The End Of Marathon's 1st Season Is Incredible

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Marathon's end of season update is incredibly rad to the point that I've played about 10 or so hours and I have to yap about it. It is the most fun I think I've had in the game for the entirety of the first season maybe. And I think it's a combination of reasons, but I think it it highlights something that I think is core to the game that I really hope that they preserve that the more power and gold and cool things you're doing, the more fun it is. And if there's any way they can balance that with an extraction game economy, I kind of hope that they maybe keep the game more like it is right now than anything else that we've played. So, taking a step back on the 19th, we got the end of season update where everything's kind of going crazy. There's a event guaranteed on every map. There's new activities that are occurring on the maps. There's a new enemy. Uh there's wardens dropping uh better items. All the rooms, I think, have more likelihood for gold materials and stuff like this. So, the game was just like cranked up to 11 in terms of the item economy and the events that are ongoing. And before I kind of talk about what I've really been enjoying about it specifically, I do want to say I don't know if like I don't know if you haven't played the game, I don't know if this is something that would draw you back in.

[00:01:32]Like if you haven't tried Marathon or like I don't know if a new audience is going to hear that they're kind of doing an end of season thing and want to get back into it. You know, I've heard from multiple people that they're kind of waiting to see like the start of season 2 would be a good point to jump in, which I think is why Bungie has kind of built the game in a lot of ways around this wipe idea to kind of give people an entry point at multiple, you know, intersections throughout the year when they might come into contact with the game where they can jump in without feeling like they're too far behind. Um, so I don't know like from a uh long-term design decision or if whatever if like keeping this style of the game around is a good idea or if it's going to bring in new people. But I can say that for me personally as someone who's put a large amount of time into the game, hands down, this has been the best experience.

[00:02:19]To start with the new stuff they've added, the rocket drone being something that appears in the end of the map just entirely shifts how the flow of a game can go. It's giving you late into the match a new object objective that you can tackle. It's making you think as it's roaming. It seems to be going between like two to three POIs maybe. So if you are trying to hit a late Xfill there, it adds another element of danger that can actually sneak up on you. It's has a huge health pool. So, you have to dump a bunch of mags into it. And because it's appearing that late into the game, if you didn't come in with a bunch of ammo or you haven't been scavenging off other players, it might be a threat that you have to just avoid altogether cuz you're not going to have the resources to deal with it. On top of that, they've added in a bunch of crates on the map. I'm noticing a lot of the blue crates around the anomaly. Uh on Dire Marsh, we have these big boxes that seem to be maybe what the rocket drone was held within, like how it was transported here or something. It it does create like new kind of little outposts and birds nests that you can get into to snipe people and get a different lay of the land, different cover to use, which is fun. I kind of maybe would like to see them shifting these boxes and crates around throughout the season just to kind of change the flow of like an area, especially like these dead space kind of areas where in between complex and the anomaly or on the other side with anomaly in between anomaly and algae ponds. adding boxes and crates in there that kind of change what positions you can hold and you know the larger open areas like maybe seeing some of these plop down in between data wall and north relay could be kind of cool. Um but the idea that there's even just small structures like that that are just changing where you can hide or where you can take cover if you get into an engagement those areas is cool to see. And we have Orion on the comms the UEC commander in charge of the uh uh ground operations here on Taletti 4. he is getting on the comms and you know notifying the UEC forces of the runner threat in the area. I think that's something new. I don't remember hearing it that frequently at least. I do remember hearing some Orion comms, especially attached to priority contracts, but it's definitely upped where I feel like every other, if not every run, especially on Dire Marsh, I'm running into some kind of warding message from Orion kind of notifying uh the UESC bots there of our activities and operations and to be on the lookout.

[00:04:44]And you know, in combination with uh the crash ships that are on perimeter where we're seeing the UC crash zones and the tick nests where, you know, the USC is cording off sections where ticks have kind of, you know, set up a new infestation. They have a bunch of loot there. It just goes to like make the world feel more alive. And one of the biggest like things I feel like we've talked about on Escape will make me pod and on my streams and even I think somewhat in the videos I did kind of covering season one here on the channel.

