A brand new trailer for Marathon confirmed off the grim trauma lurking beneath the surface of the extraction shooter’s colorful Tau Ceti IV planetary environments, nevertheless it teased extra than simply sci-fi horror worldbuilding. Bungie additionally revealed the dates for the sport’s pre-launch beta, giving gamers one final probability to go hands-on earlier than deciding whether or not to fork over $40 for Sony’s newest live-service multiplayer recreation.
Marathon‘s pre-launch “server slam” goes live on February 26 and will run through March 2, just a few days before the game’s full release date on March 5. Gamers will have the ability to dive into the sport without cost on PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X/S, and PC with the restricted demo coinciding with the upcoming Steam Subsequent Fest. Whilst you don’t must pre-order the sport to get in, you’ll want a PS Plus or Sport Go Core subscription to entry the server slam on consoles.
The open beta will function a “limited selection of maps, Runner shells, and contracts” for gamers to check out, with extra maps, factions, contracts, gear, and different content material coming at launch and through Season 1. Whereas progress gained’t carry over to the complete recreation, gamers can earn tiered gear packages that can then come in useful once they get began within the loot extraction shooter as soon as it’s out.
PS Plus subscribers may even get the prospect to unlock a handful of unique rewards to point out they participated within the server slam: particular emblems and banners linked to different PlayStation franchises. These embody weapon charms from Helldivers 2, Demise Stranding 2, and Ghost of Yotei. Xbox and PC gamers will have the ability to earn them too sooner or later, although it’s not clear how but. Marathon went through a rough patch last year however current leaks of a playtest in China prompt issues have improved fairly a bit for the reason that unique alpha check.
