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Marathon: so far, I'm just not feeling it (Server Slam Impressions)
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- Published on Mar 12, 2026
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I'm hoping the full releases delivers some other stuff that expands on the overall Marathon offering, because right now I'm just feeling it.
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>"there's no crafting in this game"
>1 second later
>shows armory screen where you craft ammo from world items
very professional video, skillup
its generic .. like destiny... except it has a really off-putting and ugly look to it
You getting to old unc
No one signing up for this shit
Im glad people on social media are being aware how bias skill up is. Dudes reviews are just trash now.
I love how we all got distracted by one line about arc quests lmfaooo
Shows how people just instantly latch onto one controversial point and invalidate the rest of the points said person is trying to make.
It’s happened way too often even in real life. People just want to feel right no matter what.
It's so annoying, people posting tons of comments on one 10 second line instead of all the rest.
@JC-3223 Tbf it really is some bullshit.
It’s like hearing a supposed professional expert just say a straight up obvious lie out of nowhere in a sea of understandably reasonable speech ofc that’s gonna take you out.
@unioneye1087how is their opinion a lie? Is it because it’s different than yours? Both Marathon and Arc’s quests are kinda meh but I personally do think that Arc’s are a little more engaging
Goes to show how much people care about Marathon.
this might just be the most pro-Marathon comment section i've ever seen on a youtube video, and that includes the ones on Bungie's own channel.
This is the ShillUp channel after all
I think it's less about people being pro marathon and more that there's just a lot of misinfo in this video
I really want Marathon to succeed. While I felt much frustration with Destiny 1 & 2, they also gave me some of my favorite memories in games. When Bungie was "on", there was nothing else like it. I don't play Destiny anymore, but there is some goodwill there. That said, I don't know if it's for me. I bought it, because I have the disposable income, but I'm not sure how much I'll actually be playing it.
Skill up is somewhat known for being a Destiny guy (I think?), so maybe that accounts for the comment leanings?
@blackwoodd like whats misinfo?
@stryker0ae literally everything he says the game doesn't have, is in the game. for example, he talks about there being no boss enemies, but he literally shoots one at 2:47. he talks about having nothing to do after wiping a squad, but in the top left of the screen you can see he has a quest to do at the POI he just killed the squad at 7:17. just a bad video where if i didn't know skillup I would assume was made in total bad faith
lol @ "Every landmark looks like it's been hit by Homer's make-up shotgun."
"Homer you've got it set on 'whore'."
Love that reference
in 5 hours i encountered bosses 3 times, how did you not find it after 12?
in the video he shot it at 2:47. He just didn't realize it was a boss
@tacotimmer That is the games fault.
@matthewlongo6404 i dont think its the game's fault that you don't realise that something with gold shields is a boss
@matthewlongo6404 oh wow look a taller, bulkier, winged bot that dashes around with a different color than the other bots, must be like all other bots around the area!
I haven't seen a single one in 6 hours, so it's definitely possible
>engaging quest structure
>arc raiders
alright
that one made me wince, too
Yeah i eye-rolled right out of my skull with that one lol. The lore and quests given to you by the cyber gods/factions is the best part of the game. In fact if i could add to his commentary one thing that a Bungie can do to make the late game more interesting is to intercept someones faction contract for better loot from a different faction. Basically receive a new transmission either for the whole group for better loot. Except its high risk. Such as having to move to another zone when theres 5 minutes left. And maybe 1 person makes its out from a full squad. If that person makes it. Everyone gets the reward.
@wombat7961 Its not, its bs in both games, its just "press a button in a specific location", its never beyond that. But if that pleases you, you do you!
@Kar@Karoteeeeid you spend any time in the codex? I think there are fair criticisms of the quest structure in that you have to go to the codex for the good stuff, but to say it’s not “beyond that” does not match my experience of the game.
Engagement =/ fun. A LOT and I mean A lot of people engage with arc raiders quest system, nearly every single person I encountered in random queue's talked about doing quests in arc raiders. Yet I didn't have anywhere near that same communication level in Marathon and the quest system in it feels like an after thought. Regardless engaging doesn't mean it's fun, just that players are engaging with the system overall. If majority aren't engaging with a massive system inside the game, that itself is really bad. And yes you can say whatever about the fun factor within Arc Raiders; but you cannot say that majority of players aren't or didn't engage with it.
I think the biggest thing that needs addressing is just the readability of the icons. Some icons have variations that are only slight name changes, if they differenciated these with like the icon being a different colour or something just to make it a bit more readable at a glance.
takes an hour to understand them, i do agree it could be improved but its not complicated
@Dan-hz4vfyeah I know what you mean, and I agree, but say for example the expansion slot 1 is the same icon but its has several different variations where the only difference is the name of the item. Or say the reinforced version of the green shield has the icon coloured differently than the same yellow as the normal version
@DastyDan yea, exactly, there are small things they can adjust that would make a world of difference
I agree, I got used to it now but it took too long, it's a very weak part of the design
Absolutely agree, honestly love the inventory but the visual distinction between in-group Implants and Cores is nonexistent which can really slow down looting even if knowing what stuff does when reading it.
The quest structure of Arc Raiders is literally the weakest part of the game 😂
Still more than marathon at least
@MMTV-WatchingTV lolwut
Are you actually being serious right now? Marathon quests actually give reputation for future rewards, help you level up and get new skills (that actually increase your stats vs Arc Raiders where half the talent tree doesn't work, or tell you the percentage increase each point in that skill gives.)
It's ok if you like baby's first extraction shooter, but it's really not a good game at all. It's just the new Fortnite and the kids love it
That's saying something then isn't it?
@hasp__if this is the type of Marathon player, ya know what? You can keep your new game. In fact, please go there until you grow up. I will happily stay away.
@iggyman83yeah enjoy the mature community of arc raiders who...
*checks notes*
Complains about PvP in a PvP game.
You know those Hunt clips are old archival footage when there is not one, but two flash bombs attached.
Rip Flashbangs.
Missed and never forgotten.
Arcs engaging quest structure?
THANK YOU!, when he said that I heard record scratch in my head lol
Yup. Instantly lost cred.
No idea what he meant or with the loot which isn't creating that much of a hook either.
He’s getting an ear full in the comments for honestly all of his negative commentary. Like dude…did you even play the game at all SkillUp?
I think he’s arguing it’s just as mundane, but you can’t multitask to do other fun things.
Marathon’s 1 contract at a time? Almost bored me tot death
I love Arc Raiders, but i would certainly not call its quest structure "engaging". It's probably the one aspect that the game needs to improve on the most.
Quest structure and builds. Half the perks on the stupid skill tree STILL don't work.
exactly. major overhaul for that needed
@yukduckgooseNotice how he didn't mention any of that and instead following a trend of arc raiders being this great game with zero flaws. He keeps mentioning good enemy design😂
@exaltedreverse4463All of the Arc are boring as crap to fight after the first week.
To me Arc is a 7/10 game. Wayyyyy to many problems. Horrible pve/pvp weapon balance. Insane d-sync, and many others.
I really enjoyed Marathon. It's definitely more ov a pvp lovers game, and I'm all for it.
I'm thinking this is one of those videos that show we probably should be disregarding Skillup's opinion on video games
There are boss enemies that drop really great loot though lol
Don't care though. 😢
Doesn't make the game good unfortunately!
@tomasgomez1906It does mean that his criticisms suggesting that the game isnt good arent valid though!
You’re right. They help make it great. My mistake!
@R@RassGurmy92sorry I offered a correction to the person who forms all of your opinions. Ill consider not doing so going forward
4:06 thats the perfect comedy punchline
I immediately skipped back. "Did he really just say that?"
You know how toxic the conversation around a game is when Skilly begins a video with a preamble about opinions and personal taste.
I am actually pretty stunned at how balanced the comments are though at least on this vid I don’t think it’s that toxic apart from some weird gatekeepers and hate mongering folk
This game has the most wild fanboys I’ve seen in years.
And perhaps the most wild hate too.
