>Run around mazes and press buttons and then read the driest, most boring and completely autistic lore ever written
Have I been memed? I played through the majority of 1 and 2 and I cannot fathom why there is such a high opinion of these games.

>>11806863 (OP)
Mac gamers didn't have a lot of options at the time.

>>11806864
this, I mean if this was the only game you had back then I could see how you would like it otherwise meh rather be playing Doom or Quake

I've followed games my whole life and I'm 33 but somehow never knew about Marathon. I found out about it when they announced the reboot

>>11806863 (OP)
I played the marathon port on 360 back in the day and had an alright time.

>>11806893
That's pretty standard if you were a windows or console gamer. I didn't find out about it until I started frequenting /vr/. Still never played it...

>>11806893
>>11806982
Not surprising since the Marathon games were a Mac thing for most of their existences. And almost nobody has ever used Macs for gaming, despite Apple’s efforts since the App Store and Metal have been released.

>>11806863 (OP)
I tried playing them because I love old sprite based shooters but I quit very early. Marathon just feels completely broken and obtuse.

>>11806863 (OP)
>game requires you to read
>too much to ask
Sad but all the more Marathon for me

Bungie has never made a bad game. Also Halo is better than Marathon

>>11807323
>Bungie has never made a bad game
Is Oni a good game?

Why is everything named after unplayable scrabble hands? "The pfth of Lx`jorn fight the evil sbip slavers".

>>11807323
>Bungie has never made a bad game
Well, there's Oni.

Is Marathon better than Doom?

>>11807383
If you like a self contained story unfolding then yes. If you want pure gameplay that never lets up with practically unlimited replay value? Then definitely no. Doom is the greatest shooter ever made. That said, play both and stop being a faggot. You better not have a job and prospects in life or some shit.

>>11807387
>play both and stop being a faggot. You better not have a job and prospects in life or some shit.
Oof.
So now Marathon's advertisements are like "this is a game for fucking LOSERS."

>>11807392
No, that’s just video games in general.

>>11806893
Marathon are like Doom or Quake from a parallel universe.
Hell I'm almost convinced Mac computers are an elaborate hoax and never really existed. Apple makes phones and ipods.

>>11806863 (OP)
You just described nuDoom

>>11806863 (OP)
Just out of curiosity, how many FPS from around that time have you played?

>>11807383
It has far better FPS gameplay mechanics (vertical aim, better 3D physics, rooms-over-rooms, proper enemy pathfinding) than any FPS before it and many that came immediately after.

>>11807387
>If you want pure gameplay that never lets up with practically unlimited replay value? Then definitely no.
Wrong. Marathon has better combat and scripted encounters. The only crappy thing about these games is the map design. Too mazey.

>>11808038
The Jason Jones maps particularly. The Kirkpatrick ones are kino.

>>11806863 (OP)
Sorry its not enough pewpew for you.

>>11807962
Plenty, though I'm not really sure I genuinely like that pre Quake era of shooters or not. Sometimes it feels like stockholm syndrome, but they're easy games to kick on when I'm not sure what else to play.

>Old sprite based FPS games I do like
Doom
Duke3D
Shadow Warrior
>Old sprite based FPS games I have mixed opinions on
Blood
Disruptor
Rise of the Triad
Wolf 3D
Doom 2
Heretic
>Old sprite based FPS games I do not enjoy at all
Doom 64
Redneck Rampage

Marathon will probably sit in the middle category if I ever finish it, which is unlikely because some of the maps are just torture.

>>11808020
More advanced mechanics but I don't think that translates into more fun. Shooting demons in Doom or Aliens in Duke just feels better moment to moment.

marathon 1 sucks but 2 is peak.

i'd rather play them over the build trilogy, actually.

>>11807323
nothing they made after Oni was good

>>11808243
>More advanced mechanics but I don't think that translates into more fun. Shooting demons in Doom or Aliens in Duke just feels better moment to moment.
Doom has a roster advantage, more diverse monsters and more need to use level geometry and enemy death priority to succeed. But the actual shooting in Marathon feels way better, e.g. aiming grenades at the feet of a couple bigger enemies to corral them together, then explode one of the enemies to set off a chain reaction. Marathon has combos and a lot more close combat to make it visceral.

>>11808243
>they're easy games to kick on when I'm not sure what else to play.
Amen, brother. That's exactly why I started playing Marathon. So far I'm liking it. I enjoy reading the logs, it reminds me of System Shock and the splashy sound of the Pfhor dying is also pretty good. The only levels that drove me insane was the one with the rising platforms that you have to tweak from switches

if you play these games you need to play on major damage difficulty at least

>>11808278
The removal of the ammo cap on Total Carnage is pretty nice

>>11808276
Haven’t even played the game and I’m pretty sure ur talking about ‘colony ship for sale, cheap” which is why I haven’t even attempted these games yet. I know that stage will make me lose my shit.

>>11808328
It's not even that bad. It's a staircase of three switch controlled steps, a fixed central step, and three more switch controlled steps. You hit the switch, the step moves up/down, you hit it again to stop it at the right height. At the top step is an opening you run/"jump" through. Side-strafe and look upwards when "jumping" to gain extra vertical momentum.

>>11808332
No its pretty fucking bad. The puzzle itself is totally fine but its the fact that the switches are all on different ends of the map, meaning you can't test it out without several minutes of downtime in between each tweak of the buttons. If you're turbo plugged into the correct height to make steps and shit in the Marathon engine, like the devs were, then yeah I guess its not that bad. But for everyone else, it's one of the most tedious puzzles I've ever seen in a game. Again, there would be no issue whatsoever if these switches were all just in the same room.

>>11807352
Oni is awesome.

