We are just 24 hours away from the end of the Marathon Closed Alpha, a controversial outing for Bungie’s first new (well, reprised) series in a decade. What was originally supposed to be an NDA-ed Alpha turned into one that ditched those NDAs, seemingly to move past a recent gameplay showcase that many deemed underwhelming. So, how did players getting hands-on with the game go? I think there are two things to break down here, namely the content of the Alpha itself and how it felt, and then the larger reaction and story coming out of the Alpha in terms of impressions and reception while yes, keeping in mind this is a Closed Alpha. Marathon is meant to be a first-person, more action-focused extraction shooter than other entries in the genre. This means attempting to please both existing extraction players and trying to pull in new players, but splitting the difference has produced mixed results. Gunplay feels good, but it doesn’t exactly stand out if we’re talking about all-time shooter-maker Bungie. It’s more grounded, and ran into controversy when PC players found they had intense aim assists, where pushback was so forceful to that Bungie removed it entirely halfway through the Alpha, totally changing that dynamic. More time is needed to see how that shakes out, and no doubt more changes will be made. The 3v3 battles, to me, feel at least somewhat akin to Apex Legends fights, albeit with less mobility. “Hero” kits have special moves with long cooldowns, but some have crazy bursts of mobility that don’t quite seem to connect with the style of play of the genre. But “heat” stamina limits are a hard wall if you’re trying to make this a great-feeling Bungie actioner, so it’s not that either. So far, I don’t think the hero idea is a net positive for the game or a good twist on the genre, and a custom character feels like it would have been the more engaging idea. There’s a reason this genre does that, and this concept feels like it was jammed into the game because the Valorant director took over. Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder I do enjoy the AI bots in the maps, which make for solid sections of combat when other teams are not around, and during actual teamfights, can introduce a wild dynamic that makes things more intense. With other enemies coming later, I can see this expanded more broadly (though this also makes me wish this was a PvE extraction game like Helldivers, or at least had that component). The game is just brutal for solo players where future plans do not seem like they will meaningfully address that issue as the game relentlessly focuses on team games for launch. Playing with randoms often results in counter-goals or teammates running off or dying easily. Playing solo when everyone else is in 2s or 3s is a recipe to die when running into practically any other team, so you’re just hiding and skulking around the entire time. Neither of these are terribly fun, and this very much seems like a game you’re supposed to play with two friends or else you may not have a very good time at all. But how often is that possible for many players, really? The visuals are one aspect that are clearly unfinished, so I won’t gripe about them too much. Interiors look great, but the exteriors and player models need an exceptional amount of work. Overall, I still love the aesthetic even if it’s not quite what it’s been in Blender renders or cinematic trailers. I expect this to improve pretty dramatically by launch. Fundamentally, can this sell the concept of an extraction shooter to players who have avoided the genre? For me personally, no. Getting in a death spiral of running into players loading into matches with stellar loot compared to default black market kits made many fights almost impossible. Bungie has already started to try to narrow that gap, but losing a farmed loadout every couple of games remains unappealing to me, as does an end of season wipe erasing all of that plus your contract/upgrade progress, even though it’s sort of necessary for the genre. There is certainly something to be said about what’s missing. Large swaths of gear, more factions, two more heroes and two more maps, the last of which promises to be some sort of higher-end endgame map, likely with new enemies, and the whole game supposedly has more secrets to find when it’s live. So that’s certainly worth circling back around for and once again, we tap the “Closed Alpha” sign. The Reception There’s no getting around it, overall, the reception to this Closed Alpha was not positive. This is not to say no one liked it, and many people did, but taking the temperature of the gaming community, this early look, even if it’s unfinished, demonstrated the core components of the game, and many players seemed to bounce off. Other players did not because…they were not given codes. This was immensely frustrating for a huge portion of players, hundreds of thousands attempting to get codes in a Discord. That bodes well for interest for the beta or launch, but it resulted in a lot of people angry at Bungie, and new code waves that went out barely seemed to move the needle. It felt like hundreds were going out, not thousands. The trendlines haven’t been great over the course of the Alpha. The literal numbers do not matter given that the Alpha is in fact closed, but the trends? The game quickly sunk to around 20% of its launch players and stayed there, slowly losing players each day, even with more codes issued, even with a big mid-Alpha patch. On Twitch, high profile streamers were very interested in giving it a shot, but almost immediately moved on within a day or two and few were raving about it. Within a week, Twitch viewership was somewhere in the range of 1-6K, down from 140K when it first was released. These figures are not the end-all be all of success, but I wouldn’t say they’re positive indicators of sentiment. The main issue seemed pretty clear. Harder core, existing extraction shooter players thought the game was too dumbed down to be something that improved the genre, catering to casuals. A lot of casuals were turned off by the entire extraction shooter concept of losing loot or unbalanced fights. Geared up players got bored of stomping on default kit players, default kit players got tired of being stomped on. There was of course a middleground of players who did like the game and are excited for it, but this was not the majority view I found across social media. ARC Raiders arrived a few days ago at the worst possible time for Marathon. It is a much more traditional extraction shooter in the vein of Tarkov, but not as hardcore as Tarkov, making it at least a little more accessible. It’s more polished, seeming ready for release despite it also being a Closed Alpha, and kept extraction concepts in place Bungie didn’t, crafting, proximity chat, solo play and just the general feel of the genre. The reaction to that Alpha was visibly more positive than to Marathon’s. I think Marathon does some things well, but this does not seem like it’s going to be enough to convert me personally into an extraction player, even if I plan to still put a lot of time in at launch (granted, ARC won’t either, as clearly this is just not my thing). It will be the first Bungie game I’m not going to be heavily engaged with, though knowing this type of game was coming, I’m not overly surprised. Still, I wish this was a different genre, as there is so much potential here with this world, which I think is fascinating and gorgeous. Overall I’m concerned. Reaction to the gameplay showcase was negative, and attempting to prove that wrong with a hands-on Alpha seemed like it cemented that narrative more than it didn’t. It feels like it’s splitting the difference between multiple genres but not doing anything better than each of them. It felt like there was pretty clear interest drop-off quickly among most players who did have access. I cannot buy the idea that this was “just” a Closed Alpha as this was a large chunk of content and at its core, this is gameplay, this is the concept. The Open Beta will be a better judge of sentiment with way more players poking around, but the idea that at the end of this road players will be asked to play $40 is daunting. I’ve said Marathon should be delayed, and I still think that. That may not be the solution for all its issues, but racing toward a September release just five months from now does not seem wise given what we’re seeing here. on TwitterYouTube, Bluesky Instagram Herokiller series The Earthborn Trilogy. Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades