Let's Play Marathon, pt 2 - Bigger Guns Nearby
Zwwwwwip!
And we’ve been teleported to level 2. Where hath Leela flung us? Hit the M key to bring up the map, and the level name gives you a clue. We’re here for an arsenal upgrade. Marathon’s map is the same green/black style as the terminals, clear and easy to read. More on that in a minute. First, we log in to the nearest compy to get a briefing.
I am now in contact with a number of colonists planetside, but
their reports on the situation below are conflicting and
obviously exaggerated. The primary medium-range radio antenna
has been disabled or destroyed, which makes communication
extremely difficult.
This is the first time we explicitly learn that the Marathon is in orbit over a newly settled world. But enough of that, Leela’s got an important quest for us. We’re not gonna turn this alien tide with just our service pistol and pluck. We need a bigger gun. We can find one tucked away in a grimy industrial level of the Marathon’s cyclopean hull.
Due to budget cuts we can only have a light in every other room.
The dim, grey halls of Bigger Guns Nearby evoke a sequestered, largely-ignored storage unit. In a game like Marathon, where you’re zapped around to all different parts of the ship, not following a coherent linear path, never sure how close or far you are now to where you just were, having each level feel strongly like its own place makes a big difference. I don’t always remember the layout and design of the levels in this game, but I always remember what they feel like to move through.
Nice when the room matches your style.
The little room above serves no functional purpose in the game besides being somewhere you have to walk through, but I just love its look. A lot of rooms in the game are like this - broad suggestions of a practical purpose without being too strictly utilitarian to be interesting.
Could it be? Why yes it is - the bigger gun.
The MA-75 itself is one of my favorite FPS weapons, largely because it’s so goofy and impractical - or at least would be in real life. It’s a full auto ‘assault rifle’ that is not in any functional way a rifle. Rifles are for shooting things accurately at a distance. The MA-75 breaks a sweat landing consistent shots on a target on the other side of a large living room. It’s like a lawn sprinkler. It finds its place in the game as you collect other implements of destruction, and that place is when you’ve got a bunch of enemies right in front of you. Basically, using it is like punching people with slightly longer arms and bullets for fists. It does have an under barrel grenade launcher, which may have been the first secondary-fire option I ever encountered in a game. It makes a cute little thump when it fires and comes in handy dealing with groups at range.
There’s one more trick you can do with it, too. Marathon has no jump button. A lot of the game’s puzzles involve figuring out how to traverse vertical space by changing the space itself using switches and buttons and hidden doors and stairs. However, if you run forward and fire a grenade at your feet, as long as you’re at mostly full health it won’t kill you, and it’ll give you a nice little hop. The grenade jump is born.
Just a couple of tidbits to wrap up this entry! First, the game map looks really cool and is pretty easy to navigate with. But more than that, various rooms, halls, and chambers are labeled. Occasionally this helps you find where to go, but most of the time it’s just for some extra flavor. One of my favorites is in ‘Bigger Guns Nearby’ -
Oh yeah, lemme just step right on in there.
The second to last terminal in the level is one of the extra-info terminals that provides some background about the Marathon as a ship and isn’t essential to gameplay or the main plot. You can walk right past it and play the rest of the game none the wiser. Still, it’s one of the best first character mentions in any game.
You know that it would be untrue. You know that I would be a liar…
Yep. A list of doors. The types of doors on the Marathon. Totally utilitarian and boring, if perhaps enjoyable in its thoroughness and detail. Except… “Direct control of all doors except the Tertiary and Quaternary doors will be given to Durandal…”
So, Leela is not the only AI on this ship. That’s interesting. The level-ending terminal is about ten feet away from this one. In it, Leela mentions Durandal and tells you he’s been damaged and she’s trying to reestablish contact. This penultimate terminal did not have to exist, but it’s a really clever and subtle way to introduce Durandal’s existence to the player. If you spot the important part nestled in it, it gets your curiosity going and sparks your need to further explore the ship and comprehend the world around you.
Speaking of, Leela needs us to retrieve some defense system computer chips in order to help repair part of the ship that was damaged in the initial attack. Let’s get moving.
***End Message***
***JUMP PAD ACTIVATION INITIATION START***
***TRANSPORT WHEN READY***
