Storied first-person shooter developer Bungie finally unveiled the gameplay for Marathon on Saturday, giving an in-depth look at the team's next big title, as well as the studio's first new game since Destiny 2 in 2017.
In the lead-up to Saturday, the studio held a fun ARG (alternate reality game) dropping tidbits about Marathon, including snippets of new music and character art. This in turn led up to having a robot controlled by players exploring the Bungie office the morning of the reveal.
You can check out the Marathon gameplay reveal trailer below:
The gameplay shows Runners (the player characters) fighting and killing each other in teams of three with advanced weapons and equipment, while a mysterious voice intones that death is coming for everything.
Marathon is set on Tau Ceti IV, where Runners explore ruins in search of treasures and long-lost AI. There are six types of Runners for players to choose from, evoking different archetypes with special abilities. Four have been revealed so far: Locus, Blackbird, Glitch, and Void.
Marathon is an extraction shooter, meaning the gameplay loop revolves around finding valuables and escaping without being killed. The exact number of players in a match will vary per map, with the map shown in the reveal features 18 players.
As an extraction shooter, Marathon is also a PvPvE game, meaning players have to contend with UESC forces in addition to other runners.
Marathon is something of a quasi-reboot, being developed as a reimagining and a sequel to Bungie's original trilogy of games that carried the same name. Marathon was first announced during the PlayStation Games Showcase in 2023.
The art direction of Marathon stands out from a lot of other shooters, with a unique style shaped under the leadership of Joe Cross, franchise art director, and someone that previously worked on the recent Dune films and Destiny 2.
While Bungie was acquired by PlayStation parent company Sony back in 2022, the studio remains a multiplatform developer that sits next to PlayStation Studios while technically remaining separate. Marathon is a pivotal game for Bungie, which has seen repeated layoffs over the last couple of years.
Players won't be waiting until next year to hop in, as Marathon now has a release date of Sept. 23, 2025. The game is slated to launch across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.
If you want to play even sooner, there's a closed alpha test coming on April 23, though this test is limited to North America.
To close out the reveal, Bungie shared a trailer for Marathon directed by Alberto Miego, who also directed two shorts for the Netflix series Love, Death, and Robots.
The trailer dives into the life of Runners, and how death becomes a blur over time.
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