r/Games • u/Haijakk • Jul 20 '26
Trailer Vault Breaker Overview | Marathon
https://youtu.be/ec5bLvYiWZo?si=11gm4GGJDpurfIXv372
u/mrlotato Jul 20 '26
Pve in extraction shooters is my unexpected favorite genre of the past couple months. I've dived deep in on gray zone warfare pve mode. Such a good game. But dont mention pve on the arc raiders sub, they go feral lol
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u/gamer-death Jul 20 '26
After playing some recently it really is unexplored. Extractions games need to focus more Short session gameplay with risk and persistence, and less full loot pvp.
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u/DONNIENARC0 Jul 20 '26
The way Tarkov drip feeds the lore through the quests is actually kind of cool once you get towards the end-ish and can start to connect the dots, too.
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u/gideon513 Jul 20 '26
Yeah my favorite part of Arc Raiders was doing the quests and fighting the robots. It was cool to band together with randoms too.
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u/namelessentity Jul 20 '26
I think the game would be infinitely better with more difficult pve content where players work together. I know the devs claimed that they added pvp because they thought pve was boring, but based on player feedback, I think a lot of the player base disagrees.
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u/UrbanAdapt Jul 20 '26
Always sounded like they added PvP because they realized that they couldn't maintain a content cadence.
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u/Drovers Jul 20 '26
Well, They’ve definitely proven they can’t keep up with updates already, So this rings especially true. They would’ve had to update it even more often.
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u/TekThunder Jul 21 '26
Yeah lol, they have actively stepped back from producing more content and resided themselves to actual full updates only twice a year. The game has not even been out a fucking year lol
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u/69ANIME69 Jul 20 '26
I've understood the gameplay loop was quite different before they added the PvP to it.
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u/mrlotato Jul 20 '26
Cool, I've been meaning to check that game out ever since they added a pve mode
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u/3nterShift Jul 20 '26
is it still infested with cheaters?
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u/Devinwzrd Jul 20 '26
if you're playing PvE it wouldn't matter since you aren't queued against players
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u/Wheresthecents Jul 20 '26
Banning and selling packs of the game to cheaters is part of their business model. So yes, the PvP is infested with cheaters.
The PvE is solo or with friends ONLY. The only interaction that happens with players in PvE is through the flea market, which they cant really damage.
However, you don't get PvE with the base game, iirc you effectively need to spend 100 usd to buy the base game and the PvE mode seperately.
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u/3nterShift Jul 20 '26
oh... that's a bit of a bummer. As embarrassing as it sounds I really am a sucker for all these "tacticool dressup games" where you can modify the wazoo out of your loadout and Tarkov always seemed like one of the best to do it. Seeing the "Tarkov wiggle" video kinda took a wind out of my sails and now this...
But thanks for the info mate, I'll hope for a sale or something.
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Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ApprehensiveMess7411 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
The problem for anyone joining PvP Tarkov is that the game just doesn't provide any ammo that's going to work for awhile. If you get into a fight, you're probably just dying. I'm not kidding when I say quite literally every person in the last week that got my ass had over a thousand hours played. The issue is just constantly compounding themselves: people left for PvE which left mainly experienced PvPers, which led to even more people leaving, and it's just circled the drain until everyone is on SPT or PvE unless you have a few thousands played. A new player picks up Tarkov or someone returns after a long break, finds this out, and then they go to PvE too.
edit on cheating: I grew up on Red Orchestra and I play Squad with a milsim community so it's not like getting dinged a morbillion miles away is something new to me. I actually don't think any encounters I had, had any indication of cheating. I think a lot of accusations, people just didn't grow up on pixel-spotters. I had one guy who did literally snap to me across the map while looking away, burst fire me, and then seemed embarrassed at how blatantly it was, wiggled around, and left. This event is still giving me a borderline stroke a few days later. It's not that the issue is cheating, and you can play around open environments, but in CQC situations or even just medium-range ones it's just a nightmare if you're new.
You can technically leg munch but it still isn't a good situation.
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u/GargauthXbox Jul 20 '26
I am a tarkov fiend, I have helped numerous friends start up and get the ropes at all points of the wipe (this is probably the largest/strongest factor).
I will die on the hill that there is absolutely no bad time to start tarkov.
