Marathon

1. Summary

This slice reads much colder than the game's overall Steam reception: 54.5% of it recommends Marathon, against 79.5% of all English reviews on Steam. Much of the gap comes from the early-June free week. Reviews from players who got the game free make up 29% of the slice and only 22% of them recommend it, while 68% of the other reviews do. Read the percentages below as a picture of recent and free-week reviewers, not of everyone who has played.

Marathon is a PvPvE extraction shooter, and reviewers on both sides of the vote praise the same things: the gunplay, the graphic sci-fi art style, the lore and the sound design. Positive reviews describe tense runs where losing your gear is a real risk, so getting out alive feels earned. They also like the distinct runner shells and the Cryo Archive endgame, which the squads who reach it enjoy.

The frustrations come from how the game treats people who are new, casual or alone. Reviewers describe newcomers on free kits meeting geared veterans with no skill matching, a cluttered UI with a thin tutorial, long queues and empty or lopsided lobbies, and a solo mode that some find thrilling and others find hopeless. Players are split on whether the punishing difficulty is the point, and a vocal group asks for a full PvE mode. The free week brought a wave of short, mostly negative first impressions about the UI, the onboarding and a dislike of extraction shooters in general. The shooting itself draws little criticism. The argument is over whether the loop built around it is fun to keep playing.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Gunplay with a Bungie feelHigh

28% of the longer reviews talk about the gunplay, and 14% praise it outright, against under 1% who call it clunky or bad. That praise also turns up in negative reviews, often just before the list of what drove the reviewer away. Players compare the shooting to Halo and Destiny and describe responsive guns, weapons that each feel different, and satisfying fights against both players and bots. One reviewer wrote: "Every gun feels like a Bungie gun, you can just tell it's Bungie DNA." Another said: "Very tight gunplay, even the weaker guns feel fun to shoot." The few critics call it a lesser version of Destiny's shooting or say fights end too fast to enjoy it (see the time-to-kill split below).

A distinctive art styleHigh

The art direction comes up about as often as the gunplay, and praise for it far outnumbers complaints. Fans call it fresh, bold and unlike the grey realism of other extraction shooters: "the environments look unlike anything else right now". Those who dislike it feel strongly. They find the colours garish, the screen visually noisy, or the look tiring ("The visuals are over stimulating, the UI is horrendous."), and a few say everything blends into one busy mess. Most of these negative remarks come from players who got the game free.

Lore, story and worldbuildingHigh

Fans of the original Bungie games and newcomers both praise the codex entries, audio logs and cutscenes. Even a reviewer who voted against the game wrote: "The codex entries are all very well-written, and the voice acted ones are a treat." A few reviewers say the lore is what keeps them going through the losses. The complaint inside this theme is about delivery: players who love the world wish it came with a campaign or a proper story mode instead of fragments unlocked between PvP runs, and some find the narrative scattered.

Atmosphere and sound designHigh

Solo runs get described as closer to a horror game than a shooter ("the experience was genuinely more terrifying than most dedicated horror games"), and the soundtrack and audio design are praised alongside the visuals. Complaints are rare: a handful report footsteps that are hard to hear or problems with audio devices.

Runner shells and abilitiesMedium

12% of the longer reviews discuss the shells (the playable characters) or name one, mostly with approval. Players like that each shell suits a different style, from stealthy Recon and Assassin play to Rook runs that drop in mid-match with no gear at risk. One free-week player wrote that "the abilities offered by each Runner Shell (your playable characters) are super unique". The critics, mostly experienced players, target specific balance points, often the Assassin's invisibility.

Where players are split

Whether Marathon needs a PvE modeHigh

PvE comes up more than any other split topic. The players asking for a PvE mode, a campaign or co-op are often Destiny fans or solo players who say they love the world but not the PvP. One negative reviewer put it plainly: "I'll totally play again if it goes PVE." The limited PvE modes so far drew mixed reactions. Some players say Vault Breakers and the lighter Sponsored Survival playlist were where they spent most of their time, and several were upset each time Sponsored Survival rotated out. Others found Vault Breakers obtuse or badly tuned for small groups ("If you play by yourself, you still get to face the same amount of enemies as you would in a 3-stack."). PvP-focused players argue that a PvE push would dilute what makes the game work. Several reviews from September and October mention an update they expect in December, and some hope it brings the PvE mode they want.

