A highly experienced studio that’s best known for its belovedHaloandDestinyfranchises, Bungie is the perfect example of a gaming industry veteran. Founded all the way back in 1991, Bungie has come a long way in the last three decades, and it’s had its fair share of popular franchises along the way. But beforeHaloandDestiny, Bungie tested the waters with an experimental Sci-Fi shooter series namedMarathon, which spawned its own iconic trilogy of games.
All released in the mid-1990s, just one year apart, the originalMarathontrilogy may not be Bungie’s first foray into the gaming landscape, but it’s certainly one of the studio’s most important. A Sci-Fi epic that sees players suit up in power armor and get assistance from an AI, it’s fair to say thatMarathonwent on to heavily inspiretheHalofranchise, but there are some key differences between the two series.
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The Original Marathon Trilogy
Released in December 1994, the first game in the series, simply titledMarathon, was initially marketed as an Apple Macintosh exclusive. Released just one year after themonumentally influentialDoom,Marathonborrowed a lot of elements from the hellish shooter.Marathon’s 3D environments were modeled in a similar way toDoom’s, albeit with some improved dynamic lighting, and the first-person shooting mechanics were fairly similar between the two titles. ButMarathonhad one big advantage overDoom: it had free-look.
One of the earliest adopters of free-look,Marathonwas one of the first games that allowed players to look around their environment freely with the mouse, as opposed to being stuck on a strict horizontal or vertical axis. Each level sees players explore a labyrinth of spaceship corridors and rooms, blasting away aliens and avoiding environmental hazards. While the gameplay is fairly similar to its competitors of the time,Marathon’s plot and storytelling are what lifted it above others.
Set inthe year 2794,Marathonsees players take on the role of an unnamed security officer aboard the UESC Marathon, a spaceship that’s been tasked with creating a colony in the Tau Ceti system. Before they can get there, however, a group of aliens known as the S’pht attack the ship. In each level, players can find a series of terminals that explain the plot and the character’s current objectives. At the time, plot wasn’t often given in-game, with any story usually being relegated to the game’s manual. Over the course ofMarathon’s story, players will work with the AI Leela to push back the alien forces, and try to stop the rampant AI Durandal from destroying the Marathon.
Less than a year later, Bungie releasedMarathon 2: Durandal. Set 17 years after the events of the first game,Marathon 2: Durandalsees the player once gain assume the role of the unnamed security officer as he’s abducted by Durandal and tasked with uncovering the mysteries of the S’pht home world, Lh’owon. With even more twists and turns than its predecessor,Marathon 2feels likemodern-day Bungie, with plenty of religious parallels, ancient civilizations, and rebelling AIs.
With the vast majority ofMarathon 2taking place on an alien planet, the game feels quite a bit different from its predecessor. Bungie added more dynamic lighting effects, more ambient sounds, and much more open-ended environments.Marathon2, both in terms of plot and level design, often feels like a predecessor to theoriginalHalotrilogy, with Bungie clearly taking similar plot outlines and gameplay ideas, and improving upon them over the years.
Much like its predecessor,Marathon 2performed extremely well both critically and commercially, and it wasn’t long before another sequel would release. Launching in October 1996,Marathon Infinityshows that by this point, Bungie knew it had something special, and the developer wasn’t afraid to keep experimenting. WhileMarathon 2took its plot and gameplay one step further, introducing both spaceship sequences and planetside missions,Marathon Infinityturns it up to 11, taking players on an adventure through space and time.
Marathon Infinitywill not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s one fascinating FPS game. Where the last two games saw the player progress linearly through missions, learning objectives from terminals and completing them,Marathon Infinityhas a variety of different level paths and choices, each of which can then lead to a different mission coming next. With a plot that centers around trying to trap an eldritch monster in the sun through the power of dreams,Marathon Infinitycan get very trippy, and it really shows Bungie at its most experimental.
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Marathon’s Influence On Halo
Playing through theMarathontrilogy today, there are some elements that clearly went on to influence theHalofranchise. From a gameplay perspective, there are a few little details that carry over toHalo. For instance,Marathonhas a motion sensor at the top of the screen that shows oncoming threats and allies, and bears a close resemblance to the circular radar found ineveryHalogame. Shields also play a vital role inMarathon, just as they do inHalo.
There are a plethora of plot similarities between the two franchises. One of the most obvious is the inclusion of AI characters. In bothMarathonandHalo, the player is given objectives from an AI, and the AI guides them through the level, giving plenty of lore tidbits along the way.Marathoneven features an AI that suffers Rampancy, which is a prominent part ofCortana’s story inHalo 4.
Marathon’s two alien factions are also very reminiscent ofHalo’s Covenant. Called the S’pht, this alien group inMarathonis a collection of different alien species, all forced to fight alongside each other by the insectoid species the Pfhor. Eventually, the Pfhor’s grasp on the S’pht is weakened, and a civil war breaks out between the two factions, with the S’pht then working alongside the humans to stop their former slavers. A further similarity between the two franchises is that the Pfhor also worship an ancient precursor civilization known as the Jjaro, who have long been extinct, with only their technology surviving, much likeHalo’s Forerunners.
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