>>11808357
The switches are sequentially placed aren't they? Like first two switches are together in the first room, and so on. There are windows to watch the height of the steps, and halfway through the game you shouldn't have a good intuition for how high a player can step. I don't think I've ever failed to place the first couple correctly, which means at most you will only have to backtrack to the middle and final switch rooms.

>>11808373
>you shouldn't have a good intuition
*should

>>11806863 (OP)
they have a nice atmosphere, only played aleph one because I wanted something to compile on linux for fun for programming stuff.
they're completely cryptic and "where do I go" games

>>11806863 (OP)
The art style and the mazes look terrible to me, but I would definitely enjoy reading the convoluted story.
Never had a Macintosh machine.

>>11808659
https://marathon.bungie.org/story/
Scroll the sidebar down a bit. This site has all the terminal screens, so you can follow the story without all that pesky running around and shooting aliens.

>>11807829
Other way round for me. Great computers, wish the phones didn't exist.

>>11808659
Infinity looks great

>>11808020
>Vertical aim
The clunkiest and more eye straining vertical aiming system ever made. 2.5D boomer shooting aiming never looks good it’s why Carmack waited till Quake to do it.
>Better 3ad Physics
That make the game way floatier and less responsive than Doom
>Room over Room
Not even done in a very interesting way because of how godawful the level design is
>Proper enemy path finding
When every room is either a 2x2 corridor or a massive empty arena that’s not hard

>>11808038
>Better combat
Yeah I love having a gun that has worse spread than the Doom 3 Shotgun be my main workhorse in the game

>Scripted encounters
Yeah, teleport 12 guys and 2 tons of ammo into every room because the mapmaker doesn’t know to design enemy encounters or ammo placement.

why can't the protagonist jump

>>11811402
Back in those days we didn't yet know how to jump. It was a different time. A soda cost 50 cents a pop, you could leave your front door open, and we had to shoot rockets or grenades at our feets to propel ourselves into the air.

I picked Wolf 3D over Marathon all the time.
Hated its controls and that Wolfenstein port was so fucking smooth.

>>11811324
>The clunkiest and more eye straining vertical aiming system ever made.
Not nearly as clunky as trying to shoot a monster on a ledge but not being able to because there's another monster on the ground closer to you.
>That make the game way floatier and less responsive than Doom
That's more about the player physics, but explosive physics mean more responsiveness.
>Not even done in a very interesting way because of how godawful the level design is
Only maybe 25% of the levels.
>When every room is either a 2x2 corridor or a massive empty arena that’s not hard
Wrong

>>11806863 (OP)
first game is almost like a dungeon crawler with the mazes, but in the future with the dungeons and corridors inside a moon turned colony ship

>skwak skwak skwak splat

Is the third game as good as I've heard it is

>>11813059
No. It's Marathon for people who have autism for Marathon 2 and unlimited patience for all the bullshit in Marathon 1.

>>11813059
It has some levels that are arguably even more infuriating than the worst maze levels in Marathon 1, and you have to really dig autistically into the game lore and be familiar with Borges' writing to fully appreciate it, but there are moments that I consider among the most beautiful and poignant in all of vidya

>>11813059
My take as someone who played the original trilogy on a Powermac w/keyboard controls, as well as several fan made scenarios (Tempus Irae, Evil, Eternal, Rubicon, Red, Phoenix.) Enjoyed the games for what they were, but pretty much forgot all the stories within a month or two.

If you're new to the series, M2 is probably the easiest to get into. It's colorful, it's open space, and you're dropped into some some light action.
Infinity is good, but kind of starts off slow. Level 1 begins in a big claustrophobic maze, then moves into some bothersome areas.

>>11806863 (OP)
I disagree
I played the shit out of Marathon 2 as a child but never really got far into the game, I'd pretty much just fuck around in the first few levels or maybe use a level select cheat to go mess around in other ones
Now as an adult child i've been replaying the games and I dropped Marathon 1 because taking the bait of playing on max difficulty for no ammo limit just made the game way too annoying
It's rewarding to learn where ammo is and find and stockpile more from secrets and whatnot but Marathon 1 is just a little too dated.
I think that all of the Marathon trilogy has TIMELESS level design though. Marathon 2 alone is absurd for how high-quality maps are yet how dense and sometimes non-linear they can be, and with how many secrets there are from just straight-up secret doors to things like walking into a new room and backtracking two rooms to find a stockpile of freshly-spawned ammo, the game is just so rewarding to play. I think it would've been huge bang for my buck if I was an adult when it came out, because I'd have so much reason to replay the game to find more and more ammo stashes and make it my bitch.
Hyped to finally play Infinity through.

>>11813726
infinity's levels are really pretty too, even the multiplayer maps.

>>11814812
The texture work is gorgeous, crazy how a co-founder at Square worth hundreds of millions designed one of the most aesthetically brilliant vintage boomer shooters

>>11814815
>a co-founder at Square worth hundreds of millions
What? Who?

>>11815430
Randy Reddig. He also created the most aesthetic Pipe Dreams clone ever made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzRghVyK2kU

>>11806863 (OP)
>Have I been memed?
Yes, actually.

>>11807018
>And almost nobody has ever used Macs for gaming, despite Apple’s efforts since the App Store and Metal have been released.
Fun Fact: Marathon 2 is a flagship title for the Apple Pippin. So Apple and Marathon failed even harder at gaming than with just the Mac

>>11815829
They had the best versions of the old Maxis games and I think at least one of the Might & Magic titles so they at least were good for something

>>11806863 (OP)
3 is when this kind of story telling gets good because it begins with atmosphere and going absolutely fucking bonkers on you.

>>11808702
Very cool!