Beat Marathon 1 on stream!
Honestly crazy both how good that game is and how well it holds up. If I had played that in 1994 I'd have never shut up about Durandal since. All-timer rampant AI writing.
Compiler Cat because it's a good look.
Some additional Cohost-only thoughts:
The candles burn out for you; I am free.
I'm stunned how unlike any other shooter of the time Marathon is and how much Bungie's footprint is so apparent in it, even in 1994. The chapter names, the music, the art design--seeing how much earlier "the Bungie I know" has actually been around was a really striking experience.
The takeaway I'll carry with me probably for years, though, is how incredibly effective the storytelling and worldbuilding is through the 'accessing terminals' conceit. The terminals bookending every level create a sense of progression and time that nothing else I've played from that era conveys as successfully. It feels like a narrative you're progressing through! Levels don't feel like levels they feel like chapters.
Which all of that would of course fall flat if the writing wasn't great. Which it is. Durandal's dialogue is phenomenal it's so extremely Bungie but even today feels so refreshingly vivid. I really didn't think I'd walk away from a 29-year old game thinking "damn, that line is gonna stick with me" for multiple lines of dialogue.
Playing Marathon is crazy inspiring, man. It makes me want to make one of these but the horrible curse of being pea-brained at math makes it basically impossible to figure out programming in any capacity. Guh.
Anyway. Incredible videogame. So many moments in it that had me shouting. Really excited to play through 2 and Infinity.
