It was the presentation that was bad (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Sunday, April 13, 2025, 08:47 (9 days ago) @ Kermit

I've learned my lesson well enough that it's premature to write this off at this point.

I think the presentation itself was what was most lacking. As someone who has never played an extraction shooter, I still have no idea what the hook is - what you actually DO. I understand you go down, complete Patrol-like missions to earn money from your corporate / faction sponsor. I understand that you grab loot from the world and other players.

But like… why?

What is there to DO with that loot? Back in the days of Diablo 2, there were super hard optional monsters and bosses you could fight. So, you chased gear in order to conquer them. Hell difficulty was brutal, so you had to gear up to complete it. In Destiny, you chased gear so you could to the Raids, Dungeons, special events, whatever.

Bungie highlighted nothing to indicate that this loop goes anywhere beyond itself. Is this the entire game? What else is there to do? Are there 3 person Dungeons in this world that need conquering like in Destiny?

We have no idea.

Obviously they shouldn't spoil everything about their game, but I see nothing to indicate what will actually be available to DO besides the loot / extract / repeat loops.

What's the point? If there's more, why was it not explained? If there isn't, then what exactly is there to this game?

When the 'creators' were playing the game, I had no idea what I was seeing or what they were doing. It looked like they were just shooting stuff. Okay… but what's the context? Sell me on why this game is unique.

When you saw the Halo 2 E3 2003 demo, you knew exactly what the game was going to be about. You knew exactly why you wanted the game, and why it was going to be awesome. I cannot understate how much that reveal left the audience desperately wanting the game. We don't even need to speak about the legendary Halo 1999 demo.

For all the bells and whistles - the audience, the studio, the ARG, the flying in of streamers, this presentation failed to live up to the ones Bungie used to do where the game just spoke for itself.

I'm walking away less hype, and with no more idea of this game than I did before. It's still just an 'extraction shooter'.

The one thing we can judge right now is the story and how it will be handled. Not even being written yet, the seasonal presentation. It's going to be bullshit. It's going to be piecemeal lore drops with no actual solid narrative to bring us through. Nothing will reach critical mass. Why are you even bringing out the narrative director on the stream, when she hasn't even written the narrative yet?! Why is Bungie pretending this will be a good story instead of just being honest? It's just all going to be flavor for a game driven whose focus is absolutely not the story. They are going to give you the Grimoire from Destiny.

The problem isn't that. Marathon could be an absolute blast to play. The problem is hyping up the narrative and connection to the original game when it has zero chance to deliver in this way. It's creating expectations it cannot possibly meet.

I don't want to sound like someone stuck in the past… but this presentation just reminded me of what Bungie has lost. Their videos used to be… well magical for lack of a better word. There was an art to them. Even the edited videos they played for Marathon were completely soulless. Ben Starr explains and tells us about the game over forgettable music and poorly edited footage of the game, instead of letting us see it, FEEL IT, for ourselves.

If I don't feel that Bungie themselves has any sense of awe about their game, how can we?

This is really a condemnation of the reveal. The game could be amazing, it could be shit. We don't know yet.