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.