Good Marathon games.
8. Marathon
The first game in the series. By modern standards, the game is very primitive and its age shows. The level design can be a little off-putting for modern gamers but the combat was fun.
6.5/10
7. Marathon 2: Durandal
The second game in the series, in my opinion, majorly improved on the ambience by eschewing the music and instead having atmospheric sound effects. The levels are slightly more interesting and a few were amazing.
7/10
6. Marathon Infinity
Ne Cede Malis and Aye Mak Sicur are the reasons this game makes it past Marathon 2 on this list. Masterful and dark levels full of mysterious atmosphere. The rest of the game I would put on par with M2.
7.5/10
5. Marathon EVIL
A great Marathon scenario with a horror tinge? Pick me up! My favorite level in the game has to be Code 42 with its Ne Cede Malis/Acme Station blend of atmosphere and for the challenging fights.
8/10
4. Marathon Eternal
A massive but slightly flawed Marathon scenario. The textures, storyline, and atmosphere are spot-on, but the gameplay suffers slightly. Still well worth playing and would recommend for the story alone.
8.5/10
3. Marathon TGI (The Gray Incident)
The predecessor to Marathon Phoenix is an amazing action-packed scenario full of great battles. I loved the boss fight at the very end. That S'pht'Kr was one nasty SOB. I also loved the architecture. Kudos to the one and only RyokoTK for this!
9/10
2. Marathon Rubicon X
A nearly perfect scenario with three different endings and a whole smorgasbord of levels to experience. Varied combat, missions, e.g. I cannot list a favorite level because the scenario is consistently one of my favorites.
9.5/10
1. Marathon Phoenix
Everything that The Gray Incident did right, Phoenix did better. Phoenix is the epitome of gaming experience. Frantic battles, architecturally masterful level design, great music (I play without music though, personal preference), amazing scenario length (LONG), and the re-playability is nuts. Exploring the levels is a joy. RyokoTK wins in the scenario development game.
10/10
Bad Marathon games.
Spacial Outpouring
Highly confusing levels and from what I have heard, extremely disturbing themes as well. Not my cup of tea. I give credit for the oddball ambient sounds though.
4/10
Evil Ra'thor
Read the reviews: http://simplici7y.com/items/marathon-ra-thor ~ About sums it up.
3/10
Other scenarios.
Marathon Yuge
Insane and madcap. Senseless fun and action; re-playability is a given.
8.5/10
Marathon Aeon
Incomplete but pretty cool. Lovely textures and a most interesting plot.
8.5/10
Kill 'em All
Same as the review for Yuge, essentially.
8.5/10
Kindred Spirits
The miniature sequel to Marathon Phoenix, my review for such applies here.
10/10
What does everyone else think of these games?
My favorite Marathon scenarios. (And least favorite.)
54 posts
• Page 1 of 3 • 1, 2, 3
Jul 25th '18, 23:55
ForeverBlackened wrote:Good Marathon games.
8. Marathon
The first game in the series. By modern standards, the game is very primitive and its age shows. The level design can be a little off-putting for modern gamers but the combat was fun.
6.5/10
Think Marathon is primitive, dated, and lacking polish, do you?
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ravenshining - Hawai'i
Jul 26th '18, 00:54
Of the scenarios listed above, I went with Rubicon because of the atmosphere and especially the writing. Infinity is a very close second, and actually, as a game, M2 or Infinity might be the strongest. But there are numerous passages in Rubicon that I wish I’d written myself.
My own thoughts (not bothering with ratings because I don’t like assigning an objective score to an inherently subjective value):
M1:
Obviously dated by today’s standards; still a fresh and inventive game by 1994’s. Shout-out for having a story as deep as most books’ in a time when it was uncommon for any video game to have a story that deep, much less a FPS. Easily the trilogy entry I’ve played the least though.
M2:
Of the trilogy, I think this is the game I enjoy playing the most. It’s fun to just wander around and immerse yourself in the atmosphere, and it definitely deepens the intriguing story of the original game. It also probably contains my favourite single level of any game ever in “Kill Your Television”. M∞ manages to one-up it for story, architecture, and overall atmosphere, though.
M∞:
I still don’t fully understand the whole story, and kind of doubt anyone but Greg K. does, but what I do understand is amazing. From an architectural standpoint, this, as far as I’m concerned, set the benchmark for what a 2.5D game can look like. Other scenarios – Phoenix, Tempus, Rubicon – have since bettered it overall, but there are a couple of levels that I’m not sure will ever be topped. “Aye Mak Sicur” is probably the strongest level in the trilogy (as compared to “KYT” being my favourite). It’s a small marvel that Randy managed to create a level that massive where you can still get from any one point to any other within a minute or two at most, and it would be #2 on my all-time examples of flow in video game level design (#1 is, of course, Super Metroid, which has the same level of quality but on a game-wide scale).
Evil:
Phenomenal atmosphere and often impressive map design (though it varies widely by level); where it suffers is the writing, which is pretty pedestrian, and the lack of consistency between levels. To be fair, this is a problem for any scenario where a lot of people worked on maps. It still set the standard for what a TC could accomplish; some later works may have bettered on it, but it’s worth playing just for the historical importance. The best parts of this scenario are about as good as Marathon can get. Cool new weapons as well; I pilfered the Pfhor staff for my own scenario because it’s just so much fun.
Eternal:
Phenomenal story, amazing atmosphere, great gameplay premise, occasionally flawed execution (although I like to think we’re fixing a lot of those flaws with 1.2). Some of the terminals could stand to be trimmed in length by about 25% or more, too. I may see if I can make them more concise over the next few weeks before school starts up again.
Apart from that, the final chapter is massively flawed. The map designs are gorgeous, but the swarms of enemies, man. As I said in the Eternal thread, you could cut them by half and there would still be too many.
Rubicon:
Although there are a few absolutely terrible levels, this is still probably my favourite Marathon game ever released. My biggest complaints: a few of the enemies are just way overpowered (Enforcers, Juggernauts, and MaserBobs, I’m looking at you) and a couple of the levels just aren’t fun to play (“There’s No Place Like Up” is a fantastic idea for a puzzle level, but the execution is awful; if you cut the enemies by 75%, there would still probably be too many, and there should probably just be pattern buffers before every major jump so you can easily kill yourself and start again if you mess up). However, these complaints are more than made up for by… basically everything else. I noticed a few typos in the terminals, but overall, the writing is better than most professional film/TV/game scripts these days, addressing universal human themes in an intelligent, perceptive way. I’m particularly in awe of how they managed to continue Infinity’s dream story seamlessly and somehow improve upon it in the process, but overall, the whole thing is fantastic. And, as I said, the atmosphere is superb. It might not be the best scenario if you evaluate each individual aspect of it, but it is definitely the strongest total package for me.