I’m waiting to see the actual numbers on March 5th.
Toxic positivity is killing the review scene man.
Yep.... and I appreciate he was human enough to do that...
The top comment with over 700 likes is about shit talking Arc because of one sentence lol
I guess arc has good quests if you like holding e to interact with a random yellow rock 90% of the time
This game having less is a death sentence
@Jimmykisskiss No it's not. It's for people who love competitive fps and PvP'ing. Anybody who loves to pvp doesn't give a shit about quests.
And, ARs quests don't even give you XP. Half the time you get 3 stacks of glowsticks as a reward 😂
@Deanoroundhouse "Anybody who loves to pvp doesn't give a shit about quests."
Tell me you've not see or played Escape from Tarkov or any MMO in the last 20 years in more detail...
Oh, and your take is hypercope since people stopped playing Apex Legends and haven't migrated here, the same way people didn't migrate to any slower MilFPS after complaining about CoD for the best part of 15 years.
@DxBlackI think it’s pretty silly to bring up MMO when debating a FPS. That’s an entirely different realm of PVP. If you want to use Tarkov as an example go for it. But the vast majority of PVP players want to load in, loot, kill, leave, repeat.
4:05 "The engaging quest structure of Arc Raiders" ??
I love Arc , but it has the most pointless quest system in any extraction shooter. They do not reward the players with exp or any meaningful progression , it serves only as a tutorial for new players and yet you are expected to do it every season , ultimetly making it a pointless activity in the long run. At least in Marathon the quests are actually tied to the progression of your character and the vendors and it gives you an incentive to do them beyond a one time onbording experience.
Stop sucking Marathons Glizzy!!!
Yea man, the audio delivery in the quests also kinda fall flat, I think I didn't complete the quests even the first wipe/season because they felt like they served no real purpose and the game progressed fine without their existence
THANK YOU. It feels like this guy played the game while skipping through the faction interactions and doing the bare minimum. When I heard that there was “nothing to do on the map,” I knew he literally didn’t look. There are puzzles, loot rooms you have to find a key for, incursion events, loot drops you have to guard, secure boxes you have to fight bots for, rooms poison rooms that you have to navigate for rare loot and on top of it all, a story that EXPLAINS WHY THERE IS NO “crashed ship” on TCIV. If you’re gonna form opinions on the game, at least keep everything in mind. And 1 boss in 12 hours of gameplay?? I saw at least 12 during the 17 hours I played lmao
I think what happens is that the more pvp nature of the game makes it harder to just walk around doing missions because there is no friendly "hey brother where is the thing to click for the mission" interactions and less missions overall. So it feels like just being around doing missions isn't doable because you keep getting smoked all the time.
Regardless... the narrative drops of this faction hit super hard, the world is just so cool. But it is harder to access the narrative.
@eggur0ll289shits crazy I was listening to what he was saying and I’m like did we play the same game?
First of all, this isn't meant to be come across as rude, but it soudns to me like you just didn't real pay attention while playing? The main thing to do other than hunt players is do world events. You're guarenteed to have at least 1 spawn every match, usually 2 or 3 (progressively later in the round). The world boss (called zone wardens, which drop very good gear) are just one of the events, and happen roughtly ~1 in 3 runs. Theres also intercepts, anomalous matter, hidden caches (on top of the smaller objectives like tox clears, lockboxes, supply drops, encrypted caches, locked rooms etc), and my personal faviourite, lockdown (which I actually found happens almost every other game, but is exclusive to dire marsh). Outpost will also have significantly more, with the pinwheel ship command wing and its own locked room system, but i won't spoil that too much :)
A lot of your other complaints just sound like the typical results of being 'new' to a game (yes, even with the playtests I'd still say people are 'new'). Stuff like telling map locations apart just comes with time. Are you telling me you could tell Water Treatment and Control Tower apart straight away? Because I definitely couldn't. The only places which are kind of similar are North and South relay (for obvious reasons). Exploration is very important also. Materials are needed for all sorts of things, especially upgrades and quests. Each material has specfic locations that it drops from, so plan your route for the items you need.
Also I'd like to point out that there IS crafting. The game calls it bartering, but its basically just crafting. Use certain materials that you find on your runs to barter for / craft high value items. The game even has a somewhat equivilant to blueprints in the for mof requisition vouchers (which add that specific blueprints item to the store for a certain number of purchases). I got lucky during the server slam and got one for 5 blue backpacks very early, which was very useful.
Overall, I hope you give it a proper go at launch and try to look for some of these things.
He clearly didn’t play the game. He clearly didn’t pay attention.
Reading all these comments and listening to videos, it almost sounds like you have to pay attention to text on screen more than enemies on screen.. I have heard of upwards of 8 hours of onboarding to learn the game and how it plays..?? And that was just the server slam, sounds like more once the full game is released??
@jamescarvill5075 That would be true if you purposely misunderstood what people said.
skill up had enough time to learn those systems, but he has a weird relation to bungie, where he for example spreaded lies before to make them look worse.
Be it with destiny where even though the new saga was revealed and the next 2 years of content where clear, he repeated over and over again that bungie gave no information regarding the games future after final shape (the final dlc of its previous saga) and that this is concerning. He said that shit while there where dozens of blogposts, a roadmap and multiple trailers for the next content out there.
And with marathon he said last year that they still havent started to work on the story/lore, that the game has no lore/story, just nothing.
Which was debunked by multiple creators and playtesters.
Ever since lightfall and its layoffs he is strange towards bungie products, which would be understandable and fine, but with CDPR he completly ignored their layoffs and continued to glaze the studio after the disaster that was launch cyberpunk (nowdays its a grandiose game but back then, it was a mess) because he is friends with some studio heads, kinda sad for a reviewer
@WINEISFINE the destiny road map criticism is perfectly fine they have no idea what they're doing hence why it's almost completely dead.
The marathon no story/lore stuff is not completely debunked either, it has lore sure but there's a barely any story going on and half the aesthetic which is it's primary form of storytelling was plagiarised...
You’re wrong around the 6:00 minute mark. Quests will tell you where to go for quest items in their description, and any upgrade or barter that requires scavenged goods allows you to track it in the armory screen, which will then mark all the locations for you on your map that have those salvage goods you’re looking for.
Also, in comparison to HUNT Showdown, the Anomaly world event that can happen on maps in Marathon is about the same as the main objective in HUNT. Anomaly spawns in, team that picks it up is marked for all other teams, and extracting with it gives hefty rewards.
I swear people don't take the time to actually look at anything and read. So many complaints about the game boil down to people having awful attention spans these days.
@Huskers1028 yet when you go to those areas where materials are supposed to be & there's nothing. Hardly any loot in any buildings. Hardly any ads. You walk around with nothing going on for so long. Stop the cope
@Huskers1028there is a big difference between "attention span" and "user experience" or "UX." Right now, Marathon's UX is plagued by all the worst parts of Destiny - cluttered, noisy, and a slog to navigate.
@MalevolentAngelx We walked it out with like a half to full stack of some of the items most of hte time. if someone loots it first of course it is empty
“It’s not like there is a specific building to get materials” yes there is. Each area has specific materials that spawn there at a greater rate. Also there are boss enemies (wraith wardens that will pack your shit in) and events “lockdowns on dire marsh and more we haven’t found yet. Ect.
Seriously, every material tells you where to find it when you hover over it.
@Carpocalypto also, you can pin them, and those places would be highlighted on the map. And you can see what materials are available on each POI, again on the map.
Like, I get the game is not for everyone and probably won't have the mass appeal of Arc or Destiny. It's too niche.
But why spread factually wrong takes?
I think the game is suffering from an issue tangibility. The information is there but per person some things just aren't sticking out clearly enough for people to notice.
To a certain degree, there's a kind of "IQ Test" joke I could make about people's remarks of the UI and clarity of game mechanics.
But on the other hand, I only realized I could inspect weapons to get clearer stats and a mod bench on the last day of the slam.
I think the game needs to be more forward with its mechanics, at least at a baseline level.
