Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Bungie's 1994 game Marathon is the "'O Brother Where Art Thou" of First-Person Shooters. The first time around you'll be going: "WTF?" so often that you can be forgiven if you walk away on a sour note. However, something about it sticks with you, and when you go back, it's way better on that second viewing. Once you make peace with the weirdness, you'll be singing its praises.
Heck, I even do a reasonable job on getting most of the secrets here. Huh. I did miss a few because they are too risky to pull off without crutching on mid-level saves. Also, the developer credits terminal in Ingue Ferroque on TC ain't happening. You cannot survive that ambush.
I'll give Marathon one thing, it's core shooty mc-boom-boom bits have aged exceptionally well for an early-mid 90s shooter. Even when the difficulty is cranked up to its most sadistic, Marathon's combat is never what I'd call unfair, mostly thanks to the total lack of hit-scan enemies and weapons (yes, the bullets in this game are not true hit-scanners but rather very fast projectiles.)
That's not to say there isn't a bunch of 'got-cha' nonsense here but the game does get better once you know what you're in for and go looking for all the secret goodies and extra lore.
Chapter List:
0:00 Intro
0:32 Chapter 1: Arrival
0:40 Arrival
6:21 Bigger Guns Nearby
13:02 Never Burn Money
25:10 Chapter 2: Counterattack
25:17 Defend This!
37:01 Couch Fishing
45:34 The Rose
1:00:41 Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Likes Chicken!
1:10:56 Cool Fusion
1:23:27 G4 Sunbathing
1:31:34 Blaspheme Quarantine
1:43:32 Chapter 3: Reprisal
1:43:39 BoB-B-Q
1:55:26 Shake Before Using
2:03:11 Chapter 4: Durandal
2:03:18 Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
2:10:49 Colony Ship for Sale, Cheap
2:22:00 Habe Quiddam
2:31:53 Neither High nor Low
2:44:20 Chapter 5: The Pfhor
2:44:27 Pfhor Your Eyes Only...
2:51:22 No Artificial Colors
3:00:26 Unpfhorgiven
3:08:17 Two Times Two Equals...
3:15:07 Beware Of Low-Flying Defense Drones...
3:21:54 Eupfhoria
3:28:55 Pfhoraphobia
3:34:12 Ain't Got Time Pfhor This...
3:40:29 Chapter 6: Rebellion
3:40:37 Welcome to the Revolution...
3:50:39 Try again
4:03:00 Ingue Ferroque
4:08:51 Ending
Bungie's 1994 game Marathon is the "'O Brother Where Art Thou" of First-Person Shooters. The first time around you'll be going: "WTF?" so often that you can be forgiven if you walk away on a sour note. However, something about it sticks with you, and when you go back, it's way better on that second viewing. Once you make peace with the weirdness, you'll be singing its praises.
Heck, I even do a reasonable job on getting most of the secrets here. Huh. I did miss a few because they are too risky to pull off without crutching on mid-level saves. Also, the developer credits terminal in Ingue Ferroque on TC ain't happening. You cannot survive that ambush.
I'll give Marathon one thing, it's core shooty mc-boom-boom bits have aged exceptionally well for an early-mid 90s shooter. Even when the difficulty is cranked up to its most sadistic, Marathon's combat is never what I'd call unfair, mostly thanks to the total lack of hit-scan enemies and weapons (yes, the bullets in this game are not true hit-scanners but rather very fast projectiles.)
That's not to say there isn't a bunch of 'got-cha' nonsense here but the game does get better once you know what you're in for and go looking for all the secret goodies and extra lore.
Chapter List:
0:00 Intro
0:32 Chapter 1: Arrival
0:40 Arrival
6:21 Bigger Guns Nearby
13:02 Never Burn Money
25:10 Chapter 2: Counterattack
25:17 Defend This!
37:01 Couch Fishing
45:34 The Rose
1:00:41 Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Likes Chicken!
1:10:56 Cool Fusion
1:23:27 G4 Sunbathing
1:31:34 Blaspheme Quarantine
1:43:32 Chapter 3: Reprisal
1:43:39 BoB-B-Q
1:55:26 Shake Before Using
2:03:11 Chapter 4: Durandal
2:03:18 Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
2:10:49 Colony Ship for Sale, Cheap
2:22:00 Habe Quiddam
2:31:53 Neither High nor Low
2:44:20 Chapter 5: The Pfhor
2:44:27 Pfhor Your Eyes Only...
2:51:22 No Artificial Colors
3:00:26 Unpfhorgiven
3:08:17 Two Times Two Equals...
3:15:07 Beware Of Low-Flying Defense Drones...
3:21:54 Eupfhoria
3:28:55 Pfhoraphobia
3:34:12 Ain't Got Time Pfhor This...
3:40:29 Chapter 6: Rebellion
3:40:37 Welcome to the Revolution...
3:50:39 Try again
4:03:00 Ingue Ferroque
4:08:51 Ending
