Marathon Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Marathon Review After Week 1

Episode Date: March 10, 2026
Hosts: Snowbike Mike, Fran Marabella III, Jerrica Hannah
Main Theme: A detailed review and roundtable discussion of Bungie’s new extraction shooter, Marathon, after its first weekend post-launch.

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Episode Overview

This episode brings together Kinda Funny’s panel (Snowbike Mike and Fran Marabella III) with guest Jerrica Hannah (JK Games) to provide a thorough “week one” review of Bungie’s highly-anticipated extraction shooter, Marathon. The crew shares first impressions, gameplay experiences, how Marathon stacks up against its shooter and extraction siblings, the deep systems and mechanics at play, and what makes this a fresh (and punishing) experience from the creators of Destiny and Halo.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Panel Backgrounds & Extraction Shooter Experience

• Fran Marabella III
  • Has covered Destiny extensively but admits it’s not his “all-time favorite” game, despite a deep respect for Bungie’s longtime design philosophy:

    "I just like the feel of Bungie games...I love their gun feel. I was a huge Halo fan..." (09:59)

  • Experience with extraction shooters: was drawn in by Tarkov during the pandemic and appreciates its “Dark Souls” level of punishing risk-reward. Has hundreds of hours in Arc Raiders as well.
• Jerrica Hannah
  • A longtime PvE Destiny raider (“God Slayer” title), but extraction shooters are new territory for her. Noted that while her Destiny crew is now playing Arc Raiders, she spent the weekend jumping between Arc Raiders and Marathon to compare the experiences.

    "Not my thing. I'm not an Extraction girly. But my Destiny crew...playing the crap out of Arc Raiders...I was like, alright, I gotta do it for science." (08:47)

• Snowbike Mike
  • Has forced himself and Kinda Funny friends to sample every extraction shooter released, loves the tension and “thrill” of games like Tarkov. Chasing that high with each new release.

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2. Launch Features & Core Gameplay

• Game Basics

  • Released March 5, 2026 for $39.99 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S.
  • Launch Content:
    • 3 maps (Perimeter, Dire Marsh, Outpost—ramped by difficulty/complexity, with a 4th Cryo Archive map in progress)
    • 7 player “shells” (classes)—6 squad-ready, 1 solo/scavenger (Rook)
    • 6 World Factions (missions/contracts/shops/upgrades)
    • 28 weapons at launch; Codex system for lore and unlocks
    • Reward pass (battle pass) with both free and premium tiers

• Onboarding & Tutorials

  • Some panelists found initial menus, systems, and vocabulary overwhelming; a high learning curve, especially if new to extraction shooters or Bungie’s UI schemes.

    "The UI, integrating that aesthetic...especially for the onboarding process, is intense. There's a lot to read. There's things and mods that I don't know what they do..." (18:55, Jerrica)

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3. Early Impressions—What’s Fun, What’s Punishing

“Brutality” and Thrill (Tarkov DNA)

• The game doesn’t “pull any punches” (17:25, Fran). It preserves high-stakes risk where both environment and player enemies can quickly erase your progress or loot.
• PvE is always threatening, but PvP is the main event—being hunted (or hunting) is constant.
• Quick time-to-kill; first shots matter. “If I get the jump, I win the fight” (25:16, Mike).
  • Fran expects this will shift as gear tiers are unlocked.

Visuals, World, and Sound

• Across the board, praise for production values, environmental design, and audio.

  "The world that Bungie has created is unbelievable...the visuals, the cinematics...Toetti is beautiful and dangerous." (24:15, Mike)

• Outpost map called out as particularly spectacular due to environmental hazards and verticality.

  "When I went there, I was like...This is huge. It's beautiful. It's immersive." (58:30, Fran)

Classes ("Shells")

• Each shell brings unique movement and combat mechanics:
  • Thief (grapple, pickpocket drone—intelligence/escape)
  • Vandal (high mobility—“speed and chaos”)
  • Triage (support/quick revive/drones—“filling the team role”)
  • Destroyer, Assassin, Recon, Rook (special solo scavenger run)
• Emergent class teamwork:

  • “I’ve been exclusively Thief...It has a grapple hook, which is a perfect get in, get out, whatever you need...” (44:57, Mike)

  • Panel expressed excitement at how class combos and player skill could drive “builds” & meta in the coming weeks.

Rook—Solo Scavenger Mode

• Solo-only, no contracts, drops late into matches to “janitor” loot.

  • “Main thing is I describe it as the janitor. You’re going in about 60% through the match...pick up some quick money, quick gear…doesn’t ease the gear fear...” (50:12, Fran)

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4. The Threat & Rewards Structure

• Contracts/Factions: Progression is tied into “contracts”, drawing comparisons with RPG quest tracking.
  • Tracking and loot management is vital, with quality-of-life features that highlight mission-critical objects on the fly.

    “When you track stuff...it's a yellow eye...It's stuff I'm tracking! It makes it so much more accessible.” (55:25, Fran)

• PvE Escalation:
  • PvE is a persistent threat (escalatory: first bots, then tougher shields, hacking “red rooms,” etc.)—with the looming risk of third-party PvP at every noise.

    “...the moment I hear a gunshot in the game, you best believe I put a ping down to let my team know...” (22:20, Mike)

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5. Discussion: The Extraction Shooter Genre & Innovations

• The panel rejects the notion that the market is overcrowded—there are few high-quality entries (Tarkov, Arc Raiders, Division’s Dark Zone, maybe Hunt: Showdown), with Marathon and Arc Raiders at the forefront.
• Unique to Bungie:
  • Gunplay polish
  • Deep, community-driven puzzle/Raid content—hinted to come soon in Cryo Archive
  • Live world events and ARG quests to unlock major content, reminiscent of Destiny’s meta events
  • Quality-of-life onboarding for RPG tracking absent in genre rivals

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Opening Vibes

• Fran on Bungie’s Design Magic:

  “I often have talked about...the Bungie magic...it's the feel of what they do.” (10:24)

Onboarding Struggles

• Jerrica on UI Complexity:

  “The UI integrating that aesthetic...as we'll probably talk about, especially for the onboarding process, is intense. There's a lot to read, things and mods I don't know what they do...” (18:55)

First Encounters with Brutality

• Mike’s First Solo Runs:

  “Day one I was walking out there...Boom, I get hit by one turret...next match, poison spore poisons me, I bleed out...kid’s invisible in a bush murders me...” (24:15)

Tactical Moments & Class Play

• Fran on Destroyer Mobility:

  "You'll see people doing shotgun plays…you boost your heels behind them and float around behind him with shoddy, hit him in the back of the head. It's pretty amazing." (42:48)

• Mike on Thief Class:

  “I came up big because the Thief is a ton of huge. It has a grapple hook...pickpocket drone...I’ve been using it just strictly for eyes.” (44:57)

Team Communication

• Mike on Contracts in Co-op:

  “The quality of life with the contracts and linking up with your friends and seeing their contracts on your screen…is so helpful...” (32:02)

Fun & Frustration

• Jerrica on Early-Game Losses:

  “Like, I can’t lose any of my stuff. This is all important to me. I can never lose this. And now I'm on run 20…and we're gonna risk it all...” (61:55)

• Panel on “Sucked by Sky Tentacle”:

  “Have you had your life sucked by the tentacle monster up in the sky? Get that thing out of here.” (63:01, Mike)

Genre Debate

• Fran on Market Saturation:

  “I just disagree. There's not that many that are done well with especially this level of quality of life, production value, the lore, the cinematics, whatever.” (72:37)

Live Service & Player Sentiment

• Fran on Community Discourse:

  "I love discussing gameplay, the game loop. What does it matter what the concurrency is unless you’re having a problem matchmaking." (78:01)
  “We need to set the tone of—we’re here for game discussion, not game cancellation.” (80:30)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 02:11–06:32 | Housekeeping, intros, marathon launch summary
| 07:18–13:20 | Panel’s Bungie/game backgrounds & extraction shooter intros
| 15:49–17:07 | Game systems at launch rundown
| 18:55–21:26 | First impressions: onboarding/UI challenges
| 22:03–24:15 | PvE/PvP tension, brutality anecdotes
| 37:38–42:00 | Shell (class) deep-dive & favorite picks
| 49:15–51:10 | Rook (“scavenger”) solo runs explained
| 54:26–61:55 | Quest/contract design, loot tracking, depth, and quality-of-life
| 66:03–67:36 | Mike’s full 180: from not enjoying to loving Marathon
| 68:14–69:29 | Marathon & Bungie legacy, reboot discussion
| 70:03–76:46 | Extraction genre analysis & what’s next for Bungie innovation
| 77:04–81:08 | Community sentiment, Steam charts, live service drama
| 83:31–88:18 | Final thoughts, strengths/weaknesses, and review-in-progress “score” talk

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Strengths Highlighted by the Panel

• Tight, rewarding gunplay and movement—“Bungie magic”
• Incredible production values, world-building, and environmental design
• Promise for deep, evolving systems and endgame content (builds, meta, “raids”)
• Engaging, high-stakes PvPvE gameplay loop combining punishments and thrilling reversals
• Useful co-op tools for contract tracking, onboarding, and team communication

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Key Critiques & Challenges

• High learning curve for systems and vocabulary; onboarding for newcomers can be overwhelming
• Initially convoluted UI/menus (becomes manageable with hours played)
• Possible “gear gap” as meta evolves: grind for higher shields/gear may become daunting
• Steep PvP focus: not for those seeking a PvE Destiny-style experience
• Potential for long-term grind fatigue—question of reward pacing, balancing

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Notable Takeaways & Quotes

• Jerrica:

  “If anyone’s gonna figure out how to make this game last a while, I think it’s Bungie… just really eager to see how it evolves and what could come from Marathon…” (64:04)

• Fran:

  “It’s absolutely in the eight type territory. It’s solid, it’s great, but you’ve got to like this genre. And for some people, they’re going to be like, no dude, I hate it. You wouldn’t like Tarkov either.” (85:20)

• Snowbike Mike:

  “I’ve done a full 180 on this game…This is not Arc Raiders. I am looking for the PvP. I’m looking for the clash. The tight Destiny gunplay and movement feel great. The world and production value is through the roof.” (86:50)

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Final Closing Thoughts

• Marathon is a high-quality, punishing PvPvE extraction shooter that wears its Bungie DNA proudly—great gunfeel, world, and polish, but also a challenging grind and learning curve.
• Panel is clear: Not everyone will love it (especially if you’re seeking PvE or Arc Raiders’ style), but for shooter and extraction fans, it’s already a standout with deep potential.
• At the end of week one, the panel lands on a review-in-progress consensus:
  High 7 to 8 out of 10 (“really good to great”), with plenty of depth and seasons still to come.

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For new and returning Bungie fans, extraction genre devotees, and those willing to climb a steep learning curve, Marathon is a strong new contender—if you can stand the heat.

Transcript

[Snowbike Mike]

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[Fran Marabella III]

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[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Fran Marabella III]

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[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Snowbike Mike]

want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go to patreon.com kindafunny Foreign. What's up everybody and welcome in to your Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, March 10, 2026. I'm your show host Snowbike Mike and today I am joined by two incredible Kind of Funny co hosts and guests. Today, of course, to my left in studio, it's Fran Marabella III what's up, everybody?

[Fran Marabella III]

Thanks for having me.