A hardcore, high-stakes loopHigh

Reviewers often call the game hardcore, punishing or sweaty, and they disagree sharply on whether that is a strength. Fans say the risk is the appeal: losing gear makes extraction exciting, and loss is part of learning ("Marathon is not a game where you are supposed to win 24/7."). Critics say the loop rewards only the best players and wears down everyone else: "Game is fun for the top 10% of players who get to farm the remaining 90% over and over." Time to kill is part of the same argument. It comes up in 5% of the longer reviews, with some complaining about dying before they can react, others calling it well balanced, and a few saying better gear makes fights slower.

Solo play versus squadsHigh

16% of the longer reviews talk about playing solo, and they divide clearly. Some solo players love the separate solo queue and describe it as the tense, stealthy heart of the game: "Squads often feels like a guns blazing battle royale, while solos is a much more tense and quiet experience." Others say the game is "clearly built around a coordinated trio", point out that Cryo Archive and Ranked require a team, and describe crew fill with randoms as a gamble on teammates without mics who run off alone. Duo players add a smaller complaint: they want a permanent duo queue instead of one that rotates.

Season changes to progression, economy and balanceMedium

Long-term players raise most of the talk about the economy, progression and balance. Some say Season 2 fixed what bothered them, especially the Cradle upgrade system: "With season 2 factions and cradle rework it brought a better feeling of progression." Others describe the same season as a misstep: free purple kits early in the wipe, Cradle experience that got harder to earn, loot nerfs and narrow metas (shotguns, bubble shields, grenades and invisibility come up repeatedly). The disagreement often comes down to whether the reviewer had the time to stay ahead of the gear curve.

Cryo Archive and the endgameMedium

Cryo Archive comes up in 8% of the longer reviews, mostly from long-time players. Some who reach it call it the best map in the game, a raid-like finale with vaults, puzzles and a boss. The complaints are about access: it is trios-only, it appears on a rotation rather than on demand, and newer players say it is out of reach. Others complain that once you reach the endgame, Cryo is the only map that matters.

Seasonal wipesLow

A smaller group mentions wipes or season resets. Some accept them as part of the genre and say they keep the field level. Others find it demotivating to lose faction progress, gear and lore progress every few months: "Losing all progress every season and a lack of intuitive gameplay makes it rough to play casually."

The community and proximity chatLow

Comments on the community are few and go both ways. Some reviewers describe generous randoms and fun proximity chat, "every run I find talkative, sociable, and fun people both in my crew and through proximity chat". Others describe hostile teammates, shoot-on-sight behaviour and toxicity in crew fill.

The extraction genre itselfLow

A small group says they had never liked extraction shooters until this one ("I hated extraction shooters up until I played the server slam"). A smaller one says the game should never have been an extraction shooter at all, often while praising the gunplay and the art.

What frustrates players

Too few players: long queues and lopsided lobbiesHigh

Complaints about the player count, queue times or a dying game run through both new and long-time players' reviews. Players report waits of several minutes, a few of 20 minutes or more, and matches that are either empty of other players or full of max-geared teams. A few players in Australia and South America say it is worse there. One wrote: "I spent more time waiting in queue than I did playing". Long-time players tie the shrinking population to worse matchmaking and to friends quitting, and some say the low count is what stops them recommending a game they otherwise like.

A confusing UI and a thin introductionHigh

14% of the longer reviews complain about the UI, menus, tutorial or learning curve, and 49% of those reviews come from free-key players, far above their share of the slice. Newcomers describe cluttered menus, items that look alike, pop-ups, and a tutorial that teaches little ("Maybe the worst UI in a game I have ever played."). Players who stayed say it clicks after a few hours, and some say the early complaints about the UI and item icons have since been fixed, but supporters warn about it too: "the game won't explain itself to you."