I think the fact that these are not apparent to someone who plays games for a living, after 10+ hours of gameplay is a problem with the game design itself.
Bosses, events, and loot opportunities should be prominent, happening all the time across the map, but it's not. These should be the core things that help give the game its identity and flavor.
Which is why the focus shifted to just PvP, because that's the main way you get significant upgrades, and that makes it the only gameplay element worth your time.
@cyd_hunter99 , there are issues with player onboarding, and there are issues with UI .
Why do hardened shields have the exact same icon as normal ones while being twice as good, for example? That's just bad design. That needs to be called out. And this issue is from Alpha, why is it not fixed yet?
But then again, if you are journalist/youtuber it's your job to figure things out a bit before you critique it. Kinda helps to get your facts right before you evaluate these facts.
Than again, it's not a full review. But those kinds of mistakes bother me with all the hate surrounding the game, because I like it and want to succeed (because it's a multiplayer game that needs a playerbase).
Thanks god there is no crafting. I'd rather just buy a weapon quickly then spend boring time crafting it from some parts that fill up the stash.
Agree to disagree. Thats what separates an extraction shooter from just....a shooter.
The later game barters are practically crafts. Collect x amount of 3 different random pieces of salvage to trade in for gear. It's crafting by a different name.
😂 this game will be dead in a month
@KyleSetFire Not really. See Hunt: Showdown. No crafting and not a great deal of looting either. Absolutely an extraction shooter.
@KyleSetFire what????????????
5:55 "There weren't any activatable events that would reward me with great loot" brother it's quite LITERALLY on your HUD as you say the words. Hello?
this reviewer is something else... he gets paid to do this?
Skill up - bosses spawn near the end of the match. Adding to that risk/reward scenario of sticking around long enough to fight one.
Yeah its like he didn’t even bother to try to enjoy this game. Its very clear he’s just trying to ride the bandwagon. There were bosses with high loot (tho they keys are useless rn) and the quests were good in the sense they contribute to progression more than arc
Did the boss have a name? Did it have a unique character model or design?
Was the boss a massive large creature?
Did it have multiple phases to fight?
Or did it look exactly like the other enemies because if I fought one I sure didn’t know it.
I had some enemies drop down at the end of matches as I extracted and it was less memorable than …… well it’s sure wasn’t memorable 😂
@EchoDoctrineit had a unique name, and model. Sure, it’s not a whole destiny boss, but that’s also not the point of these early easy maps.
@Ech@EchoDoctrine yes to all of those questions. Killed a pyro uesc on dire that had unique shield mechanics and fire attack and only spawned underneath the algae ponds.
Maybe play the game for a bit and try and you’ll discover these things for yourself
@wekraftyy5288I enjoyed my time with it, but as a lot of people would say, Marathon has serious UX and presentation issues. It’s like Destiny again, being very opaque with its communication, but I’d argue it’s even worse here. Most people would’ve run out of patience from simply being confused and feeling the loop is aimless. How is one supposed to find out that bosses only spawn at the end when your tiny pack is filled 3 minutes in for your first 3-4 runs?
6:08 The contract and item descriptions tell you which locations have which items.
You can track items, and locations show up on the map.
But does the game tell you this? I go to north relay and you have no clue where to exactly go. The game never tells u to hover over the objective to see a better description of where to discover
@Tike22I am sorry I can't read
@Tike22 bro u need the game to tell you to wipe your ass and shake your dick after you piss as well? sometimes you gotta figure shit out yourself
The game doesn't tell you that
There were multiple map events active during the Server Slam and more will be active at launch. The Lockdown event, for example, can give you up to 3 waves of increasingly difficult boss enemies that reward up to the highest tier of loot in the third wave.
Waves? Never seen that before.
@PeopleRTheProblemit's pretty cool, and the area will damage you over time if you don't bring certain heals so it weeds out the shitters too. Gets really gritty in those events
@PeopleRTheProblem That giant square in the sky with the red stuff coming out of the bottom.
Bruh, you are one of my go-to youtubers because of your transparent, unbiased and honest game reviews/impressions. But really? Arc Raiders engaging quest structure? How?
Just more engaging than marathons. Which is basically the same but with flashing light videos of emo robots and some of the worst objectives ever created.
@riavan8133 then you clearly only did the first one and logged off. no need to give an opinion of something you know nothing about.
Lol Arc Raiders quest structure
After playing marathon, it's difficult to picture any other game's quest structure as less than incredible.😂😂😂
@Rabsaris96 marathon has the best quest structure of any extraction game ur just a brick bro
@willdill7253actually marathon has better quest structure than KCD2, it has the greatest quest structure of all time. It's the greatest game of all time. QUEST_STRUCTURE_WILL_MAKE_ME_GOD
Shulk: I'm really feeling it!
Ralph: I'm not really feeling it!
XB3 FR Shulk: "I'm not really feeling it."
Shulk doesn't feel it either in Xenoblade 3 lol.
Are you feeling it now, Mr Ralph?
Cornball
Gamers: I'm REALLY don't feeling it.
There are supply drops, toxic rooms and event locations like anomaly. Also for boss fights, there's a UESC commander that shocks and hacks you, goes invis and creates duplicates of itself, its at least a miniboss if not a boss. Faction missions are quests, but I often saw ppl either not carrying them or loading into the wrong map. There are things to do on the map to take up a run if you want to stay the full time and I also expect Bungie to have dynamic emergent events thrown in similar to Destiny
I usually really enjoy videos on this channel but I've genuinely never seen so much information on a skill up video that's just straight up false I'm confused what he spent 12 hours doing in this game
This one is especially egregious, but this is clearly visible as a feature on his reviews and previews more and more as years go by. Past year I actually haven't been enjoying most of his takes because he comes to them from a pre-determined approach and seems to think he is under no obligation to do any research or deeper dives to make sure he knows what he is talking about. Instead, he just views everything through that initial impression lens (or pre-determined lens even). Writing and presenting are still interesting, so I watch these, but I find myself just disappointed in the lack of any sort of real intention to actually understand the games he is playing as what they were meant. It's literally just based on his vibes and expectations, and then the whole game, good or bad, is talked about from that standpoint.
Maybe he is being paid to bash it
I'm surprised by your dislike for the quests. I played Arc heavily when it came out but stopped in January, so my comments need to be read with that in mind.
In Arc Raiders quests appeared to be universally disliked on Reddit because they weren't worth doing, except for the ones that give you cosmetics and, potentially, for the story cutscenes they unlock. But no one seemed to like that they reset after a wipe, because there's no replay value.
In Marathon, since quests are tied to factions and factions are a major aspect of progression, not doing quests is probably not a viable play style (someone correct me if I'm wrong!). I like that quests are the major progression driver because that also answers the question you asked about what am I supposed to do during each run. That's also why the active quest (= contract) is shown prominently before the run, and why completing a quest completes it for everyone in the party who had the same quest active.
The more interesting question is then what do you do AFTER you've done all the quests. How often you need to answer this question depends on the frequency of mandatory wipes and how quickly the average player progresses through the quests.
I've had far more problems answering the question of what I'm supposed to do in Arc. Since it has both cooperative and adversarial PvP and quests aren't the progression driver, Arc Raiders is much more of a "whatever you want it to be" type of game, at least in my opinion.
The real challenge for Bungie is, after everyone complete all major contract read all the story, what they will provide in that limbo in the endgame content.
That's the thing I'm worry for the game. Maybe they will release season like Destiny ? Time will tell.
Based on the server slam, after completing the main contracts, run the repeatable ones! They give faction exp but more importantly they give useful items (likely depending on the faction contract). Traxus gave bully smgs, ammo for it, and a few other things. Mida gave me consumables like grenades and some other items. Great for stocking up your vault, or just getting back on your feet after losing stuff.
@nasumE-021 they have repeatable questlines and the Marathon ship is supposed to be a 7-level raid that requires endgame loot to reach the end.
@nasumE-021Yeah they need a good endgame content loop or they wont thrive like arc raiders...
