Gaming: If You're Hoping To Make Friends In Marathon Like You Can In Arc...

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This week: Finished the original Mass Effect for the first time ever, and wished I liked it more.

If the opening hours of Marathon's server slam playtest are any indication, Bungie's latest won't be the surprisingly cooperative extraction shooter Arc Raiders has become.

Despite the presence of features that allow players to cooperate, like proximity voice chat (which Bungie only added after playtest feedback), Marathon is so far a competitive game by default. I've extended an olive branch to several solo runners rummaging through Perimeter today and, alas, only one was receptive to friendship. The rest wanted my hard-earned stuff (that I got for free by equipping a sponsor kit).

Marathon's combative norm isn't a bad thing. I point it out because it's an interesting contrast to my experience with Arc Raiders' pre-release playtests, during which pacifist lobbies were common even before that became the game's reputation. The same could happen for Marathon, but I don't think it will. I see a handful of reasons why PvP will be deeply rooted in Marathon:

Marathon's Runner shells revolve around PvPIt's impossible to ignore that Runner shells (classes) in Marathon are built with PvP in mind—stuff like wallhack abilities, cloaks, rocket barrages, and a passive that spots an enemy squad if you execute one of its members.

Some contracts are PvP-focusedAn early contract I picked up from one of Marathon's factions calls for killing and dealing damage to other players—a direct incentive to engage in PvP. Embark deliberately avoided making PvP a requirement of its quests, but it did have PvP feats (side challenges) until a recent update.

The UESC isn't as interesting to fight (or avoid) as the ArcThis one's undoubtedly subjective, but I don't think the UESC as a faction will inspire impromptu teamups the way the Arc do in Arc Raiders. UESC bots are dangerous and to be avoided if possible, but their close-range attack patterns and proximity to buildings means other players typically can't assist you from a distance. The faction's humanoid form also makes it tougher to distinguish between player and NPC in the moment. Anything person-shaped that doesn't have a squad mark above its head is the enemy.

Other players look like bad guysThanks to the one guy I encountered today who was nice and chill, I got an up-close look at how strangers appear in Marathon. Bungie uses

Source: PC Gamer