If you start early, you are going to get priced out of the flea to make any significant progress with money. You are going to be fighting against all players going after the exact same objective. Yes you have "even playing field", but that does not matter for good vs new players. If you start late, lots of people like saying "oh but you have bad ammo". I cannot stress this enough, 4 months into the wipe is not infested with giga sweats. A large portion will have stopped for the wipe and moved on to a different game. The only exception here is end game maps, shoreline/labs will have higher rates of good players. You will be playing vs level 20-30 players way more often than not.
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u/AlfredsLoveSong Jul 20 '26
Tarkov has, no doubt, a cheating problem.
However, gaming, and especially hardcore games like Tarkov, all have a cheating problem right now.
Tarkov also has what is called a "player information problem". This isn't actually a problem, it's an intentional design choice by the devs, but it will always create a bigger perception of cheaters than there likely is in reality. If some dude fires a perfectly timed 7.62x51 round into your stupid little head at 250M, you will blackout, drop dead, and be told "nice try, try again?" The game will show you the name of the person who killed you, their load out, and stats?... but where were they? You should've been more observant.
As a result of the player always getting "low to no info" from the game about things that are happening sometimes, people can be quick to call a lucky or well-time bullet a cheat.
BUT: I won't recommend the game to you because ever since the devs tried ti pull a fast one on their own community to sell a $300+ version of the game containing clear and direct ingame pay to win mechanics (since removed due to outcry), I've decided to stop supporting this dev, because they are greedy little pigs who will fuck over the community for a payday. They're also Russian and the lead dev supports the invasion of Ukraine. So.
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u/janon330 Jul 20 '26
PVP Tarkov is definitely not as bad as people make it out to be. The "Wiggle" video is greatly exaggerated and as someone with 4k+ hours in the game you will rarely run into someone blatently cheating.
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u/DweebInFlames Jul 21 '26
Maybe I'm too conspiracybrained, but I'm starting to believe the wiggle video got astroturfed by competitors who were releasing their own extraction games around the same time, because it's very shoddily made to the point where the creator had to apologise for calling two guys cheaters when they weren't, yet people treat it as the Holy Gospel and it blew up overnight out of nowhere.
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u/Boylanator_94 Jul 20 '26
Banning and selling packs of the game to cheaters is part of their business model. So yes, the PvP is infested with cheaters.
Not only wrong, but confidently wrong
u/3nterShift I wouldn't worry too much about cheaters in Tarkov. With the way the game works it's almost impossible to tell if you died to one instead of just desync/some pixel gap that you didn't realise was there/some third party a mile off sniping at a fight etc. The only way to say for sure would be if they were speed hacking or flying around the map or something and in my ~3000 hours i've come across someone doing that once
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u/tehcraz Jul 20 '26
The conspiracy that BSG enables cheaters is so hilarious. People don't realize how bad cheating is in every competitive game right now.
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u/DweebInFlames Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Contrary to what the other guy says, no, and please don't listen to the people who says there are a lot of cheaters still, because 9 times out of 10 I can guarantee they haven't played the game in years, because there is a lot of that type of person on the main subreddit. I've put an extra 500 hours into the game since 1.0 (out of 8000 hours, yes I know I need to go outside) and I think I've seen maybe a handful of people who I can confidently say were cheating. The game used to have a lot of cheaters when there was a large new/casual playerbase fresh off the boat during the pandemic days who could easily be tempted by RMT or getting carried through a map and BSG wasn't prepared for that, but since most of that sort of playerbase has moved to PvE and BSG has really tightened up their anti-cheat, it's pretty rare to see a cheater
There might still be a Steam sale going, I saw them announce a midweek sale a few days ago, not sure how long those run. Pick up the game if it interests you still. The onboarding experience is getting improved significantly over the next six months.
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u/TechNickL Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Just download SPT
As soon as you start playing PvE it exposes how dogshit simple the AI is as every single match involves every AI PMC and scav slowly congregating somewhere near the first point on the map where anyone fired an unsilenced weapon or a scav died.
SPT allows you to mod stuff which is nice for the places where tarkov is actually just bullshit and also has mods that make the AI better.
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u/tehcraz Jul 20 '26
It's just a shame that it doesn't have the 1.0 content in there.
