Over 143,000 players are testing Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon on Steam. But alongside praise for the gunplay and atmosphere, there is significant criticism of the TTK, movement, and UI.
On February 26, 2026, Bungie launched the big server slam for the extraction shooter Marathon on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. This free test run, which is open to everyone, serves as a stress test for the developers’ infrastructure ahead of the March 5 launch.
And although – or perhaps because – the game was the subject of heated debate in the run-up to its release, the numbers are skyrocketing. According to data from
A massive assault on Tau Ceti IV
In Server Slam, you explore a limited section of the game: Two maps are available:
Perimeter and Dire Marsh on the planet Tau Ceti IV.
Here, you’ll complete your first contracts for five factions, earn experience points, and test six different Runner hulls—that’s what the classes are called in Marathon. The catch: your progress will be reset upon release. Everything starts from scratch again on March 5.
But you won’t be starting completely from scratch: Those who reach Runner Levels 10 and 30 will receive equipment caches and cosmetic items for the full version.
Praise for atmosphere and gunplay
Many testers have expressed positive opinions about the unique art style on social media. Bungie’s signature hit feedback also seems to be a hit in Marathon:
- Covenic: “The gunplay is good and crisp, the world is beautiful, and I see the handling of the setting much more positively than most of the testers.”
- nekomochas: “The match I just experienced on Dire Marsh came damn close to the tension and excitement of Hunt Showdown.”
Criticism of time-to-kill, movement, and user interface
Despite its strong foundations, there is loud criticism of important gameplay decisions: One major point of contention is currently the time-to-kill. Many testers feel that the time it takes for a character to die is far too short, but other elements are also being criticized:
- sevintoid: “I’ve spent over 100 hours in the alphas, and I’m still not sure if I’m going to buy the game. […] PvP feels extremely unrewarding to me. When I kill a runner, I don’t feel any excitement because the time-to-kill feels so short that I don’t feel like I really needed any skill to make the kill. And when I die, I never really feel like I’ve been outplayed. It feels more like Call of Duty with a cool sci-fi twist than a typical Bungie game.”
- Zhakalaka: » I was actually quite excited to try out the test, but I just can’t get over how sluggish and cumbersome the movement feels. Small things are also annoying, such as not being able to slide directly out of a jump – even though we have a double jump at the same time. Thematically, that makes no sense to me at all.”
- dustiwang: » The user interface of this game is miserable compared to Arc – as is the fluidity of the movements. Arc definitely has something special.”
Bungie is collecting extensive telemetry data from your matches in the current Server Slam and evaluating feedback from the community at the same time. Nevertheless, we think it’s unlikely that the studio will be able to implement any profound changes to the time-to-kill, movement, or user interface before the release in a few days. It seems more realistic that major balance and design adjustments will only follow after the launch.