[Snowbike Mike]

Fran, I'm so happy you're here. I can't wait to talk about this game with you because we got a good one to talk about getting into the deep. We're getting deep into it. And of course, our special guest joining us remotely is Jerrica Hannah from JK Games. Hi, Jerrica. How are you doing?

[Jerrica Hannah]

I'm doing okay after the long weekend of extraction shooters. But I can't wait to hear what either one of you have to say about marathon because I have no clue either one of your thoughts yet. I have. I haven't went on the Internet too much about it. So you're feeling ready to dive in?

[Fran Marabella III]

You're feeling beaten up from the runs.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Oh, yeah. You can't see the black eye. I had to cover it up. Yeah. Virtually a lot of virtual black eyes.

[Snowbike Mike]

Day one, I was getting tossed around. Day one, I was getting tossed around. I had to feel it out. Day two through three, Fran, I'm up right now. My vault is full. Oh, I'm bullying some people out there for loots. I'm feeling really good. I'm feeling really good. Of course, you get the little tease Topic of the show today will be our marathon review so far. Of course, we are one week in to marathon since its launch last week, and I'm very excited to talk with both Fran and Jerrica about the game and their thoughts and impressions so far. After one full weekend with it officially now out. Fran, before we start, you know, a lot of people wanted me to ask you, what's up with this cup above your mind?

[Fran Marabella III]

You know, I need. I got a little double down here. I am covering my coffee cup with a Dunkin Donuts paper cup. Yeah, I just like to keep it nice and warm. Mike, you guys had no, like, little lids to put on top. You know, I'm a bit of fancy.

[Snowbike Mike]

Blame Roger for that. You know what I mean? Roger's in charge of all that. He's the coffee man. He loves. No, it's not normal to have lids for your coffee mug.

[Fran Marabella III]

You know, it may not be normal, but it's smart. I don't want to drink cold coffee. So you know what? You. Sometimes you just got to be your own person.

[Snowbike Mike]

Making a difference, huh?

[Fran Marabella III]

Sometimes I swim upstream. Dude, just what do you want me to do? You sure do.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm excited. I can't wait to get you guys vibes, of course, on the weekend of marathon. And also, just like your bungee touchstones, of course. Brand. I used to listen to a lot of Destiny talk with you and your crew about Bungie titles and Destiny 1 by your team. I'm very excited about that. But before we do that, of course this is the kind of Funny games cast. Each and every weekday we gather around this table to talk about all the biggest reviews, previews and topics of opinions in the video game world. Of course we couldn't do this without you. So if you're watching live, be part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com kindafunny games to say hello to Fran Just like Arturo Tron Robo Bartender has he says Frantum Shout out to Fran. Best squadmate in the biz. Well thank you for kicking off our super chats already. And of course thank you to those who support us over on patreon.com kind of funny. A big thank you to those Patreon producers for the month, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining. Thank you all for the support. Let's start the show with Topic of the Show. Your topic of the show will be our Marathon review so far after weekend one of launch of course. Marathon was developed by Bungie. Release date March 5, 2026 at a base price of 39.99. Available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S. Of course for all of you keeping up with Marathon in the saga, it was originally planned for September 2025 launch, then Bungie delayed the game in June after alpha feedback. So it we've been waiting for a while. Of course it feels like it's launch week, but really it's like launch week and a half because they also had a server slam the week prior before this. So it kind of rolled into like one long week. But it is the official weekend launch of this game.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, we've only had the final game with all the classes and rook working and everything for six, but we've been

[Snowbike Mike]

in tow steady for almost two weeks now.

[Fran Marabella III]

Oh total and even then like it's funny you bring it up, but I did. I played the play test back last year. I've literally probably put in 70 plus hours all between everything but in the actual game I'm only like 25:30 hours.

[Snowbike Mike]

The final let's catch up with everybody before we jump into topic of the show and give our thoughts and impressions of Marathon. I want to get to know both of our co stars here. Of course Jericho, I'll start with you. Give me a little background on your Bungie games, some of your Bungie favorites. And then of course let's Talk Extraction shooters. Are you big into extraction shooters? Is this your first? How many have you played? What do you think about the genre?

[Jerrica Hannah]

Yeah, so, like, me and Destiny go way back. I've been part of Destiny 1 and 2. Destiny 2 more so than 1, just because of how difficult it was to hop in with friends and do raids. But since then, a little bit easier. But Destiny 2, I've played every PvE. PvE encounters are probably my favorite thing from Destiny. I dabble in Crucible, obviously, do Iron Banner, and I think that's one of the coolest things that I've personally been, like, addicted to Destiny for is just the plethora of things you can do in that game depending on what you want. You know, it's always. It's always been like, I was big on World of Warcraft back in the day and his World of Warcraft, but with first person gun. So it was a match made in heaven. So I've been part of Destiny since, I guess its inception and everything else under that is like, man, I put so many hours in the Destiny 2 pantheon that I almost wanted to die. I was really close. I don't know if you know what pantheon is, but I do have the God Slayer title. It almost killed me. Yeah. So I have a pretty close group of friends that play every. Every so often. Have been hot on it too, lately. Not as much stuff going on. I got my lightsaber in the Star wars expansion that they had. But yeah, I'm really dialed into Destiny and how. I mean, I came to Destiny because it was a new Bungee game, and I think that's going to be a topic, a conversation today. Like, you know what? Other Bungee fans are hopping on a marathon, and maybe they don't have an experience with an Extraction shooter or even Destiny for that matter. I will say, like, for Extraction shooters, me personally, not my thing. I'm not an Extraction girly. But my. My Destiny crew that I usually raid with and stuff have been playing the crap out of Arc Raiders and I was finally like, all right, I got to do it for science. I need to play this weekend. So I played Arc Raiders and Marathon all weekend with them. So now. Now I should have like a. A touch point for comparison of like, marathon versus Arc raiders, so.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay. Okay. Jerika, you getting your Extraction shooter on this weekend? We love hearing that. Some great backstories with, of course, Fran Marabella. I don't really have to ask you about Bungie and your love for it, but I know it. Of course, if people Aren't in tune with Fran Marabella. The third FM3 underscore on Twitch, of course. Fireteam chat and the Destiny podcast. I mean, you've done it all, Fran.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. Been around Destiny or Cup. You're right.

[Snowbike Mike]

Talk to me really quick about Bungie and Destiny and then most importantly, Extraction Shooters before we begin.

[Fran Marabella III]

Totally. Yeah. I mean, I think it sets a stage one. Just because I've been on a lot of Destiny coverage, people sometimes assume it's like, dude, this man loves this game. And, like, I really enjoy Destiny. I've covered it a long time, but it's never been, like, one of my favorite games of all time. Right. There's two different things. Like, it's live service, it's been ongoing. I've liked to. I just like the feel of Bungie games, and maybe that's the best segue. I love their gun feel. I was a huge Halo fan, and so to see what Destiny 1 was and then what Destiny 2 became and all the stages, I sort of just got wrapped up in it. But I. I definitely like Bungie. The feel of what Bungie does. I think it's. I. I often have talked about, like, you know, the. The Bungee magic. Right. Or just like, it's the feel of what they do. And they've changed over time, but from Halo through now to Marathon and. Well, Marathon originally, but they've. They've had.

[Snowbike Mike]

I hope you're doing well.

[Fran Marabella III]

They've had a lot of feel. What's going on?

[Snowbike Mike]

Where's the. He's sorry. B roll? He's pressing buttons.

[Fran Marabella III]

He's right. I heard the voice of God in the studio.

[Snowbike Mike]

You let it happen. You let it happen. He'll chime in if there's a.

[Fran Marabella III]

So, anyway, in short, have followed Bungie a really long time. Obviously been on Destiny, but that doesn't mean that that's, like, my top game. And then Extraction Shooter setup, actually, if people don't know this, it's fascinating. It was during the pandemic, I decided I was going to try Tarov. And that was back, you know, probably 20. 20, 2021. And I refused to use any online guides. I'm like, I'm just going to play this.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

And I'll tell you what. Um, Jericho, I don't know if you checked out Tarov at all yet. And that is really the roof over the house. That is Marathon. I logged in.

[Jerrica Hannah]

I'm terrified.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. Years ago. And let me tell you, I was afraid to start a match. Like, I didn't understand if I Was going to lose my entire vault, you know, bag and all that. I didn't even understand how to get. I didn't know what a scav run was and. But. But they really set the tone and Bungie followed that. And I'm sure we'll get into it, but I can tell you I loved the intensity of Tarkov. It was a bit like the Dark Souls of, you know, that genre. And so I really like it, but I've never been, like, addicted to these or anything like that.

[Snowbike Mike]

You played a little Hunt showdown as well?

[Fran Marabella III]

I checked it out just for reference this year.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay.

[Fran Marabella III]

But I didn't play a ton. I probably played for like five to 10 hours kind of thing.

[Snowbike Mike]

Nice. Yeah, of course. Kind of funny. Best friends know that I made Nick survive the gauntlet. We did a week to two weeks of just nothing but Extraction Shooters. So I found every Extraction shooter under the book and I made us try them all just so we could triumph, see what it's like. We did fall in love with Escape from Tarov. We like that intensity, that, like, feeling that it could go wrong at any moment. And we have been chasing that high. I have not felt that thrill of the, oh, at any moment, I could be shot in the leg and this could go only sideways immediately. Like Escape from Tarov, Cap Tarov is

[Fran Marabella III]

like actual constant pain, you know, in your brain and almost you feel like when your leg breaks in the game. You can almost feel it in real life. It's. It's rough. But I would also last note that of course, arc raiders, I played a

[Snowbike Mike]

couple hundred hours of yes, our craters were coming, of course, hot off of an incredible fall into winter break. And now new year with Arc Raiders from Embark Studios, which has been absolutely killing the game and really bringing, I would say, extraction shooters to the forefront of a wider general audience as well. Right. I think, yeah, people know about Tarkov, but, like, it does seem like the hardcore far core play that. And like arc Raiders, I felt like really broke down the wall. Like, hey, let's get everyone involved and give it a try. And it feels like it did just that all winter long.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. I'll just say this at the top of the show. I mean, Marathon is not like arc Raiders. We're going to talk a bag and you extract stuff. But from gameplay moment to moment, they're just. It's so much more casual. And I mean, it can be rough out there occasionally, but. But the point is Marathon is closest to Tarov and. And Destiny and Halo and Apex even.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. Well, let's talk about, of course Bungie and their newest game, a return to a game. Of course Marathon here. Like I said, Release date was March 5th. To give you what launched what came at launch with the game, you have three maps on T4, which is the giant world. You have one perimeter, two is Dire Marsh and three is Outpost. Kind of going beginner medium in advanced. Yes, of course. Outpost does not unlock until player level 12 is is reached. Each one has varying different environments. Biomes World, of course. Outpost has a really fun one that I really dig called Heat Cascade, which is kind of an environmental hazard that you have to move around the map with. There is seven playable shells, which is your player character class, we'll call that the start. Six of them are your normal classes that you can squat up with one to three players with. And then the seventh class is the Rook, which is a solo scavenger only, which is going to be very exciting to talk about. Of course. They launched with six world factions. Those give you missions, contracts, shops and upgrades. There's 28 weapons at launch, which is a crazy number out there. I've only probably seen a handful. Same when you think about 28 being out there. The Codex is the world lore. Along with challenges to earn unlockable gear. It also has a reward pass, AKA a battle pass that has free and paid tiers. Six pages of free and paid tiers unlocked via the silk. And I'm going to tell all the best friends out there if you want a little quick games cast, helpful game hints that Andy Cortez always talks about. Your silk does max out at 140 and it will not go over. So you need to spend that in your rewards pass, whether it be free or paid. So you can earn more because it doesn't go over. So every time you're playing, you're earning. But if you're just sitting at 140, you're not earning. So get over there, spend those g, spend those game points. And then of course the basic extraction shooter. Load up. You'll select your shell, you'll load up in the vault, you'll buy anything from the faction armory and you'll jump in with trios, duos, even singles. You have some fun. That's your rundown of what is available at launch. Fran, did I miss anything?

