Before the Halo series and whatever they did after that, game studio Bungie cut their development teeth on a first person shooter series called Marathon, released primarily on Apple Macintosh computers in the middle 1990s. While I was enjoying the joys of this new genre on the Atari Jaguar and then the Sony PlayStation, PC and Mac elites got the best of the best, and Marathon 2: Durandal was one of the best.
For some reason, perhaps riding high on all that Halo 3 cash, Bungie re-released Marathon 2: Durandal on the XBox 360 as simply Marathon: Durandal in 2008. Fast forward to 2020 where I am equipped with a new sense of direction in terms of playing old games I missed over the years as well as a gift card for the online store, enabling a very cheap purchase of this forgotten masterpiece.
It’s a science fiction first person shooter a la Doom, but with aliens. If that sounds standard, it is, but it’s all those Bungie idiosyncrasies that make it shine. Weapons are standard- pistol, shotgun, and up the chain - but ammo can be scarce at times forcing one to get proficient at each one’s use. In one level, I was down to fists for a time. Enemies are generic aliens too, but with AI weirdness that the player can discover quite by accident, such as by observing the horde of aliens that had just spawned begin fighting among themsleves because one stepped into the line of fire of the other.
Level design is outstanding, and of course unorthodox. In one level I was vexed for a time because I couldn't find a save point, only to realize that it was partially submerged in a pool of acid. One has to take damage to use it, but it's right next to a health station, so no foul. My gaming instincts ruled out the idea that the save point could be in the acid pool, until I was cornered and forced to dive in and check.
One will spend a lot of time in vats of acid, falling into pools of lava, and diving into water levels, all the time managing oxygen levels as well as health bars. This is a standard nineties shooter, so there will be switches to find, but no Doom-style secret doors that I remember. But there are secrets of a sort. In addition to managing the above, save points can at times be few and far between, and at other times casually close. It is worth backtracking to a distant save point after a tough fight, as enemies can spawn right on top of the player, and one cannot push through them in tight spaces. Death can occur suddenly.
The backstory unfolds on monitors one finds scattered throughout the levels, bringing the player up to speed with the events of the first game and narrating the context of the action as one plays. It unfolds gloriously and I would not recommend skipping any of them because the story is so well crafted. I honestly found the storyline more engaging than the one that accompanies Halo.
Marathon: Durandal was extremely fun and engaging, full of surprises, and is a great way for any middle aged gamer to enjoy classic shooter gameplay with some refreshing twists. An additonal point of satisfaction for me is that classic games I missed are becoming available in ways that does not require the setup of every classic system to play them.
Right now, thanks to Microsoft's XBox backwards compatibility initiative, my XBox One has games from three generations on its hard drive waiting for me to play. I am fairly certain with the XBox Series X release, they have continued that program onto a fourth consecutive generation of their console. While not yet as comprehensive as I would like, it is a welcome change which allows me to jump all over their vast software library and find something old or new to play.
Which fits perfect with my newfound wanderlust through decades of gaming. So, good job, Microsoft.
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