I Couldn’t Stop Playing Marathon’s Server Slam

I’m writing this at 10:30 PM on the day Marathon‘s Server Slam slammed the doors on eager players looking for a good time for free from its gameplay after a four-day blowout in its extremely colorful version of Tau Ceti IV. I played for a good five hours, squeezing it into a busy schedule of my first week returning to work after breaking my back on day 2 of 2026, managing a crippling live-service game schedule, and looking after three kids, and I had a pretty great time, I must say.

However, you’re not here for generalized comments on a game that isn’t out yet, and I’m not here to gaslight you into thinking Marathon is a terrible game like half of all social media has been for the Server Slam’s duration. No. I’m here to explain why I couldn’t stop playing the game despite moments of frustration and rage that made me want to lob my PS5 onto the patio like the clothes of a lover who jilted me.

Part 1: The Piece Of Marathon In The Server Slam Was Good For Many Reasons

Let’s begin with the good. Marathon is a very, very pretty game with a full-realized style in a universe locked down tight with lore that’s endlessly fun to explore. It really helps that this is a series that’s decades old, so Bungie didn’t have to do too much work to fill in the gaps and make it feel real.

What the developer did need to do was create an engrossing sense of style that ensures the world of Tau Ceti IV is always interesting, no matter whether you’re on your first, tenth, or hundredth run. As an extraction shooter, an engaging world with easily identifiable landmarks that’s easy to traverse is essential. Bungie nailed this, and then some, with a selection of map packs with points of interest that are fun to explore and areas between that are still great to wander around despite not being deemed noteworthy by the game’s cartographers.

I absolutely love the use of color. It’s weird, alien, and exactly what I’d expect current fashion to look like in two centuries. Seeing bright green sewage tubes linking huge pink construction sites will never not be funny and awe-inspiring in equal measures. There’s also just this sense of scale that feels unmatched, especially the massive hauler that’s bigger than any building in my little hometown but is very much just a truck on Tau Ceti IV.

The style extends to everything in Marathon. The guns, character Shells you play as, skins, and AI contacts are all gorgeous in an ugly futuristic way that lands just right with me.

Let’s talk about those Shells, because you’ll be spending a lot of time with them. Each is almost a hero character, if this were a hero shooter, with unique abilities that apply to the extraction shooter genre. For example, the Assassin can become briefly invisible, while the assault Shell, whose name escapes me, has missiles and a shield. My personal favorite was Rook, a Shell that looks exactly like the UESC enemies scattered across Tau Ceti IV and can disguise itself as one of them briefly to avoid or escape combat.

I think great care and attention have been paid to how these abilities work, and I believe they work well when played correctly. Sadly, some players just want to watch the world burn and take to shooting everything in sight without any nuance, far too easily. I can’t really blame them because it gets the job done, but I enjoy the design of these characters and want to see their abilities used so well you shout with excitement when I play.

Since this is a Bungie game, there’s precious little to say about gunplay outside of the fact that it’s good. Of course it is. This developer knows what it’s doing in that department. I started out as a pretty poor shot but got to grips with the game within the first hour. It feels slow and clunky to begin with, but you can pull off some truly intense gunfights while combining abilities with weapon swaps and direct headshots.

The chunkiness applies to enemies, too, making them oh so satisfying to take down. They sound terrifying with heavy robotic noises akin to those from the guards in The Callisto Protocol, but it’s the placement of your shots that will render the encounters with them easy, not a barrage of bullets as you might expect if you’re a Destiny 2 fan. It’s a deliberate targeting system that mirrors what’s required of you in Arc Radiers, but you’re not punished too much for going for the bulk of the body if the head is too hard to hit.

The robotic UESC enemies are a surprise, though. They’re pretty smart, sometimes mimicking a real player’s voice and moving in a strange way so as to make you think they’re a player in a Rook Shell.

I think more could be done to ensure players have enough ammo throughout a run, though. Even when I brought most of the inventory’s worth, I ran out quickly from killing all the insane robots. But there’s never enough in containers or lying around on the planet to make you feel like you’re on top of everything. It made the game feel a bit like a survival horror title because I was constantly weighing up the choice of skirting around enemies to preserve items while wondering what they were guarding and if it was worth wasting the bullets, health, and shields.

Those robotic enemies of the UESC are a huge part of the game’s atmosphere and combine with “friendly” AI company agents to ensure you’re always uneasy with your lot in life. You’re some random consciousness using Shells to raid an attempt at terraforming an alien world guarded by intelligent robotic soldiers. Those soldiers are convinced that everything on Tau Ceti IV is theirs, and there are hints at some sort of event that not only wiped out anyone trying to settle the planet but also ripped apart chunks of the world.

