Marathon players can experience all questlines whenever they join, says creative director

Bungie took a lot of heat for vaulting content in Destiny 2, and with Marathon, the studio is taking a completely different approach. Creative director Julia Nardin told Space.com that the goal is to make the game "an additive experience" – one where new players can jump in at any point and still access all story content without missing a thing.

According to Nardin, even though Marathon will evolve through seasonal updates with a "live narrative," all core questlines will remain in the game permanently. A player joining several seasons in will be able to complete the same quests, earn the same achievements, and fill out their collections just like anyone who played from day one.

The studio isn't following Destiny's path:

"We want Marathon to be an additive experience in the sense that all priority contracts and story content aims to be evergreen, meaning that it doesn't matter when you join, you'll still be able to play through the established questlines and fill out your Codex with achievements and collections that allow you to uncover additional layers of the world."

"We'll be adding to this foundation over time in the live service environment, depending on our players' response and at a cadence we can support, but we know what direction we want to go in and what we want to create for the community to uncover next."

The narrative in Marathon centers on scavenging an abandoned colony, and the story comes through not just missions but the items players pick up along the way. Text files, audio logs, and loot descriptions all piece together what happened on the planet.

"The core loop is about scavenging an abandoned colony, so we set out to tell the best possible story about that colony and the people who lived there."

"A lot of that is done through the loot itself – there are text files and audio logs that you can collect that will help you piece together what happened on Tau Ceti IV."

"Many of the contracts you take from the factions who have a vested interest in the Marathon expedition also guide you and your crew along that journey, encouraging you to explore different corners of the world on your way to profit and mutual understanding. Durandal is back, of course, and we also have a lot of new characters – human, AI, and everything in between!"

The lesson Bungie seems to have taken to heart is how to handle legacy content. Back in 2020, the Beyond Light expansion for Destiny 2 wiped out nearly all campaigns from the base game along with the Curse of Osiris, Warmind, and Forsaken expansions.

Entire locations – Titan, Mars, the Tangled Shore – disappeared alongside a number of raids and strikes. That decision sparked a significant backlash from fans, and Bungie is now explicitly pointing to those mistakes when describing the philosophy behind the new game.

Marathon is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.