Marathon is going free-to-play for the week of season 2’s pivotal launch

If you’ve been debating trying Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon, it feels like the “now or never” period is upon us.

Marathon will be hosting an Open Play Week that runs from June 2 to 9, giving all players on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S a chance to play the full game’s season two launch from an even playing field following an inventory wipe.

Season two, Nightfall (sorry, Destiny fans), includes the new map Night Marsh, which is a spooky nighttime variant of the sweaty Dire Marsh map that the game launched with. It includes various additions like flashlights, new scopes, signal flares, and more to contend with the darkness.

The new Sentinel Runner Shell player class is also a part of season two, detailed by Bungie for the first time today, offering a new kind of play style. Its description is as follows:

• Prime ability: Defender System
  • “Deploys an automated laser platform which identifies and destroys incoming enemy grenades and missiles, as well as boosting weapon handling for all nearby crewmates.”
• Tactical ability: Snare Mine
  • “A thrown proximity-triggered mine that will detonate into several Immobilizing submunitions. Bait enemies into your traps and lock them in place to finish them before they can escape.”
• Trait ability: Prey Tracker
  • “Activates a short range, motion-tracking system that allows them to see nearby moving targets on radar. Use this to gather a bit of extra intel on who or what’s moving around you, and set up your defenses accordingly.”

The Nightfall update also includes a swath of sandbox changes like the new Cradle system that helps further customize your character’s abilities, and new gear to play with like the KKV-9SD submachine gun and D54 Battle Pistol.

If Bungie and Sony are really to turn Marathon around and get more players invested beyond its dedicated core audience, this free week is a good start, especially since progress carries over if people end up buying the full game after trying it out.

If the free week doesn’t attract a large subset of new players who also end up sticking around, then things may start to look really bleak really quickly, especially following the news of Bungie’s other game Destiny 2 ending its live-service updates with one final launch on June 9.

For more about season two of Marathon, check out Bungie’s blog with all the details.

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