Everyone who’s played or even looked at Marathon can agree its vibes are off the charts. But it’s also an extraction shooter, meaning anyone who wants to soak up those vibes needs to play a tense game mode with confusing rules that allows absolutely no room for error. This has led many to wish developer Bungie had instead designed Marathon as a traditional FPS. I’d go a step further: It doesn’t even necessarily need to be Marathon. I’ll take any great FPS campaign at this point.

[Spoiler warning: This article veers into “old man yells at cloud” territory.]

Marathon, released March 5 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, is just about the opposite of what anyone craving a traditional FPS campaign would want to play. You and up to two other players are sent to an open area on an exoplanet, where you have to find as much loot as you can and escape before time runs out. The stakes are high; death can come from NPCs or fellow players, at which point you’re sent right back to where you started. Rich lore aside, the stories you experience in Marathon are more emergent in nature — moments that you and your party create while playing. Clear structure........

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