Marathon Game Director Shares Plans On How Bungie Is Looking To Improve Things, Including Exploring ‘Pure PVE, PVP & PVP-Lite Experiences’

Speaking in a lengthy blog post, the game director on Marathon has revealed how developer Bungie is looking to combat the ‘overwhelming’ nature of the game for newcomers, which among there things includes toying with various PvE and PvP-lite modes that will complement the core experience.

Joe Ziegler detailed a number of features in Marathon that have been well received, including the Cryo Archieve map, ranked mode, experimental duo queues, and the C.A.R.R.I system. He also noted that a “core community” has formed around Marathon and was grateful for their enthusiasm since launch.

In regards to what Bungie has learned from players, he touched on the feedback that “Marathon is overwhelming to learn,” and that it’s “easy to hit a wall if you’re not spending lots of time, don’t have a consistent crew, or are not super skilled.” Ziegler acknowledged that some players don’t want to “sweat” all the time (a term used to describe try hards), and noted that the team faced challenges in regards to balancing end game with the likes of grenade spam and other issues.

In regards to what the development team want to accomplish with Marathon Season 2, which was recently confirmed to roll out out in early June, the game director stated:

“First and foremost, we want to continue to evolve the challenging and tense experience that our players have come to love while leaning further into the wild world we’ve created.” This involves adding a new Runner Shell, the Dire Marsh night map variant, new weapons, adjusting the progression rate for faction and runner levels among other content.

Marathon’s X account also summarised much of the post by highlighting a number of key changes that will be made going forward. These include solving what they refer to as “pain points” for players, including making Marathon less of a grindy experience and more rewarding as a result, as well as tweaking the UI/UX, matchmaking, game meta, and more. Beyond that, Bungie is looking to swell the core game by “building systems to make progressing more interesting,” as well as looking at “pure PVE, PVP and PVP-lite experiences” as mentioned earlier.

Marathon was released for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S, and critically has done pretty well and has maintained a core, dedicated fan base. However, its numbers have dwindled a bit since launch, although Ziegler’s comments clearly show that Bungie is working hard to keep things ticking over while appealing to newcomers.

[Source – Marathon on X via Eurogamer]