@S@SizeLargec has one of the least interesting endgame content loop out of all the extraction shooters which
I haven’t been so conflicted on a game for a long time. I really loved the world and how it felt to play, but it didnt do anything unique with the core formula of extraction shooters. It was gratifying when you won, heartbreaking when you lost, and I felt the urge to keep trying but that urge was more because I didn’t understand why I wasn’t connecting with it. And I kept thinking maybe this match will make it click, and it kept getting SO close to clicking for me. Im still even debating whether I want to buy it, but I am just so back and forth with it… but I hope it maintains a playerbase and evolves because i think there’s a world where it does finally click for me.
100% agree
For console players it's great though, as we don't have as many options as folks on PC.
Honestly this type of comment REALLY confuses me. How can you say Marathon isn't doing anything unique in the extraction shooter genre? The art style is super unique to ANY video game, the class abilities are unique to the genre, the story building and lore focus are unique to the genre and fit into the overall Bungie mythos of the player IS the character. You can literally build out your character in a different play style once you have access to certain cores. Like all of these things are unique to the genre and make it fresh.
I think that if the endgame content has the depth they are claiming then that right there will be the innovation, bringing some of that destiny raid magic to the extraction genre.
Only problem with that is they literally can't show any of that ahead of launch due to it's very nature as a secretive, raid-like experience, so it'll just be a 'wait and see' moment.
If that part of the game pops off then the draw to come back will be gearing up for endgame activities similar to destiny raids.
Best comment on marathon ever. This game will click with some and not for others and dude that’s ok! We need to start being able to accept that not everyone likes the same thing and not just shit on people for having different opinions. You tried the game out it didn’t hook you so you move on no harm no foul. Instead things are devolving into oh you jus hate bungie and want the game to fail so your opinion is invalid.
I’ve been playing Arc Raiders and consuming content for it since it’s invited only test and I’ve never seen a RUclips ad for it. Aside from its launch trailer, which I willing looked for and clicked on. But today for the first time I’ve seen a YT preroll ad for Arc Raiders and it’s on a Marathon video 😂😂😂.
Same!
I agree with you so far on my first impressions will still try it out but yeah no hook yet for me either
The UI fits the game's visual style, but it's missing some really basic QOL features. The UX is really bad, there are some labels that you can hover and click but they don't do anything and to equip a simple weapon attachment, instead of hovering on the slot and highlighting the attachment in the inventory you have to open like 10 screens then find the attachment and then equip it.
I agree that hovering over the slot to highlight the mods in your inventory is the better UX, but let's not over exaggerate the current system. It's pressing V on your weapon then clicking the "mods" section and thats it.
I also prefer the current system because I personally like seeing the full stat breakdown on the side while selecting the mods.
@WikiXIVat least on PC, you have to install mod by pressing F, then install mod by left clicking. The game has lost of inconsistencies, like why sometimes to throw something away while looting a container is CTRL+left click while in your inventory it's F, etc. if they fix this, I'd love the game cause I wouldn't be in the middle of a fight trying to remember which button allows me to empty inventory to grab more bases of a body, etc. Tarkov has the best consistency, but they have to make it work with Gamepads so I get why it's hard.
I thought the same thing till on the last day of the server slam. Someone taught me that if you click “inspect” on a weapon it takes you to a completely separate sub menu that makes it easier to analyze, equip, and compare your various mods. All that to say, I still strongly feel that this game needs to update its iconography and add a quick compare option on top of the existing systems.
You click inspect weapon then it’ll only have the attachments that fit for that gun.
The option shouldn’t be hidden, but it is there
@davidsvezyou can install mods to equipped guns by just holding left click, and it'll send the equipped on to the vault
12:34 it was a big red marker on each map. Pretty hard to miss really.
He also literally saw a boss enemy at 2:47 in the gameplay lmaoo
@kmouton1456looks like a slight variation on a normal enemy.
Can we get some actual enemy designers over here please??? The little red bugs don't count. They have worse ai than those flood buddies from Halo 1.
I thought they stole all of destiny's devs. Why didn't they take the ones who new how to make interesting enemy designs. That game used to drop entirely new races occasionally if I remember correctly.
Bungie fleeced PlayStation. Lol. 3.7 billion. 🤣
You missed SU's point, really.
@mmmiiiggggggyyytbf, it's pretty easy to miss Skill Ups points. He's kind of dopey. But I agree with you. His point was the game doesn't feel built with the player in mind. It feels like they just put some ideas on a page. Ran with it. And never had a singular vision.
@Rabsaris96 They had a vision. They did alphas. Players gave a bunch of hard criticism. Bungie compromised. If some things feel incoherent that’s partly because they did actually try to listen to players and meet them halfway. They delayed the release once to spend more time adjusting to playtest feedback.
I hugely bounced off Marathon during the server slam, but I am so happy that others are enjoying it. Having games that appeal to a specific audience and not absolutely everyone is very important. I hope Marathon is as successful as it needs to be, even if I'm not one of the people enjoying it.
Hard agree the game just isn't for me but I hope bungie get to survive
It's basically the same situation as the destiny 1 beta, a lot of people won't find it appealing but it's gonna find its audience.
I want it to be for me, it looks interesting, it plays interesting. But, in the end, I like games like Warframe or Deep Rock, largely PvE games; and I just can’t vibe with PvP in this game. Sadly, cos I want to enjoy it, but I can’t get around it
Holy shit, a sane, reasonable take? In this economy? Pinch me.
This is how I feel about just about every game but Bungie deserves to shutter at this point.
Extraction camping is like the the kid eating crayons in the corner at school
I sometimes forget arc even has quests
4:50 the real events dont get listed on the map, you gotta find them/know where they happen
What are they? Please describe them and how they offer something wild and unique or what exactly they are
Please
@EchoDoctrineboss spawn, secured area that require sertain consumables to enter, air drops for great pvp and loot, protected lockboxes with wave defence for it to open. There are lots of them.
i think thats a big problem, because i think it needs to be made clear these events exist so youre encouraged to explore, or do the opposite, encourage exploration so these events are naturally found without you being told anything
@EchoDoctrine They're pretty much exactly what Ralph described were missing; Ralph said there was no boss? Bottom left area of the first map spawns a boss-- this boss can go invisible, spawn a holographic copy, glitch your screen to blind you, call on back up, spawn green laser trip wires, and drops high tier loot. Ralph said there are no interesting events? As soon as you enter an area the randomly rolled event that spawned in that area reveals itself on the map-- an example would be the tox-room with loot, requiring a biohazard key to clear the tox, or using the toxin-buff or toxin-clear items to tank the dmg while you loot the room. There's the supply drop you call down from orbit, which Ralph did mention; it shines a huge bright light and can be seen coming down in the skybox, alerting everyone on that quarter of the map. There's intercepts, raiding supply lines, drones carrying loot that alerts everyone nearby when shot down, and basic guarded supply crates. Then there are items that start events, like the coordinate chips that send you on a scavenger hunt to find a second chip, which then reveals the location of high tier loot. To a lesser extent, there are the randomly spawning areas with lootcrates that need lootkeys, which have flares nearby so that you know where to find them. There's the special rooms that require keys and have very distinct identities (looted a lab which had loads of high tier biological items and healing kits). There are the secure buildings, which you can only drop into from the ceiling, and unless you're playing the shell with the double jump, then you have to do a little puzzle to escape; the one I found required me to destroy 4 security boxes in the building before the shields locking me in would deactivate (sounds simple, but it took me and another guy like 5 minutes to figure it out, during which time our third guy who double-jumped out got ambushed on his own outside the building). When i went to the same place again on the following run, the building was instead FULL of tick-nests. And when you want to look for satisfying fight, instead of camping at an extraction point and hoping someone turns up at that exact extract point like Ralph was doing, I had better success waiting for folks at the Hauler, which is a map-chokepoint, a POI, and often featured in quests-- and if you want to ensure you fight a tough battleready team, then you can go to the hauler's driver's seat and honk the horn, alerting everyone on the map to your location-- if any PvP oriented teams are in your map, they'll come, though they'll likely wait for you just inside as to avoid any claymores you've set. And all of what i mentioned is only what i myself found and experienced firsthand, and all of it is exclusively from the first map (Perimeter) , I'm sure there's even more on the first map that i didn't find, and i imagine just as much to be found on the second map, Diremarsh. I know some folks might wish you could see all of these things on the map the moment you spawn, but some only spawn later in the match, but i imagine regardless the reason you need to get real close before they appear on your map and HUD (if they've not been cleared by other teams) is to encourage exploration, but they should have taught players that this is how events work during the tutorial. I also think they expected people to slowly uncover the secrets of the map across many runs (rather than one weekend), and many missions (some of the priority missions would trigger special events, some of which end with audiologs playing). I'd also be surprised if they don't roll out new events post-release, but also expect that the most engaging events will be on the marathon ship, as bungie has said as much. Regardless i look forward to Ralph logging more hours, i love the way he puts his experiences into words.
