Marathon Has Replaced Elden Ring Nightreign As My New Multiplayer Obsession

I can’t stop playing Marathon. I’ve stayed up too late scanning data samples on Perimeter and dying in the Algae Ponds on Dire Marsh. I dip out in the middle of the day for a quick run or three, and an invite notification will have me booting the PS5 when I should be doing a dozen other things.

It isn’t really an extraction shooter so much as an action roguelike. User LeftAtLondon spelled it out: the game is run-based, with procedural RNG shaping where you end up on a map, what events occur, and which loot you find. Gear can be lost permanently, but it’s only a means to an end — losing a build becomes an opportunity to find and leverage another.

That shift in perspective is part of why Marathon hooked me the way Elden Ring Nightreign did. Nightreign also felt like a messy multiplayer hybrid at first but became an unexpectedly perfect combination; Marathon has that same spark.

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