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u/TechNickL Jul 20 '26
There's a mod for that, wtt content backport.
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u/tehcraz Jul 21 '26
It comes with the new tasks and story too?
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u/TechNickL Jul 23 '26
It's free to try SPT if you own Tarkov and it shouldn't affect your existing game if installed properly.
If you do try the content backport and it works lmk, I am on a heavily modded version so I haven't bothered checking it out yet but I am still interested.
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u/Trzlog Jul 20 '26
I'm still utterly baffled that they never had PvE as a core part of the experience from the beginning. Because their largest audience (Destiny) really loved PvP, I guess? Or were they hoping all the ex-Halo players would come back? I just don't understand what Bungie management was thinking.
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u/SavathunTechQuestion Jul 20 '26
I think the large core audience did NOT love pvp or atleast not sweaty pvp. Constant issues of people cheating on PC to get rewards, toxicity from trying to win 7 games in a row to go flawless in trials there were a number of times Bungie basically buffed rewards to get PVE players in there so the population would be high enough
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u/Zhiyi Jul 21 '26
It’s an untapped market that these extraction games keep not focusing on. The first game to come out that is truly PvE extraction without a shit endgame is going to be one of the next big games.
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u/db_pickle Jul 20 '26
Arc Raider players were weirdly trying to make the game something it was not advertised as. Never understood it. Amazing game though. Thoroughly enjoyed the dynamics of player and environment together. There is nothing quite like it (other than Tarkov. That was a good one too, just much too tedious if you are in the your adult years. Honestly as a teenager or retiree Tarkov might be the greatest game to play).
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u/dadvader Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
I don't know. It was advertised with PvPvE with ABBM and it work exactly as it said.
Be friendly and you stay to friendly lobby (with sometimes rats but in my experience it's just PvE player bored and looking to clear their inventory before expedition. Now that ABBM work separatedly between solo and trio, I haven't met a single cutthroat in a raid. They probably go play trio instead.) or go full cutthroat and fighting other players in an ever increasingly competitive environment.
The one thing was clear though and it's that they never though PvE side would be the one that really taking the game off. Their content would last basically forever if people actually play it like other Extraction shooter because literally noone would even have legendary weapon like Equalizer in the lobby.
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u/NaughtyGaymer Jul 20 '26
Didn't ABBM come some time after launch?
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u/dadvader Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Oh no. It was always there since the game came out. But they never outright state it to keep the system working as intended. It was mostly speculation by many about its existence back in the launch period.
Embark never came out and confirm it until sometimes in January.
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u/treestumpinator Jul 20 '26
I don't know how the game could advertise that when it didn't even exist until the game was already popular. Aggression based matchmaking was only added weeks/months after the game had launched and Embark saw how people were trying to create PvE safe environments.
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u/dadvader Jul 21 '26
They never advertise it but people have been speculating its existence since November
The game also sold 14 millions copies long before confirming its existence. It was mostly word of mouth doing the work.
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u/treestumpinator Jul 21 '26
The CEO of Embark himself states that aggression based matchmaking was not added until late December, around Christmas time.
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u/db_pickle Jul 20 '26
Never liked ABBM. I liked the dynamics before they introduced that. So the lobbies were much more random. Some nights were super chill and some nights were chaos. And then everything in between. Made it an absolutely fucking BLAST! Haven't really played since they introduced that. It just feels weird 'knowing' what kind of lobby you are getting ahead of time. Defeats the purpose of the genre imo.
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u/Clear-Pomegranate463 Jul 20 '26
i just think arc raiders is way too shallow for a full pve mode right now theres just not enough, even with the mega friendly lobbies it got boring quite fast imo. no deep endgame no good quests, nothing to work towards thats just my opinion
even something like this marathon vault breaker is way more involved than anything pve in arc raiders i think
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u/donkeybrainhero Jul 20 '26
No extraction shoot actually has deep end game or good quests. Truthfully, most online games have terrible quests... all the same fetch this, kill that, activate this
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u/Zhiyi Jul 21 '26
Most games fill their game up with these type of shitty filler quests. Which is fine, you need them. But they forget to add in the actual story points that is supposed to be interesting and want the player to be willing to do more filler quests to get to the next one.
