Marathon‘s Server Slam is almost at an end, and in between matches I’ve been keeping a close eye on Bungie’s log of feedback and responses to criticisms. I don’t think Marathon’s in a bad place at all, but there are certainly a few areas in which the FPS game needs to improve, ideally in the very short window between now and its full release date. While Bungie has already stated it was looking into areas such as time to kill, UI, and PC performance, it’s thrown two final buzzer beaters onto its list of chores prior to the Server Slam concluding.
The first – and for me, the most important – is that Bungie has acknowledged complaints about the lack of a duo queue in Marathon. In the Server Slam, you could matchmake into solo or trio lobbies. Two friends can of course queue up to play with each other in the same squad, but you’ll either have to let Bungie find you a random solo to join your team, or make peace with the fact you’ll be in a lot of 2v3 gunfights. I had this exact dilemma just this morning before clocking in at PCGamesN Towers – a friend and I crammed in some final games together before the Server Slam closed, but in fear of being outgunned, we decided to fill our squad with a random third who, while gutsy, wasn’t best equipped for a PvP battle…
“We have heard the feedback about duo dedicated lobbies,” Bungie says in a new post on the Marathon Development Team X account. “This has been logged and shared with the team.” So, no full commitment or a ‘we’ll explore it’ promise, but the lack of duo lobbies has at least been noted. I’m unsure if it’s the kind of change that could be made in the handful of days before launch, but hopefully something comes to fruition soon.
Bungie also says that it has seen grumbles about not being able to unbind all of Marathon’s inputs, and has added that to its long list of feedback, too.
In the post, the developer also reaffirms that it’s looking at the effectiveness of Marathon’s UI and UX, arguably the biggest moan I’ve seen over the course of the weekend, and one I sympathize with. Transferring and equipping items from your vault or from loot sources mid-game is clunky right now – though admittedly, the potential keybinding change could allow you to make your own system that works more naturally for you. It’s also frustrating that a lot of the Cores and Mods for your character’s loadout look identical, so you have to spend time hovering over each just to find out what each one actually is.
On top of everything I’ve just mentioned, Bungie’s also going to look at PC performance issues, the ammo and healing item economy, TTK for PvP engagements, and improvements to the movement system. These are some fairly chunky topics to take on before the Marathon release date arrives on Thursday, March 5, so I’m not that confident we’ll see everything addressed before then. However, does that mean I’m not going to be there from minute one? Absolutely not. I’m intrigued to see if Marathon keeps me invested in the long term, but after this weekend’s introduction, I’m incredibly keen to jump back in.
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