Poll: Marathon is 23 Years Old

[BFG10K]

I don’t usually go for remasters, but the XBLA remake that Aleph One uses is really well done. In particular, I really like the crisp and vibrant textures that stay true to the originals:

Spoiler

Only 43 megabytes for the textures too, a far cry from some multi-gigabyte texture packs in other games that add almost imperceptible improvement to in-game visuals.

Some highlights at the time:

• Free look with the mouse.
• Hold down fire to charge shots.
• Alt fire with multiple ammo types.
• Weapon in each hand, including dual-shotguns.
• Extremely immersive ambient sounds.
• Underwater swimming with associated sounds, physics and visuals.
• Wall recharge stations.
• In-depth story for an FPS.
• A killer series for the Mac platform that made PC gamers jealous.

Marathon 2 is the best game of the three and one of my favorite games of all time. Infinity was really hit & miss - some maps were architectural masterpieces, while others were superficial filler and/or unfair.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I really liked Marathon. I had a Mac at the time and played all these and it was pretty ahead of its time as you pointed out. I also played Doom and the other ID Software games on my friend's PC and they were nowhere near Marathon's quality IMO. Though being on Mac made it far less popular. I think it was the first or one of the first FPS to actually have a story beyond "you have to kill this guy" or "you have to escape the castle" type of generic stories. It solidified Bungie as a developer I had to watch and they went on to make some very good titles with Myth: The Fallen Lords, Oni(did that ever get a legitimate release?), and of course Halo which was heavily influenced by Marathon with the UNSC having insignias on their uniforms of Marathon's main symbol. Whether you liked Halo or not you have to admit that what it did at the time for console gaming, specifically the FPS genre, was pretty exciting in its time.

Anyway I still distinctly remember trying not to kill the Bobs(humans born on board the ship) running around while the Pfhor are attacking and hearing them scream "They're everywhere". Of course a misplaced rocket splattered them.