The Marathon server slam consumed my weekend: 21 hours later, I've gone from 'meh' to believer

It was around this time last year when Embark and Bungie both ran playtests for their new extraction shooters at the same time. Marathon's alpha was the culmination of two years of feverish speculation about the legendary FPS studio's first non-Destiny project in over 15 years.

Then the unexpected happened: Arc Raiders upstaged Marathon. Embark went on to release the first mainstream game of its genre while Marathon got delayed, cementing it as a fixation of skepticism for certain corners of the hobby.