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I'm sure the Front Page will have the details soon, but thy had a big patch for Marathon. It's the biggest, but one of like 4-5 substantial updates. I'm not 100% in favor of all of them, but the pace of development is really surprising me. I wonder if the excuses about the D2 platform being too old and busted to fix quickly was true.

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I'm not 100% in favor of all of them

Can you elaborate?

I played a couple of hours last night, and I liked what I saw, with one exception. The icon changes are atrocious. They just look awful, and they're not any more identifiable at a glance than they were before. It just made everything uglier for no good reason, as far as I can see.

The CARRI stuff seems good so far. I played four games with randoms last night and in every single one, everyone tried to do as many of the entire squad's contracts as possible, which is something I had never seen before. So I assume people really want those commendations. I also did a few Rook runs, and friendly Rooks are even more common now. I think that stuff rules. It seems like it could help a lot with progress bottlenecks, and it makes things a bit more interesting in solos and Rook runs, without it turning into the all-friendly garbage collector simulator that Arc Raiders became.

I'm less tuned into all the balance changes, but it all seemed good on paper.

I am impressed by how fast Bungie is responding to everything and mixing things up. I hope it continues.

EDIT: Your post made me look at the Front Page for the first time in years, and it's highlighting a TWID from 2024. Does Bungie even do those anymore? On Monday, I was trying to find out when the new update in Marathon would go live, and it was basically impossible for me to find that information.

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I'm not 100% in favor of all of them

Can you elaborate?

I played a couple of hours last night, and I liked what I saw, with one exception. The icon changes are atrocious. They just look awful, and they're not any more identifiable at a glance than they were before. It just made everything uglier for no good reason, as far as I can see.

The CARRI stuff seems good so far. I played four games with randoms last night and in every single one, everyone tried to do as many of the entire squad's contracts as possible, which is something I had never seen before. So I assume people really want those commendations. I also did a few Rook runs, and friendly Rooks are even more common now. I think that stuff rules. It seems like it could help a lot with progress bottlenecks, and it makes things a bit more interesting in solos and Rook runs, without it turning into the all-friendly garbage collector simulator that Arc Raiders became.

I'm less tuned into all the balance changes, but it all seemed good on paper.

I am impressed by how fast Bungie is responding to everything and mixing things up. I hope it continues.

EDIT: Your post made me look at the Front Page for the first time in years, and it's highlighting a TWID from 2024. Does Bungie even do those anymore? On Monday, I was trying to find out when the new update in Marathon would go live, and it was basically impossible for me to find that information.

They still do one every week for Destiny. Marathon seems to be treated separately, here: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Marathon

Much to my annoyance, the forward-looking stuff mostly (entirely?) gets posted on x.com by one of the devs.

The icon graphics were one of the things I was thinking of. I like that they gave different outer shapes to the positions, but the icon itself is a downgrade for me.

I have not seen any more cooperative behavior, but I have only been in solos. I don't think the commendation rewards are very compelling, though. The faction XP is useful, but the salvage crate mystery box gave some pretty low level stuff when I saw people posting their hauls. Maybe it fits the level of the people who need it, though?

Spiderbot is still useless. The range on the thief drone became WAY too short. (maybe a bug? It was not in the patch notes)

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Down 20% to 32 dollars.

So… free to play by September?

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See for yourself. 20% off until at least May 6.

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10008864

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The part you're falling for is thinking it's indicative of anything. ARC Raiders went on sale for the same amount at roughly the same distance from launch.

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The part you're falling for is thinking it's indicative of anything. ARC Raiders went on sale for the same amount at roughly the same distance from launch.

So you're telling me… Arc Raiders is gonna go free to play!

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I think this is probably true.

Marathon is fun for a while, but it just gets old and pointless pretty quickly. I've spent far more on games that are fun for far less time.

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I think this is probably true.

Marathon is fun for a while, but it just gets old and pointless pretty quickly. I've spent far more on games that are fun for far less time.