[Fran Marabella III]

Are you. You going to measure the cry archive?

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, let's.

[Fran Marabella III]

Well, just.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, let's talk about it, Fran. Tell me about it.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, without getting into it, I was just going to say last but not least. So you've got three maps and it is true progress. Difficult. But the fourth one is in the process of being unlocked and maybe we'll talk about it. But just know that there are. There are. I'm not used to these sudden. I'm sorry.

[Snowbike Mike]

That was supposed to be the tip

[Fran Marabella III]

thing that played earlier.

[Snowbike Mike]

And then I pressed it and he's pressing the thing.

[Fran Marabella III]

I think Kevin's messy with me. I promise you I'm gonna talk.

[Snowbike Mike]

He's excited you're here. He's excited you're here.

[Fran Marabella III]

Friends, I am very worried and scared it's gonna happen again. Don't. It is hard to stay on on my train of thought. Anyway. Cryo archive is the fourth map. There are four maps, but.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

But this one most likely is more dungeon. Like in the world of Destiny. We don't know yet. But they do say that has puzzles and frost vaults. I believe.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Fran Marabella III]

Is how they refer to it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Raid. Like mechanics. Which is exciting if you're a Destiny raider out there. But not out yet. But we'll see that very soon, which will be exciting. Fran, I gave you the rundown of what is here at launch. I talked about the base price, the release date. We are coming off of the launch weekend. I know you've put a ton of hours in. I've been watching you over on Twitch TV show SL FM3 underscore. Let's talk about your impressions so far if you want to put a review score on it after your first weekend. But let's just talk about how's your experience been. Give me the rundown.

[Fran Marabella III]

Good. Also, Kevin, if you're on the B roll, my YouTube channel now is FM3 plays my recent marathon YouTube channel. This one's. That one was a bit old which is fine. But same diff. But anyway, sorry, your question again was

[Snowbike Mike]

your impressions, thoughts and opinions of. Of week weekend one.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. I mean let's just level set on that too. You know it took the first 24 hours to unlock Outpost for the third map. Right. Or you had to get to level 12 if. If you were playing at launch. But we've had to do some wind up. But I'm really enjoying the game is the short of it. And as I kind of hinted before, I love that it kept quite a bit of the brutality of Tarov and it does not pull any punches. And I think there's a ton of conversation out there about oh is it, you know, is competing with Arc Raiders and what does it mean for live services like that is very different than if you just look at it as what it is. In a way, right? It keeps that Dark Souls, Tarkov brutality. And I like. That's one of the things I was surprised about it. There's. There's no casual moment in it like you get in the very beginning. Maybe there's an early perimeter map you can play before you level up and, like a small intro. But in general, you just. Like in Tarkov, you're constantly afraid to lose your gear. Eventually, though, you. You get quite a bit. But, man, I love the gun feel, the visuals. I am playing on PC. I have a RTX 4090 and it just. It's a beautiful experience. So I also just love the visuals and the sound and everything. So early impressions or early review impressions, I should say, are very strong, positive. It's nice.

[Snowbike Mike]

I like that. Jerrica, after Weekend one, of course, you balanced both of them. You were jumping between this and Arc Raiders. Let's talk about Marathon. What are your thoughts on Marathon after Weekend one?

[Jerrica Hannah]

I think I might have a unique, like, lens going into this because literally, I shared earlier, like, my favorite things about destiny are the PvE elements. And that's definitely not what Marathon is. So I'll say this. Like, my first impressions in terms of, like, the first thing that stood out to me, that both the gunplay, how the guns feel, and even the look and visual identity of this game is like, it is Destiny. I mean, Bungee DNA to a fault. So immediately, like, if you play Destiny, like, you're going to recognize and feel comfortable shooting all the weaponry in this game. But on the flip side, and sort of a balancing act, because even as a Destiny player, I'm always one to harp on what's another thing they could put on the UI to make it hard to get to this thing. And I have trouble finding this. Where do I go to pick up this? It's a little bit more simplified now in Destiny, but it's still an abundance of information. So with Marathon, I love everything about the style and the aesthetic. Like, I think it truly does stand out from other live service games. Like, it in this space. Like, it stands out. It doesn't look like another one of these games that sort of look like each other. Is this something new? What makes this. Like, it stands out, like, and I love that for it. But at the same time, the ui, integrating that aesthetic of it, as we'll probably talk about, like, especially for the onboarding process, is intense. There's a lot to read. There's things and mods that I don't know what they do, but I gotta take a second to read about it. And I got to figure out how to get to. How do I upgrade my vault because I'm already full. Just like Destiny, my vault is out of space. So some things you felt at home with if you were like me and just, hey, this is Bungie's new game. I want to see if I can get into extraction shooters. Can I get into this? As a Bungie Destiny fan and I say gameplay wise, so far, yes. But onboarding and trying to figure out is this game for me has been a little bit of a challenge for sure.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. That's an interesting different perspective. Like knowing that again, just to make sure I heard it right, you mostly love PvE stuff. You're not like into games that much like Apex and other shooters. PvP wise, right?

[Jerrica Hannah]

Yeah, I'm not, I'm not a sweat. You know, I, I don't go into these and sweaty.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

But you like the PvE side and it's. It. This game is very much not that, but coming from that angle is really interesting.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. And also coming from arc raiders, which was very much of like, hey, there's a lot of PvE here. And the PvE I think on the arc Raider side is a little friendlier compared to the pve on this side where it is those robots are going to chase you across the map. They are actually quite punishing if you let them group up on you. And it is a more delicate balance of danger as opposed to kind of the thrill of looking at some of the arc out there in arc raiders saying, oh, I could take down a hornet or a wasp. Maybe something could get after me if I get let it get out of hand. But this side of things, it's like these blue robots, the UNSC or whatever. When they see you, you got a problem on your hands.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Don't mess around.

[Fran Marabella III]

And there's, there's big pve escalatory moments. And again, we're going to see even more of that when we get to Cryo Archive. We'll probably talk about how Outpost is rough, but then it's the. As soon as you engage with them, not only do you have a problem with the bots, but you know people are coming for you because, you know

[Snowbike Mike]

I got my sweatband on France.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Yes.

[Snowbike Mike]

And I'm sweating as Jerrica just said. Right. Like the moment I hear a gunshot in the game, you best believe I put a ping down to let my team know. And we are making a split second decision decision of we're moving towards that or we're moving away from that. And that's the thrill, of course, of extraction shooters. Right. Of, like, we talked about this in arc raiders. In arc raiders, the people with the mo. The place with the most valuable loot is the people in their backpacks. Right. And so that means in this game, I'm coming for your backpack as well. And it is a thrilling moment of those blue robots. The moment they start shooting at you and you start shooting at them, that is a couple of seconds of engagement where you have to go, I have to take these guys out and now be ready for a third party of Mike and his crew are going to jump on me. Which I really find thrilling and fun in this game.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. Tell me if I'm getting ahead of us at all, but have you guys gotten trapped in one of these, like, hack rooms where you get trapped with the PvE enemies?

[Snowbike Mike]

No. A hack room. No.

[Fran Marabella III]

Tell me about that, Jerrica. Like a red room.

[Jerrica Hannah]

We sort of did. It was the first time because I was like, what's happening? Because I could. I got. Yeah, I got locked in a room, but I feel like I triggered something.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. This is where the game is.

[Jerrica Hannah]

I don't know how.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

Interesting. Commenting on PvE stuff. Like, again, perimeters pretty much like. Well, you got a couple types of bots. You shoot them up and maybe they have a blue shield. And then you get the dire marsh and it's like maybe a purple shield or. I don't know if that's the exact breakdown. Right. But there's that.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's how it kind of escalates.

[Fran Marabella III]

Slightly increase it. But then, you know, there's like a room with green lasers. That's the one that hacks.

[Snowbike Mike]

I've been in there before. Okay.

[Fran Marabella III]

And you gotta clean it.

[Jerrica Hannah]

There we go.

[Fran Marabella III]

If you do that, it'll seal the doors and all of these bots start coming at you and you get hacked. So you have to have, like a blue. It's a clean. But anyway, you have to clean your software to get rid of the view. And it's an intense moment.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

Then stuff in Outpost, there's even more of that stuff. There's also, like, special keys to get out of extractions or into rooms. And so the point is, there is a PvE element that's really interesting, but it's always with the threat of PvP.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, big threat is right? I think. Yeah. When I come down on my weekend so far, it is the thrill of the threat. Right. This game is brutal. Yeah. Day one, I was walking out there, my first ever run, I walk out, it's just Mike solo. Boom. I get hit by one turret. It takes me down to half health. Two more steps later, there's another turret. It kills me. I get frustrated. I go, what the hell, right? Match number three, I jump in. Poison spore poisons me. I bleed out right then and there. I'm uptight. Match number four, I jump into solos. Kids invisible in a bush murders me. I get uptight, right? But then I started to find the thrill. I started to find the fun, and I really enjoyed it. Like Jerrica said, the world that Bungie has created is unbelievable, right? It is coming hot off of Destiny. It's a cyberpunk esque world. I mean, the visuals, the cinematics that they have for each faction, that stuff is awesome, right? Toetti is beautiful and dangerous. I love the three worlds, the biomes that feel each unique and different, right? The mountainous feel of Outpost with the four big outposts and a cool resource grinder in the middle with the pipe. Then you go over to Dire Marsh and it feels wet. There's this giant invisible wall and the anomaly ship that's sucking things up into the sky. You're like, oh, this is wild. And then you go to the final one, which is Outpost. My apologies. And it's like, oh, this is so cool. But that it doesn't want me to be outside because there's just giant fire rain that comes. I have to get pushed, which means, boom, we're all going to collide in here. And it's like the three maps have been fantastic. I'm excited to see the fourth with a little more raid, like puzzle solving will be super fun. But I. I've had a great time with it. I think the thrill of the fight, Whether it be NPCs, two fellow runners out there, has been a really good blend of like challenging, difficult, fun. I do feel like time to kill is very quick. Where it's like, if I get to jump on you. I haven't seen many fights flip where if I get to jump on you, you can really turn it around on me. It does feel like if I get the jump, I win the fight, which is unfortunate. But I have noticed if you're smart enough, you can let your teammate die, reset back up, and you can take on a three on one and win if you're smart enough to outplay them. But I haven't seen many turn a fight around after getting hit first shots.

[Fran Marabella III]

So I think this is a good point to bring up and curious how you guys Feel, you know, we're out here doing a review and I personally like to me I will review already, you know, but like of course, like we can have a review in progress or review whatever you guys feel. But I think important to all the topics we're talking about. Like there's so much still to learn and understand. Another thing that I'm sure Jerrica could appreciate is like you haven't even seen the builds yet when we're going to start seeing build videos in a Tarkovsk game. But then there's like all this stuff you're learning that I even I don't fully understand. Like as an example, you, you made me think about that huge square ship, right? That was the one you're talking about where it locks. It's a lockdown and you have to get in there. You have to have one of those green envelope software pieces. It's called Antivirus. And you have a certain amount of time to get in. There's better loot. I've barely even been in there. So there's a lot to like learn. And I think in what you're getting at there, I think you are going to be able to start countering people because what's going to happen is these games do that and you can appreciate it. Eventually everybody's got a blue shield, who's got a purple, now who's got a gold. But the time to kill is much different when everybody's rocking blue and like we just haven't even unlocked that. Like I can't buy a blue shield yet. Eventually I assume that will come and be common, but we're pretty far away from.

