An Incredible Last-Minute Escape In Marathon Convinced Me It’s Something Special

I spent much of the open beta for Marathon, billed by Bungie as a “Server Slam,” playing matches that swung between thrilling and frustrating. My impressions wavered all night, but one final run before the beta ended convinced me the game can be something special — even if I’m not sure enough players will feel the same to keep it from flopping.

The match came at midnight after a rough session of quick deaths and lost gear. I loaded into the last run with a powerful rifle, ammo, and health kits from my vault, fought through bots, grabbed great loot, and pushed for extraction despite knowing progress would be wiped.

Two minutes after activating extraction, bullets tore through the air and I was down; my teammates traded fire, got knocked, healed, and kept the fight alive. With the extraction ready, my downed teammate and I crawled our bleeding bodies the few feet to safety while our last standing teammate laid down cover.

marathon, bungie, server slam, open beta, extraction, loot, teammates, rifle, vault, bots