Marathon patch notes for its latest update have been released, and include a drastic reduction in grenade stack sizes, in a move to downplay the prevalence of grenade spam in the game.
In a post made by the official Marathon development team social media account, a breakdown of the new changes made to the game have been listed. Right at the top in bold is written: “The one about grenade stacks”, so it’s the prime change with this update.
This has been a hot topic among Marathon players due to the prevalence of a “grenade meta”, where instead of shooting at each other, players were throwing grenades over and over again at enemy players during fights. This proved frustrating for many players and devalued the typical shooting approach of this first-person shooter.
What this update has done to grenades is this: The EMP, flechette, chem, frag, and heat grenades have all had their maximum stack size reduced to one. This means you’ll be able to carry roughly half the number of grenades in your inventory than you could before the update.
Claymore stack sizes have been reduced to two per stack, with sponsored kits and The Rook only coming with two claymores as opposed to the three they previously had.
Utility grenades, including proximity sensors, smoke grenades, and ammo crates, have retained their three-per-stack size. After all, you weren’t able to throw these over and over to kill other players.
Will this change work? Well, it will certainly shorten the duration of grenade spam by a significant amount. An enemy player with an inventory full of grenades will still be able to throw them at you from a distance, but it shouldn’t be such a drastic momentum halter. These grenades, which haven’t reduced in power, should still be strong in certain situations, so a frag here and there will still be a valid option.
It’s worth noting the patch has brought other changes as well. The C.A.R.R.I armoury has received various improvements and bug fixes, a UI bug related to enemy eliminations has been squashed, and secure vents have been added to Cryo Archive to prevent spawn rushing.
If you’ve not played Marathon, you can find out what all the hype is about in Eurogamer’s Marathon review. In it, Rick Lane writes: “Marathon is far more than a cool aesthetic draped over the bones of an extraction shooter.”