[Snowbike Mike]

And I do appreciate that right now. Weekend one. It does feel like you can jump in with a free loadout and still get kills, right? It does feel different in a game like Arc Raiders where I jump in with a freeload and it's like oh, he has a level four gun. He's running me over no matter what I do. Cuz the rattler has eight bullets in it. And that's not enough to kill someone in that game. But on the flip side here it's like a free loadout can get a kill. A free loadout can get you running and get you, get you going. And that's all that matters at the beginning, which is fun. You got to get the training wheels going before you take them off. And yeah, I agree with Jerrica. The UI is a mess when you first jump in. It's a mess. There's too much, it's too Convoluted. Like, I appreciate after weekend one, I know where I'm going, I know what I'm looking for. But all the icons in the, in the vault all look the same. You really have to do the desk, do the Fran. Read up on them. You got to spreadsheet them, which is fine. But it's like at the beginning it is just a lot to take in. There's a lot of menus that you got to navigate to get towards X, Y and Z.

[Fran Marabella III]

That it's overwhelming.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's the fun part about this is there's a lot of depth to it. That's going to take some time to learn. And so weekend one, it is overwhelming. But at the end of it it's like, now I know what I'm doing, I know where to go, I know where to get my contracts, I know where to buy, I know what I'm looking for. Challenges wise, I know where I really need to navigate to.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, my short view of that was the same. Like the UI is overwhelming. I totally understand why people's first reaction was like, this is. Some people were like, this is broken, it's messy. I think it's a super loud design with all the color, like you're saying. But eventually your brain starts to process that. And I will say, yeah, 25 plus hours, a lot of that I just don't even see anymore. And like you could even appreciate this, right? At first I was like, how do I cycle through the factions and then get the contract and then go to upgrades and get. But then now I don't even think about it. And then there's all these little shortcuts even too. But it's, it's all over the place in the sense that they have like menus and sub menus and Jerrica brought this up to like Destiny does that where it's like, wait, the directory of tabs is different in this menu. But like once you get used to it, it's not that bad. But it is absolutely overwhelming at first.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. And of course another one that I really have enjoyed and come around on, but I still. It's a new world to all of us, right? So like doing these missions is exciting, but it's like go find the bio researcher lab chemist jacket or something weird. And you're like, I don't know what that is. And now you're like running around this area waiting until an emblem pops up. But then when it's my third time doing it, I'm like, oh, Kevin, a sex. It's this Red computer in this corner. Or we know that there's a giant file. Giant, like pillars outside. That's what we're looking for. But it's been fun when it's like a new world. All new vocabulary to me. Right. And it's like, I don't know what that is. And then you have the panic of exactly what the game wants you to do. You're in this new world. Go find it. And now you're just running in circles trying to look for the objective that you need to complete.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, yeah. Honestly, there's actually. There's quite a bit of quality in life in the game. Quality of life in the game. Things that surprise me of like, oh, they had. They put this in there that, you know, I have to think of some examples. But I'm reflecting more again on like Tarkov dude. And like it shouldn't really be the excuse that it is overwhelming and it's all over the place. But like, try to play Tarkov.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

I mean, I don't know if they finally. I think they finally put maps in that you could see in the game. But like, literally, you know, you had to have a second screen up. And even then there's no directions.

[Snowbike Mike]

I would print out the maps for Nick.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And I'd say, here's where we're trying to go. Like, keep this on your desk.

[Fran Marabella III]

And what. All I wanted to say about that. I don't know how to phrase this, but we're in a weird place. Curious if you guys agree. We're finding things to complain about and it's valid. But why are we being so soft when some of the things we love most in games is like, dude, Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Tarkov. Like, dude, wait, this is what you know. And I. You figure it out. And the learning curve, that's like what makes games so awesome, isn't it? Where you're like, oh, I get it now. Even if it's painful at first. So I like that about it. You know, again, I think some things are confusing, but once you start learning the ins and outs and you know, I have so much more to learn, it's really rewarding.

[Snowbike Mike]

I think that's what you hear the 180 from me. Right. It's like Alpha, beta test, weekend, server slam. I wasn't hot on this game. Well, I was hot on Alpha. I really like the engagements compared to Arc Raiders. Beta test, weekend, server slam. I wasn't hot on this. And then like you said, I think it's the learning curve. Once I Dove in. I'm like, now, I'm eager to learn. I'm excited to find the mysteries. I'm excited to solve those puzzles. And, like, that's the fun part about this game, is it has that. And of course, it has the bungee roots. Right. It's like coming from that team, they're gonna make these fun ideas, they're gonna try different things. And I'm excited to, you know, pull on the thread and go search and look the quality of life with the contracts and linking up with your friends and seeing their contracts on your screen. Oh, yeah. Is so helpful and so much fun. Of like, I can't tell you how many good times I've had with Andy and Kevin now. Of like, we all kind of started at the same time, but we're all on different contracts. But, like, I'm reading out, like, I'm on three or four with new genics. Where are you? Okay, well, I'm doing this one for whatever faction. Okay, cool. Let's jump in. And it has it all listed for us. So I know you're completing yours, I'm completing mine. Hey, let's work together on this. That's been fantastic.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, that's like one example. If you go into your map, into the contract, you can see the other players contracts, but then you can hover over the objective. And when you hover over, it says, on the second floor of complex is where this bioprinter is. And like, stuff like that, you don't even know is there till someone tells you. But it's actually really nice that it's there. Sure. Jerrica, can.

[Snowbike Mike]

We've been doing a lot of talking and I want to hear from you.

[Jerrica Hannah]

No, no, no, no.

[Fran Marabella III]

Like, I'm sorry if no go Jerry scored delay.

[Jerrica Hannah]

I would say, like, literally, I feel the value you're getting for $40 is totally worth it. I think you are getting more than what you are buying for this game. I think the challenge is going to be now that I'm going to be honest, like, I'm also having a really good time. And what's hooking me is those little wins that I'm getting and then slowly getting better. Slowly understanding, picking up, you know, different quests and figuring out, like, what. Because I've been playing a lot with my girlfriend too. Like, me and her playing and getting a random in there. Like, and trying to what's the right path for me and her. And then who, whatever stranger joins us. Us having failures and successes there, and then me bringing home the loot is Like I'm getting. I, I enjoy Extraction Shooters. Like, I mean that's the thing I appreciate about Destiny is, is a loot grind getting something bigger, better, faster, shinier and being able to come back and use that. I do like the risk of reward of where I could lose it all because I think it's. It sort of helps me not feel like every loss is the end of the world because like I'll have chances to get it back. But I think like the contracts, the contracts I was calling on quest, the contracts that you're getting, like following along those for new players. The onboarding is just what I don't want people to shy away from is, is making sure it's really transparent that hey, you're going to have to take the time to get better at understanding this world, understanding the shells that work best for you. Because once you do that, you do find the reward and it does feel really good. No, I'm, I'm a fan of this game. I might never be great at it, but I'm going to keep playing. It's fun. I'm enjoying my time.

[Fran Marabella III]

That's exactly. I was funny. You read my mind. I was wondering, I was like, I almost was gonna ask you, do you feel like you're forcing yourself to play because you were gonna do this review and you come from the Destiny side but you said you're. It's got you hooked or interested.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Yeah, I'm. Yeah, I'm gonna keep playing. Like I want to at least get to some checkpoints where, you know, I haven't made it to Outpost yet. And based on what you're telling me about these I've only been.

[Snowbike Mike]

Outpost is cool. Sick, whatever.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Outpost is like where I've been up till now and yeah, I just encountered that one room with all the lasers and I was like, okay, I love the evolved location within these areas that could be more challenging. And I'm like, okay. But also, oh, I'm so used to being a fast paced hunter in Destiny. So I'm playing, you know, it's. It just left me the double jump. Yes, Vandal. That's all I've been really playing for me feeling comfortable with moving in this world world. But I have to stop myself and like really listen to my squad and like be focused on communicating because like you just can't dive in. Obviously you got to be able to use the skill sets of each shell and I think that will also be an issue for new. Whether you're new to Extraction shooters or you're just wanting to try this new bungee game is like understanding how to play with others as well because that's a skill set that you got to learn and understand and like knowing what the other shells can do as well.

[Snowbike Mike]

Fran, before we go to ad break, are you hot on this game right now? After the weekend, where do we stand? We're not doing review scores right now. Are you hot?

[Fran Marabella III]

Absolutely hot on it. It's, it's so much more polished and just, it's got its hooks in me in that bungee way that, yeah, I want to play a lot and there's so many games to play and that's going to be the challenge.

[Snowbike Mike]

I like that. I'm just right there, friend. I am very hot on this game. I'm having a lot of fun. I worry what will I do after review because I want to play more of this. But man, Copia, I put down Pocopia for this and I played this all weekend when Pocopia screamed help me. And I was like, I can't. I'm so deep into this right now.

[Fran Marabella III]

And maybe we'll talk about this after ad break, but the grind is probably a big part of the discussion for me.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Fran Marabella III]

As well, because it relates to being hot on it is how much grind can you handle?

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay, well, we're going to talk about the positives and negatives from our first weekend right after a word from our sponsors.

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[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Fran Marabella III]

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[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Snowbike Mike]

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[Fran Marabella III]

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[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Snowbike Mike]

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[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Snowbike Mike]

Predator Badlands now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus rated PG13 welcome back everyone to your kind of funny games cast where we're talking all things marathon from bungie after week weekend one. We're going into week one but it's weekend one. Fran Jericho I want to talk about the positives, the fun that we're having. I want to highlight the fun and I want to talk about some of our critiques after that. Fran, hit me with anything. What do you want to talk about? What shell have you been running? I said I brought it before. We have seven playable shells, each one unique and different themselves. You have the destroyer which is the combat specialist made for offense and defense. Has a deployable wall on its arm, has a missile barrage which is very cool. Has thrusters, tack sprints. You have the Vandal which is the combat anarchist enhanced movement which Jerrica brought up. That amplifier has amplify and disruptor disrupt cannon which is a speed boost and a damage dealing push projectile. There's recon which is the intel specialist who has the echo pulse and tracker drone that's a sonar pulse and a microbot that's for built for tracking. You have the assassin that's a shadow agent that has invisibility systems, smoke screen and active camo which I'll tell you that smoke very difficult to see inside. Oh yeah, that can change the tide of a battle. If you're good with that one then you have triage who is the field medic all about damage mitigation of course has a reboot and a medic drone reboot is a quick revive for a down teammate and deployable med drones to teammates. And the really fun one is that med drone actually goes into one of the traits called shareware ex which is share benefits from all medical consumables with med drone crewmates so you can throw out your med drones to your teammates. And if you use a stim pack the teammates use a cardio kit, which is very cool. And. And then of course number six is Thief, the COVID acquisitions, which is pickpocket, drone and grapple device. I've been playing nothing but Thief. I love the Thief. And then seven is Rook. I'm going to pause Rook. We're going to talk about Rook after cuz Rook is a whole different thing. So let's first go around the table. What shell have you been using? What do you like? Fran, I'll start with you because I know I think you're dabbling with everything.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, I just put out. I'm. Man, there's a lot of depth as you just covered and I like to dabble. That being said, I kind of end up feeling triage A. Because other people, yeah, they want to play Thief, you know, they want to play Assassin or whatever. So I tend to fill a lot of triage and I don't mind. It's fun as a note too, that Quick Revive is also an emp, so you can shock enemies or shock runners, you know, or PvP folks, so you can use it as an offensive. So I tend to play that. Or the Titan as Jerrica could probably relate to with the Destroyer.