[00:05:18]Uh making the world feel like a living place that you're more immersed in with more going on and it's reacting to you and things are changing I feel like is something that the game has been missing since its launch. Um, and it's it's crazy to me how these are kind of very little things and not really changing anything super core to the game in terms of like how the the AI operate or anything like that and it still makes it feel that much more interesting. And all of this all these additions are combined with the increased spawn rate for the events. A guaranteed event. It feels to me like every event basically is happening on every map. And I think that's for the best. Not just for right now, cuz if it's into season, everyone has upgrades and purple mats and whatever, whatever. I think that might be how it should be at all times. I if I load into a dire marsh or a perimeter, basically any point after the first two weeks of the season, the likelihood of running into somebody doing a priority contract that's changing kind of what's going on the map seemed very low. And it felt to me like there was like a 25% chance that the anomalous material would show up or a warden would be there or a lockdown would happen or an intercept on on perimeter convoy. I feel like I never saw an outpost until you know recently but I maybe a few weeks ago. But um the events feel very important to the flow of the match. It seems like if you do make it past this onslaught and you have survived even in the early game, I feel like you should have the opportunity to kind of strive for something else. It's notably fun that the cycle that I was I've been getting into as I've been playing since this has happened is like you load into a match, you try to do an objective or fight a team or see what's on the map, run a warden, you get a key, and then the next the next match is guaranteed to have stakes because you're trying to run the key. Now, that loop of trying to do an event to get a key and then running the key is incredible. You have the tension of the first round, right, where there's a lot more variables because you don't know where you're going. You're looking all over the map. You're waiting for the warden to spawn. You're seeing what event pops up or you're seeing if you're going to have to wait to fight the the rocketeer guy or the USC rocket drone. And then, you know, dealing with the other teams and then your next match plays very differently because you know exactly where you're going and you know exactly what your goal is and you're trying to approach that tactically and maybe maintain stealth and you're thinking about the engagements that you're taking a lot more. Then you're getting out with the kind of big loot. It it fulfills the runner heist fantasy of like you do a you do a setup mission Grand Theft Auto style where you're like, "Let's get the details. We get the key. All right, this is where we're going now. We got to get out with the key." And then you're right back into it. You you're running this secured facility that the UC is locked down because they got some good stuff in there. That loop to me feels very central to like what I feel the core of the game could be and it elevates Perimeter in Dire Marsh to such a degree that I really am going to be bummed if they don't carry over some semblance of how the game feels right over into season 2. Like I I cannot I just cannot imagine going back to a boring perimeter after these things. I do think things like keeping the rocket drone in the game and and the crash sites and the tick infestations, like I think those are pretty um locked in, like I don't think that they would take those away in season 2 just because the the game's resetting, but I do think they would probably drop these spawn rates back down. And I don't know, man.

[00:09:08]I kind of like they've done a lot of nerfing this season. And I just think maybe buff everything. Maybe don't nerf anything. Just buff stuff. Let's just go [ __ ] crazy. I know. I know for for sure there's people smarter than me who are going to be in the comments saying other games have tried that or maybe that's not a good idea because of mathematics. Listen, I'm not coming at this from a math perspective. I'm coming at it from a fun perspective. And this is so [ __ ] fun. I think just make the game super fun. And honestly, you know, we have increased the probability of like, okay, we're running into an all gold, all purple teams.

