Is Marathon a Hero Shooter?

Summary

Marathon is not a hero shooter, but a PvPvE extraction shooter with customizable Runners and gear choices.
Runners in Marathon can be altered based on gear choices, offering unique gameplay experiences.
The game falls on a spectrum between player agency and predetermined abilities, with unique upgrades and gear options.

Much to the hype of Bungie fans, the studio delivered on its promise of sharing more about Marathon, its world and the impact of the previous games on it, and what the game looks like when played - including footage from content creators. With the recent reveal of Marathon's gameplay and the accompanying interview with developers discussing the various Runners, features, and plans, many gamers were left with questions regarding the title's extraction shooter identity. For example, many worry that Marathon's premium price and three maps on launch will mean it doesn't have a fighting chance in the extraction shooter space due to little offering for a not-so-low price.

Another big question that is being asked a lot online is whether Marathon is a hero shooter, considering its huge focus on premade characters and the fact that they each come with their specific abilities. However, the answer to this question is not exactly straightforward due to the nature of Marathon's Runners, what they bring to the table, and what the game entails when it comes to defining what each character can do.

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Posts

By Jo Craig

Why Marathon is Not a Hero Shooter

Marathon is a PvPvE extraction shooter, meaning that players will need to take some of their items into each game and "risk" them for potentially better rewards at the end, as death means losing everything one carried into a match. This includes one's inventory items, for example, but more importantly, it refers to shields, grenades, and weapons themselves. The big difference is that yes, Marathon does feature four different Runners, six in the final build, with their own looks and abilities that may make the game seem like a hero shooter, but at the same time, it offers buildcrafting and the choice of what gear a Runner will use.

This is an important distinction to make, as hero shooters don't allow customization beyond a purely cosmetic level, meaning that all abilities, weapons, equipment, and so on of any given character are predetermined. That's not the case with Marathon, where players will have access to cosmetic customization like other similar games, but the Runners are not fully premade, and the choice of what kind of gear (be it in terms of rarity or quality) one brings into a match will inevitably alter what the character can do. As such, Marathon is not a hero shooter in the classic sense of the term, far from it, but it does have a place on the spectrum.

Why Marathon Has Hero Shooter Elements

If one assumes that there is a spectrum that ranges from games where players have agency over everything their character does, with only predetermined items helping steer the wheel in a given direction, to the opposite where everything about a given character is premade by developers with no control on the players' side, then Marathon falls somewhere in between. Destiny 2's buildcrafting is a big part of the overall experience, for example, and if Marathon's manages to achieve something similar, then the abilities, personalities, and looks of a given Runner won't matter too much in terms of gameplay.

One example that was made during the accompanying developer interview after the gameplay reveal for Marathon was that some upgrades can turn a double-jump into a triple-jump, meaning that players can achieve something very different from before. This, multiplied by various item slots and Runners, and then combined with account-wide progression that further unlocks other boosts, means that players can essentially turn their character into something else entirely when they also equip it with unique gear. Weapons also play a huge role in this, and a more frontline-centric character like Locus can still be played from a distance quite effectively, which wouldn't be possible in a hero shooter.

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