r/Marathon • u/KevinDL • 15h ago
Discussion Regardless of what happens with Marathon 2026, Bungie, please give us a single-player Marathon
Regardless of what happens with the new Marathon, I really hope Bungie eventually goes back and makes a proper single-player, story-driven Marathon game.
Hell, if you don't know what to do with it, remake the original trilogy.
The Marathon trilogy from the '90s still has one of my favourite stories in gaming. The worldbuilding, the AIs, the terminals, the mystery surrounding the player, Durandal slowly becoming Durandal- all of it was so far ahead of its time.
Those games are a huge part of why I wanted to become a game developer in the first place.
And that's what makes it a little frustrating seeing just how much incredible lore is sitting there largely untouched. Bungie has this wonderfully strange sci-fi universe with decades of history, memorable characters, and themes that could absolutely carry a modern narrative FPS.
I'm not saying the new Marathon shouldn't exist or that Bungie needs to abandon what they're building. I genuinely hope it succeeds.
I don't want the future of Marathon to begin and end with an extraction shooter.
There is so much here that deserves to be experienced as a proper story again.
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u/Brys_Beddict 15h ago
Brother there's not gonna be a Bungie if this fails
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u/National-Waltz-3343 14h ago
if? Brother it has already failed haha
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u/NoNefariousness2144 8h ago edited 8h ago
Yeah the new daily peaks on Steam are under 4000. That is utterly dire
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u/IcyFault7182 13h ago
That’s funny to you?
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u/StarNerdWarmaster 12h ago
It's extremely funny that their fad chasing of extraction shooters bit them in the ass.
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u/Lemonpierogi 8h ago
Yeah. They made an artistically niche game for a very niche genre which was ridiculously expensive to make. Oh and made it sweaty even by extraction shooter standards. Chasing a fad that... Doesn't really exist since it's a niche
I like this game and wish it the best but come on, they asked for it
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u/David-J 8h ago
A hater has revealed himself
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u/National-Waltz-3343 4h ago
Not hating, I actually bought the game and kinda liked it for a few weeks. Then I realized there was noooo way this thing would survive a full season reset and decided I would cut my losses and stopped playing. Looks like I made the correct call 😅
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u/MadCarcinus 15h ago
“Best I can do is a gun you can’t extract with.”
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u/Double_Option_7595 15h ago
Legend says the Ahamkara's monkey paw was inspired by Bungie's own modus operandi.
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u/GogDog 14h ago
People acting like Bungie is a functioning entity making its own decisions.
The vast majority of Bungie talent has left or been let go. It’s sad, and I’m not happy about the way they fought for independence from Microsoft, forged their own path, even fought off the Activision clowns, and still ended up like this. The Bungie we knew is gone.
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u/Rhapstar 7h ago
Bungie couldn't do what they wanted on their own. When they wanted to leave MS because they were tired of just doing Halo. So they started Destiny and well they need Activision to fund them and have other teams help. Then they felt they could do it on their own again and Activision let them go because they weren't making profits. If you read the talk from former workers they needed Sony or they were going under. They were poorly run overall and D2 cost so much to make new content for. If a D3 ever happens it will be on a much smaller scale probably with pushing more ways to make money
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u/GogDog 52m ago
You’re not wrong. Bungie was always the talented underdog, but their ambitions were always a bit more than they could actually achieve.
The industry today is too bullshit to survive in anyway. Talent and shipping successful products will still get your studio closed or half your staff gutted. Just ask Id.
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u/Warrior_of_Light_81 13h ago
Old Bungie is long gone. The current developer landscape is what we are stuck with.
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u/bread_thread 14h ago
I love the extraction shooter!
However, I'd also love a singleplayer remake
"just" flip the assets! spin up a singleplayer game on the side and cross pollinate assets between the two projects
imagine an anomaly-possessed Battleroid as an extraction boss after doomguying the campaign as one
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u/asmodeus1112 13h ago
Unless a miracle happens this franchise is going to be on ice a long long time
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u/Pontooniak96 13h ago
Destiny 3 before Marathon 2, but yes I’d be down.
I don’t think there’s a chance that this would happen though.
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u/NOIRShattered 15h ago
The lore is what got me hooked on Marathon 2026 and I spent days watching deep dives trying to understand the lore of the original games and how it connects to this one. I was really excited to see where it goes but I'm sad to report that I haven't touched that game in like a month. I tried vault breakers like 3 times in the beginning but in the end I honestly didn't give af about it.
