Two massive additions to Marathon have me optimistic for its imminent return—but only slightly

Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon is coming back again at the end of October, about a month past its initial release date, as part of more closed testing.

The developer says it has “run several closed playtests to gather feedback” on the game since June, including a reported test that was paying gamers up to $500 for daily activity. Now, this “closed technical test” coming in a few weeks is a bit wider in scope, but no less important.

Marathon’s closed alpha test earlier this year did not go well for Bungie, and as such, the game was delayed to allow for more work on the FPS. But already, it sounds like the title may be vastly improved from what we played in April.

“This is an important checkpoint for us as we test our improvements since Alpha, including three maps, five runner shells, prox chat, re-tuned combat pacing, solo queue, deeper environmental storytelling, and more,” Bungie said. “That said, the Technical Test build is a work in progress and will only include a portion of what’s planned for Marathon’s full release, focused on the early player experience.”

Proximity chat and a solo queue are two of the biggest complaints players had in the closed alpha, so this already being confirmed in the game and ready for further testing is huge. Previously, you could only queue up in a group, which is obviously a difficult ask for solo players, and proximity chat with others seems to be an important feature for those who love the genre.

I think the most important part of the game, that combat pacing, will be the biggest one to determine whether this game has any juice. I’m not the biggest extraction shooter fan, but even those who enjoy the genre did not have many nice things to say about the core gameplay loop in the alpha.

Leaks from the playtest earlier this month pointed to several new playable characters and maps, and it sounds like they will also be available in this new test. This test will run from Oct. 22 to 28 on PC, PS5, and Xbox, and is invite only via an application on Bungie’s site.

Bungie said it will “be sharing a public update on Marathon’s development in the coming months” after this next test concludes, so news on a potential new release date could be forthcoming.

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