Phoenix:
A fantastic scenario overall that suffers mildly from being too difficult in a way I simply don’t find fun. I played this roughly at the same time I went through all of M2 on Major Damage. The only level I remember having much difficulty with on M2 was “Begging for Mercy”. I couldn’t even hack this on Normal at the time. I probably could do it now if I kept at it, but there was too much trial-and-error gameplay for me: enter a room, die, die again, die some more, memorise the monster patterns, die, figure out a combat strategy that works, go back, save, and proceed again, hoping I have enough shields left over to make it through the rest of the level. (Mapmakers should be very cautious with levels that only provide finite shields: it’s easy for players to screw themselves over into unwinnable save files.) This got old quickly enough that I eventually just cut the knot and moved it down to Easy. I think I’ve only ever done that before with Red (I might’ve even turned Red down to Kindergarten; I really sucked at Marathon when I played Red). I don’t mind difficult gameplay, but what I disliked was the insanely fast firing speed of monsters. On Normal and above, they’ll strip your shields before you even have time to notice they’re there. (Alien projectiles deal the same amount of damage on all difficulty settings from Normal to Total Carnage; there are differences in how fast they travel, how fast monsters will fire them, and various other values, however.) Hence, cutting the difficult to Easy made it mostly manageable.
Overall, my biggest gripes with the combat were the infuriatingly small amount of ammo for the crossbow on any setting below TC (the only real sniper weapon provided to the player), the ridiculous firing speed of the monsters, and the fact that the Defenders fire from the left, meaning that if you’re trying to circle-strafe a room with Troopers and Defenders, you will take fire from one of them. I realise the latter was a consequence of how Bungie designed the Defenders, but you could easily flip them horizontally and say it was a quirk of the A’Khr. Or just use M1 Troopers, which fire from the left. Or still use M2 sprites but flip the A’Khr Troopers. Whatever. There’s probably some advanced combat technique for coping with this problem, but I never figured it out.
Apart that, no major flaws, and I gave it a 5-star review on S7 despite my complaints about the difficulty. The storyline is… fine. It’s not remarkable like Rubicon’s, Eternal’s, or the original trilogy’s, but it’s better than Evil’s (and Red’s and Tempus’), and it does a good job connecting the original trilogy to Rubicon. I wish there were HD artwork, but the scenario makes up for it by having the most consistently gorgeous map design of any major Marathon TC. It’s worth it to play it just to gawk at the scenery (and actually, I think the difficulty irked me more than it otherwise would’ve for precisely that reason – I frequently ran into trouble because I got distracted looking at the pretty map design and wound up getting caught off-guard by a sudden enemy attack. If you’re going to make a scenario that pretty, it would be polite not to have so many stealth enemy attacks that can kill an unsuspecting player in less than a second).
I’ll probably give Normal another try in the next few months, given that I can now beat a rather large portion of M2 on TC. Phoenix is still way harder than M2 or M∞, and I kind of suspect that an awful lot of it can’t vidded, which will probably always irk me (it figures, since I run a YouTube channel for vid films), but the difficulty might not bother me quite as much this time.
Tempus Irae:
The best scenario not listed above. I’m not sure where I’d put it in my third-party scenario ranking – definitely below Rubicon, but not that far; I go back and forth on what order I’d put Tempus, Eternal, and Phoenix in. This scenario definitely suffers from the problem mentioned above where some mapmakers are just much better than others, but the high points are so high that they make even the most infuriating aspects of the scenario bearable. “Downward Spiral” in particular was probably the most gorgeous level anyone had ever made for Marathon at the time and still remains a high point. Great atmosphere throughout. The story is kind of silly, but it’s not offensively bad. The sequel, The Lost Levels, has a few great levels as well, with “Lather, Rinse, Repeat” being the highlight for me. No comprehensible story whatsoever there, though.
Others:
I liked what I played of Spatial Outpouring but haven’t really played enough of it to give a proper review yet.
Same with Kindred Spirits, though I expect my review will be basically what I said about Phoenix with the few bits that don’t apply changed as needed. At least this game (thus far, at least) doesn’t have the ridiculously fast monster fire speeds that some of the Phoenix levels did. The secret on “Rozinante Zero” was cool.
I played Red awhile back and remember thinking it looked cool, but I didn’t find it all that fun to play. I think I might’ve had similar complaints to my complaints about Phoenix, but I don’t remember much about it.
Pfh’Joueur and Gemini Station are my two dark horse scenarios that no one else seems to remember well. Pfh’Joueur just has incredible atmosphere throughout. The mapmaking is excellent, though not Phoenix or Rubicon-level excellent; the levels are all fun to play, and the artwork is gorgeous (it suffers a bit in comparison to modern TCs with HD textures, but for its day it was some of the most beautiful artwork that had ever been seen in a Marathon scenario). The sounds are also some of the best I’ve heard in Marathon, which I think is part of why it has such a great atmosphere.
Gemini Station just has some of the cleverest map design in any Marathon scenario. I still don’t understand how Mike figured out how to pull off some of what he did, but the man has a PhD, so he probably has a lot of specialised knowledge that I don’t. Pretty impressive story too.
I would’ve listed Megiddo Game as another dark horse, but it won the Bungie mapmaking contest, so it really shouldn’t qualify as one. I still don’t hear people discuss it much these days, though. Great, if too short. The writing is the weakest part. The map design and artwork are flawless.
Missed Island - no enemies but some ingenious map design. I should probably play it again.
I’m getting bored trying to think of more scenarios now. I might resume this later and/or add more to some of my reviews if I think of more things. I definitely wrote a lot more for some scenarios than others, but that’s often just a fact that I’ve spent more time thinking about some of these scenarios recently. I don’t know why I don’t have more to say about M2 and M∞ given how much time I’ve spent playing them lately; I guess I just figure everyone has already played them enough that they already know what they think.
My own thoughts (not bothering with ratings because I don’t like assigning an objective score to an inherently subjective value):
M1:
Obviously dated by today’s standards; still a fresh and inventive game by 1994’s. Shout-out for having a story as deep as most books’ in a time when it was uncommon for any video game to have a story that deep, much less a FPS. Easily the trilogy entry I’ve played the least though.