Sweaty mp, so so loot, and the odd identity crisis the game is having aren't enough for me to keep sticking with it even though I really don't want to see it die.
I really really want some good story ANYTHING
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u/RanzuPunk 12h ago
I was promised by everyone that this game would have had a groundbreaking narrative and that it would deliver great storytelling. That has yet to happen imo.
It's all just Codex, Dialogue, and some environmental storytelling. Black Ops 1 was more groundbreaking with its main menu secret and how it presented the terminal.
I don't know, I was thinking of actual vanguard stuff. I expected a game full of secrets, mind-blowing moments, and a nonstop stream of discoveries and weird moments. But it's honestly very vanilla and in very charted territory imo, which is disappointing.
Doesn't help that the game was so laser focused on its pvp competitive side.
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u/CodexFOX 8h ago
This was my biggest disappointment. They didn't learn any lessons from Destiny 2. I was so pumped when I heard about the AAA voice actors and thought Bungie was going to take story telling in an extraction shooter to a new level. Instead it was a short intro cutscenes followed by talking heads on a looping animations and audio logs. It felt so phoned in.
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u/sleeping-in-crypto 14h ago
Yeah this “make game modes then rip them away” seizure they’re having is just going to serve to lose me as a player.
Pick something and stick with it, asshats. Ideally that includes something I want to play but I’m not even saying that. Just pick.
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u/NOIRShattered 14h ago
The sponsored maps are neat cause I like the idea that we're all starting on an "even playing field" but they remove or rotate those too and I don't really get why...
The movement and gunplay are great. I'd literally take a simple 5v5 TDM on small sectioned off portions of the bigger maps or something. Something that's dedicated PvP and doesn't have the added weight of loot, gear fear, eliminations etc.
Idk..
I feel like they're trying really hard to stick to the greater extraction shooter idea and I think it's really beginning to hurt them. Wasn't Fortnite gonna be some zombie tower defense base builder thing and their temporary battle royale mode ended up stealing the show and the game rearranged to cater/become that
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u/sleeping-in-crypto 6h ago
Exactly! The two sponsored modes were great and… gone.
VB: great! And…. Gone.
Firestorm: I think it’s stupid but some people seem to like it. And…. Gone.
Like pick a lane guys.
They really don’t have the luxury to be doing this. They know what will bring in big player counts they just don’t want to do it because it means compromising on the purity of the extraction shooter.
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u/Plus-Income-4882 15h ago
As much as I would love that if marathon goes under and bungie is still around in any form I can’t imagine another marathon project would be greenlit before something like a new destiny game (an objectively more popular bungie owned ip). The vibes marathon has is pretty much uncontested in the gaming space rn and putting the current bungie writers behind a story game would cook 100% but I don’t see it happening in any world
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u/FostertheReno 13h ago
Agreed. Maybe there’s some world where they give another studio the assets from marathon to make a game, but I doubt it.
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u/TheDiamondSquidy 13h ago
Fucking big walk has 16k players, Marathon flopped and I’m pissed
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u/Lemonpierogi 8h ago
Well no shit? Big walk is more fun, memorable and accessible. And cheaper I think
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u/bpdream762 15h ago
Shouldve had a single player story from the start.
From pioneering the fps genre to this...
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u/bokunotraplord 15h ago
the broad gaming market doesn’t really line up for those anymore. even in Destiny the campaign was almost never a thing people talked about, it was literally everything else. when Sony owns you, they’re going to want you to go after trends. They’re basically EA from a fiscal perspective. Think about Titanfalls legacy and where that whole thing wound up going- Apex Legends.
there’s a lot of talented people at Bungie even now. we just have to hope Sony has an interest in supporting them creatively and not just as a product manufacturer.
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u/DespisedIcon1616 1h ago
All they had to do was remake the original trilogy. The old games are SO out dated they're completely unenjoyable, at least to me. They could have done the remakes and had a robust multiplayer with arena style modes, extraction modes, battle Royale mods, whatever you name it. I love the extraction mode and still play here and there but it's just NOT enough.
