Keep Marathon vicious, but not hopeless

Hey everyone, Del here.

Last week we had a great time talking about the upcoming PvE and experimental PvP modes for Symbiosis in December. We want to be clear, Extraction is still a major part of Marathon, and we're also going to continue updating it as we look to the future of the game.

We'd love to hear from you on what you're enjoying about Extraction today, what you think needs work, and what you wish was there. -Del Chafe III, Marathon Game Director
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Seeing that tweet let me release a lot of anxiety. Knowing that Marathon isn't joining my favorite game of all time yet, that it has runway to show its brilliance more widely, gives me hope.

Marathon is my game of the year. I knew it by 4 days into the release. It's a AAA game with the soul of an indie passion project. I want future changes to expand what the game offers, not change what it is.

What I love about Extraction is the stress, the omnipresent threat, the viciousness of the world. We each have a private debt, and helping someone else doesn't pay it.

We're not trying to overcome a shared enemy- we're in a dystopian hypercapitalist hellscape where experiencing the horrors of Tau Ceti IV is just collateral to these megacorps getting a return on their investment of the UESC Marathon.

Dying in Marathon often feels like falling down a pit with sheer walls, but the pit is never as deep as it feels. The suggestions I've seen are about making the fall rarer or shorter:

Depositing loot in DCONs mid-run
Safe pockets
Silent/safer exfils

Any one of these is fine, but together they risk dulling the edge and making the game feel soft. Combine them with a PvE mode that isn't lethal, and there's no sauce left.

These ideas all treat the fall. When you're at the bottom, what you're missing is a reason to start climbing again. Something that keeps you coming back, keeps you hungry, and gives you a taste of the power advanced players are immersed in.

What we need are leads

You go to talk to Gaius, and he's got some information to sell you. It's just an item type, a map name, and a price- but purchasing it tells you where on the map it is and if required, any additional steps to get it.

The loot is just on the map- anyone can stumble across it, and another crew might even have been sold the same lead. But it's inside information that lets you chase something you want, knowing that you can rush straight there and maybe, just maybe get it before anyone else.

There's a lot of potential directions you can drive this in:

Special events tied to lead acquisition(safe cracking, traps, etc)
Being able to pay for more 'exclusive' leads(i.e., less likely to be contested)
Being rewarded for defeating another crew contesting the same tip("You sold me into a trap, now pay me")
Specialization into lead types
Late-game reasons to do 'earlier' maps like Perimeter

The point is that it's something that gives you a reason to jump back in, to chase that next high, to hope- only to have it smashed again.

There are still easy opportunities

This isn't to say there aren't some ways of including less binary progression- fewer story quests that are reset on death(if I've uploaded to a terminal, why does it matter if I die?), being able to deposit salvage at a DCON(as long as you remain exposed while you do it), even just catchup quests that reward significant amounts of rep/salvage.

And we still need better UX/controls for swapping weapon mods, especially with guns on the ground. Skill-based matchmaking should be part of the game(level-based isn't enough, and at least a gear gap is earned by risk- a skill gap isn't).

But it's important that these improvements don't take away how sharp the game feels. I still think Ziegler's vision has been an astounding achievement. Everyone who worked on Marathon- whether they've been laid off or not- should be proud. This project deserves so much more success, and I think that with time, it'll be impossible to ignore.

You've just gotta escape the haters. It'll make you God.