You can take the Bungie out of Halo, but it’ll take more than a 16 years-past Microsoft breakup to take the Halo out of Bungie. The presence of the seminal FPS can be felt throughout much of Bungie’s new extraction shooter, Marathon, in ways both subtle and decidedly obvious.
Acknowledging that Marathon and Halo are inherently intertwined by symbology, themes, and shared terminology, an echo of Bungie’s past work is also felt mechanically. Some of Marathon’s Halo-isms can be attributed to a house style that never left the studio—weighty movement, low gravity, grenades that bounce ever so nicely. Then there’s the Destroyer shell that’s essentially a Destiny titan adorned with spartan armor.
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But don’t worry, the studio still found a spiritual home for the Halo 1 magnum with the Magnum MC. This thing hits like a truck with heavy rounds and aggressive vertical recoil, shutting down all UESC grunts with a single headshot (much like its predecessor). Though in practice, it’s more of a Destiny hand cannon.
Then there’s the V11 Punch, or should I say Plasma Pistol. This semi-auto sidearm shoots globs of volt energy that (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) drains shields quicker than bullets. You can also hold the trigger to charge up a shot that shatters shields in a single blast.
Marathon has at least two guns that are so directly yanked out of the Halo universe that Bungie went ahead and added rare attachments that complete the transformation. The base version of the BR33 Volley Rifle is a dead ringer for the Halo 2 Battle Rifle, but slap the Lockout Muzzle Brake on the end and it becomes a hipfire juggernaut: “While firing from the hip, this weapon has greatly increased accuracy, stability, and range,” reads the description as shared by GuapoGary on X.
When this attachment was discovered, Bungie’s resident ‘fontslop merchant’ Elliott Gray chimed in with a screenshot of the Halo 2 BR on the legendary multiplayer map Lockout, captioned “Welcome home.”
Players have also discovered a similarly peculiar prestige attachment for the V22 Volt Thrower, an SMG with smart homing rounds. The base version doesn’t scream Halo on its own, but as X user proteusjumpship shares, the Overcharge Lens attachment transforms the V22 into a makeshift Needler:
Reactive Burst: Consecutive hits on target create an explosive burst on the target.
It’s a beautiful thing.
The rest of the Marathon/Halo gun comparisons I have in mind are, admittedly, more of a stretch. The Hardline PR is a precision rifle that doesn’t really look the part of Halo Reach’s DMR, but certainly feels like one in the hands. The Longshot sniper rifle shares the Halo sharpshooter’s predictable aim punch and multi-zoom scope, but it looks quite different. The slim, short-barrel profile of the Brrt SMG has to be a callback to the Halo 2 gun, but it actually fires in bursts, so the feel isn’t one-to-one.
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Above all else, Marathon is further proof that no game studio is more into bullpup rifles than Bungie. Magazines can go in the back, top, or sides of guns, but never the front.
Did I miss any other obvious callbacks? I understand there’s also a lot of Destiny in this arsenal as well, though I’m not seasoned enough to recognize them.
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