@EchoDoctrinePretty sure there are videos you can find if you really wanted to know 😂
I think the "thing" that sets marathon apart from other extraction shooters and similar games is it's presentation. I just can't get over how it looks, how it sounds, and how it feels to explore this world.
The sound design is really good, notably better than most games.
I also think that's exactly the hook. Marathon doesn't look like anything I've played, although in some parts it reminds me of Neo Tokyo (soundtrack) and Deus Ex Mankind Divided (art style).
"no bosses" proceeds to show us a clip at A BOSS LOCATION??
Looking online and reading the comments this is definitely one of the most divisive games I've seen in awhile, which just reinforces the fact that this genre is niche of niche, I think marathon is a well made game that's just not gonna get the numbers Bungie and Sony are expecting.
I work in an industry where 80% of the individuals that interact with our product never try it a second time and our business is thriving. It’s about hooking that core audience and creating retention within our core base. That’s the foundation. Everything is built on.
@fairlysplendidthat is true, it's how gatcha games survive almost totally from a very small amount of their player base, but the size of the pie it's coming from is important as well, 20% of 1,000,000 is alot more than 20% of 100,000
I feel like the Marathon players that enjoy it are much like how Arc Raiders players were at the start. They were against any criticism. Marathon does not offer the same ecosystem that AR offers and as such it will remain on the backs of the unemployed and streamers until they go on to their next big “hype” game. I am expecting high initial numbers and a horrible falloff post burnout
clearly the genre isnt niche when arc raiders proves it, marathon is niche because they went with a competitive and very sweaty approach, which makes sense because is the only way this game will get any playerbase
@Emma_Z1it is - arc raiders really made it vanilla
In marathon, you also explore for valuable materials like Diode or Metal, those are used for faction upgrades which will make your character more OP. Bigger starter inventory, Blue shield on spawn, blue backpack, etc. Eventually when you main all the factions, even the Rook character gets upgraded to be OP. You can also unlock skins for specific characters, exfilling with the factions sponsored kits. E.g if you want a white/pink skin, exfill with Nucaloric Sponsored Kit. If you want a Orange kit, exfill with the Traxus sponsored kit, etc. Eventually for every single character you will need to exxtract a lot of times, and there's also a mastery skin behind every character. I spent the beta unlocking random stuff, game is fun if you know what you're doing & you have an objective.
SkillUp doesnt play extraction games and it shows. He doesnt have a fundamental grasp of the gameplay progression loop that EVERY single extraction follows from what Tarkov set up.
It’s so obvious that a ton of people including Skillup are just approaching Marathon from the viewpoint of only experiencing Arc Raiders and not the extraction genre as a whole
@dxjjw Which ARC in and of itself is targeting casual audiences. Free kits, low valuation on guns themselves and gear progression. It keeps the game more open than something like Tarkov where a chad can randomly get hit by a 9x18mm makarov round in the chin and die with a Zeus on a Sig Spear or Meta M4 with class 6 armor they didnt even get to use, and that's not to say it's bad. Just casual and ARC itself has lacking gunplay, bad quest design and the consumable dial is the same problem Marathon has.
@slippynipz I've never played an extraction game before Marathon's closed beta last Oct. It took me maybe two hours to see what the game was about because it feels so tightly designed, especially what I played during the Server Slam. It is wild to see someone who professionally writes about and analyzes games be so off the mark.
@AndvarYT I mean not many people grasp iconography, type hierarchy or understand a game meta all that well. In fact, the majority of people dont. For all the millions of copies Elden Ring has sold, only 30% have beaten the game on steam. People just aren't that smart and casual gamers really are spoon fed thinks because they dont critically think. Not to say SkillUp doesnt, but it wouldnt surprise me he went into this with ill intent and looked at it skeptically the whole time.
I appreciate your perspective, especially around level design, primarily because it's a perspective completely different from mine. While I 1000% understand the feeling of sameness, I personally enjoyed the cohesive world-building of it.
I'm not going to really harp on Perimeter as it's the starting map, but in Dire Marsh's case there's a cool tunnel that runs between Greenhouse and Bio-Research which makes sense for them wanting to transport samples. In Complex, there are massive open road sections and storage containers giving depth to transport operations. Maintenance is a large open hangar space clearly designed to accommodate ship and vehicle repair in the area.
All these create this feeling of a used and lived-in space, where even though it may not be the most compelling, the attention to detail creates a level of immersion that keeps me excited to return and explore.
This is exactly how I felt! I loved just simply looking at things and learning or guessing how they functioned when the colony was alive. Those tunnels underneath Greenhouse are so stunningly beautiful too.
@Illidinathand part of me wonders if I will still have that opinion say 30+ hrs in, but so far these spaces are unique with nothing else like it on the market and my civil engineering brain loves that. I love how depending on how observant you are you can dictate the outcome of certain fights.
For example there's these staircases that kinda go up to nowhere in complex, but because ik that theres a sealed door at the top and a single vent in the back, it's a relatively safe spot to hold.
@BradyJo3star Yes! I kept going up those stairs forgetting they lead nowhere! But a really safe spot for sure. If you remember the layout of buildings it really helps. Especially in solo where you're often trying to sneak around someone you hear.
Having played for 34.4 hours, I'm still in love with the environments. Of course 100 hours later and who can say if they'll still hold the same awe. But whilst I think Arc Raiders and Hunt Showdown (as two examples), are great looking games, this is already on a whole other level for me. This is like the kind of sci-fi stuff I would dream about as a child.
And more maps coming in the future beyond the two we haven't played at launch... I cannot wait!
@IllidinathCouldn't agree more. This level of sci-fi was what I always wanted them to capture in Destiny, but it felt almost wasted in a game that's focused on running and gunning.
The biggest thing for me is the horror elements to the game. The audio logs give off so much fear and terror and I love how the world reinforces that where I'm praying that cryo archive and future maps have some mad Alien 1 & 2 vibes to them.
@BradyJo3star Have you gone into much of the lore of the original Marathon trilogy? I've been addicted to it for the last several weeks and there's some pretty crazy stuff.
Also 100% agree on the voice logs, and there was one poem from a survivor that stood out to me.
I'm so excited to find the first sign of a S'pht! I think they were hinted at in one of the logs I read.
"Homer's make-up shotgun" - classic 😂
I love everything about it... apart from what kind of game it is...
That's where I'm at too. Give me a Marathon with a deep 20hr campaign and a (live service for all I care) multiplayer option, and I would have paid $70 for it. Bungie had me questioning a extraction shooter, and lost me on the playtest.
@JarJar_97 Yup. The campaign could also be a light-survival horror type game because you feel like an underdog. The AI enemies are powerful and intimidating and the atmosphere is great.
@JarJar_97 That would be cool if they lead with multiplier but introduce a campaign later.
I'm sort of with you on that, just can't seem to get into extraction shooters.
