best fan-created "Marathon 4". Which is it?

[JoeKool82185]

So I've been checking out all these fan-made Marathon games (silly since I've yet to complete Marathon 2 or even start Marathon Infinity), but I've been wondering: Which of these games serves as the best Marathon 4?

I know none of them are canon and they are all fan-made, but with Halo 4 coming and Bungie's new Marathon project not being set in stone, I just wanted a 4th game to play after Infinity.

So far, the 4 biggest projects I've seen are Rubicon, Evil, Red, and Eternal.

Which one has the best story? Which one offers the biggest changes to the formula without deviating too far from the core mechanics? I like Evil's Devlins, but the premise seems cookie cutter to me. I love Red's metalloids and organics (and the villains that lead them), but I hear the difficulty is absolutely insane. I heard Rubicon's plot was a 4-year project, but the fact that you fight nothing but the Pfhor make it sound to me like there's nothing really new to offer. And I love Eternal's premise, but the time traveling thing makes it sound like a rehash of Infinity (and again, I believe you only fight the Pfhor, which offers nothing new (Halo 4, after all, is no longer making the Covenant your main villains)).

So which of these games (or any other project out there) is overall the best package? Best gameplay, best story, best atmosphere, challenging but not over the top difficult, and easy to install and play for someone who's not that tech savvy? Which is the best "Marathon 4"?

[L'howon]

-snip-

Each scenario has it's own strengths and weaknesses. Marathon Phoenix by far has the best gameplay, it's pretty much non-stop action, and very challenging on Total Carnage. Not much switch hunting, objectives are fairly linear and clear without being overly direct or holding your hand for the most part. Story really isn't an integral factor, though Ryoko's tweaked it enough now to be passable.

Evil's... old. Not that that's entirely bad, it's certainly an interesting bit of nostalgia to play, but I personally didn't find the story or mapping to be particularly compelling. It does have bragging rights and such, being one of the first Infinity TC's, but that's about it. It's just been surpassed is all.

Best atmosphere is hands down Rubicon, C. Lund and Scott Brown did a great job making the environment very convincing and immersing. Mapping's here or there, Rubicon tends to suffer from extremely large maps that are very easy to get lost or miss 'that one switch'. Which may be part of the charm for some, but it crops up enough to be extremely annoying. The story's also good, certainly good enough for a fair portion of people to consider it Marathon 4, definitely takes a lot of cues from Infinity with transition levels, etc.

Eternal's not my cup of tea, having replayed it a couple of times I find myself liking it less and less. It certainly has the most story of any of them though, be prepared for a small novel worth of terminal texts. Ryoko also did a playthrough/critique which pretty much summarizes my issues with it.

RED's a cluster fuck, and I would only attempt that after you've gotten bored and really hate yourself. There's just so many things about it that are unintuitive or flat out stupid, which makes it hard not even for the sake of hardness, but just unintentionally so bad that it's hard. And it's glitchy.

Personally I'd play through them all, just because it's fun to see different styles, concepts, etc. It's certainly doable with a month or two of downtime effort. If you had to pick, I'd go with Rubicon though.

[Dugit]

There's also Nardo's Tempus Irae. There's plenty of gameplay to enjoy and some downright excellent levels, and with hi-res the scenario certainly comes close to Rubicon X. However, (Ryoko did a play-through/sum-up here) TI can get a touch repetitive. I'll leave that for you to decide.


Phoenix: Excellent gameplay and level design. Plenty to keep you occupied and combat that never gets stale. Extremely difficult on TC, mind you, but not repetitive. For the best gameplay experience (also level design never fails to impress; no stinkers here), go here.

Eternal X: Excellent story. Although levels waver from excellent to poor, as does gameplay, there are some pretty novel ideas (like scavenging pfhor weapons) that keep the game interesting. Be prepared for a ton of reading. For the best plot experience, go here.

Rubicon X: Excellent story, gameplay and level design. Mind you, there are a few stinker levels here and there, but overall Rubicon X is the most well-rounded scenario out there with many, many brilliant levels that can only be described as aesthetic masterpieces, especially the Salinger levels. Gameplay never really gets stale, either, with a good mix of fighting against humans and pfhor (with a good number of new and interesting enemies and weapons). Story is engaging, too, with two (later branching to three) choices of 'planks' after the opening chapter. For the best level design and atmospheric experience (story and gameplay are honorable mentions), go here.

Tempus Irae: Story is good, but the shining star of TI is level design: renaissance Italy. Excellent levels (spaceship and old-timey) all-round, but gameplay does get a little tedious later on â?? there very little difference between the gameplay in TI and Marathon Infinity. For level design that rivals Rubicon (but be prepared to play through the dud levels too), go here.

RED: Lh'owon summed it up pretty nicely. Level design is very basic, but a new plethora of enemy types will certainly keep you on your toes. Really, really fucking difficult, and not often the good kind of difficult (go to Phoenix for the good kind of difficult). For the best experience of rage-quitting and overpowered weapon-spamming, go here.

Evil: Sure, Evil's neat, but if you want a scenario that can stand up to the accolade of 'Marathon 4', don't go here. Although it's a solid little project with some neat touches (plus the new devlins are down and out awesome), for a full quasi-sequel experience, try elsewhere. Not to say that Evil isn't fun, it's just that other projects kind of eclipse it. If you want something solid and simple, however, go here.


There are many honorable mentions, though. Don't really consider these as Marathon 4s, these are just here if you want to expand your taste for fan-made scenario content.