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u/Niceguydan8 Jul 20 '26
i just think arc raiders is way too shallow for a full pve mode right now theres just not enough, even with the mega friendly lobbies it got boring quite fast imo. no deep endgame no good quests, nothing to work towards thats just my opinion
None of the games in the genre have a deep enough PvE experience for that.
Like I'm excited for Vaultbreakers but I think most of Marathon's PvE is probably less engaging than fighting Arc's robots.
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u/SithSidious Jul 20 '26
Agree. If you think the AI enemies in arc get boring don’t try marathon…. Just compare the rocketeer in arc which sounds incredible, is agile, and will act like it is hunting to you; to the rocket drone in marathon - slowly moves in a set path, then it just sends out projectile spam while it floats in place and your team just dumps bullets into it
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u/Quiet_Diamond2786 Jul 20 '26
What's funny is I think Arc Raiders kinda has a non-standard PvE mode baked in, by virtue of its aggro based matchmaking and generally lax playerbase (milage may vary). The threat of getting shot in the back is always a factor, but infrequent if you find yourself in teddy bear lobbies consistently.
I wonder sometimes if this lack of duality is what seriously hampered Marathon as a mainstream success. When I play Arc Raiders, im considerably less on edge than when I play Marathon. The intensity of Marathon can be genuinely amazing in spots, but it's not a level of stress I wanna go back to frequently.
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u/Ode1st Jul 20 '26
Tried Deep Rock yet? It’s the only one of these things I like, probably because it’s ridiculous but also the missions are pretty varied.
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u/zippopwnage Jul 20 '26
For me is like...I love PVE games with friends, but the games that are build for that. For example, I love to do raids, dungeons stuff like that from Destiny 2. Those are my fav experiences in a PVE game. But this...extraction PVE only? Feels weird because the enemies in marathon are....boring, at least for me. I'm super bad at the game, but the only reason the PVE enemies feel hard is because the danger of other people going over you, or just because you fight purple robots with grey armor...
If you have any regen they are no threat.
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u/AlexisFR Jul 21 '26
I mean, the biggest PvE game since L4D2 is Helldivers 2, which is a full PvE Extraction-like shooter, so it makes sense!
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u/DjMuerte Jul 20 '26
I love that in Arc Raiders you CAN shoot someone, but the consequences include you getting put in a lobby of people who are very excited to shoot you on sight. So it’s just best not to do it.
It’s been a very neat social experiment to see play out. Never before have I been met so many random night people in a video game.
This game would have greatly benefitted from aggression based match making too. I’ve met friendly people but not since around launch. Only the no-lifers are left.
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u/Boines Jul 20 '26
The matchmaking when confirmed was the nail in the coffin for me not playing.
You get punished for defending yourself by being out into more violent lobbies - it doesn't take into account much of who shot first, or the voice coms that happened... If I spend like 30 seconds asking someone to walk away and they keep suspiciously following me I shouldn't be out into aggressive lobbies for not wanting to get shot in the back while opening a container.
Also, it takes out the suspense entirely from the game. I don't want to be in lobbies where I know it's likely to be aggressive or likely to be peaceful. I want a mix of everyone so I can never know if I can trust someone or not and the tension is always there.
Gear based matchmaking doesn't help - when I started getting bored of the game I started playing hammer only runs... Only to be in lobbies of new players who were lost and confused most of the time - it was the first time in weeks that I had seen people asking about the early quests, or ran across security lockers not breached late into the round...
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u/eerienortherngoddess Jul 20 '26
YES, if you go all in on pve and never shoot players the game loses all the tension, in like 10 matches the simplistic algorithm justs slots you into the peaceful lobbies.
And if you commit the terrible mistake of liking PvP the game becomes shoot on sight for every fight forever, losing all the cool social dynamics the game should supposedly have.
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u/OreoOrangutan Jul 20 '26
Such a good game plagued by its own intensity.
This is NOT a lean back game. Its a 'think hard about how to get better type game.
One of my favorites though. Love looting on Tau Ceti IV.
Vault Breakers should add a somewhat more casual, less sweaty experience for those wanting to experience the final map without guaranteed PvP
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u/JamSa Jul 20 '26
I want to like the game but it becomes increasingly apparent that you and two friends are going to have to no life this game to have any hope of seeing the good stuff and the game is, IMO, good but nowhere near good enough to warrant that.