I tried, it's not for me and that's fine. I can definitely see a player base for this though as opposed to the more recent crap like Concord and High Guard. There's a solid game here but personally, as an Old head here who played the OG Marathon games with their cool story, the entire time I was just thinking about how this game would have been better with any other genre fighting the various enemies in this universe. Make it a PVE co-op or high quality singleplayer shooter or something. It made me wish they just used another name for this game universe and that kept me bugged the entire time. So I bounced. I actually really love the Art style but that is super subjective to people, especially with this modern art sci-fi vibe.
If you enjoy Marathon, good on you. May this game bolster completion to all in its kin.... I think I'ma go play some more Mewgenics and Helldivers though 😅
Yup I very much agree, even though I don’t like the art style I would have much preferred it to be a singleplayer game and not just reskinned destiny.
It’s nice to hear from another Classic Marathon fan. I personally like this new direction for the new Marathon bc to me it still has the spirit of the classic games. I agree, I wished they made a singleplayer campaign, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not enjoying what is here.
it truly baffles me why they didnt make this game just like halo, a single player campaign with a multiplayer
Highguard was 10x better than this dogshit lmao
Highguard was not crap
10:53 I think he didn't realize that the you need different materials for faction upgrades and barter. And different areas have different materials so pays off explore different buildings
yeah maybe it just wasn’t surfaced well enough? there’s no part of the faction tutorial that really hammers this home.
@willuigi64 All it takes is a few minutes of being inquisitive enough to glance at upgrades on the faction upgrade trees that the game goes out of its way to point you towards. There are some issues with the game's onboarding but you can onboard curiosity into a player/reviewer.
@willuigi64 Dude it genuinely took me 2-3 runs to figure that out, hell you see what's autosold and what's not, so you... just mouse over the remaining items and read. And let's be real, people's main problem with this game is that they can't read, so adding more reading tutorial won't work.
@A@AndvarYT I mean, I figured it out. I just wonder if it was missed because nothing’s very explicitly said to you.
@idklol581 I’m not the designer I was just putting forwards a reason for some people missing it. putting instructions in tutorials can make people look out for things. I found it fine enough, but it doesn’t jump out at you.
i think this impression video actually shows the biggest problem with the game perfectly, which is on-boarding and first impressions. because the game is SO much more then what is in the video, but the fact that the depth of the game wasn't found for you in 12 hours is not good sign.
clearly the game needs to do a better job at that. because then you are hooked, your HOOKED.
It's really interesting, because I had exactly the same experience as skill-up.
We have a squad of very good pvp players, but Marathon just didn't click for us. It just felt bland.
I'm very curious to see a video that sums up the things influencing this thread's positive reception and demonstrates those moments - to see if there's something there for us.
No, SkillUp needs to do a better job.
@crimsonarrow1884 Extraction shooters typically sucks in the people who enjoy things like progression and looting rather than pure pvp heads as you start off with less than ideal stats as you work towards upgrades to make your character feel like less of a grunt, and more like your typical hero shooter character or John Halo himself with upgrades like less heat consumption to run more or getting the upgrade to have your abilities off spawn and various other game changing upgrades.
PvP is also pretty good in this Bungie shooter but if you don't click with the looting and progressing part of the game then it might not be for you.
Idk the fact that there were a couple things like “how bosses spawn” and “how to tell where loot spawns” were stuff Ralph didn’t know is kinda telling. He’s not the only one I see a good amount of comments from people saying it took them to the last day to figure stuff out. The game seems to have a bit of an issue in openly conveying information to the player leading to these confusions. Maybe they’ll streamline it more on release, but who knows. I’m personally not looking to pick this up.
This comment strikes true for me. Ralph doesn’t strike me as a creator that would not play the game and make a video but I can see a situation where he played the game and just wasn’t in the situations that other people were in and wasn’t aware of the options.
I'm kinda bummed out they didn't make a single-player game based on the original trilogy, which had awesome lore. I still gave the server slam a chance and played maybe 10-12 runs, but I guess extraction shooters aren't quite my cup of tea.
Things like that make me *more* interested in the game, not less. It seems like it's laid out an awful lot more like Tarkov, and I love (and am terrible at) Tarkov.
Yeah the onboarding has big issues... wonder if they'll fix that in the coming months
@amber88565It appears that like Tarkov, Marathon doesn't signpost things, instead expecting you to learn by slamming your face into each map until you can navigate them with your eyes closed.
5:35 warden boss fights, lockdowns, and anomalous extractions
Came to say the same thing! All these things he feels are missing are already right there! Even quest ressources being tied to specific areas and hidden events you can choose to trigger! Maybe UI issues aren’t making all of this clear enough?!?
This video is wrong about a lot, but most of it is because there isn’t any explanation for the map events, bosses, or much of anything. I find the mystery of the world interesting but finding out key game mechanics several hours in was annoying.
“Neither me or my teammates had any quests that needed doing…” …what? The game litterally warns you before every run if you don’t have a quest equipped.
As a result are at least three quests to accomplish per run, in addition to PVE, PVP, and looting. If you’ve done all that GTFO and extract.
And you can see both your quest, AND your teamates quests at the top of the screen during the entire run! As far as I know that's something of a new, (and extremely awesome) concept. It can't much get much friendlier in terms of doing quests with your team.
I don't like how most of this review was an admission that you couldn't figure out basic mechanics. I hope Bungie can improve the onboarding for those who are confused, but I also don't know how I'm not supposed to be frustrated when players simply aren't making an effort to actually learn the game. "They need to make it worth my while" can be said of any game that has a learning curve. Seriously also need to stop hearing it compared to Arc Raiders. I love the game, but it's the sugar-free zero caffeine variant of Extraction Shooters, and should not be treated as the apex of the genre.
It's seriously not even that hard to figure out, outside of UI honestly (and even that, imo, just needs some icon changes so you can tell, shields, implants, cores etc. apart quickly). Should be compared to Tarkov rather than Arc
@idklol581Have you played Tarkov and if so how does it stack to Marathon? Literally my only experience with Extraction Shooters is Marathon and Arc.
@quietnumber2317 1k hours in Tarkov, it's kinda odd. Marathon feels a lot smoother to play, and it doesn't have a million bullet types, but the pace is kinda similar. You die potentially almost instantly in both, although both can also have really long fights, but they generally resolve faster in Marathon. Marathon also has more AI on the map, and the maps are a lot smaller, plus you have an in-game map and don't need the wiki to figure out extracts (unlike Tarkov). Tarkov literally hates its players, it feels like, especially new ones, and progression is really, really slow, and as a new player, you're not going to have gear to kill higher level players period.
TLDR ;Tarkov is like if all Marathon criticism (ttk, not enough pvp, confusing ui, bad onboarding) was true
@idklol581Interesting. Thank you for the informative response. Seems so far this has generally been the response among other Tarkov players I've spoken to, although some do still prefer the more crushing experience and its military aesthetics over Marathon. I know the game has also apparently seen better days so I've heard.
@idklol581marathon criticism is true for people who don't play extraction shooters, and tarkovs criticism is true for people who do play extraction shooters
FINALLY someone who doesn't hate the UI. I thought I was going crazy.
Or you are both going crazy 😂
You’re willingly playing and putting hope into a bungie game. That is literal insanity if you have eyes and ears
@WitchofHeart13 your entire comment history is vile, obnoxious and extremely bad-faith negativity around this game. Ask yourself what you get out of spending your time this way. Having played this game, it feels like a potential turning point for bungie's reputation, but people like you act like your life depends on it failing. You're just a complete loser, man. The game is good.
It’s….ok. The icons for mods and implants need to convey a bit more information imo. The rest is good though.
because he never played the game. The ui needs some work, its not terrible but The implants need different images to speed up looting and the attachments and back packs need to be bigger.
Same for me. Some elements are there, but it doesn't feel like a game I will play in the long-run.
Yeahhh you're getting jumped in these comments, and rightfully so...
I’m assuming the art style and the foreboding story was the main hook. lol 😂
8:53 This game cured Ralph's racism, hallelujah!
