Marathon review | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these FPS The Marathon server slam consumed my weekend: 21 hours later, I’ve gone from ‘meh’ to believer FPS Marathon ignores extraction shooter ‘rules’ and is better for it FPS Is Marathon’s time-to-kill too fast, or am I too Arc Raiders-pilled? FPS There is nothing like Marathon’s Cryo Archive map FPS Marathon’s Outpost is an extraction map masterclass that has me even more excited for Cryo Archive FPS Marathon: Everything we know about Bungie’s sci-fi extraction shooter FPS If you’re hoping to make friends in Marathon like you can in Arc Raiders, expect a knife in the back FPS Marathon day one check-in: Thief impressions, broken Deluxe Edition bonuses, and so many Assassins FPS Marathon day two check-in: Into the Outpost, an overpowered shotgun, and why I love doors FPS Bungie snuck a bunch of Halo guns into Marathon FPS Bungie is considering a dedicated duos mode and time-to-kill changes after Marathon server slam feedback FPS Marathon Server Slam update: Bungie says if you’re not getting enough PvP action, maybe you’re just not looking for fights in the right places FPS Should Marathon change its divisively fast Server Slam time-to-kill? FPS Hours before its open preview weekend, Marathon is suddenly very close to the top of Steam’s top sellers list FPS 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 Popular PC Gamer ClipsCrimson DesertMarathonBest PC gearGDCQuizzes Games FPS Marathon When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. 90 Marathon review A confident reminder that nobody does an FPS like Bungie. Reviews By Morgan Park published 24 March 2026 12 Comments Join the conversation (Image: © Bungie) Our Verdict Marathon is a brilliant distillation of what makes extraction shooters great, and a glimpse at where they could go next. PC Gamer’s got your back Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware. The nice thing about letting a multiplayer shooter marinate for a few weeks before putting a score on it is that I’ve learned what being high and low on Marathon is like.NEED TO KNOWWhat is it An extraction shooter revival of Bungie’s first FPS series.Release date March 5, 2026Expect to pay $40/£30Publisher SonyDeveloper BungieReviewed on RTX 5090, Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz, 64GB RAMMultiplayer Up to 16 playersSteam Deck UnsupportedLink Official site $38.04View at Amazon $47.94View at Jenson USALow Stock $49.99View at WalmartSee all prices (44 found)I’ve had triumphant nights of tens of thousands in valuables plundered, pried rare guns off the blue-stained corpses of rival squads, and enjoyed a vault resplendent with expensive attachments. I’ve also visited Marathon rock bottom: a cold, unyielding cycle of squad wipes that will almost convince you that Bungie is conspiring against your successful extraction. I’ve scraped together loadouts with my last 3,000 credits just to lose it all, and debased myself with Rook runs into hot zones to take home whatever scraps of Biomass were passed over by richer players.Marathon is brutal. It’s also a marvel.Article continues below You may like The Marathon server slam consumed my weekend: 21 hours later, I’ve gone from ‘meh’ to believer Marathon ignores extraction shooter ‘rules’ and is better for it Is Marathon’s time-to-kill too fast, or am I too Arc Raiders-pilled? Rampant funAfter respecting Destiny from a distance and gritting my teeth over storied FPS makers leaving old school multiplayer behind, I didn’t anticipate that an extraction shooter would be the perfect container for the things Bungie has always done well. Where other competitive shooters squeeze storytelling into the margins, Marathon is drenched in lore.I approach Marathon like most likely will: completely oblivious to the beloved ’90s FPSes where Bungie honed its craft and established a mythology around AI, aliens, and cosmic mysticism that’d later inform the worlds of Halo and Destiny. The very first being in this game is an AI who breaks the news that I’ve left my mortal coil behind. Like other freelancers I’ve, uh, “evolved” into a digital consciousness uploaded to a server in a spaceship—unbound from a physical body and free to embody disposable “shells” in contracted runs on the planet Tau Ceti IV, the site of a human colony that vanished without explanation.The work is hard, the pay is often crap, I’ve experienced death a hundred times, and I’m in debt—but hey, at least I make my own hours. (Image credit: Bungie)Marathon is right up there with Hunt: Showdown in its ability to distill the intensity of extraction shooter fights into repeatable, delectable chunks. And yet it also excels at an Escape From Tarkov brand of loot lust: compounding anxiety and adrenaline as my backpack fills up with stuff I’d sure like not to lose. The way it achieves that PvP focus while still emphasizing loot tells me that Bungie has thought a lot about extraction shooters: Instead of drawing players together with a singular target the whole lobby competes for, Marathon shrinks the average map size for this sort of game.The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware dealsKeep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.With just a handful of compounds on Perimeter, Dire Marsh, and Outpost (the endgame raid map, Cryo Archive, is its own beast), you’re always bound to run into somebody even though nobody shares the same exact goals. The result is, as I wrote after launch, an extraction format where PvP gets to be the star, but itemized loot establishes the stakes:”So now I see the vision. Because most contracts can be completed in just a few minutes, Marathon matches have this bouncy quality where a three-person squad hits up a handful of compounds so everyone can check off their task—and share in the XP—while having a very good cha
