Marathon (video game)
| 'Marathon' | |
|---|---|
| Marathon Poster | |
| Developer(s) | Bungie Software |
| Publisher(s) | Bungie Software |
| Platform(s) | Mac OS |
| Release | December 21, 1994 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player Multiplayer (deathmatch) |
Marathon is the first title in the Marathon series of science fiction first-person shooter computer games from Bungie Software. It was released on December 21, 1994.
Story
Set in the year 2794, the game places the player as a security officer (but he is most likely a cyborg) dispatched to respond to a distress signal sent from the enormous human starship called the Marathon, orbiting a colony on the planet Tau Ceti IV.
Throughout the game, the player defends the ship and its crew and colonists from a race of alien slavers called the Pfhor. As he fights he witnesses interactions between the three shipboard artificial intelligences: Leela, Durandal, and Tycho. From these interactions he discovers that all is not as it seems aboard the Marathon.
In the first part of the game, the player follows orders from the ship operations AI, Leela. After executing a series of defensive actions contact between the Marathon and the human colony on Mars is lost. It is revealed that Durandal, who was normally responsible for the autonomous functions of the ship such as doors and kitchens, has gone rampant and his behavior on the ship begins causing danger to the crew members.
Disabling Leela, Durandal steals the security officer and uses him to free a race of enslaved, cybernetic organisms called the S'pht from their Pfhor masters. With the S'pht in revolt and allied with Durandal, the Pfhor lose control of their ship and are defeated.
There is some speculation that the story of Marathon may have been loosely based on that of the science fiction novel Marathon by David Alexander Smith. [1]
Chapters
The game consists of twenty-six levels and is divided into six chapters.
- Arrival - The player boards the U.E.S.C. Marathon. Under the direction of Leela he collects some weapons and three replacement circuit boards needed to activate the ship's automated defense drones.
- Counterattack - Once the drones are enabled, the player blocks Durandal's access to them and alerts Earth of the Pfhor. At the end, he encounters Durandal for the first time after being briefly kidnapped by him.
- Reprisal - Leela begins malfunctioning to the point where she becomes unstable. Consisting of only two levels, this is the shortest chapter of the story.
- Durandal - Durandal begins to take control of the player. Three of the four levels to which he sents him seem to have no apparant objective other than to reach the end, and Durandal begins communicating to the player a series of long, philisophical talks about his rampancy and the abuse by a scientist in which it resulted. On the third level, the player retrieves a device provided by the S'pht that augments the maximum distance of the ship's teleportation system.
- The Pfhor - The player explores the Pfhor ship to retrieve information about it and kills the cyborg Pfhor that controls the S'pht. All but two levels take place on the ship.
- Rebellion - With the aid of the S'pht and the now recovered Leela, the player eliminates the remaining threat aboard the Marathon. Durandal transfers himself to the captured Pfhor ship and leaves to see the galaxy.
External links
- Marathon's Story: Arrival all the game's terminals and game information.
- Marathon: Overview Traxus Project's article about the game.
- Marathon Spoiler Guide