[Snowbike Mike]

Destroyer.

[Fran Marabella III]

Okay, so a lot of these. Well, not a lot, but a number of these classes are about the mobility.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

Right. And so as. As Destroyer, what I like is you can double tap shift while I'm on keyboard, but you start running fast. Or you can double tap jump and like boost jets.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Fran Marabella III]

So really, like, you'll see people doing shotgun plays where like you're over there, Mike, but behind a box, you know, and as a Titan or sorry, as Destroyer, you're like, you boost your heels behind them and you like float around behind him with shoddy. Hit him in the back of the head. It's pretty amazing to see the combat still evolving. And like we've seen some nutty Thief stuff starting.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

So it'll be interesting to see as they balance this out. But those are two I definitely like.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay, Jericho, what have you been running around as? As your shell?

[Jerrica Hannah]

Probably the worst one from what I'm trying to learn how to play this game is the Vandal. Because like, I have no patience and I'm just zipping around and I feel like this shell is like the definition of speed and chaos and the game already has too much of that. So maybe as me playing as a vandal, but I do like being more agile in this world because like to what we're understanding here and what we're talking about, like, it's just. It's moment to moment and anything can happen. So unpredictable. So, like, I just want to be able to react faster, I feel like. Because that for me, it was a little bit of. It was a little bit of a whiplash, like realizing how some of the shells can feel like a little slower. And I feel like I can't get around as fast because, like, I'm just so used to. Because it feels so much like Destiny, gunplay and everything else. Like, it's sort of jarring for it to be a little bit slower for me. So, like, I latched on to Vandal. My girlfriend Audrey's been playing as the Thief a lot, which I've sort of been wanting to dabble with lately because just like, there's been so many moments where I feel like she's able to save us. And then I'm like, well, that's cool. Maybe I should be triage or the Thief just to be able to have some balance to the. To the teams that we're squatting up with. But yeah, maybe I look more towards a support role because. And then someone else tells me when to go, like it's safe here.

[Snowbike Mike]

The. The team I've been playing exclusively Thief. When I jump into these games, I like to focus on one so I could learn the ins and outs and then move on to the other one. And I only picked Thief simply because it had the coolest cosmetic in the store.

[Fran Marabella III]

Oh, all right, that sounds.

[Snowbike Mike]

The white rabbit was six was a sick skin. I bought it for $20 and that chose my shell from this point forward. And you know what? I came up big because the Thief is a ton of huge. It has a grapple hook, which is a perfect get in, get out, whatever you need, like mechanic that I love. And it also has the. What do we call this right here? The drone Pickpocket drone. So the drone I've been using for just strictly eyes. But the fun part about the drone actually is it has this pickpocket mechanic. And the Thief is all about pickpocketing and target acquisition via your most valuable weapons and items. So when you go to drone mode, you can actually pickpocket from afar from the drone and pull out the highest rarity item that a player has in their backpack or a backpack on the ground. You can even close doors with it, which is pretty wild really. There's also an X ray vision, which mixed with the finer things, more items in your backpack gains more weapon and handling and grappling hook recharge. That's the finer things. And then the X ray vision will ping everything around you and any box of loot, it will tell you what the rare, highest rarity item is in there. And if you have eyes on targets, you'll actually ping an enemy and be able to see them. But you have to have eyes on target. So the thief for me so far has been perfect for intel and being able to get in and out of fights really quickly. Which has been great because I've been playing with my friend Kevin who has been either triage the medic or mainly the smoke assassin. So it's like a perfect blend of. I usually see someone, I'm like, oh shit Kevin, they're coming. I grapple hook out to like higher areas so I can get the high ground and then we'll pounce on them together, which is fun.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, yeah. Thief seems. I'm curious if any character is going to come out overpowered, but if you haven't seen with Thief, you probably have. Right. You put claymores on the drone and float them around. Just seems like a little broken. And I've also started to see people starting to swing on the drone. That's so somebody else will be the thief even and pull them across map and people will figure out how to like swing around it. Pretty nuts.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. The, the grapple hook is very much similar to Fran help me Apex Legend.

[Fran Marabella III]

We were talking about it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Cuz yeah, at first you're just going to kind of shoot it and you'll use it to pull you up. But yeah, there is a. A lot of give where you can kind of whip it sideways and get momentum. You can kind of use it like Batman and kind of grapples yourself up even to higher locations. So it's all about how you use it. But I, I found so far that kit in particular is the kit kind of style I want to play.

[Fran Marabella III]

Seems deep. Yeah. I saw an esports player that came I think from the H community. Voski I think it was. But he said his drone cuz someone was kind of down around a corner. So he sent the drone out and he was able to, yeah, curve around like you're saying swing up like right in their face.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

And he actually did like. I think it was like a no scope sniper type. It's pretty crazy. Some of the stuff you can do.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's been fantastic. So those are the six shells. I'm glad to hear that you guys are playing them. So the really fun part about this is you can of course play solo. Right. When you go in you click on your own shell, you fill out your loadout, click no fill on the side and it will take you into solo only lobbies, which is great. I've really enjoyed that as like I played my first day exclusively solo and I had a good time right now. Sure there was some snowbike mics out there who getting a little sweaty maybe sitting in some corners. But it is fun when you are playing solo. There's a big threat out there. You can play with two people, no fill or a random fill. They do have prox chat which not used as often as you would think. We've definitely had some good team chats. We've talked with maybe one or two other teams but not many people are using prox chat right now in my world. Have you been hearing any proxy?

[Jerrica Hannah]

I don't trust anybody. So no, I don't want to do. I'm scared to use it.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, you totally should in well in solo if you think it'll benefit you. And also, you know, I know plenty of people like you, Mike. You'll just lie to them.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'll lie right to you.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, you'll be lying. You'll be baiting them into places is like just like triggering people can also be pretty effective. But. But I. I mostly have only used procs effect. We'll talk about it later with Rook. But it's good to be a Rook and have prox chat. But it's useful in solo end teams. It's awesome that they added it in. I saw a clip of somebody just screaming. Did you see this clip floating around? It was like 50,000 impressions on social, but somebody was screaming as if they died in real life because somebody killed them. Those moments, they add so much to the game, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Fran Marabella III]

It's just funny.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's just fun moments is right. Let's talk about that seventh shell. This is a very interesting shell that you can't play with others. You can play exclusively solo. So it's called the Rook, the solo scavenger. When you click on the Rook, similar to all the other ones, they give you a rundown and this is what the Rook says. Solo only. Limited loadout contracts, paused restricted zone access Requires Season Level 3 moves, recuperation and signal mask. You can restore health and mask yourself from enemy AI so they think you're one of them. So you can move through areas freely. Now the Rook is very interesting. Kind of gives me scavenger vibes from Escape from Tarkov. Fran, I've only played the Rook once. Did you play it a lot yeah,

[Fran Marabella III]

yeah, I've played rook plenty. Jericho, have you played rook as well?

[Jerrica Hannah]

Not personally.

[Fran Marabella III]

Okay, well, that'll give you the straight dope real fast then. But rook is very much like scav style, a little different in. Well, I mean, it's similar to that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

You do get a kit that if you get out with it, you get to keep those items. But the main thing is I describe it as the janitor. So you're going in about 60% through the match already, or 40 or something like that. But just to, like, pick up some quick money, quick gear, you're probably not going to go out and try to kill things. And you also, most importantly, you cannot do contracts as a rook.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Fran Marabella III]

So that's a big difference. You can't just be like, oh, I'll be a rook, but I want to work on this contract. No, it's literally go in, be the janitor, find some coin. And yeah, you. Sometimes you come out big because you'll find a bag and it's just a runner that left like a blue shield in it or a really nice gun. It does happen, and that's the general idea. And I will actually say, once you understand that, you can just get in and out five, six minutes if you want and get really valuable stuff that really eases the gear fear that I think it's easy to have where you're like, dude, I'm broke. I have nothing. Do a few rook runs when your vault's getting dry. And it's way more friendly than Tarov in that sense.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's cool. Okay. And Seek Speak super chats in and says, and you can upgrade your rook with faction capstones right there.

[Fran Marabella III]

I haven't seen.

[Snowbike Mike]

So if you're working on your faction upgrades. There you go. Keep an eye out. I will. I do want to move on to factions as well, because I brought up. There's six of them. Right. So you'll have your intro one, which is Cyber Acme, which is a great intro. You get hit with the AI Bot. Super cool cinematics on all these. They're so cool. Lady Gaga with the. With the Goo Lion. That's a crazy one from Traxxas. Yeah, yeah, I'm calling that Lady Gaga with the goo Lions crazy.

[Fran Marabella III]

I think that's the voice of Eris, by the way, Jerrica.

[Snowbike Mike]

Very cool.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sounds like.

[Snowbike Mike]

So, yeah, you'll start with Cyak, who introduces you to all the five factions. And then you'll start doing missions for each one. You'll have a fun blend where you'll be jumping from one. I do like that. It's like one contract per run. Let's focus you. Let's keep you aligned. And as Jerrica said, I think that's the best part as a beginner jumping in. Right. I think for me, I come from the Battle Royale kind of arena shooter where it is. I'm just trying to get sweaty and bang into you.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And I think you got to kind of drop that as a beginner and go, hey, the training wheels are on. Let me focus on my contract. It's going to take me to different zones, and those zones are going to be high, high populated areas with other players that are probably doing similar missions where you'll bang into them or you can avoid them. But, like, the goal should be, hey, focus on this. It's going to take you around the map, then you'll exfill, you'll earn rewards, you'll level up so you can buy more stuff in the shop. But I think at first, if you're jumping in as, like, a new player, follow the contracts. It will lead you along the path of the gameplay that they probably want you to play.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, I do. It's funny, the first contracts for cyak, like you're saying, are the onboarding. You know, there is an official onboarding that's like just sort of basics and. But I don't think, yeah, people are prepared for the. If you don't know the genre, the idea of just like looting around a building for stuff. And again, it's overwhelming at first. You're like, why? Why do I need this microchip? This. This, you know, unstable gel that you're like. It seems almost nonsensical. And I think some people will find that very uninteresting. And that is, again, it brings us back to, like, Tarkov. This is so much what people love about Tarkov. And, like, you're probably not going to like the game if you don't. You don't like those things. Maybe, Jerrica, you comment on that. Like, I know you deal with a lot of items in Destiny, but, like, you know, you're literally picking up, like, all sorts of nonsensical items at first. Do you feel that? Were you interested to do it, or did it seem like you just wanted to shoot the bots?

[Jerrica Hannah]

I think not at first until, like, I had contracts, like, leaning into certain items I needed to upgrade and progress. And I think that realizing that and sort of doing those to help me get familiar is what sort of like, helped me understand that. And after. After a while, like, now I'm feeling more confident, like, I don't need. There's certain items I know I don't need. And I've started using, like, the. The tracking.

