Marathon! When Bungie announced a new Marathon that is going to be some normal-ass extraction shooter following current trends, my social media feeds were abuzz with so many people reacting in real time, first with joy and then with horror. Such is the way of things. Anyway, I thought it was time to check this out via Aleph One, but I did have some trepidation after absolutely hating Dark Forces. Was there really room for me in the FPS genre?
Turns out the answer was yes! You can make an FPS good after all!
In addition to being a Mac game, Marathon came out before most of the post-Doom canon and outstrips all of them in terms of narrative ambitions. This was mostly accomplished just by having you read a lot of words on computer screens (affectionate) and by having them be character dialogue from a small cast of AIs with only a minimum number of logs from randos. The setup isn't anything groundbreaking: you're just a Man With Gun on a Big Spaceship that's been attacked by aliens. Of the three AIs onboard, only one is available to help you Die Hard your way around trying to fight back. That's Leela, the most boring one, which is great for starting off. She'll show you maps of the levels when you enter and give you tips on where to find save points and health recharging stations, which the game has kinda like Half Life would eventually do. There's a sense that she's balancing a hundred different priorities in trying to send you around to put out fires, gathering intel, and doing whatever computer shit she can to slow the invasion. You get told about enemies you won't encounter for some time just because survivors of the initial attacks remember them. You get sent to send a message to warn earth but it's probably not going to get there in time because it'll take decades to arrive and the aliens have FTL capability. Everything is falling apart it rules!
Of course, Durandal is the real main character here, and eventually Leela gets taken out and has to turn you over to him. I knew the whole rampant AI thing was something 343 put into Halo so it was funny to discover they lifted it from here and made it dumber. Durandal has gone bad in a pretty normal way, and hates humanity for pretty normal reasons. He doesn't really hate you though, and he's basically on the same side so you just end up bonding over the fact that some of the humans are actually secretly bombs now so you've just started shooting all of them (this also rules). Like yeah he's evil but that's fine. He's funny. Love that guy. The third AI, Tycho, appears like twice and is probably underutilized but he seems fine. Hates Durandal for normal reasons too. I get it. I get everyone's concerns. Eventually Durandal concocts a way to deal with the invasion, you get a prett good idea of what the aliens' whole deal is, and he steals the alien ship to set up a sequel while leaving you to run out of maps with no particular climax.
All of this would not work if it was painful to play, and luckily it's instead: nice to play. This isn't Doom. The pace is much slower and more methodical, as suits the story and setting. However you still have a bunch of weapons that feel different and work well on different enemies, who also all feel distinct. Not a ton of hitscan bullshit and the monster closet BS is mostly used sparingly as well. I liked that you have an Alien-ish motion sensor, which gives you some of the benefits of a radar without being all powerful. At no point do these maps actually feel like real places, which only becomes more true as you get further and solve more puzzles involving shooting grenades at wall switches. There's more platforming than I expected, but you fall hilariously slow in low G and it mostly feels good! My biggest problem is that the puzzles, when they arrive, all revolve around pressing switches, and the actual effects of switches are completely arbitrary. Do I have to turn this one on and off? Does it change something on the other side of the level? Does it have a delayed effect? Who the fuck knows you're just going to have to figure it out. In one of the late maps I actually managed to get myself softlocked because I didn't fiddle with the switches properly before advancing, and the pacing of save points is sometimes dicey. I had to repeat literally three maps out of the game's 27 in a row because in the alien ship levels the trigger for leaving is "looking out a window" and the saves are hidden.
None of this stopped me for long! The game is mostly prett breezy! I think the remaining two games will probably step things up even more on all fronts, and I look forward to confirming this. I don't know anything about Mac games but this is a classic Mac game.
Turns out the answer was yes! You can make an FPS good after all!
In addition to being a Mac game, Marathon came out before most of the post-Doom canon and outstrips all of them in terms of narrative ambitions. This was mostly accomplished just by having you read a lot of words on computer screens (affectionate) and by having them be character dialogue from a small cast of AIs with only a minimum number of logs from randos. The setup isn't anything groundbreaking: you're just a Man With Gun on a Big Spaceship that's been attacked by aliens. Of the three AIs onboard, only one is available to help you Die Hard your way around trying to fight back. That's Leela, the most boring one, which is great for starting off. She'll show you maps of the levels when you enter and give you tips on where to find save points and health recharging stations, which the game has kinda like Half Life would eventually do. There's a sense that she's balancing a hundred different priorities in trying to send you around to put out fires, gathering intel, and doing whatever computer shit she can to slow the invasion. You get told about enemies you won't encounter for some time just because survivors of the initial attacks remember them. You get sent to send a message to warn earth but it's probably not going to get there in time because it'll take decades to arrive and the aliens have FTL capability. Everything is falling apart it rules!
Of course, Durandal is the real main character here, and eventually Leela gets taken out and has to turn you over to him. I knew the whole rampant AI thing was something 343 put into Halo so it was funny to discover they lifted it from here and made it dumber. Durandal has gone bad in a pretty normal way, and hates humanity for pretty normal reasons. He doesn't really hate you though, and he's basically on the same side so you just end up bonding over the fact that some of the humans are actually secretly bombs now so you've just started shooting all of them (this also rules). Like yeah he's evil but that's fine. He's funny. Love that guy. The third AI, Tycho, appears like twice and is probably underutilized but he seems fine. Hates Durandal for normal reasons too. I get it. I get everyone's concerns. Eventually Durandal concocts a way to deal with the invasion, you get a prett good idea of what the aliens' whole deal is, and he steals the alien ship to set up a sequel while leaving you to run out of maps with no particular climax.
All of this would not work if it was painful to play, and luckily it's instead: nice to play. This isn't Doom. The pace is much slower and more methodical, as suits the story and setting. However you still have a bunch of weapons that feel different and work well on different enemies, who also all feel distinct. Not a ton of hitscan bullshit and the monster closet BS is mostly used sparingly as well. I liked that you have an Alien-ish motion sensor, which gives you some of the benefits of a radar without being all powerful. At no point do these maps actually feel like real places, which only becomes more true as you get further and solve more puzzles involving shooting grenades at wall switches. There's more platforming than I expected, but you fall hilariously slow in low G and it mostly feels good! My biggest problem is that the puzzles, when they arrive, all revolve around pressing switches, and the actual effects of switches are completely arbitrary. Do I have to turn this one on and off? Does it change something on the other side of the level? Does it have a delayed effect? Who the fuck knows you're just going to have to figure it out. In one of the late maps I actually managed to get myself softlocked because I didn't fiddle with the switches properly before advancing, and the pacing of save points is sometimes dicey. I had to repeat literally three maps out of the game's 27 in a row because in the alien ship levels the trigger for leaving is "looking out a window" and the saves are hidden.
None of this stopped me for long! The game is mostly prett breezy! I think the remaining two games will probably step things up even more on all fronts, and I look forward to confirming this. I don't know anything about Mac games but this is a classic Mac game.
2 Comments
@Weatherby The art style is something I associate with a certain kind of 90s comic and it's great.
Weatherby
9 months ago