredible. The gunplay and movement is top notch as expected from bungie.

But I just don't wish to play a game where the point is to start match, collect junk and extract. Then at base have 1,000's of lines of text to figure out what this crap does. Just not for me. The UI is too busy and too much sensory overload, it confuses me and makes my eyes hurt. So same thing as ARC raiders. Gave it a try, then deleted mid game, knowing that I will never play this. Oh well, i tried.

A single player FPS set in this world would have been amazing.

@StitchJones definitely agree on the UI point. It's genuinely terrible. So much text and so much you have to sort through. It's way too much for a game trying to be a more murder fest focused fast paced extraction shooter. Spending a half hour in menus, reading walls of text, just to run out into pvp chaos is going to really put people off.
They need to simplify it and explain it better or it's going to really widdle out many including the streamers being paid to play it. You think they will keep playing it when the bungie checks stop, when their viewers have to watch 20 mins of inventory tinkering per round? Nahhh even in game there is a massive amount of text serving as the UI all over the screen.

This game was never going to be my cup of tea, but just watching all the paid to play folk advertising for it is mind numbingly boring.

@StitchJones yeah, the UI is too busy. That load out screen scared me that much I just deleted the game.
I’m was looking for a fun little MP game to drop a few hours but this isn’t it. I should get back into Helldivers 2

@ear_wig why would they require ps plus to try this out? Given their live service games track record and the simultaneous launch on xbox and pc that would make no sense, just cannibalizing sales on your own platform atp

Beautiful game. Truly, looks great. Current gen magnifique. But holy jeez the UX overload is biblical.

@ZeD @KundaliniRising333 Yes good points, I see we are all in agreement. I'm def not bashing the game. I hope people who into these really love it and it does well. I just have no desire to be going from building to building, opening boxes and collecting junk as the core gameplay loop. So tedious and boring. I'm sitting there with two randoms in my team, picking this stuff up and just thinking to myself "I don't F'in care what any of this sh** does" lmao

I'm really bummed, because I'm a sucker for cyberpunk themed IP. And again, the visuals and art direction are unique and so good.

With Halo getting tanked ages ago by 343, Resistance/Killzone both sunset a long time ago, COD really starting to fall off, there's so much space for a new, story driven, epic FPS game in the industry. Bungie is the team to do it too. This game could have been the next Halo if Bungie really focused and made it that way.

Currently playing now. As other have said the ui is definitely an overload. But then it’s a new game so and most take some sort of getting used too. Really enjoying it tbh

I have to agree with comments about the UI, so much going on. Apart from that though it's a very good game and so far I'm quite enjoying it.

The game is pretty fun. I like short runs better than long runs so far I think that’s the best way to play the game.

Managed 3 matches and can’t get into a game now

Tried a couples of matches with randoms. It's alright. Looks very stylish with nice colors while the gunplay feels good. Actually it feels very much like Destiny to the point it could have been a mode in that game.

Besides from that I didn't feel like it did much to set itself apart from other Extraction Shooters I've tried. If I had to choose I would probably rather play Hunt or Arc Raiders, both which have a bit more character and more interesting enemies and locations, imo.

I will try it again tomorrow, perhaps with some friends in co-op to see if that changes things. But otherwise I don't think I'll have any further interest in it.

Well it's pretty much what I expected. The gunplay is tip top and the graphics are very nice and crisp. Smooth as hell. The UI could do with a bit of work but it's not that bad once you get used to it. I prefer the first person view over the 3rd person view in arc and I think I'm going to enjoy marathon more. I've not had too many issues joining games but then I have my Nat settings configured properly. Wicked so far and I can't wait to get stuck in proper over the weekend.

Played a few matches with Randoms. Got destroyed each time but had fun failing. Love the look of the game, gameplay is tight and not too mental. Yet anyway

Jumped in with the missus.

Loaded up to an almost biblical amount of UI prompts and walls the pop up windows of text. Whilst being able to use a combination of buttons or left stick mouse-like movements in the menu didn’t phase me too much, my partner found she was slightly confused to say the least at the beginning.

I felt it did a worse job than Destiny in providing the player with quick information on the items you were looking at and how to use them.

It focused heavily on stylistic flare rather than an actual in-depth tutorial.

Having said that, it’s got pitential, the fun play is on point, movement a bit lugging but overall also on point. The lack of information yet seemingly overload of information is its weak point early on.

That and when you load into a match we had no idea how many teams there were. We had so many matches of kill other team, sometimes not even kill other team, never see other team and then exfill easily.

I mean a good nearly ten matches in a row were see no one, only computer enemies and then get out of match and “win”.

Then we found out more teams are in than just us and one other as you the spectate another player when you “give up”. Yet it’s not clear from the offset how many are on the map with you.

Overall it’s got lots going for it, the lore, the style, the gun play … but it feels empty, you hardly see human players during a run and it really lacks clear cut guidance on how to just enjoy the game to begin with.

I sincerely hope they clear it all up. I like what I saw in it, but my missus seems to have had enough already claiming it’s just too boring, and barely interacting with others is actually going against it for her. Yet I assumed she’d prefer that result. I guess I assumed incorrectly.

So yeah, great fun, but if we’re all being honest it’s a mixed bag of fun to be had.

@CheesyOatcake Also apologies for errors spelling and grammar wise, just dictated that whilst I grab a late night snack. Haha.

@CheesyOatcake I’d just like to say you can’t beat a cheese oatcake 😆 and I also agree with you

@Oram77 Same. Honestly I am in awe of the art direction, and want to see more of it.

Watched 4 hours of it last night. Hardly seen any pvp as the maps seem completely empty. Ai enemy’s seemed slow and dull and visually I thought it was horrible to look at for a long period of time. This seems way more complicated (loot wise) than arc raiders so I’m not sure casuals will vibe with it. If they make more pvp oriented I can see the sweaty crowd enjoying it. Can’t see this being a mainstream hit though.

@Northern_munkey Same here! Will see you tonight oldtimer!

@Sanquine the youth of today..cheeky whipper snapper 🤣

after 9 tries to get on with various errors I gave up will try again tonight but the opening sequence I saw looked great a lot to take in with all the colours and flashing images (just hope it doesn't bring on seizures for some), will try again tonight and see if I can get access

the art style is attempting to define it as something different, but i dont think it is partiularly inclusive which is a dangerous route to go down. i found the UI merged into the very bold environment colours and i didnt find the initial tutorial particullarly instructive. but i am inclined to give it more time.

@liathach " i dont think it is partiularly inclusive which is a dangerous route to go down." Why? What isn't particularly inclusive about it? And why would it be a dangerous route to go down?

It's basically what I expected from the previews, the UX is a ***** mess.
Can't tell what's going on sometimes and even if what I'm looting is any good, paired with the extremely slow load times for searching containers it feels like I'm playing an rpg reading the descriptions for so long 😂
On the other hand it does look very stylish, sound design is nice and the colors pop.
The game lacks some interactivity though, I know they mentioned there's some pve puzzles and stuff later on but my matches have been so stale and devoid of life it's crazy 😂
Maybe sth to keep an eye on post launch. I reckon it might be a moderate 'success', can see Sony being happy initially. Just depends on the post launch support.