Broken -
10/13/02
And now we come to the second game in the Marathon series. This review won't be quite as long as the one I did for the first Marathon. A lot of the things I said about that game also apply to this one. As with the last review I did, there might be some spoilers (both story and gameplay) here, so if you haven't played it (you really should have by now) and wish to do so, move along.
In Marathon 2, you play the same security officer you were in the last game. After your victory on the Marathon, Durandal apparently beamed you over to the the Pfhor ship that he stole and put you in stasis for 17 years. During those 17 years, Durandal was running around the Galaxy looking for a weapon to use against the Pfhor. His search has been narrowed down to Lh'owon, homeworld of the S'pht, the race that Durandal helped rebel against the Pfhor in the first Marathon.
You begin the game having just been transported to the surface of Lh'owon. The first thing you'll notice is that you're outdoors. This is one of the things I like about Marathon 2. In the original Marathon, everything took place either inside the Marathon or aboard the Pfhor ship. In Marathon 2, you fight in a variety of locations ranging from inside ships, to Pfhor temples, to the underground caverns below the planet's surface.
The next thing you'll notice, almost immediately after that, is that BOBs are useful now. Right after you come in, a group of armed BOBs beam down as well. They proceed to fire on the Pfhor fighters that come into view soon afterwards. Even though BOBs don't come down too often, and when they do it's not long before the beam back up, and they're easily disposed of, it's still nice to see something that moves and isn't trying to kill you.
Gameplay is pretty similar to the original. You still blast your way through levels, taking orders from Durandal (and eventually a couple other guys), and using your brain to occasionally figure out a problem where combat isn't the solution. You'll even get a chance to do some swimming. Actually, you'll do a lot of swimming in liquids as diverse as water, sludge, and lava (though you don't swim in lava quite so much as you die in lava). Overall, I'd say this game is a little easier than the first. That's not to say it IS easy, there just aren't really any battles where you'll have your ass sawed off and handed to you over and over again like in a couple levels in the original (mainly the last one).
Network play was beefed up a lot in Marathon 2. Whereas in the first, your choices were Free For All or Team play, in Marathon 2 you can choose from Every Man For Himself (FFA), Kill The Guy With The Ball, King of the Hill, Tag, and Team Play. You can also play through the single player game cooperatively with multiple people. As I stated in the Marathon review however, I never had a chance to actually play multiplayer, so I really can't comment on anything else here.
Basically, this game improves upon the original in almost every way. There are more enemies, more weapons (well, one more at least), more variety in locations, more multiplayer options, better graphics and sound, and a better plot. It's definitely a worth-while follow up to the original and probably my favorite out of the whole series.
By the way, if you endured my Marathon review you might remember me saying that this game was ported to the PC. If you're looking for it, Bungie still had some copies at their online store last I checked. If you're a Mac user, you can get their Action Sack which includes this game, the other two Marathons, and three more of their older games.
