Hands on: After 60 hours, Marathon is one of my favorite shooters

After 60 hours, Marathon feels like an exceptional extraction shooter that thrives on both blistering PvP and stealthy infiltrations. In the loading screens, moths weave artificial bodies called Shells for your mercenary protagonist to occupy—creatures created to scavenge a colony-turned-graveyard and facilitate dreams of violence and glory.

Raids take place on Tau Ceti IV, a glossy frontier guarded by the United Earth Space Council and its robotic soldiers. As a Runner you slip into Shells to fulfill contracts from rival corporations, revolutionaries and religious bodies: CyAc, Arachne and SekGen each bring distinct, stylized motives.

Raising reputation with these factions unlocks upgrades, better gear and story-driven contracts that reveal the colony’s fate and UESC's motives. The three currently available maps—Perimeter, Dire Marsh and Outpost—are relatively compact and encourage fast, violent encounters where anything you bring can be lost on death.

marathon, extraction shooter, pvp, stealth, shells, tau ceti, uesc, cyac, arachne, sekgen