I watch moths crawl over synthetic skin and wonder if I'm about to kill or be killed. In Marathon's loading screen, these moths create artificial bodies for your mercenary protagonist's consciousness to control. But if moths represent life, their woven progeny – called Shells – mean certain death. Created to scavenge loot from a distant colony-turned-graveyard among the stars, Shells are fodder; existing only to facilitate dreams of violence and glory. This is, after all, an extraction shooter.
The fingerprints of fellow genre titans Escape from Tarkov and Arc Raiders – risking gear against players and AI-controlled enemies in a timed raid, hoping to extract with valuables – are unmistakable, but Marathon's high-stakes matches are a fragment of a far greater whole. Whether you're drawn to heart-in-mouth shootouts, existential cyberpunk style, or the mysteries of its sci-fi storytelling; there are endless reasons to sink beneath Marathon's sinew and cable – and after 75 hours, I've stopped thinking about anything else.