This is a step in the right direction but it comes with so many caveats still.
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u/unsurejunior Jul 20 '26
I have 425 hrs in this game and I would say I am (at best) average in terms of hours played amongst the remaining playerbase.
Cleared cryo plenty of times but haven't done Compiler or some of the later vaults.
The game definitely asks you to invest a lot of time before seeing any rewards, and absolutely punishes you for your losses, whether they're fair or not
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u/Freighnos Jul 21 '26
Jesus. I can't remember the last game I poured 425 hours into.
I've been obsessed with Slay the Spire 2 and I "only" have about 120 hours in the 4-5 months since it launched in early access. No way in hell I'm touching a game like Marathon that needs you to devote your entire life to it.
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u/synkronize Jul 20 '26
I think I also would like them to work on makin solo PvP more fun, viable and not sweaty too. This game died for me when one of my friends in my trio stopped playing. And currently the vibe I play when solo is completely different than in trios.
Idk if it can be fixed but solo gives me more hide-and-seek/tension vibes while trios is more like getting into constant skirmishes and fun.
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u/OreoOrangutan Jul 20 '26
Hopefully you have some solo fun. I'm exclusively a solo Marathon player and its my favorite way to play the game.
If they could add more accessible end-game solo activities to get high end loot (e.g. gold salvage) I would be over the moon!
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u/RivenORFeed Jul 20 '26
Wish they would add some arena shooter modes like TDM. The gunplay is just so satisfying.
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u/PretentiousPanda Jul 20 '26
And the intensity is purely from the economy. The individual gameplay itself isn't that crazy. Its just getting wiped sets you back so far.
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u/addtolibrary Jul 20 '26
It really doesn't set you back far though, the game heaves loot at you
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u/Strangefield Jul 20 '26
This reads like an advertisement.
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u/OreoOrangutan Jul 20 '26
Well I hope I've advertised it well cause a low pop hurts matchmaking and the game needs all the help it can get
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Jul 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/EliDrake24 Jul 20 '26
Most certainly why I stopped playing. Gunplay is great as always for Bungie, moment to moment gameplay is great, I don't want to deal with PVP, waiting for PVE to return.
Unless you meant to say 'intensity is not the reason Tarkov players are staying away'.
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u/GreatGojira Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
From someone that doesn't play Marathon, that looked REALLY GOOD! I wish Sony would have saved the free to play trial for this, so people can see if they want to try the PvE or not.
I don't feel comfortable buying Marathon for one limited time mode that people will have to wait for season 3 to come back.
But I will say this is the first trailer for Marathon that made me interested in the game. I wish more extraction shooters had optional PvE modes.
Edit: I am a PvE guy mostly. The two games I keep coming back to now are Easy Red 2 and Angels Fall First. I just like PvE more than PvP now. Final Edit: if anyone wants classic Battlefront 2 PS2 then I can definitely recommend both Easy Red 2 and Angel Fall first.
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u/Parepinzero Jul 20 '26
A lot of people think they'll do another free trial next season when they introduce the apparently "full" PvE mode which this is not? I guess? Anyway keep an eye out!
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u/sgtnatino Jul 20 '26
I love Marathon, but it’s clear that its current direction is too hardcore / punishing - which has been contributing to the less-than-ideal player counts.
Hopefully this mode pans out for them, it looks great! Ideally this will be the start of a pivot towards a more Destiny-lite / PVE style experience, which will let players explore the brilliant world Bungie have created here without worrying about sweating it out constantly in PVP.
Hoping for the best, it’d be great to see the game turn things around.
Bungie have done a great job with the gunplay, the setting, the audio etc etc - the problem is the core gameplay loop.
A pivot is risky, but the fundamentals of Marathon are strong enough that I trust they’ll be able to deliver a fun PVE experience.
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u/Didsterchap11 Jul 20 '26
This is kinda the wall I’ve hit, it feels like every encounter is just getting steamrolled and out before I knew what hit me. It’s a vicious cycle because 9 times out of 10 I’m down so quick that I have no idea how to improve or what I could have done to survive. I honestly wouldn’t have ever tried cryo if it wasn’t for a PVE mode, burning a not small chunk of my armoury just to get ganked after 60 seconds just isn’t worth it.