M2:
Of the trilogy, I think this is the game I enjoy playing the most. It’s fun to just wander around and immerse yourself in the atmosphere, and it definitely deepens the intriguing story of the original game. It also probably contains my favourite single level of any game ever in “Kill Your Television”. M∞ manages to one-up it for story, architecture, and overall atmosphere, though.
M∞:
I still don’t fully understand the whole story, and kind of doubt anyone but Greg K. does, but what I do understand is amazing. From an architectural standpoint, this, as far as I’m concerned, set the benchmark for what a 2.5D game can look like. Other scenarios – Phoenix, Tempus, Rubicon – have since bettered it overall, but there are a couple of levels that I’m not sure will ever be topped. “Aye Mak Sicur” is probably the strongest level in the trilogy (as compared to “KYT” being my favourite). It’s a small marvel that Randy managed to create a level that massive where you can still get from any one point to any other within a minute or two at most, and it would be #2 on my all-time examples of flow in video game level design (#1 is, of course, Super Metroid, which has the same level of quality but on a game-wide scale).
Evil:
Phenomenal atmosphere and often impressive map design (though it varies widely by level); where it suffers is the writing, which is pretty pedestrian, and the lack of consistency between levels. To be fair, this is a problem for any scenario where a lot of people worked on maps. It still set the standard for what a TC could accomplish; some later works may have bettered on it, but it’s worth playing just for the historical importance. The best parts of this scenario are about as good as Marathon can get. Cool new weapons as well; I pilfered the Pfhor staff for my own scenario because it’s just so much fun.
Eternal:
Phenomenal story, amazing atmosphere, great gameplay premise, occasionally flawed execution (although I like to think we’re fixing a lot of those flaws with 1.2). Some of the terminals could stand to be trimmed in length by about 25% or more, too. I may see if I can make them more concise over the next few weeks before school starts up again.
Apart from that, the final chapter is massively flawed. The map designs are gorgeous, but the swarms of enemies, man. As I said in the Eternal thread, you could cut them by half and there would still be too many.
Rubicon:
Although there are a few absolutely terrible levels, this is still probably my favourite Marathon game ever released. My biggest complaints: a few of the enemies are just way overpowered (Enforcers, Juggernauts, and MaserBobs, I’m looking at you) and a couple of the levels just aren’t fun to play (“There’s No Place Like Up” is a fantastic idea for a puzzle level, but the execution is awful; if you cut the enemies by 75%, there would still probably be too many, and there should probably just be pattern buffers before every major jump so you can easily kill yourself and start again if you mess up). However, these complaints are more than made up for by… basically everything else. I noticed a few typos in the terminals, but overall, the writing is better than most professional film/TV/game scripts these days, addressing universal human themes in an intelligent, perceptive way. I’m particularly in awe of how they managed to continue Infinity’s dream story seamlessly and somehow improve upon it in the process, but overall, the whole thing is fantastic. And, as I said, the atmosphere is superb. It might not be the best scenario if you evaluate each individual aspect of it, but it is definitely the strongest total package for me.
Phoenix:
A fantastic scenario overall that suffers mildly from being too difficult in a way I simply don’t find fun. I played this roughly at the same time I went through all of M2 on Major Damage. The only level I remember having much difficulty with on M2 was “Begging for Mercy”. I couldn’t even hack this on Normal at the time. I probably could do it now if I kept at it, but there was too much trial-and-error gameplay for me: enter a room, die, die again, die some more, memorise the monster patterns, die, figure out a combat strategy that works, go back, save, and proceed again, hoping I have enough shields left over to make it through the rest of the level. (Mapmakers should be very cautious with levels that only provide finite shields: it’s easy for players to screw themselves over into unwinnable save files.) This got old quickly enough that I eventually just cut the knot and moved it down to Easy. I think I’ve only ever done that before with Red (I might’ve even turned Red down to Kindergarten; I really sucked at Marathon when I played Red). I don’t mind difficult gameplay, but what I disliked was the insanely fast firing speed of monsters. On Normal and above, they’ll strip your shields before you even have time to notice they’re there. (Alien projectiles deal the same amount of damage on all difficulty settings from Normal to Total Carnage; there are differences in how fast they travel, how fast monsters will fire them, and various other values, however.) Hence, cutting the difficult to Easy made it mostly manageable.
Overall, my biggest gripes with the combat were the infuriatingly small amount of ammo for the crossbow on any setting below TC (the only real sniper weapon provided to the player), the ridiculous firing speed of the monsters, and the fact that the Defenders fire from the left, meaning that if you’re trying to circle-strafe a room with Troopers and Defenders, you will take fire from one of them. I realise the latter was a consequence of how Bungie designed the Defenders, but you could easily flip them horizontally and say it was a quirk of the A’Khr. Or just use M1 Troopers, which fire from the left. Or still use M2 sprites but flip the A’Khr Troopers. Whatever. There’s probably some advanced combat technique for coping with this problem, but I never figured it out.
Apart that, no major flaws, and I gave it a 5-star review on S7 despite my complaints about the difficulty. The storyline is… fine. It’s not remarkable like Rubicon’s, Eternal’s, or the original trilogy’s, but it’s better than Evil’s (and Red’s and Tempus’), and it does a good job connecting the original trilogy to Rubicon. I wish there were HD artwork, but the scenario makes up for it by having the most consistently gorgeous map design of any major Marathon TC. It’s worth it to play it just to gawk at the scenery (and actually, I think the difficulty irked me more than it otherwise would’ve for precisely that reason – I frequently ran into trouble because I got distracted looking at the pretty map design and wound up getting caught off-guard by a sudden enemy attack. If you’re going to make a scenario that pretty, it would be polite not to have so many stealth enemy attacks that can kill an unsuspecting player in less than a second).
I’ll probably give Normal another try in the next few months, given that I can now beat a rather large portion of M2 on TC. Phoenix is still way harder than M2 or M∞, and I kind of suspect that an awful lot of it can’t vidded, which will probably always irk me (it figures, since I run a YouTube channel for vid films), but the difficulty might not bother me quite as much this time.
