Marathon Update Reaction

It looks like Bungie’s attempt to make Marathon a little more casual-friendly are helping.

Marathon’s mid-season update is now live, including weapon adjustments, new Reward Pass additions, Runner shell tuning, earnable Arachne shell styles, new equipment, and more. It also introduced the CyberAcme Runner Reinforcement Initiative (C.A.R.R.I.), a “new protocol from ONI that rewards solo Runners and coordinated crews for completing contract objectives and exfiling together, with rewards tuned to help newer and mid-progression players while still offering benefits to the Cryo Archive-veterans that walk among us.”

Evidence of this is popping up all over the Marathon subreddit, with players sharing videos of friendly Runner encounters wherein combatants are helping revive downed players, share equipment and gear, exfil together, and even complete objectives.

Take this encounter, for instance. U/duffleberries shows a frantic encounter in which he was downed but later rezzed by the same team after responding to cries of, “Are you friendly, are you friendly, are you friendly?!” When he insisted that he was, the enemy team threw down a self-revive and a weapon for him, and then give him a countdown to get out of dodge. “We later found each other again at exfil and got out together for those sweet CARRI commendations,” duffleberries added.

There’s also this incredibly wholesome incident where players hang out, swap gear, and thank Bungie for the experience… before someone goes rogue and “introduces everyone to their gun,” to collective groans and cries of “You sh**head. Why would you do that?!” The friendlier Runners then shoot off together to complete objectives and missions, including some that involve intentionally downing and reviving each other.

“C.A.R.R.I system has activated a light in me and players recently,” added another. “In the five matches I ran so far, three out of the five had someone speaking, and two was literally pleading since I started shooting first — and out of those three matches it ended peacefully with us sharing loot and exfiling together so that we can get the commendations.”

Admittedly, it’s not necessarily the case for all players. “I’m over here having people res me just to down me again lmao,” laughed one commenter. Another wrote: “I was hoping for this experience when two Runners approach the exfil I was gonna use. Instead they baited and killed me.”

Yesterday (April 14), game director Joe Ziegler unveiled a new experimental mode coming to Marathon that hopes to make the experience a little easier by forcing players to load up with only the basic free sponsored kits. The mode, called Dire Marsh Sponsored, is now live and will run for around two weeks. Players can only enter if they’re using a white-tier free sponsored kit, giving developer Bungie a chance to see “how the game plays out with low-fixed set gear conditions and caps, and now the zero to hero play works in low starting set gear conditions and caps.”

Bungie has repeatedly said that while Marathon has a steep learning curve, over time, recovering from a bad loss gets easier. Part of the challenge comes from the very nature of Marathon as an extraction shooter. If you die, you lose all your gear. And not just what you looted while out on the battlefield, but what you brought in. And given how easy it is to die in Marathon, it can feel like a brutally punishing video game.

A new report recently claimed Marathon’s budget is over $200 million, and while player numbers have fallen significantly since launch, Bungie’s extraction shooter is allegedly not facing an imminent shutdown. Still, it’s no surprise to see Bungie experiment with ways to make the game easier for casual players to contend with.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.