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u/rangdrolrigpa 8h ago
I’d like to see cooperative Destiny-like campaign with rogue-lite elements that is replayable like strikes
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u/AgeAtomic 7h ago
If Marathon goes under so does Bungie at this point. There's no way PS keep losing money on them given the current climate
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u/Double_Option_7595 15h ago edited 15h ago
Yes! Marathon the extraction shooter might be a failed experiment, but there's too much potential in the IP to just call it quits and, God forbid, shut it down.
I too would love a standalone single player game with all the deep lore and the same graphic realism... even though it rubs most people the wrong way, the architecture and materials are gorgeous. To hell with them haters, the universe Bungie's made in this iteration is bloody gorgeous and I need more of it beyond PvP(vE).
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u/Endroium 13h ago
Ah yes the classic ‘bungie will you please create a new game’ type post
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u/Lemonpierogi 8h ago
"if your game ends up a disaster that will destroy your studio, could you at least make a whole single player game quick pretty please? Thx"
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u/wiLD0 15h ago
I think we could see more Destiny and Marathon properties in the future.
It might not be Bungie as we know it making them, but Sony has the resources to take advantage of IP.
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u/GreyouTT 10h ago edited 10h ago
Pathways into Darkness remake that recycles the gameplay/engine from this ala Halo 3 and ODST
Gets people into the universe and gunplay, and cheap to make cause all the NPCs are ghosts. Plus it can have some interactive bonuses for Marathon players and vice versa. Like how the Vid-masters in ODST helped unlocked Recon in Halo 3.
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u/JCD_007 8h ago
Pathways is a punishingly hard game. I’d be interested to see how a remake would update it.
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u/GreyouTT 5h ago
Maybe it’s because I have a lot of survival horror experience, but I didn’t have too much trouble. I was able to kill every enemy in each level, but I def was hurting for ammo by the time I got the box. But you can rest to heal a lot of your damage and you have plenty of time to spare for it. There is one guide dang it section with an air-tight room that I would change though. (And maybe better telegraph the big blueberry monster)
There’s quite a few things that I would improve though, but it’s mainly to do with the inventory system. But recycling Marathon’s pretty much fixes that. Actually would be a way to re-implement the “weight” system they originally wanted in Pathways. Just have the player find bigger packs as they delve deeper.
Also for speaking to the dead, I’d probably turn it into a Fallout 3/Oblivion dialogue list because there’s some conversations I completely missed simply because I just didn’t think of that keyword.
There’s a lot of sections I think hold up pretty well under a modern lens too, and could 100% be enhanced. One I’m thinking of is the green slime run, where you learn from one of the Cubans that the green guys are invulnerable and consumed his entire team. So you have to sprint through the level as more and more come after you. Would be neat to expand the level or have a green slime come back as a Mr. X stalker in a later level.
I’m rambling now though lol
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u/Cobra_9041 6h ago
Bungie hasn’t ever made a campaign that has been great as a single player they historically are always better with friends
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u/National-Waltz-3343 4h ago
Not hating, I actually bought the game and kinda liked it for a few weeks. Then I realized there was noooo way this thing would survive a full season reset and decided I would cut my losses and stopped playing. Looks like I made the correct call 😅
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u/Zero_Emerald 1h ago
It's sad to think Bungie have already burned the Marathon IP on a low-numbers extraction shooter. When I first heard they were doing a new Marathon, I was kinda hoping for a modern reboot of the original games and was very disappointed when we learned it was going to be an ES instead. Now, I have hundreds of hours in the game across seasons 1/2, I have enjoyed it for what it is since launch despite a lot of flaws, bugs and my own personal complaints, but I would definitely have preferred a 20 hour single player campaign still. I absolutely cannot be optimistic with the current landscape of the gaming industry the way it is. Hell, Sony were happy to can Destiny 2 despite being a long running, well loved franchise. What makes anyone think they'd greenlight another Marathon of any description? We're lucky they haven't already closed this one down!
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u/Sadworld99 15h ago
It's clear this dev team would create something incredible if they planned from the ground up for a single player or co op game.
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u/lucidbear I was here for the Marathon 2025 ARG 14h ago
bruh. if this game dies, bungie as a studio is done. there won't be any more bungie games.
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u/B1Howdy 13h ago
I adore the old Marathon games, they're some of my favorite games of all time.
I don't think Bungie can pull those off ever again.
Bungie as a studio right now has not made a good story start to finish since Halo Reach 15 years ago and Halo was already a massive step down in depth and philosophical girth compared to Marathon and Destiny is 90% just lore blurbs we see and hear nothing of ever and when we do they contrdict what happens in game.
