Marathon's Server Slam: First impressions of Bungie's latest FPS

Let's start by stating that Marathon's overall appearance, auditory profile, and artistic direction clearly divide players quite directly. Indeed, it almost splits game consumers into two very distinct groups. If you don't like the way Marathon looks, there's so much of it that it's hard to ignore, regardless of how you feel about the game's other aspects.

But for me personally, subjectively speaking? I love it. My colleague Lasse and I have spent the last half day playing almost non-stop, and several times we've said to each other that we simply want to devour Marathon. Bold colours, intentional use of strong contrasting colours, pulsating electronic soundtrack by Son Lux, a decidedly elegant, seamless aesthetic profile that runs like a stream through the user interface, environment design and character models, this game is so BEAUTIFUL!

But of course, that's not all it is. It's also a hugely challenging, hardcore, and finely tuned extraction shooter that really takes no prisoners, and as a kind of run-up to our final review, which won't be out until after launch, we're bringing you some first impressions from the game's so-called "Server Slam".

Structurally, Marathon is pretty much what you'd expect, especially if you've recently played ARC Raiders. You choose a predefined character class, or "Shell", load into a larger map with two other players on your team, and then it's all about finding some useful loot, completing a contract, maybe poking a little at hostile robot NPCs, and then escaping before you die and lose everything you've collected. It sounds simplistic, and it undoubtedly is, but that's the immediate goal, just like in any other extraction shooter.

Beforehand, you can equip a bunch of gear from your personal Vault, gear that you also sacrifice if you die, which makes your Shell more resilient. Two weapons, a shield, grenades, various modifications, a little bit of everything that can differentiate you on the battlefield and, of course, to some extent, make it either easier or harder to face enemies once you land on Tau Ceti IV. The planet itself is divided into distinct maps, three of which are available now, with a final one intended as a much more hardcore end-game zone, arriving later in March.

But Marathon is already quite hardcore, to say the least, and this is reflected in a number of intended, and perhaps unintended, gameplay measures. First and foremost, the TTK is relatively low at the time of writing, which means that for the most part, it's the team with the element of surprise that has the biggest strategic advantage. It might be advantageous in the long run to increase the amount of HP a little, as you simply get hit so hard and fast in these firefights, but it may also be that this is simply the idea behind Bungie's PvP balancing.

As you fire these weapons, move around, and use the game's physics, it becomes clear how skilled Bungie is at this kind of close-quarters gameplay. Weight, responsiveness, sound when firing, semi-unique reload animations, vaulting and general movement, Marathon feels masterful to play, even though these fantastic moments are often followed by an insta-kill from a player you barely had time to see before they shot you down.

Server Slam has been live for less than a day, and already you can sense how this game is going to get "sweaty" as we move closer to launch. The combination of rather sophisticated AI enemies, a "shield"-centred HP image, and lots of character abilities means that encounters with other teams are over relatively quickly, as there are few elements left to chance or external circumstances. A lesser team can, for example, catch a better team in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds by positioning themselves advantageously in relation to the circle. Here, shootouts unfold quickly and brutally, and I found myself swallowing a good dose of frustration several times after losing all my gear for the 14th time.

In Marathon, every piece of loot, at least for me, is "hard fought", and every credit is "hard spent", because even though you have the option to load in with a free kit, you are clearly so far behind other, superior teams that direct confrontation becomes almost impossible. For me, at least. Maybe not for you. Because you're good, right?

There's a free kit, and you also get small benefits by completing these pretty cool contracts, which, incidentally, are sprinkled with a little narrative spice in the form of... well, maybe we shouldn't call them cutscenes, but exchanges with the AI characters who manage the commercial interests that use you and other Runners to explore Tau Ceti. That's why it's never impossible to play, and it's technically possible to load in solely for the purpose of grabbing some loot and then escaping, although this is a lot harder than in ARC Raiders.

Right now, my main complaint is actually this loot. These weapons are incredibly cool, and there aren't 19,000 different ridiculous loot categories like in ARC Raiders (although there are still a few too many types), but the positioning and telegraphing of this gear is simply too obscure. Many buildings are just full of junk, and loot can only be found in these rather boring, anonymous, and indistinct folders, boxes, and bags. It becomes a chore to actually look for a cool new weapon or a Shield upgrade because they are both drowned out by all the junk you fill your bag with far too quickly, while at the same time it's simply too cumbersome to decipher where all this stuff actually is.

Loot clarity is undoubtedly Bungie's biggest challenge right now, because it needs to be made clearer, it needs to be streamlined, because the promise of loot is the primary reason you feel tempted to go on "one more run", and this temptation is greatly weakened by the expectation that you won't find the cool stuff, even though you know it must be nearby, even though you've searched everywhere.

That said, I really want to get really good at Marathon, because through its mesmerising visuals, its fantastic music, its striking, hardcore gameplay loop, and its story, I'm really ready to love it. However, I'm unsure whether this strong sense of belonging can be established, because Marathon really seems to be for the few who remain when all the "filthy casuals" have moved on. It's brutal in a way that ARC Raiders, for example, is not, and it's still unclear whether this will be a strength or a weakness for me personally.