The Bungie Studio announced the transfer of the Marathon Extract Shuther release on September 23. It is reported that this decision was made based on the results of active discussion within the development team and careful analysis of feedback from players received during the past alpha testing and various communication channels.
According to the developers, additional time will allow them to create a “more stressful and risky gameplay”, which underlies Marathon. They expressed gratitude to the community for the feedback and patience, emphasizing that the players’ voice was heard.
In the coming months, the studio will continue to carry out closed tests to introduce improvements to gameplay and check new functions. Among the priority areas are the strengthening of survival elements, the creation of more complex and fascinating meetings from AI, as well as an increase in the value of passages due to new types of Lut and dynamic events. It is also planned to strengthen the tension and strategic depth of battles.
In addition, the developers intend to pay more attention to the Marathon universe, improving visual details, adding more narrative and environmental stories, as well as making the tone more gloomy, corresponding to the topics of the original trilogy. The gameplay when playing alone and a couple will be improved, and a Proximity chat (voice chat with closest players) will also appear, the absence of which many criticized. The studio promises to share information about the progress and the new date of the game’s release later this fall.