When did we stop playing games just because they’re fun? I’m over 80 hours in Marathon, and still loving every second of it. I’m still working through contracts and upgrades, but mostly I’m just playing to play at this point because it’s fun.

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I think this is probably true.

Marathon is fun for a while, but it just gets old and pointless pretty quickly. I've spent far more on games that are fun for far less time.

When did we stop playing games just because they’re fun? I’m over 80 hours in Marathon, and still loving every second of it. I’m still working through contracts and upgrades, but mostly I’m just playing to play at this point because it’s fun.

You should always play a game if it's fun.

I'm saying the fun wore out pretty quickly for me in Marathon. Great shooting mechanics just aren't enough anymore. There are so many games today that provide really rich, multilayered experiences, that a lot of these games with a singular focus on the PvP combat just don't interest me anymore.

PvP was great in Destiny as a part of the whole. PvP on its own is pretty boring. Maybe if this game came out 20 years ago I'd feel differently. Maybe if Marathon's story weren't told through talking heads and lore entries I'd feel differently. I can't think of a worse focus for a game creatively these days than hardcore PvP.

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Okay, that's fair enough. I didn't even disagree with you until I played Marathon. It was a large part of the reason I initially just wrote it off. I thought I was kinda just done with online PvP games. But it showed me that I was wrong, I guess. I've been having a blast, and, even for as much as I love it, I'm genuinely surprised I'm still going strong after 80 hours.

Saros comes out next week, which I'll definitely be buying--I'm curious to see if finally switching to a new game will be my end point in Marathon, at least for the season. I don't think so, though.

I do disagree with your comment on creativity, though. I'm still constantly blown away by Marathon in terms of . . . I don't even know how to put it. Artistic value? I'm genuinely enthralled by every aspect of the game from map design (both from a gameplay and artistic perspective) to the sound, music, and even the story. I think it's all very strong creatively. I've played less thoughtful AAA single player games, honestly.

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Yeah. I care about theme parks and ARG/immersive gaming a lot, and so I knew long before Marathon that I'm more than happy to have a story told to me environmentally and/or through audio snippets and terminals. I don't think it is the ONLY way to do storytelling, nor do I think there is a best way to do it, but I absolutely think it is valid and can be done with a stunning level of skill.

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Yeah. I care about theme parks and ARG/immersive gaming a lot, and so I knew long before Marathon that I'm more than happy to have a story told to me environmentally and/or through audio snippets and terminals. I don't think it is the ONLY way to do storytelling, nor do I think there is a best way to do it, but I absolutely think it is valid and can be done with a stunning level of skill.

I think it's done incredibly well in Marathon, and more, I think it fits the game extremely well. Maybe it's possible, but I don't see how you could really fit a traditional cinematic narrative into an online multiplayer game structured like Marathon. It works well for me, as I can just play the game with friends, then come back on my own time and listen to the audio logs and such. It certainly works better here than it does in Destiny, in my opinion. The extraneous stuff in Destiny is great, in some ways it's the best story telling in the game, but it remains sort of disappointing that's the case--in a game like Destiny it seems silly to tuck the most interesting stuff into lore entries rather than in the main campaigns.

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Countless times I missed someone saying something important in a destiny mission because I was just trying to stay alive.

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Countless times I missed someone saying something important in a destiny mission because I was just trying to stay alive.

Which was made worse by the fact that some missions could be only be played once.

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Yeah. I care about theme parks and ARG/immersive gaming a lot, and so I knew long before Marathon that I'm more than happy to have a story told to me environmentally and/or through audio snippets and terminals. I don't think it is the ONLY way to do storytelling, nor do I think there is a best way to do it, but I absolutely think it is valid and can be done with a stunning level of skill.

I think it's done incredibly well in Marathon, and more, I think it fits the game extremely well. Maybe it's possible, but I don't see how you could really fit a traditional cinematic narrative into an online multiplayer game structured like Marathon. It works well for me, as I can just play the game with friends, then come back on my own time and listen to the audio logs and such. It certainly works better here than it does in Destiny, in my opinion. The extraneous stuff in Destiny is great, in some ways it's the best story telling in the game, but it remains sort of disappointing that's the case--in a game like Destiny it seems silly to tuck the most interesting stuff into lore entries rather than in the main campaigns.