Tempus Irae:
The best scenario not listed above. I’m not sure where I’d put it in my third-party scenario ranking – definitely below Rubicon, but not that far; I go back and forth on what order I’d put Tempus, Eternal, and Phoenix in. This scenario definitely suffers from the problem mentioned above where some mapmakers are just much better than others, but the high points are so high that they make even the most infuriating aspects of the scenario bearable. “Downward Spiral” in particular was probably the most gorgeous level anyone had ever made for Marathon at the time and still remains a high point. Great atmosphere throughout. The story is kind of silly, but it’s not offensively bad. The sequel, The Lost Levels, has a few great levels as well, with “Lather, Rinse, Repeat” being the highlight for me. No comprehensible story whatsoever there, though.
Others:
I liked what I played of Spatial Outpouring but haven’t really played enough of it to give a proper review yet.
Same with Kindred Spirits, though I expect my review will be basically what I said about Phoenix with the few bits that don’t apply changed as needed. At least this game (thus far, at least) doesn’t have the ridiculously fast monster fire speeds that some of the Phoenix levels did. The secret on “Rozinante Zero” was cool.
I played Red awhile back and remember thinking it looked cool, but I didn’t find it all that fun to play. I think I might’ve had similar complaints to my complaints about Phoenix, but I don’t remember much about it.
Pfh’Joueur and Gemini Station are my two dark horse scenarios that no one else seems to remember well. Pfh’Joueur just has incredible atmosphere throughout. The mapmaking is excellent, though not Phoenix or Rubicon-level excellent; the levels are all fun to play, and the artwork is gorgeous (it suffers a bit in comparison to modern TCs with HD textures, but for its day it was some of the most beautiful artwork that had ever been seen in a Marathon scenario). The sounds are also some of the best I’ve heard in Marathon, which I think is part of why it has such a great atmosphere.
Gemini Station just has some of the cleverest map design in any Marathon scenario. I still don’t understand how Mike figured out how to pull off some of what he did, but the man has a PhD, so he probably has a lot of specialised knowledge that I don’t. Pretty impressive story too.
I would’ve listed Megiddo Game as another dark horse, but it won the Bungie mapmaking contest, so it really shouldn’t qualify as one. I still don’t hear people discuss it much these days, though. Great, if too short. The writing is the weakest part. The map design and artwork are flawless.
Missed Island - no enemies but some ingenious map design. I should probably play it again.
I’m getting bored trying to think of more scenarios now. I might resume this later and/or add more to some of my reviews if I think of more things. I definitely wrote a lot more for some scenarios than others, but that’s often just a fact that I’ve spent more time thinking about some of these scenarios recently. I don’t know why I don’t have more to say about M2 and M∞ given how much time I’ve spent playing them lately; I guess I just figure everyone has already played them enough that they already know what they think.
Last edited by The Man on Jul 26th '18, 22:16, edited 2 times in total.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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The Man - Sarasota, FL
Jul 26th '18, 01:35
The Man wrote:Pfh’Joueur and Gemini Station are my two dark horse scenarios that no one else seems to remember well.
I remember Pfh'Joueur! Haven't played Gemini Station yet, though...
In terms of scenarios not listed here, I really enjoyed Susannah (short, minimalist scenario) and The Classified 19 (its story was left incomplete, but what the first intended part has to offer is engaging and intriguing). All of these mentioned scenarios are very good at averting Errand Boy Syndrome...
Unlike EVIL, which I wanted to like more, but its "plot" is a disjointed mess ("decent story" is what I tend to hope for in a scenario first and foremost, which is also why Rubicon and Eternal are my favourites). I still don't have a whole lot of motivation to get past Code 42 yet.
welcome to the scene of the crash
Jul 26th '18, 05:13
Apotheosis for me. Probably my favorite texture sets out of any scenario (that decayed cityscape is brilliant), and has some great architecture and atmosphere for the most part. The level that introduced those assassin enemies has to be the most memorable level out of any I've played ("Comfortably Numb" from Rubicon being a close second). I really wish it had been able to get that final coat of paint it needed for completion.
Nice to see Pfh'Joueur get some love too, as I'd probably put that up there as well for one of my favorites (RIP Candace).
Nice to see Pfh'Joueur get some love too, as I'd probably put that up there as well for one of my favorites (RIP Candace).
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Hathomirr - The Void
Jul 26th '18, 06:18
I beat Marathon EVIL for the first time yesterday. Watched a friggin' YouTube video to figure out the damn code in the level Septic Exodus and realized it was deceptively simple. The levels after it were slightly mediocre. I am actually going to give an in-depth reason for my reviews shortly.
Jul 26th '18, 07:33
9. Marathon.
Graphics: 4/10 ~ The game, in my opinion, feels slightly more primitive than Doom in these regards.
Gameplay: 8/10 ~ The gameplay is much more advanced than Doom and very innovative.
Story: 8/10 ~ Great storytelling and innovative as well. You can see they are the company who would make Halo.
Level design: 6/10 ~ Sometimes clever, sometimes annoying, and sometimes entirely illogical.
Atmosphere: 6/10 ~ Without the ambient sound effects from the later games, the music holds the task of creating almost all the atmosphere in the game, in which it succeeds, mildly.
6.4/10
8. Marathon RED. (I have beaten it once. Lower than M2 because I like M2 just a bit more.)
Graphics: 7/10 ~ Infinity-esque. Read my review for Infinity.
Gameplay: 7/10 ~ Not the finest example of gameplay, but good nevertheless.
Story: 7/10 ~ Starts out good but makes no sense once the player becomes a creature himself.
Level design: 7/10 ~ Pretty good overall, but not fine, as in 'fine arts.'
Atmosphere: 8/10 ~ Creepy atmosphere.
7.2/10
7. Marathon 2: Durandal.
Graphics: 6/10 ~ The textures and weapon models look more interesting and the scenario itself looks more realistic as a whole, frankly. (Not COD type 'realism,' but appropriate realism.)
Gameplay: 8/10 ~ Read my review for 'Marathon.'
Story: 8/10 ~ Read my review for 'Marathon.'
Level design: 7/10 ~ I find the level design in Marathon 2 to be a step up from the first game. Puzzles are a little more clever and the attention to detail is a little better.
Atmosphere: 7/10 ~ In my opinion, I find the atmospheric effects in Marathon 2 onwards to be much more convincing than the Doom-like implementation of music in the first. Good use of ambience.
7.2/10
6. Marathon Infinity.
Graphics: 7/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon 2, except in this case, the Jjaro texture set is downright fabulous and completely rocks my socks, personally.
