Marathon has seen significant changes as part of its latest balance patch, including the outright removal of its most busted movement technique, the re-opening of a controversial shortcut in The Outpost map, and made the loot (and challenge) of The Outpost’s central region harder.
As you can see in Bungie’s latest blogpost, the first and arguably most pressing change is the tear down of Thief’s grappling hook movement technique. This was allowing players to zip around rapidly for palpable advantages over other players, and proving exceptionally powerful in one-on-one fights.
This change has come with a developer note, which reads: “One of our core philosophies for Marathon is that rapid repositioning and aggression must always have a meaningful cost. That cost can be an ability charge, heat buildup, or increased risk but it must exist and be understandable to an observer. Unbounded movement, while expressive and clip-worthy, is ultimately unhealthy for the pace of play we want to maintain for Marathon. To set expectations early, we will be looking at any future movement exploits through the same lens.”
Then there are Outpost map changes. A while back, Bungie removed the ability for players to sneak into the central Pinwheel zone through the destroyed wing, as it was a little too easy to get inside and circumvent the typical access points. Now, this entrance is back, albeit with a reworked puzzle that should require a bit more involvement to actually access, as the shootable nodes are more spread out than before.
There have also been changes to the central Pinwheel zone itself. The loot quality from smaller containers has been improved, while the overall challenge from UESC robots inside has been increased to accommodate. This alongside changes to the locked keycard room in Pinwheel should make the map a bit more hectic, but lucrative.
Plus, a personal favourite change in this patch, is a frustrating bug was fixed on the Dire Marsh map. Previously, if the anomaly event wasn’t active, the event pin would still show up underground near the central open space, causing confusion. This has now been fixed, thankfully. Now you can load up with Rook and know for sure if you’re going to try to steal the anomaly rewards, or blow yourself up with claymores instead.
Marathon, which has sold over 1.2m copies so far according to analyst estimations, seems to be doing alright in the weeks following its launch. With the developers saying they’re in it for the long haul, largely positive critical reviews continue to go live.
This includes Eurogamer’s Marathon review, which went live this week! In it, Rick Lane wrote: “With spellbinding combat and high-concept maps, Marathon is far more than a cool aesthetic draped over the bones of an extraction shooter.”
