Curious to know what people think of it now that the game is real and not just a beta, especially those who are bought-in.

Are you having fun? Are you getting phat loots? Dying too much?

Do you see yourself sticking with it in the near-term?

I've just been watching people play it on twitch. It's fun to see people who are way more skilled that you, in the same way it was fun to watch those people play Trials of Osiris... but it's not making me want to pick it up, it looks very stressful (again, much like Trials).

I think it's a solid enough game, I just dunno how long I'm going to stick with it. I'm playing solo 99% of the time (the couple of times I tried Fills it sucked), which isn't bad, but really has only been enjoyable for me on Perimeter. The aggressive player-hunters don't seem to play on that map too much.

I understand why wipes are necessary but my vendor/upgrade progression has been slow enough that I don't think I'll be able to make enough meaningful progress without consistent regular play, and I don't think I'm going to be motivated to keep up that kind of grind in a second season, so my time with the game feels like it'll come to an end sooner rather than later.

I might stick with the game longer term if it was PvE-only, but I'm just not good enough at PvP to overcome the sweats.

I don't have time to write a whole thing, and that same lack of time means I have not played enough for my position to be much changed from what I wrote here before. But, I am liking the game more over time.

As I disconnect my brain from thinking of gear and weapons like I do in Destiny and other games, (Gear Fear, seems to be the term in the subgenre) that's helping. Over the past year I had been playing a bunch of Apex again, and the idea that you die most games was a helpful grounding for getting in the Marathon-compatible mindset. Experience has created more familiarity with what is important for looting, and when it is important for looting. The UI is maybe the biggest delta between how terrible everyone thinks it is on first impression, and how well designed it actually is when I am using it to play the game now. It's a lot of Information, but how many times did I silently beg Bungie to put information I needed in the Destiny UI instead of needing to look something up online and then store it in my head?

I'd be curious how many people who are saying something similar to "I'm not a PVP person" played a lot of Halo competitive Multiplayer. I'm not trying to prove a point here, to be clear. Measured by hours played I did a lot more of that than solo story or co-op. It's not until D2 and the meat grinder of Trials that I started thinking of myself as more into PvE and I think that's because I was able to do well (or it felt like it anyway) at the endgame PvE (raids) but not at the endgame PvP (Trials). But I was never amazing at Halo multi, I just had fun with people messing around, even when we got our butts handed to us. Oh well, hop back in the queue and try again. Marathon is certainly designed to feel more "important" and "tense" in the moment of play than H3 Multi, but I don't think it should be thought of as any more durable. Rinse and repeat, it's just a fun thing to do, not a long-term goal to achieve. Or, at least more in that direction than Destiny. And you're never more than 3 months behind in progress because everything resets anyway - again a sort of in-between concept for investment.
This also means it neither needs nor rewards vast amounts of time being put into it. But I think it's probably good for it to not take over my whole free time like Destiny 2 did. I did that willingly, but I didn't always have the time to give, really.

Well, look at that. I guess I did have things to say. What's the old line? "I wrote you a long letter because I didn't have time to write you a short one."?

- No text -

I'm watching streamers play and the game looks so fun. But I've played the game too...and my experience greatly differed....but it looks so fun!!

I'm still hoping for that one moment that makes me get the game and give it a go. Originally I had no interest in Arc Raiders, but all they hype made me buy it and I love it.

C'mon Marathon....get me.

I definitely want to play more than I've currently been able. I've had a blast playing with some full teams of friends, we had one run last weekend where each of us was at different times the last man standing and revived the other two after the fight was over. I'd like to spend some more time with the different characters and maps as well.

If you don't have headphones and a quiet environment, forget about it. You need to be able to hear and your teammates need to be able to hear.

Like squid, I want to play it more than I have time for. I've had the most fun with friends. Solo can be painful, but victory is sweeter.

I've been playing it as if it were beyond Elite level Splinter Cell, as if the enemies are always better than you, because they almost always are--even the AI. I'm training myself to ignore gear fear. I suspect that that is the secret to enjoying yourself.

Kerm

Once I got myself to a place where I was okay with the constant inflow/outflow of gear (non-attachment!), a lot of the FOMO went away and I've just been learning to ride the waves, enjoy the wins, and roll on the losses as they happen. Sometimes you have zero gear and are poor as hell, then a couple runs later your Vault is overflowing with an embarrassment of riches.

I'm a middle-of-the-road PvP player. Good enough to have occasional moments of glory, but I get steamrolled more often than not and I'm waaay negative on my total gear win/loss record. Sometimes the game is infuriating, sometimes it's amazing. I definitely get Trials vibes from the PvP, which honestly, I love. Classic Trials was a damn good time and made me better at Destiny. I expect that I'll get a few passes at the Marathon, lose a bunch of gear, and eventually come out on top once or twice.

Headphones are a must. Last year's Public Alpha was really lacking in the audio cue department (and Bungie said as much when it came out), but the amount of information that can be gleaned from just audio is pretty astounding. I've definitely hunted down other players (and have been hunted) based solely on audio cues.

The world and story they're building here feels a lot more intentional than Destiny did when it first came out. We're all just sleuthing about and finding out information once piece at a time, but it all seems to be going somewhere, at least. And I absolutely love that my OG Mac gaming franchise is back with a vengeance after 30 years. Feels good, man.

If anyone is looking to team up, definitely send me a Bungie friend request. I'm Beorn#9530. Would love to play with some of the old guard. :)