A First Look At 'Marathon' Brings Plenty Of Details For This New Bungie Game
Image Source: Bungie
The livestream event Bungie had previously teased with a “save the day” trailer brought fans a ton of new information about Marathon. CultureSlate is here to present the key takeaways from this massive series of reveals.
First, Marathon is releasing September 23rd, 2025, on the newest Xbox and PlayStation consoles as well as Steam, all with crossplay and crosssave functionality. They are also having a closed alpha test later this month, and joining the game’s Discord server will offer players a chance to participate.
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The gameplay trailers, one a quick, energetic trailer and another a longer look at the game through play sessions with content creators, gave a clear view of the nature of Marathon. It is an extraction shooter where six teams of three players (though you can choose to go into a game solo without a team) totaling 18 combatants will drop into a map to scavenge the environment, complete objectives and perform combat encounters to earn loot before extracting. Roaming these arenas will be NPC combatants, forces of the UESC (Unified Earth Space Council), who will attack the players and serve as the targets in combat encounters. Players can also target each other to kill and steal each other’s loot.
Each Runner, with four planned for the close alpha and six on the game’s full release, has a range of special abilities but also a collective limitation in a stamina meter. Runners go into matches to complete contracts for several corporate organizations, and these sponsors can also gear up a Runner for their next mission if they lose everything.
A Runner in Marathon, Image Source: Bungie
The setting of the game is the same as the original Marathon, the world of Tau Ceti IV. However, based on the narrative trailer they released (from award-winning director Alberto Mielgo), something has gone terribly wrong in the colony. Gravity seems to have acted strangely at some point in the recent past, and the locations players are currently being shown are all empty, decaying structures, some with significant wear on their surfaces. The art direction for Marathon should also be highlighted here as visually stunning, with bold colors and a world full of sleek, advanced technology. It truly has a distinct visual language that reflects much of the game’s concept artwork shown off thus far.
Marathon will have a seasonal content model with Bungie already announcing plans to support a first season of content. CultureSlate will keep attuned to the messages beaming in from Tau Ceti IV over the coming months as the game gets closer to launch.
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