[Fran Marabella III]

You can try.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Yeah. So that's really helpful. But at first, yes, a little overwhelming. But just know, like I say, like, trust the system. Keep going through your contracts.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Slowly things start to make more sense.

[Fran Marabella III]

So, yeah, it's. It's just got a big skill ceiling, a high skill ceiling. And that's what it's all about. You're gonna have to like, that grind. And. And that's why I pointed out we're still like, in the early part of it.

[Snowbike Mike]

And that's that extraction shooter mantra, right? That is the name of the game. You're gonna drop into a world and your goal is to loot and scavenge and bring that stuff out to upgrade and get stronger. And yeah, at the beginning, when you see it, you're like, well, what is all this? Right? What is this weird larva bug? Like, I don't need that. It's like, turns out when you go into the upgrade panel, it's like, oh, well, you need eight of those to upgrade this. You're like, dam been selling those. I don't be picking those up. Like, what am I doing? Jerky brought up you and Fran. Tracking items. What do you mean by that? School me. Maybe I'm missing out on a.

[Fran Marabella III]

You are. There's a couple big Jer. Do you want it?

[Jerrica Hannah]

Well, I was looking for something bioed for my vault space because, like, I'm like, how have I. I missed it? I missed it. Like, just. And I'm like, collecting all this stuff. I'm a hoarder of things, which, you know, I'm sure Bungie hates me and my vault all the time.

[Fran Marabella III]

Oh, yeah.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Now I have to buy more space. But I have these very specific things I need, and I was just missing them when I was out in the field. So that you can track them.

[Fran Marabella III]

Exactly. So the function. There's a couple of things, actually, that again, there's this quality of life in the game that Tarov. I don't know if it has now, but certainly didn't then. But as an example, you go to your factions and when you're hovering over those upgrade items, so you're like, oh, I want eight more slots on the vault. I want another row. You press on keyboard. It's the R button. Track salvage. Going to track every item for you automatically when you're in the Game looting. What happens is. And this is a. It's just like Tarkov, but Extraction Shooter mechanic. When you start to reveal the bag, it's all fogged out, right. You can't see anything. And it starts. There's a loot Speed. You have to upgrade. But what I'm getting at is when you track stuff and like, I don't know if any other Extraction Shooters do this. You'd have to tell me at this point. But it'll. It's a yellow eye. So as you're going out, all of a sudden, you'll see these blinky highlights. You're like, oh, it's stuff I'm tracking, I need. And it makes. It Makes it so much more accessible. But there's so much of that muscle memory to learn.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Fran Marabella III]

And then even, like, I even forget this is there when you start tracking stuff. I don't know what the button is on controller, but if you press Escape on the front menu, you usually pull up everything you're tracking. Oh, and it's actually. Sorry, it's in the game too. You press Escape and it shows everything you're tracking.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's rad.

[Fran Marabella III]

There's a lot of little.

[Snowbike Mike]

See what I appreciate.

[Jerrica Hannah]

See, I've been doing that on controller.

[Fran Marabella III]

Oh, I need that.

[Snowbike Mike]

You got to find that Jerrica. See, I haven't been doing the tracking. What I appreciate is when I hover over the item, it says, hey, this is on perimeter and Outpost. This is where it's at. And those things. And so at least I know the general area. So it's like, hey, it's on Outpost South. South or North Relay? South Relay. I'm like, okay, cool. I want to be there. Right? I'm going to find this there. So that's good to know.

[Fran Marabella III]

Exactly.

[Snowbike Mike]

One extra level.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, you want to do both. And that's exactly it. You should start. Once you start getting into the game, you're going to be like, what do I want most? Do I want revive speed? Because I'm heavy on PvP? Do I want loot speed? Because whatever. It's. It's burning me up. Whatever. So you can really start to dial in what you want to track. And that is the way to play. By the way, if think of playing other, even just RPGs. Like, if you're not tracking a quest, you're going to be at a disadvantage because then you're just bringing out too much. And then like you were hinting at, you're like, oh, I left those behind. I've been seeing those all the time. And you're like, I could have all this extra vault space. Like, I didn't know I needed an unstable diode. So, yeah, definitely get into the depth of that if you enjoy the game. It makes it so much more quality. Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Jerrica. Fran, I want to talk some more. What have I missed on the positive side of things that we want to highlight before we start flipping sides and talk about some of our critiques and some of the things we don't love.

[Fran Marabella III]

Okay. I mean, look, I said it, I think, is a setup at the beginning. The positive side is just the quality of production. And again, you'd have to tell me you went and played all the other attraction shooters. I just. I'm like, wow. Yeah, it feels like super high quality audio, super high quality visuals. You know, it is very much the extraction genre, and I think that's the part that people are struggling with. But, dude, it's quality. And when. Yeah, when you get to the outpost map, I wanted to ask you, did you have a wow moment? The. The third map, Outpost?

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

Like, when I went there, I was like, wait, wait, wait. This is huge. It's beautiful. It's immersive. I mean, I. Honestly, that map, I'm still processing. It's a huge leap beyond the first two. Did you have that?

[Snowbike Mike]

I think the quality. I think you nailed it. The quality of all of this is outstanding. Right. And that third map is something special when you finally get to it. And for me, it was the environmental hazard. It was the fire rain coming down of, like, me. Me and Kevin were running around and, like, clearly it's a map designed of, like, it wants you inside. It very feel, very much feels like Stella Montis in Arc Raiders, which is the final one, where it's like, hey, you're gonna clash and you're gonna be in these tight corridors. That's what this felt like. Of like, hey, you see this giant factory? That's cool and all, but most of the time you're gonna be inside and there's gonna be threats in there. And I really dug that.

[Fran Marabella III]

There's so much to learn in there. Still. Had you. Have you seen where the fire rain comes from yet?

[Snowbike Mike]

From the, like, missiles coming down? Yeah, I didn't even notice that.

[Fran Marabella III]

I thought it was just raining ash from the sky, but then I'm like, wait, this map is cat. Like, the. The labs or whatever, they're trying to keep you out by shooting this ash into the sky. It's pretty sick.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, man. We had an extraction there. Jericho Was crazy. We were, we clashed with something. There's like this moment where you start steamrolling where it's like we took down one team. Oh, we took down another team. You're like, we're unstoppable, Kevin A Stacks like no one can stop us from what I'm yelling at him. We take down another. We got. We found this one kid just walking by himself. Got him right? Like it feels so good. And then we got to the end. It's like we need to extract. Kid hits the button. What happens? Fire, rain. And we're just all standing underneath the roof, like looking at the extraction, watching doors, like waiting. And it's like this intensity that you don't feel anywhere else. Cuz now it's like we're on pause. But other teams are coming to like they do a great job limiting the extractions on the outpost where it's like there's only one. And it's like, okay, most people are going to come here, right? And it's like here they come. And it's like, oh, we had a blast on that. Loved it.

[Fran Marabella III]

It reminded me of cut their momentum, keep pushing. You know, that is Jericho. A little iron banner destiny for you. Start rolling. But anyway, I was going to say there's so many little things. Again, as you talk about it, like for people who haven't played the game again, I feel like the most rewarding part about it is what you start to learn and master. And I feel like an absolute novice still after 25 hours. And just to use an example, you're on Outpost. I just realized it last night. So if you get overheated, it shows you the debuff in the corner. It's actually a two minute overheat and I was triaged, so I threw my drone out and it exploded immediately. And I was like, wait a minute. I just, I thought I cooled down because I went inside, but I was still overheating. There's all these little things. So you would have to pop one of those purple mechanics kit to cool your hardware down. So there's a lot of little things like that. And some people are going to absolutely hate that management. But that's frankly, again, it's very Tarkov. Like there's all these little things to boost your agility. And again, we're at the beginning. Like I have not rolled blue shields with a bunch of goodies, let alone purples, let alone whatever's going on with these exotic, you know, or gold prestige buffs. I haven't looked into it because I Want to be surprised, but that's probably what's going to come out of Cryo Archive. So look, we have just seen the beginning of the depth, I think, and the people that get into the game and love it are going to be those people you want to grind for like 100 hours or 200 hours and master this stuff.

[Snowbike Mike]

That moment when you look at your loadout before you go in and you start to really fine tune what you want. Right? Like, make sure I got my shield buff on. Okay, here's the three power buffs on the bottom. What do I want? Oh, I'm not using melee damage. Take that out. Right? Oh, I want a little bit more on the heat sink. So I'm not. I'm not slowing down on running, right. It's like, I love that game of like, Jericho brought it in. It's like at the beginning, I'm like, I can't lose any of my stuff. This is all important to me. I can never lose this. And now I'm on like, run 20 and I'm like, I'm gonna find the best loadout and we're gonna risk it all and we're gonna go forward. Because now I am that little extra step more powerful than you out there in the battlefield. Hopefully that takes me to the next level. But I appreciate it's like, hey, it's anybody's game out there and they can. It could quickly roll over you if you think you're the top dog.

[Fran Marabella III]

And by the way, am I the only one, like, stabbing bots? The feeling and the sound, like, so good. And they.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Nice.

[Fran Marabella III]

All the iconography is brilliant. But even like finishing enemies, like, the feeling of the. Don't you feel it's super high quality

[Snowbike Mike]

and getting the health back to you as well?

[Fran Marabella III]

Just the feeling of hitting the. The finisher button and you like. I forget the animation, but it, like, sucks the life out of it.

[Snowbike Mike]

So cool. Have you had your life sucked by the tentacle monster up in the sky? That thing. Dude, get that thing out of here.

[Jerrica Hannah]

First few nights, I'm just constantly getting sucked, which doesn't sound great, but, you know, it's just like, help me.

[Fran Marabella III]

I'm screaming at the game also. Yeah, help him.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Getting sucked.

[Fran Marabella III]

I'll put that on cops and then you'll get two bots. I'm like, I'm getting double sucked. You just gotta embrace it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Jericho, what are some fun things that I have that we have missed that you want to highlight?

[Jerrica Hannah]

I think, you know, just bring so, you know, I love. I love Desi because I get to play with my friends. So, like, bringing in, like, just two folks you enjoy playing these games with has been probably the best, most rewarding thing so far. And just, like, finding those wins with them, like, just the teamwork element is always what drives me to keep playing Destiny and then getting loot. And is this a little bit of the same thing? It is. I think just the. The PvP quick turn of events of being able to get good, as they say, is going to be the challenge in it. But the reward, just also the reward. And when you finally get to X fill with some fine, like, finally find some good stuff, just feels so great. And I. Yeah. If anyone's gonna figure out how to make this game last a while, I think it's Bungie because they've done a great job with Destiny, in my opinion. He's had its ups and downs, but very quick to change a system or figure out for next season what needs to happen. Weapon balancing, like, those things that we feel like that might not feel great right now in terms of balancing of whether. Whether it's players, weapons, environmental, things like, that is thing those things will get fixed by Bungie. Like, they'll figure it out. So, like, I know, like, I'm a fan. It feels fun to play. To your point, like, I feel like my $40 has not been wasted, and I'm just really eager to see how it evolves and, like, what could come from marathon. What other modes can we expect to see that haven't been shared already? So it's exciting. I'm glad. I'm glad it's. I'm glad it's good.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm glad that you're enjoying it. Yeah. For me, it's the production value. Yeah. Fran, like, you brought up, like, I am wowed at the beginning of this with all the cinematics into just the beautiful world of Tau Cetti, into the gunplay that, you know, is so tight and so good with Bungie. Right. And, like, extraction shooters are fairly new for the general audience. Right. And it is a tough nut to crack of, like, learning it, living it, breathing it, of mastering it. It's like that is a whole lifespan. Like, you brought up with the learning curve of, like, you know, shout out to one of the jabronis out there in our audience. I came off of the service. Lamb was like, I'm not hot on this. And the kid just wrote, get good, Mike. And I was like, you know what, Gibroni? I will. And I've had the time of my life because of that. So whoever you are, thank you. Because I spent the time. I took the time to slow down and say, okay, Mike, like, let's learn this, let's try this. And I found the fun, I found the rhythm, and I found the good times.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. So interesting. Like, you mentioned that 180, but I didn't realize it was actually that big. Like, you really were down on it. And like once full 180, starting to feel the mastery.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes. When we played the server slam, I felt like the game was too slow. We were doing 15 minute matches and we'd only bump into one team.