Arc Raider’s quest structure is the reason why I stopped playing that game. I would like a little more explanation on that front and if people genuinely think quest structure is the reason why arc raider is good.
Can i play it offline?
At 5:46 you begin to talk about what could you do next after wiping a team. You said no events, no formidable pve or boss enemies.
However, there are lockdown events, specific spots on map to fight high level enemies, this single instance no one had a quest to do.
What it was an opportunity to do was to continue to explore the map, learn routes, secrets, key rooms, etc.
The “useless” loot you said you find are used to deliver to the factions to build out your skill trees and use those items to buy from the armory.
This was a poor take without taking the time to really explore and discover, along with a missed opportunity to defeat other enemies and find players. It appears based on this video you didn’t take enough time to learn more about some of the core functions of the game.
ARC Raiders blew up because word got out to people not interested in extraction PVP that ARC Raiders solo lobbies are some of the best chill cooperative and general comradery online experiences that have ever existed. And game companies for some reason ignore this audience, hell even the ARC devs didn't intend for ARC lobbies to be so friendly and cooperative.
"Looks like it was hit with Homer's make-up shotgun..." it's references like that which remind me I am your target audience. Well done, Ralph
That’s the thing though, you’re not a ‘hero’ you’re a shell. It’s no different than running a mech in MechWarrior. You’re a soul, placed in the body of a shell to do the corporation(s) bidding/contracts…
Wow.. hilarious.
What's Tarkovs hook? The difficulty? Why is that a valid enough reason to even be called a hook? It's story and narrative, though deep and interesting, don't mesh as well with the gameplay compared to other titles I feel, and I've got some hours under my belt too. Never made it out though.
How is the moment to moment gameplay of Arc Raiders considered a valid enough hook, when after the first wipe, the gameplay alone hasn't been enough for me to want to keep coming back to the game? It's a spectacular showcase of combat, movement, and aesthetics unprecedented in the genre, yet for me as a person (and of course not the 200,000 who'd disagree), that's all that makes me "want" to play the game. Which isn't to point out a flaw by any means, as a game with gameplay is a game with-well, gameplay, but without another reason to "chase" something, other than the incentive to just "do it all again", a core pillar of extraction experiences, sure, what's stopping me from just putting the game down until I want to experience the gameplay later and getting back into that time old grind I went through before?
To me, the proverbial hook in Marathon isn't too dissimilar from either of these two games. I want a challenging experience with player on player interaction, with the possibility to lose almost entirely reliant on my skill and knowledge of the game's mechanics and inner workings. This adds layers of depth I haven't seen in the (arguably more) popular battle royale genre, giving me more control and responsibility as an individual player and more accurately shows off our skills, as-who'd want to willingly lose their gear that they bring into a raid? Not even mentioning the shear welling potential behind the narrative that can told as a continuation of the classic games. Marathon has a clear, and directed commitment to exploring both the series' past and future in a substantially more meaningful way than any other competitor on the market in my opinion, and if that isn't considered grounds for a hook, then maybe the very definition of the word in gaming isn't as concrete as we believe.
Great video, and hope you happen to have a little fun playing Marathon and more in the future! 😊
Tarkov's hook is the realism and depth of its game systems
I doubt the servers were slammed
3:36 Bungie is making a game for a very specific audience. They are not trying to give the illusion of catering to everyone like Arc Raiders. This is good. You may not be the target audience and that’s okay….
4:05 both games literally have multiple hooks.
Arc raiders with prox chat built in, raider collaboration, gathering materials to upgrade benches, and much more.
Marathon with their cosmic horror aesthetic, random events and profit opportunities on every map and POI, boss encounters and puzzles. All this and I haven’t even gotten to the BIG hook of the end game maps.
Once again, seems like these hooks did not resonant with you and that’s fine.
4:11 “engaging quest structure” in Arc Raiders in kinda laughable. Not saying marathon’s quest structure is more engaging at the moment but man this is just not true.
4:26 Arc Raiders sold many copies due to it’s extreme focus on PVE which caters more to casual players - which there are just simply more players in this target audience. Arc Raiders is a great game no doubt but Marathon just is not going to sell more due to its competitive matter. Which again, is perfectly fine. TWO CAKES.
5:06 further proving that the hooks provided by Marathon just didn’t resonate with you given your Hunt Showdown comparison.
5:46 what could you do next that was fun? Well… on perimeter there are events like secured resources that have to be activated to get good loot but you have to kill a commander and several other UESC bots. Profit opportunities that take you to multiple POIs to ultimately get insane loot that must be shot off of a UESC drop ship. Call in supply drops that have good loot but alert the surrounding area. And let’s not forget the boss that can spawn on the map that can have keys that you can use on all maps. That’s only the Perimeter map. Dire Marsh has another boss spawn, lockdowns, secured resources. Supply drops. There is plenty to do that is fun. Seems like you just did not experience any of it which is odd after you spent 10-12 hours playing…
6:15 clicking on each POI will tell you the resources that spawn in that POI…
6:20 this isn’t Arc Raiders. There is not crafting. Simply upgrade your factions to increase the floor of your starting point after you lose your gear from a bad run.
7:22 these events are not going to be surface to the player. The player must discover them. That’s the point.
9:49 Arc, Hunt, and Fortnite have “more distinctiveness and identity” in their maps than Marathon. Definitely subjective for sure so that’s fine. I don’t agree at all.
10:53 there is literally so much to explore on all the maps lolol WHAT?!? Sure At some point you are going to explore everything in any game.
11:55 ahh and we finally get to the crux of your impression video. This game isn’t for you. And because it’s not for you, you naturally missed pretty much everything the game has to offer.
There’s so much misinformation in this “review” it’s actually quite wild
There’s so much misinformation in this comment calling it a “review” it’s actually quite wild. Listen to the opening statement.
@engelzman Okay, “overview” then? That doesn’t change that he’s factually wrong on multiple occasions. “There are no bosses” when there’s multiple. “There’s no events” there’s literally was a huge lockdown event on the second map. These incorrect statement go on and on throughout the video
@engelzmanyou can call it what you want, but he is reviewing it right from the title.
@pablojimenez7356its a first impressions video, its not a full detailed review. You can relax. Hes not meant to know everything from just playing 10 hours to get a first impression.
You fanboys upset/offended in the comment or what?
@SwayNoirsorry but you can have all the “impressions” “opinions” you want but you can’t spread misinformation
I am utterly convinced we are playing different games
Saying perimeter and dmarsh are sauceless is crazy work - did we play the same demo?
"ENGAGING" is doing some HEAVY lifting there when describing Arc Raider Quests LOL that's not the reason people like Arc at all, easily one of it's biggest pain points actually... that opinion would not come from anyone who was actively playing the game today so definitely sounds like you've read that from a blurb by the devs or that was written for you by AI ...neither a good sign when you own a gaming news publication
Ok before you decide to hide behind, “It’s just my opinion.” You may wanna fact check what you say. For instance you can say you didn’t like the world bosses in Marathon that’s fine Extraction bosses are never groundbreaking. But don’t go around claiming they don’t exist. You can say you’ve yet to see an in word event in the maps like Dire Marsh but don’t claim they don’t happen. Lockdown event is a prime example. You tend to be far more nuanced and accurate review or not. And yet you say things that are factually incorrect. You’ve yet to even come out and admit you were wrong about marathons story not being written but instead planned out structurally. Bungie even to this day scratches their head to where you got that from.
You can have any opinion but you can’t be disingenuous my guy. Big difference.
First skillup video where im genuinely so confused if he played the game.
5:40 This is all factually untrue. Every single thing you listed exists on the map. I have no idea how you didn't encounter those in 12 hours of gameplay.
You list all of the things that marathon does well but none of them are "hooks." But the things you describe in Hunt and Arc aren't necessarily "hooks" either, they're also just things they do well.
I've agreed with most of your takes on this game so far but this whole video is honestly really bad.