Gameplay: 8/10 ~ Read my review for 'Marathon.'
Story: 9/10 ~ Very clever and mind-**** plot. The storytelling took a serious notch up here. I love the dream terminal text. Very inspired writing as a whole.
Level design: 8/10 ~ Same as Marathon 2, except that I give an extra point for the first and final Jjaro levels, which are solid 10s in my opinion.
Atmosphere: 8/10 ~ Same reason as above: The first and last levels have an unmistakable atmosphere thanks to the Jjaro texture sets and clever lighting.
8/10 (Notched it up from 7.5 to 8 upon analysis.)
5. Marathon EVIL.
Graphics: 8/10 ~ Great use of custom and Infinity textures to create a nice look to most of the levels.
Gameplay: 9/10 ~ I personally loved most of the game except when I was stuck in a nearly unwinnable situation with no health stations and 4% health. That was infuriating. Other than that, the combat is interesting and frantic, especially against Devlins.
Story: 5/10 ~ I agree with The Man here. The story in this game is pedestrian but inoffensive.
Level design: 8/10 ~ Long and interesting levels without becoming boring. Credit to 'Code 42' for being really fun and full of surprises, and despite being a vacuum, not overly difficult. (At least 3 oxygen stations in the level if not more.)
Atmosphere: 9/10 ~ Extremely dark and scary atmosphere in the first half of the game, and more conventional by the end, but still atmospheric and interesting.
8/10
4. Marathon Eternal.
Graphics: 9/10 ~ In my opinion, the HD graphics mixed with the blocky graphics of Marathon do feel a little clunky together. I play 1.0.3 lite for that reason. (And because my PC lags with HD graphics, blah.) The new textures are fantastic and give the game a brand new but fitting look.
Gameplay: 7/10 ~ The combat can be tedious (not in a hard way) and suffers in that regard.
Story: 10/10 ~ Absolutely brilliant. The main reason I have played this game is because of the moving story. I actually went to the Hathor failure timeline the first time because her writing was tugging at my heartstrings.
Level design: 8/10 ~ Great level design but suffers slightly less than Marathon 2 for the same reasons as such game.
Atmosphere: 7/10 ~ Not quite as atmospheric as EVIL and Infinity; it feels more straightforward to me. (Without music, that is.)
8.2/10
3. Marathon TGI. (The Gray Incident.)
Graphics: 8/10 ~ Feels like an improved Marathon Infinity to me.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ Absolutely memorable gameplay in every way. Amazing battles and a cross-bred arsenal that consists of Infinity and future Phoenix weapons.
Story: 7/10 ~ A typical story, not much to comment here.
Level design: 9/10 ~ The levels in this game are downright delightful to play. I love the architecture.
Atmosphere: 8/10 ~ Great capturing of the levels' atmosphere. Not as dark as Infinity but equally awesome.
8.4/10
2. Marathon Rubicon X.
Graphics: 10/10 ~ The new texture set and weapons are downright perfect. Great attention to detail as well.
Gameplay: 9/10 ~ Almost perfect gameplay, except that it drags in places. The Enforcers can be a pain.
Story: 9/10 ~ Takes a backseat to Eternal for story quality, in my opinion.
Level design: 9/10 ~ I love almost every level in the game, except that some can be a mind-**** to figure out.
Atmosphere: 10/10 ~ The dream levels in particular are downright dripping with this feeling I cannot describe. The terminals, even more so. I think the Pfhor plank of the game takes the cake for taste in atmosphere. Indescribable.
9.4/10
1. Marathon Phoenix.
Graphics: 10/10 ~ Despite not boasting the texture set of Rubicon, the architecture more than makes up for it. A truly fascinating attention to detail.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ The only thing better than TGI's gameplay is this, essentially. Perfection. Insane battles, a full Phoenix arsenal of weapons (downright crazy awesome GUNS), impressive enemy variety, e.g.
Story: 8/10 ~ Read my review for TGI, but improve upon that.
Level design: 10/10 ~ The architecture also adds to the level design, perfecting what TGI was. The levels are clever and open-ended, giving a lot of room for exploration and goodie-hunting.
Atmosphere: 9/10 ~ Each level has its unique atmosphere, but 'Escape Two Thousand' takes the cake for its incendiary and volcanic atmosphere.
9.4/10 (Yes, Rubicon X and Phoenix are tied for my favorite games.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spacial Outpouring.
Graphics: 7/10 ~ The game looks good, for sure.
Gameplay: 4/10 ~ Tedious.
Story: 0/10 ~ Biased opinion, but 'Porn Shaman' and 'mutilated women?' No.
Level design: 5/10 ~ Meh.
Atmosphere: 5/10 ~ Eh.
4.2/10
Evil Ra'thor.
Too tedious to review, frankly. I feel like this would only be beatable on Kindergarten difficulty. Someone does not know how to balance their game.
3/10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Susannah. (I finally played it.)
Graphics: 10/10 ~ Beautiful use of the Marathon engine.
Gameplay: 6/10 ~ Tedious half the time but not mind-numbing.
Story: 8/10 ~ Interesting and cryptic.
Level design: 6/10 ~ Meh for the first three levels, but gives off a strong Halo-esque vibe on the last level, Susannah's Core.
Atmosphere: 10/10 ~ Drenching in atmosphere despite the tedious gameplay and level design.
8/10
Marathon Yuge.
Graphics: 10/10 (Ironically) - 6/10 (Realistically, for being different) ~ Creative joke graphics, although I find that using Infinity textures while playing the game massively improves upon the whole experience.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ W'rkncacnter is pretty amazing at making fun games, it seems.
Story: Not applicable.
Level design: 10/10 ~ For coming out of a random level generator, the levels are downright fun.
Atmosphere: 6/10 ~ Using Infinity textures, the levels do adopt a more serious feel, but not by much.
8.5/10 (Counting the 10 and 6 together, making 8 for the graphics.)
Marathon Aeon.
Graphics: 10/10 ~ Perfection of graphics application.
Gameplay: 8/10 ~ Quite fun too, interesting enemy varieties.
Story: 8/10 ~ Very interesting story.
Level design: 8/10 ~ Very detailed and clever level design.
Atmosphere: 10/10 ~ Very deep atmosphere for a Marathon game.
8.8/10
Kill 'em All.
Graphics: 7/10 ~ Same as Infinity.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ Same as Yuge.
Story: Not applicable.