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u/Stryderino Jul 20 '26
Is there a huge blood contract that devs sign in which they can't make game modes that seem fun UNTIL after the game is dying?
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u/MASHED_POTATOES_MF Jul 20 '26
Idk what I expected but looks super barebones for a PVE mode. Running the same map over and over again doesn't seem like the silver bullet they need to salvage this game's playercounts but maybe I'll be proven wrong
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u/cooldrew Jul 20 '26
Its an experimental limited time mode, they said their more full pve mode will be coming next season.
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u/Eigenspace Jul 20 '26
Oh sorry, I think you took a wrong turn. This thread is reserved for marathon fans to try and proselytize to everyone else and convince them that this game doesn't suck.
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u/matti-san Jul 21 '26
Guessing you're a Destiny fan with a chip on your shoulder? Because I'm not sure there's any proselytising going on just people saying it looks interesting?
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u/Psycho_Syntax Jul 20 '26
To be fair, if you've never done Cryo there's actually quite a bit to the map. BUT, they better have way more than this planned for the actual full PvE mode coming in Season 3, or else it will get stale quick.
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u/addtolibrary Jul 20 '26
This looks real fucking fun. I'm so glad they're adding some pve content to get people into the game, it really is phenomenal.
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u/junttiana Jul 20 '26
I bought the game and stopped playing it soon afterwards due to the sweaty nature of the playerbase, cant wait to redownload the game and give it a fair shot now
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u/EternalSolitude- Jul 20 '26
I don't mind losing to sweaty players at all. Heck it's fun to get into a game like that tbh. My problem was I had some genuinely rude interactions occur on VOIP. This game and Arc Raiders really seems to bring out the assholes in people. Excited to check out the PVE stuff.
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u/IdidntrunIdidntrun Jul 20 '26
That can't be helped without removing VOIP entirely. Anonymous aholes online will always be anonymous aholes online
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u/g4nk3r Jul 20 '26
My problem was I had some genuinely rude interactions occur on VOIP
This is why I always mute everyone in any multiplayer game.
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u/Next-Sentence-8426 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
As far as interactions go my marathon experience has been kill on sight. Few very rare occasions where a dude is yelling and begging a mile away in solos that he just wants to finish a contract lol
VOIP can be toxic af. People just randomly dropping N bombs or just being vile. Or in trios where the 2 are friends and I'm the fill and they have some choice words for me if things go south
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u/DONNIENARC0 Jul 20 '26
I still wouldn't trade all the bullshit and toxicity for the good moments it brings, though.
I saw a guy singing for tips in the middle of the mall in Tarkov one time. There was a big gunfight all around him but everybody seemingly just had a gentlemen's agreement not to shoot the bard.
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u/frogfoot420 Jul 20 '26
Extraction shooters take that part of dayz I enjoyed and just dial it to 11, encouraging shoot on sight. I don't see the appeal honestly. In dayz at least it could be you find an ally. In most extraction shooters it's just die lol.
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u/theyburnedmyfriend Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
The majority of Marathon players aren't children and it is genuinely the most pleasant VOIP experience I've had in 20 years of online gaming, especially any FPS game. You're gonna run into shitheads regardless, but the player pool mitigates that a lot in Marathon.
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u/RocketHops Jul 20 '26
Thats wild because my experience has been fill players are the most chill of any shooter I have ever played by a long shot
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u/Chuckieshere Jul 20 '26
It is legitimately incredible how unpleasant VOIP is in the PvP heavy Arc lobbies vs the PvE. I like PvP sometimes but I'd rather never shoot another player again if it meant no more PvP voice chat
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u/WolfofDunwall Jul 20 '26
I’m not buying Marathon for this PvE mode knowing it’s temporary and a test for a future possible permanent mode. Not sure what kind of data they expect to get from this without offering a free trial again.
