When I went to Bellevue, Washington, in early April, visited Bungee’s headquarters and visited Gander. marathonstudio’s upcoming extraction shooter, I remembered playing my first PC copy. halo As a teenager. Despite logging hundreds of hours on Xbox before, I was awful with my mouse and keyboard until a patient stranger spent hours leading me to victory. There was another guide marathonbut it wasn’t a random username hundreds or thousands of miles away over the internet – it was Kevin Yanes, a former Destiny developer who is now the lead of runners’ gameplay. marathon.
And it was my victory, along with Yanez, that I began to believe in it, and our ultimate defeat. marathonBungie may actually pull three peats apart by actually bringing yet another genre to the masses.
road marathon If you are already Sicky of the Extract Shooter and are playing games like the following, the work is familiar to you Escape from Tarkov. But even if it’s you, the game is still pretty familiar if you’re playing the Battle Royale game Fortnite or The Legend of the Pillar. What to set up the game Tarkov And now marathon Aside from the Battle Royale genre, it involves large groups of groups plundering items and being dropped on a map that tries to be the last one to survive. The goal of marathon He will not be the last player in the lobby. It’s about finding cool shit (hiding in your chest or being stolen from another player) and then towing and safely extracting cool shit.
Each game marathon Start by selecting the runner you want to play. These runners are essentially heroes. Each has a clear appearance, some concrete abilities, and a handful of passive effects. Then set up a loadout by pulling items into stock from past runs, such as increased shields, higher range weapons, perk nodes, and more. Alternatively, if you’ve just left and don’t have any items or currency yet, you can launch it with a sponsored pack. This is a free or cheap (credits, in-game currency) loadout that comes with a low-quality version of everything you need.
When you’re ready, group (or matchmaking) with the other two players and head to the map of choice. Bungie said you can turn off Squad Fill Matchmaking and jump into the round as a solo or duo player, but you’ll be at a clear disadvantage.
Image: Bungee
Loaded onto the map with varying numbers of opponents, and the count depends on the map size. The map I played in most of the previews, Dire Marsh can hold 18 players. It’s a team of 3, six people, including yourself.
I have two goals. First, I want to find the best booty I can on the map. You can complete the events that appear and earn loot as a reward by taking on AI enemies (all are extremely dangerous and will easily kill you if you lose focus), solving minor puzzles. Second, they will try to move forward with a deal with the game’s major faction. Although they were unable to interact with the contract and reputation metagame, they showed a lot of promise, especially for players who don’t want to hunt other teams for the sport.
Once you’ve got a full backpack and your contract is complete, it’s time to find an exfil location. Activate the extraction beacon and fires a giant “don’t hurt me” beam into the sky, warning all other players trying to escape with the big ones. If exfil survives until it disappears, you will keep your corruption and it all enters your safe when you want to use it. If you die at any point in the match, you will lose all You have your inventory and can’t get it back.
If that sounds harsh, then yes. That’s a kind of point. And there’s a more friendly element marathon Compared to Tarkov And games like it – your allies can bring you back an unlimited number – for example, it is the most hardcore and punishing game Bungee has ever made. But that’s where there’s all the tension and that’s what led to some truly adrenaline pump moments during my session, and the reaction that really surprised me.
Image: Bungee
When I first arrived at Bungee, I was assuming it marathon It’s not for me. I was a big Hello multiplayer guy when I was younger, I took hundreds of hours PubgI played a lot vertexand basically it’s not placed destiny Or the sequel since 2014. However, as I get older, I tend to have less engagement with PVPs, and as such, the extraction genre is not really attracting my attention. Bungee was able to make games to tell me in my life, but my history with the studio wasn’t enough to surpass my skepticism.
After the developer walked us how to do that marathon The work, I was escorted to the play area to get the game. The team was ready-made and I was placed in another American journalist and a group of other countries who struggled to communicate with us. And thus our mornings began to be destroyed. Whenever we met other players, it didn’t work for us.
When I went to lunch that day, I felt conflicted. On the other hand, I have a good enough establishment of my PVP’s anguish, and it is marathon If I couldn’t take on another team with certainty or confidence, it wouldn’t be much fun in the end. Meanwhile, the game was as smooth as hell. The refined mechanical aesthetic is amazing, and the strong artistic direction already drives hype. As long as I’m on a contract and I’m just in that world marathonI It was I’m having fun. My concern was what would happen when these contracts got more intense and not interacting with other players was no longer an option.
Luckily, Bungee decided to move my team, so things changed after lunch. Suddenly Kevin Yanez joined us. Everyone would say about Yanez good in marathon. That’s an understatement, I learned quickly. Yanes changed the game for me and my third team. Not because he was able to carry us while we were learning.
When we stopped by our first match together, Yanes opened the map and pinged two nearby locations. “Okay, we got a complicated spawn,” he said. “There are two other teams can You’ll spawn here and here, so you need to be careful as long as you don’t want to chase them right away. “It was overwhelming, and the drunk team became an aggressive hunting room. We’ve found all this cool stuff for you. Bring it! And we did.
Image: Bungee
As my knowledge grew, so did my comfort. In a very short order, I realized that I would ask Yanes questions and then go to incorporate new knowledge and take action. Still, I was worried about it marathon It wouldn’t be fun if you weren’t a squad mate as someone like Yarns. The joy was not the game itself, but the fact that it was extracted with big shit every time. But even when we lose to something very talented evaluation It turns out that players from the final match on the second day still felt better about their experience and team.
It’s a shame that not all players there have yarns to teach the game. marathon. But they’ll have me. And their favourite streamers. and guides (polygons). and Tarkov friend. Hello player. Parents of Destiny’s Crucible.
Since haloBungie relies on skilled developers as well as a community of players around the world to help with game tutorials. For my friends, I When that comes, it will be yarn marathon – I Become an online stranger I met when I played halo It was the first time that day.
marathon It’s difficult. It’s punishing and intentionally annoyed. The design will result in lower and higher values. It’s a difficult selling point to the masses – the most difficult pitch Bungee has yet to make. But what Bungie has always been good at is producing Converts. I can’t wait to see the vision, be pulled inside and share the game with my friends. I realize that I am unlikely marathonvision, and I’m desperately leaving Bellevue and trying to get the game again.
There are a million factors that could sink marathon: A busy live service market, game monetization strategy – What Bungee has confirmed is its release timing and the state of the global economy. To see the upcoming games in 2025 and say, “It’s a sure hit,” you have to be a fool. But I can say, don’t be fooled, marathon I really enjoyed PVP for the first time in nearly 10 years.
Others have taught me to play bungee games for 20 years. Even if I’m not as good a teacher as Kevin Yanez, I’m excited to pay it upfront with my friends. marathon It will be released on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on September 23rd.
Disclosure: This article is based on a marathon A preview event will be held April 2-4 at Bungee HQ in Bellevue, Washington. Bungee provided polygon travel and accommodation for the event. You can find Additional information on passthecontroller’s ethical policies can be found here.