I’ve never been more intrigued to see where an extraction shooter goes with its story. This is something Arc Radiers isn’t too good at, and where I see Marathon succeeding over its competitor, if Bungie follows through.

Of course, there’s so much more we haven’t seen, which is why I’ll reserve my final judgement on the game and review for the end of March 2026. What I can say, and hope I’ve gotten across thus far, is that Marathon is extremely enjoyable. It’s got that special combination of great visuals, gameplay, audio, and storytelling of all forms that’s very difficult to resist.

Part 2: Marathon Isn’t Great When Played With Others Right Now

After all that praise, let’s bring things down a bit. Outside of the tirade of attempts to make the Server Slam look like a failure on Twitter, Marathon fell short for me when I encountered other real players. The game has proximity chat, but I’m a dad who plays games when the kids are asleep. I’m not about to start shouting to randoms “don’t shoot!” even though it probably wouldn’t have helped.

I got killed by almost everyone I ran into. The exception is one Rook player who saw I was also a Rook, bobbed up and down, and left me alone. Without in-game barks for our Shells, we’re sitting ducks for the slaughter. It baffles me why Bungie is so dead set against this type of solo and quiet player in its games, but it’s the same in Destiny 2. I’m not surprised, and it’s not a deal-breaker, but I am disappointed.

I was also disappointed every time I saw another player because I lost all my inventory. It would be so easy to implement a system to save loot for an in-game price, but I’ll save that for another time. This is a definite downside for the game, and the point that made me want to quit. I didn’t, but I stopped having fun until I went a good 20 minutes without seeing another player.

This baffles me even more because Rook, my favorite Shell, is a solo-only Shell. I presume it’s Bungie’s answer to solo play because you can’t queue with others when it’s equipped, and it makes for the biggest challenge in the Server Slam, but the systems to support it just aren’t there in the game.

To caveat this, Rook is a bit of a nasty Shell for others. It’s a friendly UESC robot on paper, but I could just as easily draw in enemies to others, use Rook’s ability to avoid the combat, and pick up all the loot from whoever doesn’t make it out of the encounter.

I could go on and on about Rook, but what I want to stress here is that the part of the game I came to enjoy most ended up being ruined by such a simple oversight. Proximity chat isn’t for everyone, and an alternative needs to exist. It’s why Arc Radiers is so popular among every demographic, so it should be here in Marathon as well.

Part 3: Marathon Really Could Go Anywhere At Launch

The biggest problem Marathon faces at launch isn’t having enough players, it’s having enough people supporting it with praise and reviews. For some reason, people love hating on new games on social media in 2026, and it’s doing some serious harm. Gone are the days when developers could do a No Man’s Sky and stay silent while cooking up the greatest game known to humanity. Game accounts need to respond to feedback immediately, even if that feedback is some moron calling it Concord 4.0.

I believe Marathon needs some additional features in order to survive long term, but they’re not massive changes. A new system for helping death by nasty players feel less punishing, and a way to communicate that won’t wake up my six, three, and one-year-olds is enough.

It certainly seems like the yet-to-be-seen endgame activity, Cryo Archive, will play a huge part in the game’s future. If this area provides the right challenge and balance of fun, I think Bungie is onto a winner. Progress is provided by AI company agents with contracts for you to complete, and the gradual loot grind you’ll churn up with every run.

The key to success for any live-service game in general is to have a direction for players to move forward in. A constant feeling of adding steps towards a goal, even if that’s just one item in the bag. I really hope that Bungie has done the right thing, but we’ll simply have to wait and see once it’s out.

Thank you so much for reading this pretty in-depth explanation of my inner feelings on Marathon after marathoning its Server Slam. The game goes live for everyone, and I mean reviewers as well, on March 5, 2026, so don’t listen to a single review until it’s almost April. The full experience won’t be live on day one, and you should honestly form your own opinion by playing if you’re truly on the fence.

As a lapsed Destiny 2 fan, I’m extremely excited about the game. I don’t want to be because I think Bungie still has it in it to make me cry with solo-hating endgame. But I desperately want to be surprised. Follow us on all our social media accounts and sign up for our free Patreon Membership to get my final thoughts when they go live.

About the Author

Jamie Moorcroft Sharp

Editor

Jamie adores the indie games that you don’t hear about until you’re on a video essay binge at 3AM and suddenly the sound of them changes your life. He’s played games all his life and loves looking at the intricate details that make them magical and different. If there’s a wierd list, embarrassing feature, or something else far too out there on Bonus Action, there’s a good chance he wrote it. But that’s not all! He’s also an absolute fiend who never knows when to stop when he puts on his dirty robes and takes on his D&D persona as a Mud Warlock who acts on that tiny voice in your head when it wonders what would happen if you did something really dumb right now. He’s easy to beat in a TGC, though, just keep an eye out for his crazy card combos.

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