Level design: 10/10 ~ For levels under 100 polygons, these levels are **clever.**
Atmosphere: 6/10 ~ Good for what it is.
8.3/10 (technically 8.25/10)
Kindred Spirits.
Graphics: 9/10 ~ Sub-Phoenix in quality. Essentially Phoenix's quality with Infinity textures.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon Phoenix.
Story: 8/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon Phoenix.
Level design: 10/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon Phoenix.
Atmosphere: 9/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon Phoenix.
9.2/10
All my reviews for my favorite and least favorite game, most of them being really good! (The look of disdain upon Spacial Outpouring's story is similar to my disdain for the story of the game 'Cry of Fear' for its omnipresent themes of suicide and mental illness, not okay with me, especially the suicide themes... gave me a genuine panic attack. And Evil Ra'thor, being too tedious for its own good.)
Graphics: 4/10 ~ The game, in my opinion, feels slightly more primitive than Doom in these regards.
Gameplay: 8/10 ~ The gameplay is much more advanced than Doom and very innovative.
Story: 8/10 ~ Great storytelling and innovative as well. You can see they are the company who would make Halo.
Level design: 6/10 ~ Sometimes clever, sometimes annoying, and sometimes entirely illogical.
Atmosphere: 6/10 ~ Without the ambient sound effects from the later games, the music holds the task of creating almost all the atmosphere in the game, in which it succeeds, mildly.
6.4/10
8. Marathon RED. (I have beaten it once. Lower than M2 because I like M2 just a bit more.)
Graphics: 7/10 ~ Infinity-esque. Read my review for Infinity.
Gameplay: 7/10 ~ Not the finest example of gameplay, but good nevertheless.
Story: 7/10 ~ Starts out good but makes no sense once the player becomes a creature himself.
Level design: 7/10 ~ Pretty good overall, but not fine, as in 'fine arts.'
Atmosphere: 8/10 ~ Creepy atmosphere.
7.2/10
7. Marathon 2: Durandal.
Graphics: 6/10 ~ The textures and weapon models look more interesting and the scenario itself looks more realistic as a whole, frankly. (Not COD type 'realism,' but appropriate realism.)
Gameplay: 8/10 ~ Read my review for 'Marathon.'
Story: 8/10 ~ Read my review for 'Marathon.'
Level design: 7/10 ~ I find the level design in Marathon 2 to be a step up from the first game. Puzzles are a little more clever and the attention to detail is a little better.
Atmosphere: 7/10 ~ In my opinion, I find the atmospheric effects in Marathon 2 onwards to be much more convincing than the Doom-like implementation of music in the first. Good use of ambience.
7.2/10
6. Marathon Infinity.
Graphics: 7/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon 2, except in this case, the Jjaro texture set is downright fabulous and completely rocks my socks, personally.
Gameplay: 8/10 ~ Read my review for 'Marathon.'
Story: 9/10 ~ Very clever and mind-**** plot. The storytelling took a serious notch up here. I love the dream terminal text. Very inspired writing as a whole.
Level design: 8/10 ~ Same as Marathon 2, except that I give an extra point for the first and final Jjaro levels, which are solid 10s in my opinion.
Atmosphere: 8/10 ~ Same reason as above: The first and last levels have an unmistakable atmosphere thanks to the Jjaro texture sets and clever lighting.
8/10 (Notched it up from 7.5 to 8 upon analysis.)
5. Marathon EVIL.
Graphics: 8/10 ~ Great use of custom and Infinity textures to create a nice look to most of the levels.
Gameplay: 9/10 ~ I personally loved most of the game except when I was stuck in a nearly unwinnable situation with no health stations and 4% health. That was infuriating. Other than that, the combat is interesting and frantic, especially against Devlins.
Story: 5/10 ~ I agree with The Man here. The story in this game is pedestrian but inoffensive.
Level design: 8/10 ~ Long and interesting levels without becoming boring. Credit to 'Code 42' for being really fun and full of surprises, and despite being a vacuum, not overly difficult. (At least 3 oxygen stations in the level if not more.)
Atmosphere: 9/10 ~ Extremely dark and scary atmosphere in the first half of the game, and more conventional by the end, but still atmospheric and interesting.
8/10
4. Marathon Eternal.
Graphics: 9/10 ~ In my opinion, the HD graphics mixed with the blocky graphics of Marathon do feel a little clunky together. I play 1.0.3 lite for that reason. (And because my PC lags with HD graphics, blah.) The new textures are fantastic and give the game a brand new but fitting look.
Gameplay: 7/10 ~ The combat can be tedious (not in a hard way) and suffers in that regard.
Story: 10/10 ~ Absolutely brilliant. The main reason I have played this game is because of the moving story. I actually went to the Hathor failure timeline the first time because her writing was tugging at my heartstrings.
Level design: 8/10 ~ Great level design but suffers slightly less than Marathon 2 for the same reasons as such game.
Atmosphere: 7/10 ~ Not quite as atmospheric as EVIL and Infinity; it feels more straightforward to me. (Without music, that is.)
8.2/10
3. Marathon TGI. (The Gray Incident.)
Graphics: 8/10 ~ Feels like an improved Marathon Infinity to me.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ Absolutely memorable gameplay in every way. Amazing battles and a cross-bred arsenal that consists of Infinity and future Phoenix weapons.
Story: 7/10 ~ A typical story, not much to comment here.
Level design: 9/10 ~ The levels in this game are downright delightful to play. I love the architecture.
Atmosphere: 8/10 ~ Great capturing of the levels' atmosphere. Not as dark as Infinity but equally awesome.
8.4/10
2. Marathon Rubicon X.
Graphics: 10/10 ~ The new texture set and weapons are downright perfect. Great attention to detail as well.
Gameplay: 9/10 ~ Almost perfect gameplay, except that it drags in places. The Enforcers can be a pain.
Story: 9/10 ~ Takes a backseat to Eternal for story quality, in my opinion.
Level design: 9/10 ~ I love almost every level in the game, except that some can be a mind-**** to figure out.
Atmosphere: 10/10 ~ The dream levels in particular are downright dripping with this feeling I cannot describe. The terminals, even more so. I think the Pfhor plank of the game takes the cake for taste in atmosphere. Indescribable.
