Marathon season 2 is right around the corner, and Bungie gave us our first visual sense of what the next few months are going to feel like on Tau Ceti IV with a new cinematic trailer. It showcases Nightfall, the new Dire Marsh map that will have players embracing their inner night owl as they scavenge across the extraction shooter’s deadliest map in the dark. I can’t wait. I’m not ready.
Nightfall is just one of the many changes coming to Marathon when season 2 goes live on June 2, but it’s likely to be the biggest. Bungie’s latest shooter is all about constantly scanning the environment for new information and possible threats. While many players now know Dire Marsh like the back of their hand, relying on flashlights in the pitch black is going to upend everything about how fans engage with the map.
It’ll also give Bungie’s excellent sound design fresh opportunities to scare the crap out of everyone. I can’t wait to hear footsteps splashing in the swamp and have no idea where they’re coming from until I’m dead.
Okay, but that’s only half the story. As the cinematic trailer hints, Marathon seems like it’s about to get a completely new enemy kind of enemy threat on the map. The shadow a squad of runners faces near the end of the clip is like a cross between a Xenomorph and Slender Man. Unless the trailer is taking a lot of artistic license, Nightfall almost feels like it could turn Marathon into a PVPVE horror game.
Players are already speculating about what this new enemy threat might be. The obvious guess is some sort of zombie runner. “Check out the lore entries for ‘Class B Anomalous Material,’” wrote one person in the YouTube comments. “I believe we’re getting Mimics (of our runners) on nighttime Dire Marsh! Either that or the fungal zombies from M2 concept art.” Player theories have a habit of being more fun than the reality, but I’m now convinced Bungie is cooking up something more exciting than its initial previews of season 2 have otherwise indicated.