Marathon review scores are trending up, which locks it for the 2026 Game Awards

The Marathon bounceback has begun. Bungie’s new game has been through quite the reputational rollercoaster already. An exciting debut, tempered with a lack of enthusiasm for its demanding and highly specific genre, extraction shooter. A decent press preview, followed by brutal feedback from its first public playtests, followed by a rethink and a delay. A general sense that Bungie had wandered too far into a hardcore space, and that Halo and Destiny fans might be too scared to follow.