by Yaaaay~the best character in the game 😀
–SPOILER ALERT– …but I mean the game’s been out forever so, you know.
Whereas DOOM (original) came out as a solid game and kind of dragged on in its sequel DOOM II, Marathon did the opposite. In game one, it felt like Bungie was getting its FPS feet wet with Marathon, and by the time Marathon 2: Durandal came out they had nailed down some solid improvements on their game’s formula. This is not to say that M1 was bad, but M2:D made some highly noticeable improvements to level design and gameplay.
The most noticeable change is the addition of liquid mechanics (water and lava) that allows the player to swim around. Now, unlike DOOM, Marathon has always been a “true” 3D game (DOOM’s engine cheats the 3D-ness which is why you can’t have one room in DOOM on top of another). However, M1 didn’t take a lot of advantage of it, whereas M2:D does. Water allows the player to swim through massive 3D environments and you can really feel the scale of the levels. Likewise, it adds a whole slew of new puzzle solving and level design angles to approach the game from, and it adds a lot of depth and variety to the player. After a while, I did get a little tired of all the “same-y-ness” of M1’s “running through the same space station hallways over and over again” but at no point in M2:D did I ever feel tired of the environments or design. Likewise, water changes combat–you can only punch underwater, but you’re also completely protected from shots fired into the water from above, meaning that water is dynamically exciting when it comes to combat. Finding yourself submerged and surrounded by the melee attacking Flick’ta can be an exciting (and dangerous) predicament–but diving into a pool to avoid gunfire from a dozen Pfhor in a defensive maneuver is equally fun. This coupled with better level design overall makes M2:D’s levels much more engaging.
If you’re a gun-guy, then rest assured–your old arsenal is back for action again. This time though, we’re looking at the addition of a much-needed shotgun… that you can dual wield. Guys, pack up your bags, because Christmas came early–that’s right, you can friggin’ dual wield shotguns in M2:D. Not even DOOMguy can boast that much. Mechanically speaking, the shotgun adds a much-needed point-blank-front-loaded-damage option, that shreds anything that gets close to you. Arguably, once you can dual wield it, the weakness of its one-shot-and-then-reload mechanic practically vanishes, making it a little over-powered, but I think I’m okay with that. It’s just too fun, and it’s not like the bullets for it are everywhere. Otherwise though, the bigger changes come in the form of enemies that you’ll face. There are several new baddies for you to learn how to fight, but even all the old baddies from M1 that appear in the sequel have been reworked slightly. At the very least they’ve received a graphical update, but some have had their attacks reworked or changed entirely. For instance–the Sph’t shots now send the player flying much further than before, and the Pfhor gunners (that drop the alien rifles) now fire streams of fiery bullets instead of hitscan ones. The designs on the enemies overall are good and distinct–you can’t just turn your brain off when fighting.
Plot-wise, Leela is gone, Durandal is in control, and Tycho has been resurrected by the Pfhor and gone mad. Durandal has taken you to the Sph’t homeworld where you’re desperately searching for a weapon or piece of mythical information that will help you fight the Pfhor. Through the majority of the game, you’re just following orders from Durandal that boil down to “do this thing to find a clue to locate the 11th Sph’t clan.” This is unfortunately where one of my first complaints for the game come–the plot is just not as interesting as M1’s. While you do kind of eventually run into the 11th clan, you never even get to talk with them and they are little-more than a McGuffin that drives the focus of Durandal’s missions. Only near the end when Durandal gets taken out of commission by Tycho do things feel a little less predictable, but for the most part it’s just “go here, find this terminal, kill the Pfhor.” You could argue M1 had a lot of that as well except… well, there were a lot of optional terminals, and you had to piece parts of the plot together yourself. There’s not a ton of that in M2:D, as the story is much more straight-forward. Eventually Durandal comes back from Tycho’s victory over him, you find the 11th clan, raise an ancient AI to help you out and eradicate the Pfhor empire stationed at the Sph’t homeworld. At the end of the game, you discover that Leela is out there somewhere, floating around a 15 planet system (gone rampant), and that the humans and Sph’t teamed up to finally crush the Pfhor empire together. It’s a much more action-filled adrenaline-style adventure for-sure, but it did leave me longing for some of the philosophical bits from M1.
The only other complaint I have is that they added teleport-spawning enemies. These become a bit hit-or-miss as far as level design go. Sometimes they are fine–teleporting in obviously from a distance, or perhaps closer by but in moderation, with enough time for the player to react to them. Other times, enemies spawn in on both sides of you in a narrow hallway or worse–on top of the player. This kind design feels cheap, since there’s no warning to the player whatsoever that this is going to happen, and can often times lead in their death without much chance to respond. Likewise, overcoming such situations comes down less to good gameplay and more to memorization and manipulation of the teleport triggers. Luckily, there aren’t too many levels that do this poorly, but the ones that do can get a little frustrating.
Overall though, M2:D gets a strong T2, above its predecessor. You should really play M1 for the plot, but M2:D is better when thought of as simply a game. Besides, nothing is better than seeing a rampant AI court a Mjolnir Mark IV Cyborg by putting out a series of singles ads looking for a tall dark and handsome cyborg savior. Never change Durandal. Never change.
…and if you’re interested, here’s a link to the Let’s Play I did recently of the game.
