Marathon, Bungie’s latest foray into the realm of live service shooters, feels like a natural next step for the studio, especially considering it has technically spent more time working on its Destiny franchise than it ever did on Halo. Of course, Marathon has been met with its fair share of skepticism and admonishment from fans, largely out of a lack of trust in Bungie to deliver something truly excellent after numerous failed attempts to do so with Destiny, and a general disdain for PlayStation’s push for a live service hit to rival the likes of Fortnite and Genshin Impact.
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However, from everything we’ve seen, it appears that it may end up being not just a success, but a genuinely good game, no matter how bad Marathon’s intense backlash once was. Unfortunately, this is, at least for me and my potentially niche interests, part of the problem. For every incredible trailer we’ve been treated to and every showcase of just how phenomenal Bungie’s best-in-class gunplay continues to be, I can’t help but wish that Marathon would, at least eventually, borrow its predecessor’s most important feature: the single-player campaign.
Marathon Needs A Single-Player Campaign
I am completely aware that Marathon is a PvPvE extraction shooter and will be exclusively at launch. There is no way of Bungie slapping a single-player campaign akin to the previous game’s central mode onto Marathon at the last minute. However, I do believe that an offline, single-player story-focused mode would benefit the game greatly in the long term. Crucially, it would help flesh out the intriguing world already showcased in the game’s hauntingly beautiful marketing materials. Thus far, we’ve seen a lot of abstract, sci-fi horror-influenced visuals that both help set the tone and tease a greater story begging to be explored further.
Unfortunately, Bungie has committed to exploring Marathon’s world exclusively through means of environmental storytelling. I’d be remiss if I said this wasn’t a tad disappointing, not least because its predecessor was revolutionary for its tying of progression and narrative. While it isn’t exactly uncommon for a legacy sequel to skew the conventions of its predecessor, for Marathon to be so completely removed from the original intention is a genuine shame. This is especially true considering the narrative-focused first-person shooter genre is experiencing a bit of a dry spell and is in dire need of a genuinely compelling new title.
If any studio can bring the sub-genre from the potential brink of extinction, it is undeniably Bungie. It has proven itself to be excellent at delivering iconic and meaningful stories, most famously of which, Halo, has gone on to influence both an entire generation of gaming and the military sci-fi genre as a whole. Of course, its efforts to deliver a similarly epic narrative in Destiny failed. However, I’d argue that was largely due to the inherently flawed nature of the live service genre, rather than falling squarely on the shoulders of Bungie’s writing staff. With Marathon, Bungie had a serious opportunity to return to its roots and deliver a Halo-esque experience, and it is a shame it didn’t take it.
I’m not even advocating for the total removal of the extraction shooter mode. I am very strongly in favor of combining both a single-player story and a multiplayer or co-op-focused mode. It worked wonders for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t for Marathon. In fact, I’d argue that players, especially those like me who typically enjoy solo experiences in gaming, would perhaps feel even more compelled to play the extraction shooter mode after getting to know Marathon’s universe and characters a little better. Regardless, there’s another, more important reason for Marathon to include a single-player campaign, and that’s preservation.
A Single-Player Mode Would Save Marathon From A Concord Fate
It baffles me to this day that Concord, the live-service game that sold itself on its sprawling narrative and memorable cast of characters, didn’t launch with even the shortest of single-player campaigns. I simply cannot believe that Firewalk Studios truly expected players to care about its eclectic cast of misfits merely because they’d read a few database entries and watched a handful of weekly cinematics. The easiest way to get people invested in the world Firewalk was attempting to create would be through some form of single-player campaign in which they play as, meet, and interact with the various heroes available in the multiplayer mode.
Had Concord also launched with an offline campaign, it would still be playable today, the artistry, effort, and care that went into creating it on display for all to enjoy forever. Marathon has already proven divisive, perhaps not quite on the same level as Concord, but not far off. It is possible that the effort Bungie and PlayStation have poured into restoring the public’s faith in Marathon will pay off. Conversely, it could go the way of Highguard and rapidly lose players within days of launching, forcing PlayStation to once again decide between shutting it down or wasting money on resurrecting it.
A single-player campaign would at least preserve the amazing gunplay, visual and world design, and tidbits of lore that Bungie has been working so hard on for the past few years. It would give people something to return to, to ensure that it has a chance to endure, much like Bungie’s other work. In a time when game preservation is more important than ever, offline modes for perpetually online games feel like a must, especially for those who enjoy the game and don’t want to see it delisted and pulled offline at a moment’s notice. Additionally, as Bungie’s fate seemingly hangs in the balance, it would be nice to see it create something akin to its classics, so that, in a worst-case scenario, it leaves something behind that better represents its golden age.
Marathon is also launching in an incredibly saturated and rather niche market, one that is certainly growing, but also has its fair share of beloved staples that I struggle to imagine many abandoning. A single-player campaign could help give Marathon an advantage over Arc Raiders and its contemporaries, as it would bring in those who have longed for Bungie to return to its roots, those who crave a sci-fi single-player shooter, and those looking for their next extraction shooter obsession. It feels like a no-brainer, especially from a studio that once prided itself on the importance of storytelling in its games.
Do you think Marathon needs a single-player mode? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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