[Fran Marabella III]

Sure.

[Snowbike Mike]

I felt like we were running around the maps and it was empty. I felt like the AI was too strong and we'd get run over by them. Or I felt like the time to kill was so fast.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

That teams would get the drop on us and it would suck because I would die and it would lose. And like, the hardest part about an extraction shooter is there is no response. You do have to reload into the game. You have to reload out. You have to jump back in and do all the steps you're doing. And so, like, there's this giant punch to the face that like, you kind of got to get back up on and be like, all right, let me try again. And like, that is one of the hardest parts of this, of this kind of genre. And yeah, battle royales in general, it's like, there's no respawn. You're not going to try again in a fast manner. You got to really commit to doing it again.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. And I would just really stress again, like, these, you know, we're early on and that's why, you know, we'll talk about our final thoughts at the end of the show. And I'll be like, dude, this game is evolving. These games evolve. You haven't seen. We haven't seen it yet. Again, when everybody's running purple shields or whatever and I have like very little good gear. I was just thinking about, like, scopes. I have, like, very little. And when I've had the opportunity to put on a blue scope or just to see the production value in the game, but also use the actual scope, like, I haven't had a thermal scope, but I've seen them and they are op, you know, there's just all sorts of little things that in the depth of the game that I know haven't even seen yet. And I'll be really interested to see how that evolves.

[Snowbike Mike]

Let's have some fun. Let's jump into some super Chats. So I want to round. Round down the show with some super chats and then just some of our. Our thoughts, our critiques and then we'll put our final thoughts, our final touches on it. Guitar Hero Arrow writes in with the $10 super chats and says put a. Put in 20 hours with an open mind. Just not finding the fun. Very let down. As a fan of the originals. Bummed the IP was used for this. What's your history with the OG Marathon and thoughts on this as a reboot? Fran Jericho, do you know about the OG marathon? Did you play any of it and what are your thoughts on the mayor on the reboot?

[Fran Marabella III]

I played very little of the original. But I mean that was the precursor to Halo and I really. Look, I know why they use the ip.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

I easily see the. The argument is put simply, this is. We all wish that they took this and turned it into a Halo esque marathon campaign. Right. I wish it had that as well. Or was that me? Of course. But that's not what this is. But now that the job is done, I think it's really cool. And they're tying a lot of their worlds together, which they kind of already had, you know, between Marathon and Hill and stuff. So like I don't have a real issue with that. It's that I also want the campaign at some point or.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course.

[Fran Marabella III]

Right. I don't think it's a problem. And we're seeing the lore now in the game and it's pretty sick what they've done.

[Snowbike Mike]

Jerk. Any ties to the OG Marathon?

[Jerrica Hannah]

Not at all. I know a little bit like the history behind it, but you know, impacted my decision to play wasn't a factor.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. I have no ties to the OG marathon. I don't even know about it. So it's all new to me. I'm loving the world and the lore and yeah. I mean there's a piece of me that like sees these incredible cutscenes learning about the world. It's like, oh man. Like they would make a crazy cyberpunk sci fi game. And it's like, you know, I can't. I'm looking at what I have right now and I'm still having fun with it.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. I mean I think we'll see it in this cryo archive. But the one thing that is good that they were inspired by it and used it is like Marathon was all about being kind of creepy horror esque, like first person shooter vibes. And like you get even as colorful as this world is, it's Pretty like scary and ominous. And we see that the maps are increasingly so.

[Snowbike Mike]

So, yeah, Mike likes music, writes in and says extraction shooters are the new battle Royale. We have so many of them now. What has Slash can Bungie do to innovate in this genre?

[Fran Marabella III]

I actually just disagree with. Go ahead, Derek, please.

[Jerrica Hannah]

Well, I was like. I mean, after my. My weekend of like, what extraction shooters can I play? And the reason why I haven't played any that much is because I don't think there are a lot. Unless. Yeah. Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think, like, our craters is the only thing that's standing out Tarkov. Like, those are the two I think about. And like, that one moment from God, it just left me division. It wasn't actually the issue mode that I played. Like, that was my touch, touch point. So I don't. I think. I don't think there is enough. And I do feel like they are doing a lot already. That's much different than anything else. I think it's in its own lane in the genre. Which sounds great. A subcategory to some extent.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. I think it'd be a longer discussion of like, why did we arrive here with Marathon as an extraction shooter? But, Mike, I would actually ask you. You did this recently. Like, what are the extraction shooters?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I'm actually, you know, I'm on the opposite side very much like Jerrica, where it's like, I don't think there is that many extraction shooters. I still think this is a new open market that people are diving into. There's history with extraction shooters, especially with Escape from Tarkov. We point to the division with the dark Dark Zone, which was like a very fun, different thing at its time. But when I look at the extraction shooter market, there's actually not that many. Right. I don't think that the Hunt Showdown is an extraction shooter. Actually. It has extraction like. But yeah, I do not call it an extraction shooter. The Cycle Frontier has shut down. That was one we still are waiting on Exoborn, which is one that I previewed out in Vegas a long time ago. Gave you guys a preview of that one didn't drop. And then of course, we talk about Escape from Tarkov, Arc Raiders and Marathon. Those are the big three that I have.

[Fran Marabella III]

Did you touch Gray Zone or Delta Force? Are those. Oh, yeah, Yeah, I didn't touch.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's an interesting one. Yeah. The. When you talk about their extraction shooters of. Of Gray Zone and Delta Force and then Call of Duty had.

[Fran Marabella III]

Oh, dmz, sure.

[Snowbike Mike]

Dmz. Right. And I think that this is kind of a different class of those. I haven't played much Gray Zone, so great pull on that one. But I, I still think that's like this is an unexplored place that people are wanting to find gold in. And yes, you are seeing that happen right now over the past two years with so many games trying to try a new mode. And I think it's just like you're coming hot off of Fortnite and Battle Royales, which have dominated the market for almost 10 years. People saying, I want something new. And now developers going, okay, well what is new? What is different? What can we try? Or they just keep making you Battle Royale. So I, I think we're still early in the extraction game.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I think you could have a long conversation about like, wait, I wanted. Let's assume we wanted a PvP focused game. What would you want Bungie to do? Different discussion. But they made an extraction shooter. And all I would say is there's not that many that are done well with especially this level of quality of life, production value, the lore, the cinematics, whatever.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

But then like, honestly, like, I just personally don't know, other than Tarov, that feels like this sort of brutal and like challenging. I haven't played, you know, Gray Zone

[Snowbike Mike]

or Delta Force, whatever, but someone brought up Dark, Darker. A little bit different vibe, but I like that.

[Fran Marabella III]

Well, no, no, Dark and dark.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's just.

[Fran Marabella III]

It's not a shooter.

[Snowbike Mike]

Medieval. Yeah. I would call it more hack and slash with some like spells.

[Fran Marabella III]

But it's true. It is an extraction and there are. There's more extraction games. And I would just circle back to the like what I said about Arc Ray. Sorry. These games are just completely different. Yes, they share some very similar stuff, but the gameplay loop is. The feel is completely different.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean, what can Bungie do or has done to innovate in this genre? I think that's the exciting part is Jerrica and Fran have brought up with the RAID system from Destiny and how Destiny really captured that idea of like solving puzzles on the fly with a group. Right. And I think that's where this team will probably double down on the next map that we see. And I think in the future is they will start to have world that you will solve puzzles in dynamically and differently throughout each map. That will be something special. Right. It's like whether it be writing on the wall that leads you to one spot or it is, hey, we know that these are the five things that we need to do to unlock the special room. I bet you we'll see that happen a lot moving forward, which will be something special in the genre.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, I mean right now we are seeing a little bit of that. What Bungie does innovate in.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right.

[Fran Marabella III]

Like they have a community driven event. There's panels in the game that nobody knows exactly what they're saying and they're unlocking a real ARG website for the cryoarchive and you're seeing cameras of the fourth map that are being unlocked by the community as a percentage of like. So there's. I don't even know how it's done exactly, but you'll see a panel in the game that's doing something and then eventually you'll find one that's saying something and then you got to go to like another panel and everybody's starting to connect these dots and then you have to input this information. I think on the website you're unlocking the fourth map, meaning Bungie's done this a lot. But they're letting the community actually unlock the fourth map. And I. I don't know if there's going to be a world's first type thing on that either, but I think they are innovating in that sense. I don't know if the other ones have done much of that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

So yeah, I mean you're feeling that bungee sauce there.

[Snowbike Mike]

Jeff writes in and says got over 20 hours of marathon and loving it. The intensity is fantastic. Rock Solo runs Rook Solo runs plays like survival horror lore and story is deep too. Yeah, we highlighted that. We enjoy that as well.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

I gotta play some more rook. I don't know. I like playing with my crew. I'm having so much.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah. So I mean it is good to reinforce like if you want that experience. Solo is the one to like you want to feel horror and scared that playing solo is rough.