9.4/10
1. Marathon Phoenix.
Graphics: 10/10 ~ Despite not boasting the texture set of Rubicon, the architecture more than makes up for it. A truly fascinating attention to detail.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ The only thing better than TGI's gameplay is this, essentially. Perfection. Insane battles, a full Phoenix arsenal of weapons (downright crazy awesome GUNS), impressive enemy variety, e.g.
Story: 8/10 ~ Read my review for TGI, but improve upon that.
Level design: 10/10 ~ The architecture also adds to the level design, perfecting what TGI was. The levels are clever and open-ended, giving a lot of room for exploration and goodie-hunting.
Atmosphere: 9/10 ~ Each level has its unique atmosphere, but 'Escape Two Thousand' takes the cake for its incendiary and volcanic atmosphere.
9.4/10 (Yes, Rubicon X and Phoenix are tied for my favorite games.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spacial Outpouring.
Graphics: 7/10 ~ The game looks good, for sure.
Gameplay: 4/10 ~ Tedious.
Story: 0/10 ~ Biased opinion, but 'Porn Shaman' and 'mutilated women?' No.
Level design: 5/10 ~ Meh.
Atmosphere: 5/10 ~ Eh.
4.2/10
Evil Ra'thor.
Too tedious to review, frankly. I feel like this would only be beatable on Kindergarten difficulty. Someone does not know how to balance their game.
3/10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Susannah. (I finally played it.)
Graphics: 10/10 ~ Beautiful use of the Marathon engine.
Gameplay: 6/10 ~ Tedious half the time but not mind-numbing.
Story: 8/10 ~ Interesting and cryptic.
Level design: 6/10 ~ Meh for the first three levels, but gives off a strong Halo-esque vibe on the last level, Susannah's Core.
Atmosphere: 10/10 ~ Drenching in atmosphere despite the tedious gameplay and level design.
8/10
Marathon Yuge.
Graphics: 10/10 (Ironically) - 6/10 (Realistically, for being different) ~ Creative joke graphics, although I find that using Infinity textures while playing the game massively improves upon the whole experience.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ W'rkncacnter is pretty amazing at making fun games, it seems.
Story: Not applicable.
Level design: 10/10 ~ For coming out of a random level generator, the levels are downright fun.
Atmosphere: 6/10 ~ Using Infinity textures, the levels do adopt a more serious feel, but not by much.
8.5/10 (Counting the 10 and 6 together, making 8 for the graphics.)
Marathon Aeon.
Graphics: 10/10 ~ Perfection of graphics application.
Gameplay: 8/10 ~ Quite fun too, interesting enemy varieties.
Story: 8/10 ~ Very interesting story.
Level design: 8/10 ~ Very detailed and clever level design.
Atmosphere: 10/10 ~ Very deep atmosphere for a Marathon game.
8.8/10
Kill 'em All.
Graphics: 7/10 ~ Same as Infinity.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ Same as Yuge.
Story: Not applicable.
Level design: 10/10 ~ For levels under 100 polygons, these levels are **clever.**
Atmosphere: 6/10 ~ Good for what it is.
8.3/10 (technically 8.25/10)
Kindred Spirits.
Graphics: 9/10 ~ Sub-Phoenix in quality. Essentially Phoenix's quality with Infinity textures.
Gameplay: 10/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon Phoenix.
Story: 8/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon Phoenix.
Level design: 10/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon Phoenix.
Atmosphere: 9/10 ~ Read my review for Marathon Phoenix.
9.2/10
All my reviews for my favorite and least favorite game, most of them being really good! (The look of disdain upon Spacial Outpouring's story is similar to my disdain for the story of the game 'Cry of Fear' for its omnipresent themes of suicide and mental illness, not okay with me, especially the suicide themes... gave me a genuine panic attack. And Evil Ra'thor, being too tedious for its own good.)
Jul 26th '18, 22:04
I’m glad other people remember Pfh’Joueur! I was definitely saddened to hear of Candace’s passing those many years ago.
I’ll have to play some of those other scenarios – apparently Susannah, Apotheosis, Aeon, and The Classified 19 as well. At this point I’ve been trying to vid some Rubicon X-exclusive levels with little success. I might just go back to Kindred Spirits for now. Which I’m definitely not going to be able to vid any time soon, if ever. I’m not sure KS or Phoenix are viddable, but then, I thought the same of “Tarboi” from Rubicon and Dr Sumner just sent me a film, so I might tend to overestimate levels’ difficulty for truly virtuoso Marathon players.
One other great scenario I forgot to mention last night is Return to Marathon. That might actually be the most terrifying Marathon scenario ever created, and I’ve never even finished it for exactly that reason. Chilling in every aspect – graphics, combat, atmosphere, writing. I wish it had been finished beyond a three-level demo. It would be mentioned in the same breath as the other big scenarios like Rubicon, Phoenix, Eternal, Tempus, etc., if it had. In any case, I’d rank it alongside the best scenarios in quality; there just isn’t as much of it.
I’ll have to play some of those other scenarios – apparently Susannah, Apotheosis, Aeon, and The Classified 19 as well. At this point I’ve been trying to vid some Rubicon X-exclusive levels with little success. I might just go back to Kindred Spirits for now. Which I’m definitely not going to be able to vid any time soon, if ever. I’m not sure KS or Phoenix are viddable, but then, I thought the same of “Tarboi” from Rubicon and Dr Sumner just sent me a film, so I might tend to overestimate levels’ difficulty for truly virtuoso Marathon players.
One other great scenario I forgot to mention last night is Return to Marathon. That might actually be the most terrifying Marathon scenario ever created, and I’ve never even finished it for exactly that reason. Chilling in every aspect – graphics, combat, atmosphere, writing. I wish it had been finished beyond a three-level demo. It would be mentioned in the same breath as the other big scenarios like Rubicon, Phoenix, Eternal, Tempus, etc., if it had. In any case, I’d rank it alongside the best scenarios in quality; there just isn’t as much of it.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
-
The Man - Sarasota, FL
Jul 26th '18, 22:36
The Man, have you ever played through Fell? It was one of those scenarios that was apparently talked about a lot back in the day, but is rarely mentioned now. Haven't gotten very far in it myself (not sure what the second level expects me to do), but I know that it's got multiple plot branches.
welcome to the scene of the crash
Jul 26th '18, 22:42
I've tried Pfh'Joueur but I found the graphics application to be very, very hit and miss. Textures carelessly strewn about much? Especially for the second level. Personal opinion.
I have been wanting to try Fell since it has like 6 endings and has zombie Pfhor. Any way I can find it?