Marathon Squadron [can't find any working links; if you want it PM me] was created as a fan-made sequel of Rubicon by shongshong, and it's quite a deviation from Rubicon. For a game more closely related to things like Call of Duty rather than alien-smashing, go here. Otherwise, I'll recommend avoiding this scenario. The levels are average, gameplay is good (not excellent), and there is actually very little stand-out gameplay to speak of.

Apotheosis [same again; if you want it PM me] was very nearly a finished scenario that even unfinished does approach Rubicon in terms of wholesome gameplay and level design. Like Evil, if you want something solid and simple (except here there's a lot more to do and the gameplay is far more creative), go here.

Return to Marathon [ditto for the A1 version], although having only three levels finished, is by far the best scenario in terms of atmosphere, comfortably ahead of even the more haunting Rubicon levels. I still get scared shitless when replaying this, even though I know roughly where everything is. For a wholesome experience of plot and sci-fi horror, and a good helping of nostalgia, go here.

The Gray Incident is essentially Phoenix's forebear, created by Ryoko. The levels here are generally excellent and gameplay never fails to please (I still maintain that a few TGI levels do come up to Phoenix's standards to this day), but TGI has been surpassed by Phoenix, in all senses.

Kill Them All is gameplay. That's about it. For lots of shooting and blood in a structured, staggered level system, go here.

This is my baby. Aeon is the compendium of my best efforts at a scenario. It's by no means up to scratch with Rubicon or the like, but with twelve full solo levels that steadily get better and better, it's worth a try. It's also pretty intense.

That's all I can really remember. There are countless other smaller scenario projects, but many of them are old and many of those are obsolete or lost. Have fun!

[L'howon]

Squadron and RtM are on the old fileball FTP, Apothesis might be as well. I know for certain CatHunter linked to it here also.

For more miscellany, there's also the semi-working Wine port of Trojan and EMR, which isn't even in the Marathon universe.

[Destiny]

I think Rubicon is the best Marathon 4. It stays true to what Marathon is. Evil and RED don't even include Durandal and have a different story separate from Marathon, and Eternal isn't canon. Plus, isn't Rubicon anyways the unofficial "Marathon 4?"

If anyone is going to play RED, play until the 3rd chapter. Everything goes downhill from there. That's my opinion, at least. Everything other than that, most Marathon scenarios that are listed in Dugit's post are good.

[$lave]

and Eternal isn't canon

Neither is any other 3rd party scenario, such as Rubicon.

[Yowza]

You've put forth a hard question.
And since it has mostly been answered already, I dont think I can say much about the scenarios.
If you want a "Marathon 4" (and is easy to install) I recommend both (or either) Rubicon X and Eternal X.
Any of the other works aswell though, and the best thing in my opinion (and like to think), is that most of the scenarions where
you play as the Marine/Security guard/cyborg could be concidered (more or less) "canon" and takes place
during different points in time and/or alternate universes (due to him using the Jjarro functions from Infinity).

My advice is to try them all and work through the ones that get you hooked (Though you should save (or see) Return to Marathon as the last.
I really, really like it and its a massive shame that they never made it more than a demo).

One scenario that I can recommend and has not been mentioned yet is; Pfh'Joueur.
I say its quite nice and not too hard to get running. Takes place after M2 if im not mistaken and
goes abit like Tempus Irae (but without the time travel).

[Destiny]

I never got to play Pfh'Joueur even on my old Mac because for some strange reason, the installer would fail!!! Other than that, I've pretty much played most of the listed scenarios.

Hey! Why isn't Yota Saga on the honorable mentions!? Yota Saga was a great scenario!!!

[Wrkncacnter]

I vote for Marathon: Shadow.

[Yowza]

Was that scenario ever released?

[Windbreaker]

Was that scenario ever released?

lol no. But I bet it's real, real close.

[BeingShotAt]

Rubicon, obviously

[Destiny]

*Hits BeingShotAt with Oathkeeper*

I thought it already was obvious.

[BeingShotAt]

*Hits BeingShotAt with Oathkeeper*

I thought it already was obvious.

Evidently not since there is a discussion about it

[???Durandal???]

I vote marathon Phoenix as Best marathon 4 attempt to date.

I see it as a prequel to rubicon, in which case chronologically speaking, rubicon is the final chapter to the Marathon universe.

at least, thats how I saw it.

[listener]

*Scoffs*

Did Phoenix even connect to the Marathon universe?

[RyokoTK]

*Scoffs*

Did Phoenix even connect to the Marathon universe?

Actually, it did. Read between the lines a little bit in the future, tl.

[PerseusSpartacus]

Without a doubt, the best 'Marathon 4' out there is Rubicon. It has a non-linear story affected by your choices, excellent architecture and gameplay, it's very original, it's challenging but not uber-tough, and it leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling when you finish it. Plus, you can play it three times and still not get bored by it. Name one other scenario like that.

Also, if you're okay with getting spoiled, depending on the choices you make, you can actually fight humans. And not just any humans. Dangi humans, which are the most dangerous kind of humans. If you go through the Salinger Plank, you'll know why.

Now, it's hard to say if it's really trying to be a 'Marathon 4' or a 'Marathon 3'. It follows directly from M2, with all the stuff you did in Infinity basically being ignored. So, really, you could say it's an alternative M3. Still, that issue is up for debate.

Cheers,
Perseus

[CryoS]

if you want fog, try lolnova, its very authentic.

[Paul]

You guys all forgot about Victum. Coming 2009.

[Shocktart]

Rubicon X is great in it's beginning and ends.
Its absolutely terrible in between. The story stops.

Rubicon X was terrible, should have been shorter.

[L'howon]

if you want fog, try lolnova, its very authentic.

speaking of unreleased scenarios.