Marathon's creative director says Bungie 'wanted to push the boundaries of what an extraction shooter can do with its story' as it goes head to head with Arc Raiders' evolving world

In the time since Marathon's controversial public alpha, Bungie returned to the drawing board to make major changes and even introduce new features like proximity chat, solos, and Rook, effectively a free loadout option. At this point, the changes seem to be having a positive effect on fans who were previously not too impressed with what Bungie was showing.

While it's much more subtle and nebulous than these changes, Bungie has also claimed it's "doubling down on the dark, gritty, and grounded sci-fi world" through an updated visual style, "deepened environmental storytelling", and the narrative-tracking Codex.

This focus on narrative and world in an extraction shooter is rather hard to understand without seeing it in action. Nevertheless, when Bungie announced the voice cast for Marathon, with the likes of Samantha Béart, Roger Clark, Darin De Paul, Jennifer English, Neil Newbon, and Ben Starr, I was very taken aback. It's stacked, especially for a game like this.

Marathon's creative director, Julia Nardin, explains that the team "wanted to push the boundaries of what an extraction shooter can do with its story", going on to say that "Tau Ceti might appear abandoned, but the world of Marathon is very much alive and populated by an incredible cast."

What this means exactly remains to be seen, but it certainly points in the right direction—a deeper world with more storytelling and worldbuilding than you'd expect from a multiplayer game, much less an extraction shooter. Don't expect a linear, traditional narrative, I'm sure, but more fleshed-out lore, factions, and ongoing developments on Tau Ceti sound realistic.

Of course, it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room, Arc Raiders, which has also pushed for more of a narrative approach, with an evolving world and threats. It's not long ago that we unlocked the Stella Montis map, an abandoned research lab in the mountains, through a community event.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bungie is attempting something similar, especially with the studio's history and the army of famous voices on the project.