Bungie revealed earlier this week that Season 2 of Marathon will begin on June 2. Ahead of the new season’s start, the studio has released a massive blog post detailing plans for Season 2 and beyond, what went wrong with Season 1, what went well, and more. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the post is the news that Bungie will implement experimental PvE modes in Marathon during Season 2.
In a section of the blog post titled “More Options To Chill And New Survival Experiences,” Bungie says it is looking to evolve Marathon as a whole to be an experience where you can find more novel ways to play when “you’re stressed out from a nail-biting run and just need to cool off.” In steps experimental PvE modes.
“In Season 2, we will be experimenting with two modes, one at the beginning of the season and one towards the middle/latter half of the season,” the blog post reads. “The experimental mode at the beginning of the season will focus more on PvE, but with a light touch of PvP. The second experimental mode will be a PvE-only mode that’s focused on crews being tasked with completing objectives together and making some progress across matches.”
While I, personally, quite enjoy Maratho’s PvP stress, I can understand why the intense focus on it might be a turn-off for some would-be players, and PvE modes would likely draw them in (and maybe convince them to give the excellent PvP a go, too).
Bungie says it will continue to run experimental queues beyond these two offerings in Season 2 and beyond, testing the waters around other mechanics, like a more purely PvP-focused mode) with potential for these modes to become part of the core game loop.
In Season 3, Bungie says it plans to introduce many revisions to Marathon’s early experience, including major updates to Perimeter, a new Runner shell, and additional content. Season 4 will focus on building more depth into the existing extraction loop, and Season 5 will be about bringing the “whole ecosystem of (Pv(P)vE) play together and evolving our weird sci-fi world in new ways.”
Bungie
The upcoming Sentinel Runner shell
Elsewhere in the post, Bungie Duos will return in Season 2 alongside Vault size expansion and increased faction progression rates. It will dive deep into more Season 2 content, like Night Marsh, the new Cradle progression system, and the brand-new Sentinel Runner shell (pictured above), the week of May 25.
The blog post goes into extreme detail on plenty of other topics, so if you’re a more hardcore Marathon player, check it out here.
For more, read Game Informer’s Marathon review to find out why it’s one of our favorite shooters of the year.
If you’re not already playing Marathon, would PvE modes bring you in? Let us know in the comments below!