[Snowbike Mike]

Street Shadow writes in and says something I think gets missed. Marathon is PvP VE and Arc Raiders is PvE VP. This is an intentional and can really decide how you view the game. Overall, I'm loving it. Yeah. I mean I think we're mixing up the letters on that just to have a little fun. But it is like I do think the focus is more player versus player with environment in the background as like you said Street Shadow of like. I think in Arc Raiders me to sell it to Greg. It is. It's very heavy player versus environments with players as a threat in the background as opposed to. I think Marathon is kind of that next step of like, PvP, you're going to clash here.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, yeah. You. Yeah, yeah. I mean, our creators most often can be a lot more friendly or you can find ways to get in and out of there. And there's a lot of cool PvE stuff. Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Zeke Speak writes in and says, super late to the conversation, but I've been mainlining Marathon since release and really digging it. A game. A game for everybody is a game for nobody.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, I saw that. I thought that was a fan. Like, it was kind of what we were talking about, right? That deeper mastery.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

It may not please everybody and like the genre may not be for everyone. And that's okay. Like, we're not. We don't all like the same games. Like, some people will absolutely hate Dark and Darker or they just might hate Call of Duty multiplayer. You know, like, that doesn't make it bad, but this one's gonna. It's gonna be more narrow. And I think there. That's again a different discussion.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, it is a different discussion and a bigger discussion because Tristan does right in kind of following that. I see so many toxic opinions online. Even desiring Bungie devs to be fired, it seems so many opinions become fashionable and it's so depressing. I love this game and I hope it survives. Fran, you and I have pulled you aside. We talked about Steam DB and Steam charts, right? And that seems to be the latest trend in the video game online conversation is pointing the charts saying, oh, they don't have enough players, this and that. And then there's always the conversation of, well, there's two other, I mean three, but there's two other major platforms, Xbox and PlayStation that this is on. Right. You can't always point to just numbers here, but it does seem to be the fashionable thing. And I know, friend, you've been in this industry a long time. You've seen it evolve, grow, and the conversations change. The conversation now seems to be if you're not dunking and being negative, you're not in with the fun conversations. You're being mean.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, uh, yeah. I mean, if you haven't followed, people are just posting screenshots of Steam concurrence and stuff. And like all I will say, I mean, I could go off, but it's really reductive to the game discussion. I love discussing game play. I love discussing the game loop. And what does it matter what the concurrency is unless you're having a problem matchmaking. And even then, like, you shouldn't even have to go look at that either. The game's working or not. And it's. There's one way more than enough players right now or. And you brought this up, but I'm like, I think it's very rare that someone's like, oh, am I marrying this game for the next six to 12 months. Some people do do that and it's a fair discussion if you invest your time and like maybe it gives you some insight on that. But again, I'm like, why don't you. It's 40 bucks. You know, like not everybody can. Can spend all the money in the world, obviously. And I want to be sensitive to that. But my point is like, if you want to marry this game, sure you can look at the team concurrence, but otherwise, can we please just talk about the game? And you can. We can focus mostly on you either like extraction shooters and this brutality. It's Apex meets Tarkov meets Destiny, whatever. And it has nothing to do with the fact that it was this many concurrence this weekend on Steam. And like you said, most. I'll leave it at this too. People just don't understand that sometimes. Like you see, let's say a hundred thousand people on Steam, that's a simultaneous number. That's not a unique daily number. It's not a unique monthly number. We don't have that. It's also not engagement. And some games you get in and out in six minutes. This game, you're in there for 30 minutes engagement time. And the way that people behave is like that's a whole different number that you'll never see. But I just think it's really reductive to get into that.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's all everyone loves to be. Armchair quarterback is right. Yes, that's my take. Everyone has an opinion on how they would run the business. But as Fran said, let's talk about the game. Is it fun? Let's talk about the moment to moment. Tell me about that. And then if you want to talk about the business side, that's a whole nother conversation.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, yeah. And again, it's different if it's having like actual problems or it maybe it is a bad game. Like, look, high guard is obviously in this discussion and I was the same thing, a big defender of it. And I've seen some of these jabronis in chat, coming through even like, is it the high guard dude? And it's like, okay, you don't even know what the high guard dude is. So let me just cover off on that. Look it up. I never said that game was going to be successful. I never said it was going to be incredible. I said, let's talk about it, let's play it. That's what I'm about. I'm for game discussion, not game cancellation. And like, yeah, you're starting to get set off here, obviously.

[Snowbike Mike]

Hey, but no, friend, we need more of that. We need to set the tone of. We're here for game discussion, not game cancellation.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, I mean I never, never in my life that I think I would see so many people so mad at a free game. It's just like, just move on if you're, you know, you're mad at it. But, but there is a deeper discussion in here that I think again is worth covering at some point. This live service problem and the way people feel treated and like they feel like the developers are wasting their time. Absolutely. There's a discussion to be had. But that doesn't make Marathon bad and it didn't make a High Guard bad. High Guard was definitely an early game and I wish that it could have gone through more early access stuff. But anyway, Marathon is very different in its quality.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, here's a fun palate cleanser to finish out the super chats and AV nuts. Right. Sins and says snow. Mike. Mike, when is the Franz Only apron, Only cooking stream. I need to know when I need to renew my only fans account. Get your money out.

[Fran Marabella III]

I mean I might have to cook. Cook you up something soon. Cause I could use a few extra tips. Save. Thank you very much.

[Snowbike Mike]

You're the best. Jerrica. Fran, we will go around the table one last time. What did we miss that you want to add to the conversation? Any final thoughts to close this out? Let's get out of here and go play some more games. Jericho, start with you.

[Jerrica Hannah]

I think we, we got a game here for $40 that has so much potential. And still to all of our points earlier, just things we haven't even unlocked or figured out that like I think this game for what it's delivering, it told us what it was going to be for the most part. Like it delivered on that. And I feel like there's still a lot that I haven't even discovered. So like as of right now, like, I feel like this is a great game. Like it's got everything I would want from this world. I think in terms of just how everything looks, the. The factions are really interesting to me. It's got so much character and there's. You do feel the. I feel the heart in this. And at a glance you could look at Marathon and Think this is just something they're throwing at the wall. Again, at first glance, if you're not dialed into like the production and development of this game. But they really took a. Took an IP that's been long forgotten and made it memorable. Like I'm already. If I see marathon like splat up on a. A billboard somewhere, like I recognize it. It's exciting and I'm so think like I'm glad Bungie the team got to work on something brand new. Like, God, I feel like I've just been wanting something new from them for so long. So it's a. It's a more like a smaller scale thing. But like I'm. I'm eager to see if it continues the path it's on, if it can open up in new ways. Like I said, talking about raid design and level progression, loop progression. Like Bungie knows how to. Knows how to do that. And I'm just really excited to see like what they. What's the fun thing they do to evolve an extraction shooter game brand?

[Snowbike Mike]

Anything we missed? Anything you want to close on?

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, I mean I would like to wrap up my thoughts.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, of course.

[Fran Marabella III]

I know you guys do score stuff. Sometimes I would just say, look like I'm the type of person I like to get into the depth of a game. So yeah. Not playing a ton of outposts yet not even understanding ton of these detailed mechanics. Like seeing you go from a. I don't really dig this game to like, oh, I'm kind of digging it. That can really change in a game like this. You get into the depth. But put shortly like this game is not for everyone and Tarkov was not for everyone and it turns out that Bungie decided to make that type of game. Yeah, I definitely feel again, all this extra quality of life and polish and lore and everything that Bungie brings to the table and it's all there. But it's under this roof of this pretty hardcore extraction Johnny. That's very PvP focused.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Fran Marabella III]

And so you're not going to like it if you don't like those things. I. I think you might even jump in and you might like dig the world. Is it worth your 40 bucks to kind of like roam around and roam around as rook? Like, maybe, but I think a lot of people will find that it's pretty unfriendly out there. It's not like arc raiders and that's even a meme like people going up and finishing people on comms and they're like, this ain't arc raiders, kiddo.

[Snowbike Mike]

And they're just.

[Fran Marabella III]

And. And that is this game and you're going to have to like it. So I think they did a really nice job bringing it to the finish line, getting that extra six months versus where it was. Yeah, it looks a lot better. You know, granted, that was a play test alpha last year and. And that was the same thing I was saying then of like, these things will evolve and change. Look at how much they did in a year. So, you know, imagining that marathon will stick around for at least several seasons, imagine how it will change. But point is, I want to see the depth of it. But from a quality side and review in progress side, I will say this game's absolutely in the eight type territory. It's solid, it's great. But you've got to like this genre. And for some people, they're going to be like, no, dude, I hate it. You're like, yeah, you wouldn't like Tarkov either.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Fran Marabella III]

So I would leave it at that. And I'm really interested to see again how it evolves and like seeing builds probably, and the rare loot that excites people. Like, we haven't even seen that destiny side of it. And I'm curious. We will and I'll leave it now, but like, oh, I have to get the backpack out of cryo archive because it does X or Y. Like, I don't know if we get there, but probably you'll be there and

[Snowbike Mike]

then you'll have that dance of do I bring it in? Because it's very powerful and helpful. But also Mike and his cronies are looking, you know, like, that's the fun part about the extraction world.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah.

[Jerrica Hannah]

And.

[Fran Marabella III]

And maybe the last thing I would think is important to bring up is like, it is a live service game. It's got a reward pass that you need to buy for 10 bucks or something or with the deluxe edition, free.

[Snowbike Mike]

And yeah, either purchases. Right. You have two. Two routes.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, you can get quite a bit of cosmetics from challenges and stuff out of the Codex, though.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes, yes.

[Fran Marabella III]

But they. They're. It's a grind. And I just wanted to bring that part up too, that if you want to get a lot of cosmetics and stuff, it is a grind, but the whole game is a grind. And. And I was just remembering that. I wanted to point that out as it's likely a negative for me, as much as I dig the game, I mean, similar to Tarop, it's like, dude, I feel like I have to play this for like 70 to 100 hours before I'm going to be getting these purple shields. Okay. So you. You have that conversation. It's like, well, wait, if I can't. In other words, if the reward is I want to feel the power. And that's when you really start enjoying it. I mean, Elden Ring can be that way, etc. You really got to put in a lot of work and Bungie can be particularly grindy. So I'm taking a guess here, but it might be too grindy for me and some. But some people love that.

[Snowbike Mike]

So yeah, I've done a full 180 on this game. If you asked me last week, I would have said absolutely not. Now this week I am really into it, right? And if you followed me here at kind of funny throughout the months of Arc Raiders to this, you probably just like France said, right? Like, this is right up Mike's alley. This is not Arc Raiders. I am looking for the PvP. I'm looking for the clash. The tight destiny. Gunplay and movement feel great. The world and production value is through the roof. I really enjoy it. I'm having fun chasing the high. I look forward to playing it more. And yeah, if we were to put a number on this fan, I'm at like really good to great. I'm at like a high seven to an eight, right? Like, this game is good. This game is a lot of fun.

[Fran Marabella III]

It's absolutely good.

[Snowbike Mike]

And so it's like, I hope that people who want to dive in have a great time with it. I hope they learn the world and enjoy it. People who are on the fence and they hear this, I hope they hear what Fran and Jerrica and myself have to say. Like, this is a punishing world. This is Arc Raiders to the next level when it comes to PvP. Right. It's like our creators did so great to get you in and understanding the extraction world. And if you started enjoying that and you want more and you want to try something different, this is a perfect next step. Right. I really do think this is like the next 2.0 of what our creators is of. Like, here's the welcoming world, here's where you learn. Here's where you have a good time. Hey, if you want to go even more in depth and you want to get to a little hardcore sweaty, this is the next game for you to try.

[Fran Marabella III]

Yeah, yeah. It's going to be interesting. I want to see where I land once I've played everything and get to the depth. Like those my favorite games is when you see the. The gameplay evolve and you get the mastery of it. So to me again I feel a novice there and that's why I don't feel comfortable actually scoring. But it already yeah, it's absolutely a good game. That may not be for everybody.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, no doubt. And that has been your kind of funny impressions review thus far of Marathon From Bungie after weekend 1. Looking forward to more fun in Toeti 4. I can't wait to hopefully stream it with Andy and Nick, maybe some more Fran and Jerrica and we'll we'll see you around on the next kind of funny games cast. We're not done though. If you're watching live on YouTube and on Twitch, Nick Scarpino has a very fun solo stream. Y' all asked for it, you said Mike we want Nick to play Dispatch. Guess what? For the next two days, Nick is playing Dispatch all by himself just for you. So come out and support it. Come out and enjoy the decision making and the fun of that awesome superhero superhero tale. But until then, this is the end of the games cast. It's been our pleasure to serve you. Goodbye Freeze Frame.

[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Snowbike Mike]

Let's talk about it.

[Fran Marabella III]

I don't have time to shop, so I buy all my clothes where I buy my seafood.

[Snowbike Mike]

I just want someone to tell me what shirt goes with what pants.

[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Fran Marabella III]

Man, that was easy.

[Snowbike Mike]

That looked good.

[Jerrica Hannah]

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[Fran Marabella III]

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