Bungie Universe
This topic has moved here: Subject: Bungie should remaster Marathon
  • Subject: Bungie should remaster Marathon
Subject: Bungie should remaster Marathon

Keep It Clean!

Kinda like what 343 did with Halo CE. Of course this is only an idea and is open for discussion, even so I would like to see it remade. They could enhance story and rake in a quite a few Marathon fans (such as myself).

  • 11.20.2011 7:34 PM PDT
  •  | 
  • Noble Heroic Member

"A life lived for others is the only life worth living" - Albert Einstein

"I have your RCON right here." - Iggwilv

"Always my pleasure to be lazy." - InvasionImminent

They kind of already did with the Xbox Live version of Marathon 2. It would be cool to see it brought into a current generation engine, but that would take away time from building the future of Bungie. Personally, I'm more interested in what they're doing right now. :P

  • 11.20.2011 7:36 PM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

EXTREME PREJUDICE

Posted by: Blue Coffee Mug
They could enhance story and rake in a quite a few Marathon fans (such as myself).

Keyword there being few.

  • 11.20.2011 7:37 PM PDT

Keep It Clean!

Have a good point there

  • 11.20.2011 7:38 PM PDT

It's been a while. Have any new upcoming projects been unveiled or even talked about?

  • 11.20.2011 7:42 PM PDT

Keep It Clean!

What there doing right now is what they have been doing for so long I am glad that you brought this up. Bungie is one that always does something new, to be out in the open and making something completely different, they are not ones who milk on franchises. Remaking Marathon might be put to another game developer, even so it would be interesting and it might get some of my friends in to the Marathon series.

  • 11.20.2011 7:43 PM PDT

Keep It Clean!

@halofreak33 not really it just might something to think about.

  • 11.20.2011 7:44 PM PDT

"That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what.

Now try how and why."

I'd be lying if I said I don't understand the whole "Bungie needs to make another marathon game!" thing. I do. I've been there. I thought to myself "hey, this game has such a kick ass story and was so awesome at the time. They should make one now, it would kick so much ass!"

Then, after seeing numerous attempts at remakes fall flat, I realized something: Marathon was a product of it's time. It's story worked so well because it was set up in scattered text. Nowadays, it would look quaint. That isn't to say that Marathon's story doesn't have far more narrative depth than the average game even up to today, but baring massive presentation changes, it might not work so well. One might immediately object to this by saying "well, they could change some stuff." But that's the point, one of the things that made Marathon work was it's presentation.

Aside from that, the overall level structure would be nigh impossible to pull off today without a fully dedicated team of designers. One of the reasons games are shorter nowadays isn't because designers are getting lazy, it's because the increased amount of time it takes to create content as things get more complicated is nothing short of exponential.

Lastly, the game would look silly. Play Doom. Now play doom 3. Notice a difference? One of the advantages that designers had fifteen years ago was that people expected lower fidelity content, and were content with filling in the details using their imagination. The characters and art style in Marathon lends itself exceptionally well to this. It isn't quite cartoonish; it isn't quite realistic. As visual fidelity increases, however, the more that graphics have to declare what they are. It wouldn't affect me, but I can't imagine Bungie dedicating an entire team to something that wouldn't be commercially viable.

And I wouldn't want them to either. Look at it this way, bungie could spend their time trying to retread old grounds for a result that might not even be that great, or they could spend their time working on something that I can't even imagine at this point.

At that isn't to say I don't want more Marathon. No, I want Marathon, but I want to see what someone else makes of it. For the most part, that's what the community has been doing for over ten years, and they're damn good at it at this point.

It would also be interesting to see if someone took the "idea" of marathon and did something really unexpected and wonderful with it rather than just trying to port it pixel for pixel to another engine. I wonder how that would turn out...

  • 11.20.2011 11:29 PM PDT