I have been wanting to try Fell since it has like 6 endings and has zombie Pfhor. Any way I can find it?
Jul 26th '18, 22:55
ForeverBlackened wrote:I have been wanting to try Fell since it has like 6 endings and has zombie Pfhor. Any way I can find it?
If you can open .gz files, the A1 version can be found here. If there's any other download links floating around, hopefully someone else can point to 'em.
welcome to the scene of the crash
Jul 26th '18, 23:14
I didn’t play much of Fell. I probably ought to one of these days. There’s a fair bit about it on TV Tropes that sounds interesting from a story perspective, at least.
The texturing in Pfh’Joueur isn’t perfect, but it’s fine by the standards of 1999 or whatever it was. It’s a pretty old TC, and it’s primarily the work of one person, so it’s probably not as polished as games like Eternal, etc., are. Nor is it as fully play-tested; I noticed a few cases where you could just grenade-jump through windows out into space and trap yourself. It’s really fun, though, as long as you don’t do something stupid like that, and the atmosphere is sublime.
The texturing in Pfh’Joueur isn’t perfect, but it’s fine by the standards of 1999 or whatever it was. It’s a pretty old TC, and it’s primarily the work of one person, so it’s probably not as polished as games like Eternal, etc., are. Nor is it as fully play-tested; I noticed a few cases where you could just grenade-jump through windows out into space and trap yourself. It’s really fun, though, as long as you don’t do something stupid like that, and the atmosphere is sublime.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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The Man - Sarasota, FL
Jul 26th '18, 23:19
Interesting.
Isn't there a level in M1 with invincible hulks?
Isn't there a level in M1 with invincible hulks?
Jul 27th '18, 00:02
I don't think so. It wasn't possible for M1 levels to have custom physics, so as far as I know, one hulk was the same as any other (they didn't even have major and minor variants).
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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The Man - Sarasota, FL
Jul 27th '18, 00:04
Might've been some other version. I remember years ago picking some random level not seen in the original game and having to run away from unkillable black hulks.
Jul 27th '18, 00:20
Oh, could've been some add-on then. I thought you were referring to the original game. There could've been a custom physics model intended to be used with a third-party map, maybe. Or could be an Infinity/A1 level using M1 graphics.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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The Man - Sarasota, FL
Jul 27th '18, 01:19
I actually beat it three times at least. I know the final level like the tip of my finger. I think it was before Marathon 1's original files were fully compatible with Aleph One. I remember a different version having some kind of secret level. The original M1 doesn't have any, although there is a 5D secret space past the teleporters on the final level.
Jul 27th '18, 01:21
Maybe it was an M1A1 thing. There was a lot of weird stuff in the first few M1A1 releases, and I don’t remember most of it now. I think they might’ve put a few extra secret levels in that I never figured out how to get to. Maybe it was in one of those.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
Last.fm · Marathon Chronicles · Marathon Eternal 1.2 · Where Monsters Are in Dreams · YouTube Vidmaster’s Challenge
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The Man - Sarasota, FL
Jul 27th '18, 07:08
That was the level, yep. Treellama should know I've played most of the available Marathon games. The first one isn't my favorite game, true, but it's definitely good for what it is.
The reason why I rated it lower than the rest is because I don't have any nostalgia for Marathon. I discovered it in 2011 or so and found it to be genuinely better than Doom. Great story.
Also it's because there was so much improvement to be made upon the Marathon engine. I find M-Phoenix to be an exemplary use of the engine.
Don't call me a traitor, but I personally believe the fan-made games are better than the original Trilogy for the most part.
E.g. Evil, Eternal, Rubicon, Phoenix, The Gray Incident, and RyokoTK's other single player games.
Don't get me wrong, the original Trilogy are great games in their own merit. I find the first game mildly tedious compared to the fan made scenarios but it's fun. The second game is a serious notch up in quality and I genuinely enjoy replaying M2. Infinity has levels that are solid masterpieces, the first game in the Trilogy to perfect mapmaking in areas.
When I play through Rubicon or Phoenix, nearly every level matches or exceeds the quality of Aye Mak Sicur. Those two games are incredible.
I think Aye Mak should be remade as a massive team death match netmap or CTF netmap.
The reason why I rated it lower than the rest is because I don't have any nostalgia for Marathon. I discovered it in 2011 or so and found it to be genuinely better than Doom. Great story.
Also it's because there was so much improvement to be made upon the Marathon engine. I find M-Phoenix to be an exemplary use of the engine.
Don't call me a traitor, but I personally believe the fan-made games are better than the original Trilogy for the most part.
E.g. Evil, Eternal, Rubicon, Phoenix, The Gray Incident, and RyokoTK's other single player games.
Don't get me wrong, the original Trilogy are great games in their own merit. I find the first game mildly tedious compared to the fan made scenarios but it's fun. The second game is a serious notch up in quality and I genuinely enjoy replaying M2. Infinity has levels that are solid masterpieces, the first game in the Trilogy to perfect mapmaking in areas.
When I play through Rubicon or Phoenix, nearly every level matches or exceeds the quality of Aye Mak Sicur. Those two games are incredible.
I think Aye Mak should be remade as a massive team death match netmap or CTF netmap.
Jul 27th '18, 08:39
ForeverBlackened wrote:I think Aye Mak should be remade as a massive team death match netmap or CTF netmap.
Cool but also very resource driven. Like, I don't actually know if Aleph One is 5/10 times more powerful then the first infinity engine. I know that the map did reach the maximum limits on (Nearly?) everything.
I have always been afraid of the limits on old engines so excuse me if I'm wrong.
Jul 27th '18, 09:50
I think Aleph One is essentially the M2/Infinity engine on serious steroids and made compatible with most operating systems. I've played Marathon Aeon and had levels with polygon levels far beyond 2000.
Jul 27th '18, 10:43
ForeverBlackened wrote:I think Aleph One is essentially the M2/Infinity engine on serious steroids and made compatible with most operating systems. I've played Marathon Aeon and had levels with polygon levels far beyond 2000.
Well that's huge. I might not be afraid anymore if that's the case.
Jul 27th '18, 14:59
I was thinking of my scenario idea being a massive single level instead, thinking of a 1.5 hour playthrough length and about 5k polygons. Y'know, it'll really piss RyokoTK off because it's essentially half a campaign in one level. Don't worry, pattern buffers will be plenty enough to cope with the length.
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