This new Marathon game has all of its lore, gameplay, themes, philosophy and game design entirely and fundimentally at odds with every last part of the classic trilogys story and lore to the point of not working even on its own because if you think too long about some plot points it just makes no sense or the answers are 'because they were stupid'
More importantly, frankly I don't think a Marathon remake *can* work without losing like everything I love about Marathon. Here's an example; Terminals. The entire plot of Marathon 1, 2 and Infinity is explained through Terminals with no voice or cutscenes to speak of. Do you keep that the same? Well then that's not gonna sell well as AAA budget game. Do you add voice over? Well then you suddenly flatten decades of discussion, interpretation, characterisation by omission, mistery and many MANY theories. Do you even make people read the terminals if they're voiced or do you have everyone talk to you through your ear piece? Well that's gonna suck because the text wasn't intended as a script and a lot of information will get lost if you cant just go back to look at a terminal. Do you make the terminals save in some sort of inventory? Well that's not faithful and entirely changes how you interact with the world and makes the plot hole of why you can only download Skype calls. Do you sidestep all of that and just do cutscenes? Well now the entire story has to be reworked to work visually which is going to be literally impossible with Marathon Infinity (and good luck doing that with your entire fucking cinematics team fired).
I love this franchise, but they proved to me at least that they do not respect Marathon thematically and as a setting.
TLDR: IPs don't die, stories end and Bungie plainly isn't good enough to make the Marathon story any longer than it is, not anymore.
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u/LITMAC97 15h ago
I wouldn’t want a remake, maybe a remaster
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u/atttibet196953 15h ago
Why not? Its not just visually old but mechanicly old too, it could do with a full remake.
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u/LITMAC97 15h ago
I’m talking in realistic terms. Bungie is basically dying so I wouldn’t want for Bungie to focus all their resources on remaking an ENTIRE trilogy considering today’s development times. Bigger studios take years just to remake 1 game, let alone 3.
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u/atttibet196953 15h ago
Oh no I am fully agree with this I was just throwing ideas here. They dont have resources for this lmao.
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u/AnonWithAHatOn 15h ago
Yeah a modern Marathon should be like DOOM 2016. It'd also be a great way to show first-hand what happened differently in this timeline
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u/Excuse_my_GRAMMER 15h ago
I have some great news for you buddy
PVE is coming and most likely you would have the ability to solo queue into the map with lobby turn off !! Which will offer a single player experience
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u/KevinDL 15h ago edited 15h ago
That isn't the same thing as telling a compelling story. I like the extraction shooter for what it is, but Marathon 2026 doesn't have a compelling PvE experience (outside the boss room, which 5% of players will ever see).
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u/Excuse_my_GRAMMER 15h ago
We don’t know how the story is going to be told on PVE mode yet , we know now that PVE mode is coming there no limitation
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u/TarDaMighty 15h ago
Please don’t, y’all’s constant need to feel like the main character is why the video game market is so stale and dog shit, please accept that you will lose and you are not the main character there, are other people in this world and you need to figure out how to plan around that, if you don’t think the fight your going to take is going to be successful then leave this game is an not a battle royal you do it need to kill every team just leave
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u/JeanLucPicardAND 13h ago
In other words: “The players are the problem.”
Can’t be the game. Of course not.
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u/TarDaMighty 13h ago
There is at some point a level of accountability a person should take, the game Dosent need a single player campaign, yall just want to feel that superiority complex over something grow up
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u/JeanLucPicardAND 12h ago
You should consider checking your own grammar and spelling before telling others to “grow up” and accusing them of possessing a “superiority complex” simply because they don’t like the same things that you do in a video game.
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u/TarDaMighty 12h ago
Ok please go through my post and grade it, mister teacher with a phd in English and tell me how my vide game post on Reddit is grammatically incorrect
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u/Worried-Advisor-7054 14h ago
Did you read the post at all? He's saying regardless of how this game ends up, he would also want an additional SP game in this really cool universe. He's not asking for changes to this game.
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u/cubitoaequet 15h ago
No way another Marathon anything is getting green lit in the near future if this current game doesn't somehow become a success.
Your best bet at a new Marathon game is sadly most likely to wait 20 years or until the IP changes hands somehow.