It fits the story. There is no NPC to feed you plot points, and there wouldn't be. You're exploring the lost colony. The PVP fits, too, which is unfortunate given it's somewhat of an obstacle for me. It really is a cohesive game--more so than Destiny has been much of the time.

And Cody, I know it's been way over 20 years since the first game, but I find it interesting that the guy with an OG Marathon avatar is so quick to dismiss text as a story delivery mechanism. If it fits, it fits. Reading text is still a valid experience, and I think it always will be.

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I also don’t think it has the Destiny lore book problem of “lore isn’t story.” In Marathon, we’re an active participant—the entire reason we’re here is find out what happened to the colony, so uncovering that is the story.

I hope the story moving forward has some velocity though. So much of Destiny felt like wheel spin, just inching the story forward.

It does, however, have the same problem of ultimately needing to go to outside sources to see all of it. There's only a bit over a month left in the season, and I am nowhere near getting all the codex entries for collecting the valuables, and I haven't completed a single Cryo vault, and I think I'm pretty unlikely to make much progress there. Unless they really compress the progression path in the next season, I'm just not sure how feasible it'll be to get through it all, especially as they add more and more content. I'll have to turn to reading the codex entries I don't have unlocked online, which always kinda sucks.

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I also don’t think it has the Destiny lore book problem of “lore isn’t story.” In Marathon, we’re an active participant—the entire reason we’re here is find out what happened to the colony, so uncovering that is the story.

I hope the story moving forward has some velocity though. So much of Destiny felt like wheel spin, just inching the story forward.

It does, however, have the same problem of ultimately needing to go to outside sources to see all of it. There's only a bit over a month left in the season, and I am nowhere near getting all the codex entries for collecting the valuables, and I haven't completed a single Cryo vault, and I think I'm pretty unlikely to make much progress there. Unless they really compress the progression path in the next season, I'm just not sure how feasible it'll be to get through it all, especially as they add more and more content. I'll have to turn to reading the codex entries I don't have unlocked online, which always kinda sucks.

Completely agree. It makes me sad. I would love to fully experience every bit of this game, much as I did for Destiny. I never made it to the lighthouse, but the lighthouse wasn't the core of Destiny.

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I hope the story moving forward has some velocity though. So much of Destiny felt like wheel spin, just inching the story forward.

Oof. This perfectly summarizes my biggest complaint with Destiny. The story they told could have been told better in 3-4 years with some good editing. Too many times you got to the end of a year and… the pyramids you saw at the end of year one, were just now showing up on the radar. The next year… they made their way into the system. Then they sat there. It robbed the story of any stakes or momentum because the in-game timeline was 10 years. Halo 1-3 all took place very quickly and everything escalated in a meaningful way. There were excellent parts throughout, but 10 years is too long for such a demanding time commitment. How many people who started missed the ending because it dragged on too long. What % actually experienced the whole ride?

In that light, I hope the storyline of Marathon has good arcs with satisfying starts and stops going forward. Destiny’s population was so desperate for a stop that people finished the 10 year arc and walked away. Periodic entries that contain full stories would have probably avoided this outcome.

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And Cody, I know it's been way over 20 years since the first game, but I find it interesting that the guy with an OG Marathon avatar is so quick to dismiss text as a story delivery mechanism. If it fits, it fits. Reading text is still a valid experience, and I think it always will be.

We are in an age where sophisticated audiovisual presentation is possible in video games. There are so many more opportunities and techniques for storytelling in games. Marathon OG was made at a time where this wasn't the case. Marathon 2026 was.

I think Disco Elysium is one of the greatest games ever made, and there are 1.5 million words to read. Yet, it combines reading blocks of text with many other things to bring the story to life, and more importantly, is not an FPS.

