Adding to the Marathon talk, Bertii, yet another YouTuber, hits the nail on the head with his take. What is Marathon? Maybe it's an aspect of the genre to fit into accessible or hardcore. I certainly don't think that was considered for Halo or Destiny. They were just good games to jump into a play with people with room for hardcore players.
Marathon wants to be accessible but also is difficult. It's complicated. I don't know what half of my vault does. I have to sit with it and go over things which is fun for a lot of people but I just don't have the time. Or even the interest to do that.
If it didn't feel easy to hop into I wouldn't have bought it. And I continue to get drawn into the idea of sneaking around, scavenging, completing a contract then bailing. It seems easy and fun. The aesthetics and story is compelling.
Once I'm in though, I do all that only to die every single time because I'm not familiar with enough with my gear.
I bought ARC Raiders last night1 after reading about their matching system because of this:
You'll be able to go from friendly questing and plant-picking in Solo rounds to adrenaline-fueled PvP Trio games (if that's how you usually play in those respective cases), by simply changing your squad size.
I literally said I just wanted to pick plants and explore in aa game the other day. I've been feeling like Marathon is missing that special something. Maybe it's just too middle of the road.