If you've gotten this far in the Marathon trilogy, you already know the song and dance. Enter into a weird maze, hunt for terminals, shoot aliens, get lost in said maze, find another terminal or absurdly positioned teleporter and get to the next level.
And yet, despite Marathon Infinity being almost identical to Marathon 2: Durandal in many (technical/gameplay/artistic) regards, it has this incredible mysticism behind it. Almost certainly within the enigma wrapped in a mystery storytelling that's so strange, so intent on you not figuring it out that you have no choice but to go deeper down the rabbit hole.
Once I beat the last level and the final screen started rolling it didn't quite feel like the 'end' of Marathon (and that's not because of the upcoming soft reboot), but instead like I was presented with a key to comprehending the universe-bending, philosophically inclined, and childishly humoured nature of what Marathon is... at all? Afterwards I spent the next few hours going through the marathon.bungie.org website, piecing together the terminal entries I had already read with the ones I had missed, alongside a plethora of community interpretations, scattered clues, and veiled references in the games Bungie produced for the nearly 30 years afterwards.
That exploration not only within the game, but without is something no other piece of fiction has ever replicated for me, and I cannot get enough of this trilogy's endless bullshit.
Of course, there's still a game attached to the absurd story going on, and it's pretty damn good! The environments are decently varied, enemies are still as fun and threatening to fight as always, with the added sauce of suped-up BOBs both fighting on your side and against. The final level is absolutely my favourite level in the franchise, with how it puts together all of the best bits of Marathon (listening to the terminals for advice, your own exploration, a bunch of slick combat encounters, and gorgeously strange environment art) into an epic conclusion.
4.5/5 - "See ya starside."
And yet, despite Marathon Infinity being almost identical to Marathon 2: Durandal in many (technical/gameplay/artistic) regards, it has this incredible mysticism behind it. Almost certainly within the enigma wrapped in a mystery storytelling that's so strange, so intent on you not figuring it out that you have no choice but to go deeper down the rabbit hole.
Once I beat the last level and the final screen started rolling it didn't quite feel like the 'end' of Marathon (and that's not because of the upcoming soft reboot), but instead like I was presented with a key to comprehending the universe-bending, philosophically inclined, and childishly humoured nature of what Marathon is... at all? Afterwards I spent the next few hours going through the marathon.bungie.org website, piecing together the terminal entries I had already read with the ones I had missed, alongside a plethora of community interpretations, scattered clues, and veiled references in the games Bungie produced for the nearly 30 years afterwards.
That exploration not only within the game, but without is something no other piece of fiction has ever replicated for me, and I cannot get enough of this trilogy's endless bullshit.
Of course, there's still a game attached to the absurd story going on, and it's pretty damn good! The environments are decently varied, enemies are still as fun and threatening to fight as always, with the added sauce of suped-up BOBs both fighting on your side and against. The final level is absolutely my favourite level in the franchise, with how it puts together all of the best bits of Marathon (listening to the terminals for advice, your own exploration, a bunch of slick combat encounters, and gorgeously strange environment art) into an epic conclusion.
4.5/5 - "See ya starside."