Bungie, the developer known for Destiny 2, has announced that the original Marathon games will soon be accessible on Steam at no cost. The first game in this pioneering first-person shooter series, Classic Marathon, is already available for download. Meanwhile, its sequels, Classic Marathon 2 and Classic Marathon Infinity, are listed as “coming soon.”
The credit for bringing these classic games to Steam goes to the Aleph One community, a dedicated group of open-source developers. Through the Aleph One project, which can be downloaded from its official website, support is provided for the original Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal, and Marathon Infinity.
The Steam releases of the Marathon trilogy will be compatible with both Mac and Windows PCs. The open-source creators promise “authentic gameplay” augmented with modern features such as optional widescreen HUD support, 3D filtering/perspective, positional audio, and 60 fps interpolation.
Bungie is also working on a new iteration of Marathon, set for release on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. This upcoming title will shift to a player-versus-player, team-based extraction shooter format. Cybernetic squads, known as Runners, will compete to retrieve artifacts, implants, and weapons from a hostile setting. After initially revealing the game last year, Bungie mentioned that it would remain under wraps “for an extended period” until there’s substantial gameplay to showcase.
In the meantime, enthusiasts can revisit the original trilogy at no cost. Given Bungie’s penchant for weaving in references from previous games, familiarizing yourself with the original Marathon titles might offer a richer experience when the new game finally makes its debut.
