Greater than a 12 months after saying sci-fi extraction shooter Marathon, developer Bungie revealed a smattering of latest particulars about its subsequent sport on Monday, together with a peek at two character lessons and affirmation of deliberate playtests coming in 2025. The most recent replace on Marathon was atypical of Bungie’s fashion — as an alternative of a slickly produced “ViDoc,” because the developer likes to name them, the brand new video is a no-frills, talk-to-the-camera data dump from sport director Joe Zeigler. In some methods, it scans like a proof-of-life video from the beleaguered developer of Future.

After Bungie introduced Marathon in Might 2023, it stated it deliberate to go “darkish to concentrate on the sport” and pledged to indicate gameplay the following time it talked about its extraction shooter. Zeigler acknowledged that pledge, saying the studio isn’t prepared to indicate gameplay simply but. As an alternative, Zeigler pitches the idea of Marathon as an “intense” extraction shooter the place gamers combat over loot, then attempt to survive and escape with their haul. The developer additionally confirmed two forms of Runners — Marathon’s cybernetic mercenaries — with the Thief and Stealth sorts.

Whereas exhibiting idea artwork for the Thief, Zeigler stated, “When you discover the character creepily peeking across the nook in that quiet second earlier than she makes her transfer — that is type of just like the theme of that character in a variety of methods, and may provide you with a touch as to what sort of gameplay that character goes to be driving from. There’s a variety of hilarious tales that come from [the Thief] but in addition very, very loopy moments that this character contributes to the sport.”

Referring to the Stealth Runner, Zeigler stated that it’s going to use deception as a utility trait. “They’re actually laborious to pin down,” he stated, “and you may see that they’ve the instruments to stalk the battlefield and present up in ways in which enable them to type of take benefit.”

In discussing the state of Marathon, Zeigler stated that Bungie is “on monitor” and has been “doing a variety of aggressive modifications to the sport” based mostly on early testing with gamers and content material creators. “There’s so many individuals who’ve contributed by telling us, ‘Hey, this factor sucks’ or ‘This factor is nice’ in a approach that actually has helped us diagnose, analyze, and form and shift the sport in nice methods,” he stated.

Gamers might be able to get their arms on Marathon someday in 2025, when Bungie will begin increasing its playtests “wider and wider,” Zeigler stated. That doesn’t essentially imply that Marathon will launch in 2025, however it appears like Bungie is getting nearer to each exhibiting gameplay and letting a bigger pool of gamers begin going hands-on with its follow-up to Future 2.

Zeigler, who was previously the sport director of Riot Video games’ shooter Valorant, introduced in March that he’d taken over as sport director for Marathon. He changed Bungie veteran Christopher Barrett, who Bloomberg reported had been fired for misconduct.

Marathon can be launched on PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Collection X.