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Video Game Chat / Marathon 2--Worst. XBLA Game. Ever.
« on: August 11, 2007, 05:06:35 PM »
In case you haven't noticed, a game came out on the Xbox Live Arcade recently called "Marathon: Durandal." It was made by Bungie, the same company that created Halo, but the Marathon trilogy began in 1994 on the Mac. Marathon Durandal is a first-person shooter, but be warned--just because you like Halo, doesn't mean you'll like Marathon. Allow me to explain.
1--UNNECESSARY CHURNING OF THE STOMACH. Marathon 2's graphics and framerate have caused MANY players to get a bad case of motion sickness and/or headaches. I, myself, now have a headache that still hasn't gone away after 2 hours, and had to take medicine to make sure that I don't barf all over the place. Thanks Marathon.
2--UNCANNY SIMILARITIES TO DOOM. You all know Doom--arguably the first shooting game to ever become famous. Lemme tell you something. Doom came before Marathon. But they both look and play exactly the same. Doom has 2D sprites set in a 3D environment, just like Marathon. Also, when one Doom monster accidentally shot another, they'd beat each other up. For some reason Bungie thought it would be a good idea to copy that unique aspect and incorporate it into their game. Marathon fans always say "well it's the storyline of Marathon that sets the 2 franchises apart!" Um. Since when was story more important than gameplay?
3--HORRENDOUS WAY OF TELLING THE STORY. This is really where it gets ugly. In order for the game to progress you must find dozens of computer terminals everywhere and read oceans of brightly-colored text in order to find out your next objective, or even to find out the story as it goes along. This is a poor way of storytelling. I find it rather annoying to have to stop what I'm doing to read a computer, and then another, and another, etc.
Final Analysis--The game fails, big time. Don't download it if you don't feel like getting motion sickness.
1--UNNECESSARY CHURNING OF THE STOMACH. Marathon 2's graphics and framerate have caused MANY players to get a bad case of motion sickness and/or headaches. I, myself, now have a headache that still hasn't gone away after 2 hours, and had to take medicine to make sure that I don't barf all over the place. Thanks Marathon.
2--UNCANNY SIMILARITIES TO DOOM. You all know Doom--arguably the first shooting game to ever become famous. Lemme tell you something. Doom came before Marathon. But they both look and play exactly the same. Doom has 2D sprites set in a 3D environment, just like Marathon. Also, when one Doom monster accidentally shot another, they'd beat each other up. For some reason Bungie thought it would be a good idea to copy that unique aspect and incorporate it into their game. Marathon fans always say "well it's the storyline of Marathon that sets the 2 franchises apart!" Um. Since when was story more important than gameplay?
3--HORRENDOUS WAY OF TELLING THE STORY. This is really where it gets ugly. In order for the game to progress you must find dozens of computer terminals everywhere and read oceans of brightly-colored text in order to find out your next objective, or even to find out the story as it goes along. This is a poor way of storytelling. I find it rather annoying to have to stop what I'm doing to read a computer, and then another, and another, etc.
Final Analysis--The game fails, big time. Don't download it if you don't feel like getting motion sickness.
