Some initial thoughts from a mediocre Apex Legends player

More or less what the title says.

I'm a middling-at-best Apex player (never really consistently breaking above high gold tier) that only plays for a few hours a week at most with friends, and this is my first extraction shooter.

I bought Marathon about a week after it came out, but had been following it on and off since being intrigued by the first trailer. I had been a little hesitant about the extraction shooter genre but the initial good reviews got me to pull the trigger. I've been playing it very casually (1-2 hours a weekend, a couple hours a week) since and very much enjoying it.

Some thoughts:

I was surprised at how quickly the game dumps you in the middle of the core gameplay loop without that much tutorializing. I play Apex enough to grasp the essentials pretty quickly, but for a hypothetical first timer with less shooter experience, it would probably be a little alienating. The menu UI too is a little cluttered and hard to figure out exactly what items do and why. If Bungie is looking for low-hanging fruit to make the game a lot more accessible to smooth-brains like me, a little more tutorializing and streamlining some of the menu UI/item descriptions would be very helpful.

I'll preface this by saying my experience thus far has almost completely been in solos, in Perimeter/Dire Marsh, and that I'm still low level compared to many of you, but I don't think the core gameplay loop is *that* alienating to new players. I get a maybe 50-60% successful exfil rate and it never really feels all that frustrating. It's certainly a whole lot better than my win rate in Apex ranked.

It did however require me to re-wire my Apex brain and think and move much more smartly than what I was used to. Spend as little time in the open as possible, run only to cross unavoidable open areas and assume that any gunshots you make were heard by someone else and that they are coming your way to investigate. Close doors behind you as you enter rooms, and be cognizant that everything you do makes some noise and that the game's really excellent sound design will cause that noise to carry to hungry ears if they're in range.

Almost all of the deaths I've experienced have been caused by me violating those commandments: by accidentally running into the UESC and getting into a pointless fight, by being careless and not watching my surroundings as I enter a space, or getting a little too confident mid-game and trying to overextend myself with too little ammo/health/shields left. I have thankfully run into few camping Assassins with shotguns. If anything, especially with the Arachne missions where you're asked to kill/finish other runners, I've been the one setting up and carrying out ambushes. Though with Recon not Assassin, since I'm not a complete monster.

If you're on the fence about buying the game:

The atmosphere of the game and story thus far are as good as advertised. If that's appealing to you and playing a stealthy shooter isn't too intimidating, go for it.

If you don't have friends who are willing to take the plunge and buy Marathon with you, solo queue is a viable option. But treat solo queue as a stealth/horror game, not a regular shooter. Or even something like Dishonored. Each map is a puzzle box that, in order to be successful, you should learn bit by bit. Take your time and explore it. You'll learn where the hazards are, where people tend to go, what routes are safe to traverse from place to place.

If you're willing to learn through trial and error, utilize the free kits you get from sponsors liberally to minimize your losses and most importantly override the gambler in your brain that tells you 'come oooooonn lets just get a little more' after getting most of what you needed in a given run instead of exfiltrating, it can be a pretty pleasant experience.

I'm not going to dismiss the need to make Marathon more inviting to new players or fix some of the issues its facing around balance and progression, but if you're sitting on the outside browsing this subreddit and thinking about whether or not to get it, I'd say its worth the investment.