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And Cody, I know it's been way over 20 years since the first game, but I find it interesting that the guy with an OG Marathon avatar is so quick to dismiss text as a story delivery mechanism. If it fits, it fits. Reading text is still a valid experience, and I think it always will be.

We are in an age where sophisticated audiovisual presentation is possible in video games. There are so many more opportunities and techniques for storytelling in games. Marathon OG was made at a time where this wasn't the case. Marathon 2026 was.

I think Disco Elysium is one of the greatest games ever made, and there are 1.5 million words to read. Yet, it combines reading blocks of text with many other things to bring the story to life, and more importantly, is not an FPS.

Agree, but I guess my point is, just because they can do something doesn't mean they should or that they need to or that it makes sense for the player to receive information non-textually. Remember 343's terminals in the Halo Anniversary? A classic case of misapplied technology. We ride the same hobby horses forever, don't we?

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I also found the LE PS5 controller for 10 bucks off on Amazon, so I picked that up.

Despite not owning the game on PlayStation. Lul.

(Also, barely linked, but I learned last night that Marathon supports Xbox Cloud gaming. I have not tried using it for a Run, but it was handy for doing some vault and settings stuff.)

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It feels like Marathon has found a neat place between cooperation and competition. For a long time, it's been shoot on sight, no exceptions.

Over the past few weeks, that has changed a bit. Gangs of Rooks control Outpost at this point. It's not uncommon to be the last trio squad with free reign of Pinwheel, only to run into a team of five or six Rooks, and it's cool to see no matter which side of that equation I'm on.

Solos also seems more friendly, although not to the point that it's guaranteed. I had a group help me with a MIDA quest in Outpost a few evenings ago.

I also had a neat encounter in Outpost in Trios. We had a quest (one where you have to get into an Armory to find something--it locks down the room and fills it with UESC to fight). A fully kitted team with purple everything was waiting outside to come in in and kill us. We were running green kits, so we knew it would be a tricky fight, but we did have a positional advantage. We ended up going into prox chat and bargaining with them. We'd drop the two red keys we had (which unlock the high tier loot room at the center of Pinwheel) for them, if they left us alone to finish the quest. We killed the UESC, the red barriers came down, I dropped the keys near a door at the bottom of the stairs, the other team grabbed them and left us alone. It's a small thing, but it was just a neat experience.

It's nice to see the game flexing a bit, where there is room for more than just shoot on sight.

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I wonder if the Proximity-chat-based-matchmaking that the dev team experimented with (and then expanded in the past couple of weeks) has resulted in the kind of change/evolution you're talking about.

We’ve rolled out a small update to Sponsored Dire Marsh's Crew Fill: if you’ve got your mic on, we’ll now do our best to match you with other players using voice chat too.

If you're in the mood to chat, we want to make sure you're able to coordinate with like-minded Runners.…
— Marathon Development Team (@MarathonDevTeam) April 24, 2026

Our recent "mic check" Crew Fill test in Sponsored Dire Marsh has been yielding positive results, and as such we've now rolled it out for all of the other non-Ranked queues.

Worry not, we'll follow-up about Ranked on a later date as we continue to roll this feature out.

Let us…
— Marathon Development Team (@MarathonDevTeam) May 1, 2026

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Huh, I wonder if it tries to match the entire lobby with mics, or just any particular team. I did notice a pretty significant uptick of teammates using mics after that update, and I have used crew full quite a lot the entire time I’ve played.

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Let's face it. Destiny wasn't often a live service game. Except for exploit fixes, the service wasn't that live.

And this makes me want to jump back in. When you've got only an hour to play, and you're just dying over and over, it's easy to lose heart.

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You should absolutely jump back in. The new Sponsored Kit only playlist is fun. It can be both higher and lower stress. On one hand, you have nothing to lose, but neither does anyone else. Lots of people are content to just use it for questing, but others use it as a mode to just take as many fights as possible (that’s me!), so it’s not a “safe” mode, but it’s a lot of fun.

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I feel like people are more willing to support that MIDA quest in solos because it's such a bear.

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