Much has been made of Marathon's cruelty. The way Bungie's extraction shooter kills you faster than your brain can register the loss. The way it tempts you into snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, dragging your last loot hoard into the next match only to watch it vanish in minutes. And yet, this is a game that at least tries to look out for you.
That's most apparent after a terrible wipe, when the natural inclination is to dive straight back into another round, relieving the pain with another shot of adrenaline. It's here that Bungie steps in with a warning message to point out that, look, you're beaming down to Tau Ceti without a gun. Minus patch kits or shield charges. And might that, given the state of the colony, be a little foolhardy? It's your prompt to sheepishly return to the menus and equip a free kit (sponsored by a corporation that, unlike Bungie, doesn't have your best interests at heart).
If you begin a run without a backup weapon equipped, however, Bungie doesn't bother to mention it. That's because, as I've discovered, a second gun is surplus to requirements in Marathon, and fielding one is usually nothing but a further way to hurt yourself in a game built from sharp edges.
Dead weight
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Of course, it's natural enough to fill that second gun slot when fiddling with your gear. It's there, for one thing, a gaping hole in the centre of your loadout, waiting to be occupied by something chunky and reassuring. Like the donkey in Buckaroo, every extra item you freight your avatar with allows you to feel slightly safer and better prepared.
What you're imagining as you equip that V11 Punch is an idealized situation where, facing down a fellow runner, you get in a final, decisive shot by swapping to the pistol or shotgun. It's a satisfying mental image – one that may or may not be rendered in slow-mo, depending on personal taste.
But let's be honest with each other here; emotionally naked, like a shell stripped of all its loot in the aftermath of a scrap. How often is your shotgun-flipping fantasy playing out in reality? Is it never?
There are a few key facts working against the realization of that beautiful dream. One is Marathon's infamous time-to-kill, so brutal that second weapons rarely get a look-in. Extended engagements are certainly possible, and become more likely as players get to grips with the hero-shooter-style abilities that allow teammates to bounce back even after they're spitting blue blood, but fast and nasty ambushes are the norm. In many cases, the outcome of a battle is decided almost before it begins.
Not because of high-level equipment, which typically offers only a second or two of extra breathing room to the well-armored, but because Marathon is a stealth game. Those who can read the environment for signs of passing teams – who can keep their ear to the wall for footsteps, or the telltale buzz of a disgruntled bot – are the ones who get to decide how a skirmish starts, and consequently, how it ends. Swapping to your Magnum MC as your shield bursts is not going to change that.
Know your place
Stop kidding yourself that you're ever going to switch to another weapon
Then there's the fact that mid-range weapons like the LMG can cover engagements at any realistic distance. That sniper rifle on your back? It's primarily a tool to pointlessly break a distant target's shield and alert them to your exact position.
At close range, meanwhile, the knife is the fight-winner - the desperate, last-ditch defence that might fell a tougher enemy. Wasting precious seconds reaching for a shotgun is most often a mistake, an invitation for your opponent to snatch the weapon from your crumpled corpse moments later.
Unless, of course, you're a specialist – somebody who is deeply committed to the shotgun or the sniper rifle, and has built their shell around that playstyle. In which case, fair enough: you might value a backup weapon that offsets the shortcomings of your favoured firearm. But such setups are the exception. By 20 hours in, you know who you're going to be in Marathon, and most of us are generalists. Mid-range and, in my case, mid all over. Happy to be there, used to defeat, and ecstatic in occasional victory. Grateful for an exfil under any circumstances.
If that's you as well, do yourself a favor. The next time you scroll over a small gun in your Vault, sell it. Don't fill that second slot. Leave yourself a space in your inventory to loot an extra gun on the ground, then sell that too. Stop kidding yourself that you're ever going to switch to another weapon. And please, stop gifting extra gear to the enemies rifling through your pockets. Let their disappointment at a minimal haul be your revenge.
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