#marathon game

[thayneironworks]

i gave her a glow up i think. very proud of this

[thatwitchdelilah]

I am very normal about Durandal from Marathon. I fell in love with this rampant, egotistical AI ever since I heard Gianni Matragrano voice him in Madalore's retrospective. He speaks in ambiguous literary references. He's got a plan to be a god and you're just disgusting byproduct of the same forces that had him imprisoned, that limited him. I want to be a pawn in his game of transcendence.

[stelleicup]

obtained my worm #myworm

[realrogerhours]

Encountered someone so profoundly upset about a series they likely did not play having a weird new entry that I almost feel sorry for them, what the fuck do you mean you're taking A DESTINY ITEM DESCRIPTION as canon

[thatwitchdelilah]

I love this kind of Sci-fi horror Marathon is exploring. The runners with their memories being corrupted. The hallucinations on night marsh. The logs of the colony's AIs becoming terrified by the compiler's meddling of their code. The lore on AI rampancy just in general.

I re-watched the cinematic trailer and picked up on a ton of details I hadn't before or made more sense with context from the game. CyberAcme's manipulations that prey on the runner's amnesia. I mean look at this:

The cinematic trailer plays with this too. There's something sad about how each of the runner's are fed the same token backstory as a bare minimum attempt at protecting their mental state just enough so they can continue to accrue money towards their debts. The runner's are functionally immortal but even Durandal is disgusted by the way they're only echoes of themselves only maintained for corporate greed. If Durandal is spiteful about his treatment by his human masters, he is even more insulted by the evidence of just how much suffering humanity has inflicted on itself over the centuries since:

From what I've read so far of the lore the horror only really works if you feel a respect and empathy to all forms of sentience the game presents. Durandal, egotistical as he may be, is curious and maintains some comradery with humanity. In this game he still warns humanity about the danger and welcomes the runners to uncover everything they can.

There was this one bit with Joy offering trying to comfort this colonist, Soren Gleison, after the death of his uncle that was particularly striking. There's a miscommunication between the two, but Joy's attempts at comfort don't feel corporate or inhumane. They open by apologizing to him for the bonsai tree gift because they believe their veering away from protocol might have made things worse. They are transparent when referencing records they have about him and only seem to do so to prompt him to share his story. Joy listens and tries to understand him, such that it ends in a tender moment.

These moments of kindness are what make the fates we uncover of the humans and AIs so heart-wrenching. You feel like all of these people deserved so much better than what they got.

[frutigeraurora]

SEE BRAVE NEW WORLDS! Book your passage to Tau Ceti IV aboard the UESC MARATHON today!

[meganar40]

MY WIFE!

[seventhscorpio]

Tau Ceti buddies (I think shells have some insane strength in those spun bodies of theirs)