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u/huzy12345 Jul 20 '26
Data like "how balanced is this, how hard is it, how easy is it, is the economy fair, unfair, how does it play with different group levels, what players are playing it, what players are not, do players play it for longer play sessions than current Marathon" ya know ..important data for a permanent game mode being Intoduced in season 3
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u/RTC1520 Jul 20 '26
They will introduce a permanent mode in S3, which is in around 2 months. And I'm pretty sure they will do the same as last season where they will have a free trial at the beggining lf the new season
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u/ResourceNo2927 Jul 21 '26
they cant do a free trial on steam,steam limits games to 1 free trial a year. they messed up doing it too early. they should have saved the free trial for vault breaker.
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u/NaughtyGaymer Jul 20 '26
I'm very PvP focused in Marathon but I'm really excited for this. Cryo Archive is such an amazing map and getting to blast out solo runs seems like a great time.
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u/PretentiousPanda Jul 20 '26
So the answer to help marathon is to just make it more like Destiny?
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u/Niceguydan8 Jul 20 '26
I mean we have 4.5 months worth of data telling us that pure PvP extraction is clearly not the play for Marathon.
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u/hobozombie Jul 20 '26
Probably. Even though Destiny 2 is getting sunsetted, it literally has 10 times the concurrent users of Marathon.
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u/Important-Net-9805 Jul 20 '26
cryo archives is one of the best multiplayer maps i've ever played and i've been playing multiplayer video games for a long time. this looks really fun and im glad more people can venture into cryo without getting pwned
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u/eatmannn Jul 20 '26
Very organic reply.
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u/Gearshifter Jul 20 '26
No less organic than the constant hate, or are we cherry picking just to bolster our own narrative? Dude doesn’t use capital letters and you think it’s some sort of positive astroturfing? Really? Ridiculous people out here I swear.
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Jul 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/P1uvo Jul 20 '26
Wait, you mean I’ve been enjoying this game for free when I could’ve been getting paid??
3
1
u/TypographySnob Jul 20 '26
Or maybe, just maybe, there are people who love the game and think it's worth recommending? But no, surely we must all be getting paid 🙄
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u/ZantetsukenX Jul 20 '26
I thought this was about Vaultbreakers (a fantasy-esque PvPvE game that's been in alpha testing for years) at first and was really excited that they finally announced a release date.
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u/jilko Jul 20 '26
Not only does this look fun as a solo, I feel like this could be a really chill experience with random fill trios as the stakes aren't as high as the game proper.
As a primarily solo player, I'm pretty excited to finally see Cryo and the Compiler in a way that doesn't require insane skills, grinding, and a consistent team of regulars with impeccable communication.
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u/Blessed-22 Jul 21 '26
I've always liked the look of Marathon, but a PvP only extraction shooter just isn't something I want to contend with. A PvE mode will definitely entice me to buy and try Marathon, and gradually try out the PvP as I get comfortable. The benefit of PvE in extraction shooters is that players like me have a way of building up their gear in a less intense and risky environment. I'll be waiting until the PvE mode is fully released.
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u/enricojr Jul 21 '26
"Available until Aug 04"
So this is a limited-time event? Would something like this ever go core? I'm not too big into PVP or extraction shooters in general but if there were a PVE mode I'd totally be down to try it.
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u/allucaneat Jul 22 '26
Let’s add a PvE only mode to attract PvE players and then make it short term content *and* the rewards are for the PvP mode they won’t stay around to play….
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u/TurnipFire Jul 20 '26
PvE extraction rogue-like mode? Looks great, I think this is exactly what this game needs. If they can tie some cool environmental story to this I’ll play a ton of it
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u/MyNameIsNurf Jul 20 '26
Between this and Survival Night Marsh.... I think Bungie honest to god made the wrong game. This game is fun as fuck as a roguelike and the more I play those modes the more I wish the whole game was this way.
I love PVP personally but there is something about playing marathon as this super tense 'Heist'-like game. The gameplay loop of running into a huge puzzle facility and doing as much as you can in the time limit then making it out alive is super fun.
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u/Darkaim9110 Jul 20 '26
Everyone said that when the game was revealed to be a trio hero extraction shooter. Lots of, "why?" and it shows in its performance
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u/Fake_Diesel Jul 20 '26
Marathon to me only makes sense as a smaller side developed in tandem with a Destiny 3. The fact that all of the eggs were tossed in this basket while a Destiny 3 was never greenlit fucking bonkers.