[00:09:44]We ran into an all gold team or two golds and one purple team on perimeter, which I feel like is pretty pretty gnarly for perimeter, right? And it didn't feel unfair. It didn't feel like crazy. It just felt like, oh, they got really good stuff and we've been getting really good stuff. we've pulled more golds, you know, out of this 10 12 hour session across whatever how many days at this point like than we have for the rest of the season. At least for my buddies I'm playing with who don't have as much play time as me. They're getting more gold. So, it's like we feel like on an even playing field. We're willing to take these engagements more because we know at the end of the day the next run that we're going to be able to will have kind of an equal probability of at least getting opportunity to see some of the higherend loot. And honestly, in terms of like fixing how the upgrades work, cuz it requires so many of the gold materials and so many of the purple materials, I think if the game kind of had this amount of uh activities and lock rooms and loot on the maps already, maybe the upgrade system would feel a lot better. Maybe people would progress through it in a way that feels like, okay, you don't have to commit five, 600 hours in a 3mon span if you want to kind of see the the far backends of these upgrade trees. Uh, even me sitting at around like 300 hours now, I just gave up on the upgrades because I knew it just wasn't worth my time and how much space it was taking in my inventory. And I and I got a lot of them. I mean, I did get a lot, but I only finished one. I think I just finished scal or something that I'm kind of close to or something, but I immediately once I got to like these tons of purple materials and gold materials, I was just like, that's not going to be uh worth my time, I don't think. Especially because the upgrades I'm getting there didn't feel like they were hugely pivotal to my match to match experience when I when I kind of focus primarily on the ones that are going to affect my runner abilities in the first place.

[00:11:34]But yeah, I don't know. I just couldn't help but make a video yapping about this because it is so incredibly fun the way the game is set up right now. If you haven't played in a few weeks and you kind of want to uh jump back in, I recommend this is the time. I've done crew fills. I've done solos. I've played with a trio. All of it has been super fun. Everybody's kind of like, you know, aware that more crazy [ __ ] is happening in the matches, so everybody wants to jump into it. Tons of opportunities to see like areas in the game that you haven't seen before. There's a bunch of gold rooms that I had never done before that we were able to pick up a key for and and and check out like on top of greenhouse. I don't think I'd actually opened that one. I hadn't opened the AI uplink under one. And I gone in there with someone I think one time in the season. But, you know, finding a key and opening myself, it's cool. It's a It's a great experience. And the game is really shining. And I'm interested to see how cryo plays out now when it opens up. Uh, today I'm recording this just before cryo opens on the 21st of May. And I imagine that it's going to be pretty juiced. but also less like if you're in the endgame like you don't have to go to cryo now because you can get a gold key and you know keep rocking or you kill a warden and and get your purple shields and purple bags that you want to grab and materials and stuff from other places as well. So I think it'll be good to kind of spread the audience out.

[00:12:55]Also, you know, if you're trying to get these cryo uh sub routines done, I think it'll be good cuz everybody who's the sweatiest player in the game won't probably be permal locked to cryo because there's other opportunities for stuff this week. Not that like I mean I'm sure like the top top end people are going to be there for ranked and uh both weekends but I think there are maybe going to be some opportunities for people to jump in here and try to get a few sub routines before the season ends which are obviously carrying over because they're part of the codec. So yeah man I I hope that the game you know stays up like this. I get that I'm in the honeymoon moon phase with this right now. the update just went live and maybe there's problems as things, you know, get held on to in the economy, whatever, whatever, that they're not going to have to worry about because of the season's ending in two weeks. But I don't know, the flow of these matches is so incredibly fun and I think it works. I think maybe maybe Bungie just needs to hold on to how the it feels at the end of season and kind of sell people on that uh going forward and see how maybe if there is a way to work this into the early game economy and and have some semblance of this level of activity on the maps, I think that might be the direction they should flow in. And and also from a story perspective, seeing all of the boxes lined up, it it really feels to me like they're setting up that the actions that we're taking here in town study is having an effect on what the UESC's operations are beyond what we hear Orion talking about in intel entries that we're getting off of MIDI priority contracts. We're seeing physical locations where the UESC is dropping off more resources to see it this close to an anomaly to know that they're doing tests on the anomaly that the robots are getting lost inside of the anomaly and coming back with years of like training data that's like different from what they had before that they went in even though they were only gone for a short amount of time. The whole thing is just incredibly rad. And like I said, having more impact on the world, having more things happening, having uh the world feel like it's a livedin place that's responding to the operations that the runners are have like taking part in and and the actions that we're doing in the priority contracts. These are all things that for me are really going to elevate uh not just the story of what's occurring in the the importance behind it, but also the match to match experience. And I'm having way more memorable runs than ever before with the insanity of this. and I I don't want to see it go. All right, I've probably said goodbye a handful of times or want to hear what you guys think in the comments, but let me know what you guys think about the update in the comments. I'll see you later. Adios.