I'm a bit surprised by this opinion piece on it as there are a lot of things said that are either wrong or just feel like a stab in the dark at getting a point out there. The Arc quest structure is a bizarre claim considering you have quests like get 3 lemons. At least with Marathons there's some voice logs and dialogue with the AIs that tell of the world around us.
We can be critical of Marathon sure but this video feels a bit under researched or like you didn't fully play it enough.
Can't believe I'm saying this dude. This is the first time I have the opposite opinion to you on almost everything. The things you dislike don't align with my experiences of the game and where you think the UI is fine I think it's the one big thing that could use more refining. I do hope that your time playing for the review helps you reveal more of what I experienced because I can't help but feel like you got unlucky with your play time. The game felt like it unfolded the more I invested into it so maybe it is a long climb to reach the first base camp on this mountain, so to speak. Regardless, it'll be interesting to see the review. You called D2 correctly at launch and pushed it to be a better experience. Hoping that whatever insights you have will have a similar effect and improve Marathon.
Byf alert
Smart dude for sure... I personally think he has had a few misses in the past few years.
I am not a game reviewer, but I’ve been thinking about how tough it must be to review games constantly. And try to run a business on top of it. I wonder if playing that many games under pressure changes how you feel about games? You stop really experiencing them and you default to evaluating them without digesting any of it.
I know engagement is their livelihood and negative reviews ofter perform better. But I don’t think thats what Ralphs is about… hopefully
@pablojimenez7356 I once upon a time considered going into game reviews as a hobby, but it was the time investment that made me decide against it. Playing through a game can take 50h, sometimes more. Playing a pvp game properly would also take at least maybe 30h to be able to give any sort of an opinion that's meaningful (other than "as someone who only tries games briefly..."). Any live service game requires bonkers amount of time, including mmo's. Crimson Desert is coming out, how do you review that game unless you've put in 50+ hours? Then, well then you have to write the review, preview, first impressions, news, whatever it is.
The point is, it's insanely time consuming and heavy on that resource that is the one thing we are truly limited on. In my opinion, SkillUp hasn't done proper reviews in a while; he goes in with a predetermined mindset and relies heavily on whatever his first impression is and then gets stuck with that feeling. He then pushes through the game to be able to say he finished it, but at no point is he going to feel like he has to dive deeper, be intrigued, explore, do everything available even. At the same time, there's the next game in the back of his head already pushing him to move on. He then cops out with a "it's just an opinion, look for other opinions", but in reality he packages his opinions as truths with his wording and delivery, even if they include factually incorrect information, and his channel and writing is packaged as journalism even if he says it isn't.
I think you can share your opinion, if you make it clear that you never tried to understand anything in-depth or put any research or effort into it, and talk about the whole thing with that approach. But even then, if you have a channel like this, I do believe you should at least check on the things you talk about as you are writing. It's such a small thing and would improve your impressions, quite literally it would have made this impressions video great instead of sort of shite. There's a difference between a random dude on the internet and a big reviewer, even if I don't think the big reviewer has to be held to some insane standard. Just do the basics at least.
That's where the toughness of doing game reviews for a living has its impact I reckon. He just can't be bothered with everything when there is so much to do. So, his reviews become more and more stuck up to predetermined feel and first impressions and vibe, and also rushed overall.
This feels like that arc raiders ign review ngl
How did you miss the bosses? I only played 4 hours and I got to see about 5 bosses and when you're doing an activity for great loot, everyone in the map knows (the blue marker)
Cos the like 3-5 humanoid enemies in the game feel all the same and barely differ. Significantly worse from the 12 arcs that were in the base game of arc raiders.
You might not be feeling it but I am! I'm buying the game and can't wait until launch.
Idiots outing themselves is an interesting development 😂
@perfidious333why would you think I'm an idiot for liking the game?
You either didnt play, or you didnt pay attention or give a shit if you did.
12 hours he said! How can you play 12 hours and still have no clue. My son is 11 and he wrapped his head around the game's systems in about 2hrs.
I really enjoy when Skillup said Marathon had no hooks, then went on to describe the hooks of marathon, AND THEN proceeded to describe the hooks of Arc Raiders, which all of which were things you actively had to seek and participate in, and weren't hooks unless you wanted them to be.
They’re dragging you for making shit up and not doing your research. Isn’t this your full-time job bro
For me the hook is the sotory & lore behind it. I'd love a PvE only mode so I can jump in with my teammates & just explore the world & easter eggs behind every map.
How much did Embark pay you?
How are the arc raiders quests? is it THAT bad? I haven't played it
4:07 Arc Raiders has an engaging quest structure? Skill Up wtf are you talking about. Arc has the worst, most boring, most unimaginative quests out of any of the main extraction games.
Thank god someone said it
Haha it seems many people now are saying it
Also the most unrewarding
Just slightly better than marathons quest structure which is the same but with emo robot videos and then worse/less interesting ovjectives
@r@riavan8133actually liked marathons a lot better. I don’t think any extraction game has good quests (Tarkov, DaD, Arc, etc). But what I like about marathon over arc (besides the traders being a lot more interesting), is that the quests can often be messed up by other players. There were times where I had to hunt people down because they stole the key card I needed for a quest, or had to secure areas because a boss would spawn and I needed the kill. I think marathon quests often lead to much more interesting player interactions.
I'm sorry man I think you missed with this one. I mean no hate but this comes across very biased as if you went in looking for things to be upset with, and some stuff here is straight up incorrect
I feel like we played different games.The hate is so forced my lord give it a rest lol.
Had to come see my goat fumble, I couldnt believe it when I heard but here we are.
Man you really goofed this one up
I had similar impressions from the server slam, but it might not just be my genre. I really fail to see a reason to engage with the loop at all, even in other extraction shooters like ARC Raiders. I'll give it another chance at launch since the gameplay and aesthetic really fit my taste
@13:15 i think the Bungie that could make those types of games died when their leadership started staying things like " Don't over deliver so you don't raise expectations too high"
Bungo are the ones that said over delivery was their problem lol
I tried to play, but marathon is not Linux compatible, yet arc runs like gold on it
It won't even boot, it's so frustrating
11:36 Bro youre just lying, on that same map youre playing on there is an event where a giant ufo starts beaming an area and you have to go in and fight waves of pve while hacking a juiced chest in the middle of the area with purple or gold items. How did you play all those hours and never see it ?? I played 10 hours and encountered the event quite a few times. And on perimeter, a boss would also spawn marked on the map with purple loot every few runs
The events just feel so boring and insignificant. Most are open a box. The bosses seem barely different from regular enemies, do can't blame him for not noticing
@riava@riavan8133 im not trying to convince anyone that the bosses are masterpieces of design, they sure as hell look and act different than regular enemies though, especially the clone guy. And i sure as hell can blame
him for not opening his eyes and ears and looking at the map for events that are marked as big red icons. Its one thing to find it boring and another to just lie about them not existing. We’ve also yet to see the supposed raid boss in the marathon ship map, theres some fucking worthwhile pve for you
You didn’t even play the full game yet you are talking about progression ? lol
So, in short, Marathon is for sweatys. Noted.
marathon is more casual than arc raiders in a lot of ways. guns are abundant so if you find a gun that works with you it’s very easy to keep running it, and the ttk being so low gives you the rare opportunity to fight off 3 people as a solo which just isn’t happening in arc unless you’re a massive sweat
Yeah, really. Just look at the comments.
@Mongrelntruder Lot of the Arc crowd is playing solo and being friendly, so the TTK and 1v3s aren't significant. Marathon is 100% for the competitive crowd and I suspect will have much less cooperation. Its smaller scale and faster pace is just going to make it more difficult for less-competitive players to enjoy it.
It's really not. I played casual style all weekend and had a good time, solo and with friends. It's not mindless either, but it's like a dark souls - intimidating at first, but really fun once you get it.
@garrick3727 Give "paid AI comments" vibes.
Holy self report
6:07 this is just a straight up lie, there are specific POIs that spawn more of a material. this really feels like you didnt play the game
Guys we know what's happening here...SKILL ISSUE
I'm still over here playing Hunt: Showdown