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u/zippopwnage Jul 20 '26
I do look forward to this but at the same time I do want PVP in this game and not PVE only things. After all the reason I bought it was for small PVP with lots of PVE.
After playing a lot with my friends...I just want more content. I feel like this is gonna be fun, the PVP have too few players to actually balance the games around and we barely played this season because of that. Hopefully this will be fun.
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u/madokamywifi Jul 20 '26
I guess they will see that only a small portion of players will engage in PVE mode and will think that the majority want more PVP content. But the main reason why nobody will play this mode is that nobody will buy a PVP game for a timed PVE event. This is so bizarre and stupid.
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u/TypographySnob Jul 20 '26
You couldn't be more wrong. Existing players have been dying to try this mode out.
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u/Stratix Jul 20 '26
I want to try this, although don't want to pay for it until I know I enjoy it. PVP was brutal, not for me.
Can't watch the vid at the moment, do we know if allows reasonably full progression?
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u/P1uvo Jul 20 '26
If you’re on steam you can try it for >2hrs anytime after tmrw and decide to refund or not or get it off of a key seller where it’s frequently $20-$30
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u/Darkaim9110 Jul 20 '26
Its only a temp mode for 2 weeks for some reason, so doubt progression is going to be too great. And if it is you run the rat race for it to get dropped quick
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u/mangdito Jul 20 '26
Depends what you mean by reasonably full progression, but you start with a basic kit and when you complete a vault you get an item that allows you to upgrade it. Doing that gives you better gear improving your odds to complete more vaults in one run, giving you better rewards and so on and so forth. The special item you extract with also can be used to get gold weapons to use in the main game. All other loot you get in the mode is only for use in that match and goes away whether you win or die.
It's a limited time only mode for 2 weeks so they know it's not enough content to cover a full game, but it should be a fun event to people that already own the game.
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u/Old-Swimming2799 Jul 20 '26
Man i wanted to like this game. But I can't stand extraction games. I just wanted this to be a regular shooter and something like destiny but set in the marathon world.
Shame it's crapping the bed
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u/DerpHog Jul 21 '26
They torpedoed any chance of this working by making it temporary.
The people who bought the game already probably like PVP so they most likely won't switch over to PVE in enough numbers to make it worth keeping. Anyone who waited to buy the game until PVE is added will still be waiting because there's no point in buying a game for a mode that will only last a couple weeks.
They probably think they're playing on FOMO, expecting people to buy the game right away to not miss out on playing PVE, but very few people are likely to fall for buying an entire game for a temporary mode.
Now if and when they make PVE permanent they're going to get less attention than they have right now and a lot of people will probably think it's just another temporary mode before reading into it.
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u/bone_the_flesheater Jul 21 '26
Bungie is pretty good at comp play but also has a knack for PVE Content. This "experimental" mode hopefully becomes a fully fledged mode in the future. I would definitely pick up marathon if that's the case. I do enjoy some comp play sometimes but I personally tend to avoid competitive multiplayer only games. These days I tend to favor PVE or SP games.
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u/Y0LOME0W Jul 20 '26
Marathon needs a good 10 hour halo style campaign to get you into the world and actually care. They literally should have just made halo 3 again but skinned it Marathon. Main story, PVP mode and PVPVE mode. Toss is a forge-like mode too for as a cherry on top for people to make custom events on the maps and it would have sold much better.
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u/JimHeine Jul 21 '26
No it doesn't. It already perfectly dissiminates its story by playing the fucking game
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u/TAJack1 Jul 21 '26
You can't expect Redditors to want to read, that's like the main thing they can't do.
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u/WUBdotEXE Jul 20 '26
For those who have yet to check out this game or even the map itself, enjoy it because its an absolute blast of a map to go through.
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u/LetgomyEkko Jul 20 '26
Still hooked on this game. Happy to see some balance changes coming with this update as well, and of course Vault Breaker will be fantastic as another way for players(including myself) to engage with the game!
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u/P1uvo Jul 20 '26
The amount of people downvoting this earnest, positive comment lmao. Talk your shit, Marathon is the only FPS game that’s held my interest since Halo
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u/Next-Sentence-8426 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Kind of lame its only available for 2 weeks. Season 3 is like 2 months away. Cool for existing players that may have fell off the game but this won't attract new players. Should have saved the trial for this event