I hope Marathon's first sale gets more players to try the game — it's the most I've been consumed by a competitive FPS in a long time

It's currently 20% off on all platforms

25 Apr 2026, 09:00 by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/james-pickard · TechRadar

Opinion By James Pickard published 25 April 2026

(Image credit: Sony / Bungie)

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The discourse surrounding Marathon is an absolute nightmare. Obituaries were being written months before the game even launched, controversies kept surfacing throughout its development, and comparisons kept being made to how Destiny 2 has been treated since the launch of The Final Shape. Shut out the noise, though, and I think there’s something special in Bungie’s extraction shooter.

If Marathon dies, it will be a devastating loss in my eyes. I can’t think of a similar all-consuming gaming experience I’ve had in a long time. Perhaps it was Elden Ring when I last felt like taking up every spare moment I wasn’t playing by watching, reading, researching, and talking about the game. So, here I am, with the game now discounted by 20% on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox, encouraging anyone with even a passing interest to give it a go.

This game's got the sauce

My first foray into extraction shooters was Arc Raiders, and it remains the popular pick for many. It’s a fine game, but its by-the-numbers third-person shooting, the bland grey-brown mil-sim aesthetic, and overly-friendly player base did little to keep me invested or inspired to make multiple runs for toasters and power cables.

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Replace toasters with fractal circuits and power cables with dermachem packs, and Marathon may technically be asking me to do the same thing with more futuristic fluff. But that’s just one part of its presentation that’s on a whole other level. Elsewhere, the gunplay is so much more satisfying, and I'm thriving on the tension of loading into each map knowing that conflict with other players is all but guaranteed.

(Image credit: Sony / Bungie)

For me, it starts with little things: like the way the music subtly adds layers and ramps up once your fireteam has all readied up and you hit the button to queue into the match. In that moment, I feel myself getting pumped up, heart rate increasing, and primed for whatever objective I’ve set for myself on this run. The music is incredible throughout, in fact.

And then there are larger aspects, like the way a match flows on its late-game Outpost map. It’s a slow start, as you scavenge for keycards and clear out enemy AI while ducking into buildings to avoid the burning heat cascade that rains down every so often.

Eventually, you can unlock the loot pinata that is the Pinwheel ship, fend off other squads in its tight corridors or three expansive wings, and scoop up lots of shiny goodies to fill up your vault for future raids. And while not every run may go successfully, when it hits, it hits — hard.

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