Price, battle pass and cosmeticsMedium

Reviewers who call the game poor value outnumber those who call the price fair. They say a paid game should not also carry a paid battle pass and expensive cosmetic bundles, ask for refunds, or advise waiting for a sale or for a free-to-play switch they expect. A smaller group says the price is fair: "For $40, you really can't go wrong."

Repetitive runs and thin contentMedium

Some reviewers call the game boring, repetitive or short on content. They mention a small map pool, repeated contract objectives, the same enemies, and loot that rarely feels meaningful: "You will run the same 3 maps (4 if you want to deal with getting a team together for Cryo) over and over again". Some long-time players say content stagnated a few weeks into Season 2.

Performance, servers and bugsMedium

Technical complaints vary. The most specific is CPU-bound performance: "Top tier CPUs are struggling to go past 100 FPS." Others describe disconnects that cost a run's loot, rubber-banding, crashes, broken contracts and new bugs with each update. Experiences differ by machine, and some players say the game runs well on theirs.

New and casual players matched against geared veteransMedium

Players on free or sponsored kits say they keep meeting teams in purple and gold gear, that the beginner area ends quickly, and that there is no skill-based matchmaking. One player who got the game free wrote that the beginner zone "is completely overrun by players with exotic gear who just one-shot new players". Some veterans agree and ask for matchmaking by gear or skill. Others reply that the free kits and Rook runs make losses easy to recover from.

CheatersLow

A smaller group reports cheaters and hackers, some of them in Ranked and Cryo Archive. One reviewer who stopped recommending the game wrote: "The cheating is rampant." A few others report bans they say were wrong, with no response to appeals.

Long load screensLow

3% of the longer reviews complain about load screens and the time between pressing ready and moving, mostly free-week players. A long-time player put it this way: "takes longer to load armory and character selection screen then to load into raid."

No Linux or Steam Deck supportLow

Only 2% of the longer reviews raise it. Linux and Steam Deck players say they cannot connect because the BattlEye anti-cheat is not enabled for Proton: "Battleye is fully supported on proton/linux but they refuse to enable it."

3. The player conversation

The conversation is polarized and often defensive. 3% of all reviews push back against the game's online reputation or its haters, while a share of the negative reviews still praise the gunplay before explaining why they quit over the loop, the lobbies or the onboarding.

Different players raise different things. Free-week players supply most of the load-time and visual-overload complaints and about half of the UI and onboarding ones, and some of them say they simply do not enjoy extraction shooters. Long-time players raise balance, the season economy, Cryo Archive access and the shrinking population, and some of them still praise the game while voting against it. Solo players and Destiny fans who want PvE form a third group: they like the world but want a different way to play in it.

Within this slice, launch-week reviews were split close to evenly, reviews written in the week the free trial began were the most negative (34% positive), and reviews written from late June through October mostly recommended the game, with both October weeks above 70%. Some late reviews come from players who bought on sale or moved over from PS5, and several look ahead to the update they expect in December.

4. What the developers could do

1. Match players by gear or skill, and keep beginner lobbies separate for longer, because new and casual players describe meeting fully geared teams as soon as the beginner area ends.
2. Rebuild the onboarding and simplify the UI, since free-week players cite cluttered menus, look-alike items and a thin tutorial for quitting within hours.
3. Make a full PvE mode a permanent option, because PvE is the most discussed of the split topics and some lapsed players name it as the change that would bring them back.
4. Reduce queue times by consolidating playlists, as players link long waits and rotating modes (duos, Cryo Archive) to a split population.
5. Tune solo play and crew fill, including enemy scaling for smaller groups and a permanent duo queue, since solo and duo players say parts of the game are balanced for trios only.
6. Fix CPU-bound performance and connection drops, because players describe disconnects that cost a run's loot and low frame rates on strong hardware.
7. Strengthen anti-cheat and review ban appeals, as players in Ranked and Cryo Archive report cheaters and a few describe unanswered appeals.
8. Enable BattlEye for Proton, which Linux and Steam Deck players say is the only thing keeping them from playing.