You can take the Bungie out of Halo, but it'll take more than a 16 years-past Microsoft breakup to take the Halo out of Bungie. The presence of the seminal FPS can be felt throughout much of Bungie's new extraction shooter, Marathon, in ways both subtle and decidedly obvious. Acknowledging that Marathon and Halo are inherently intertwined by symbology, themes, and shared terminology, an echo of Bungie's past work is also felt mechanically. Some of Marathon's Halo-isms can be attributed to a house style that never left the studio—weighty movement, low gravity, grenades that bounce ever so nicely. Then there's the Destroyer shell that's essentially a Destiny titan adorned with spartan armor.But it's really the weapons locker where Halo's influence is most potent. We see you, Bungie. We can tell what's going on with these Marathon guns.The CE Tactical Sidearm is, as you can plainly see, a Halo pistol. Its grip shape, trigger guard, and snub-nosed profile are an homage to Master Chief's signature sidearm. Also "CE", as in Combat Evolved, is literally in the name, so there's that. Notably, the Marathon pistol behaves less like the dominant magnum of CE and more like its nerfed variations in the Halo sequels. It's reliable, accurate, and swapping to it is faster than reloading.
