Marathon 2: Durandal

Marathon 2: Durandal
Developer(s)	Bungie Software
Publisher(s)	Bungie Software
Designer(s)	Jason Jones
Version	1.0
Platform(s)	Linux (through Aleph One), Mac OS, Windows, Apple Pippin, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Xbox Live Arcade
Release date(s)	Macintosh: NA November 24, 1995 PC: NA September 6, 1996 XBLA: NA August 1, 2007
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player Multiplayer (cooperative) Multiplayer (deathmatch)
Rating(s)	ESRB: M (Mature)
Input methods	Keyboard, mouse, Gamepad

Marathon 2: Durandal was the first sequel in the Marathon series of science fiction first-person shooter computer games from Bungie Software. It was released on November 24, 1995. The game is mostly set on the fictional planet of Lh'owon, homeworld of the S'pht, and once again the player takes the role of a Security Officer from the Marathon. This is the only game in the series to be officially released for Windows 95 in addition to the Apple Macintosh, and as of 2009^[update] is the only one released or announced for the Xbox 360.

Story

Marathon 2 takes place seventeen years after the events of the first game. Durandal, one of the three AIs from the Marathon, sends the player and an army of ex-colonists to search the ruins of Lh'owon, the S'pht home-world. He does not mention what exactly he is looking for, although he does let it slip that the Pfhor are planning to attack Earth, and that being on Lh'owon may stall their advance.

Synopsis

The story begins when the security officer is awakened from stasis and informed that he was abducted moments before Durandal departed from Tau Ceti space. Durandal has been searching for the S'pht home world, Lh'owon, ever since first contact with the Pfhor seventeen years prior. Durandal, using a combination of ground assaults led by the Security Officer and Orbital Bombardment, quickly overwhelms the Pfhor troop garrison.

Durandal reveals that thousands of years ago, the S'pht were enslaved by the Pfhor after their failure to prevent a Pfhor invasion. Durandal also mentions that the Pfhor used what little they knew of him to resurrect Tycho, an AI that was all but destroyed during the initial attacks on the Marathon by the Pfhor. Durandal teleports the security officer to an old citadel where the S'pht made their last stand against the Pfhor in the final hours of the invasion. It is here, Durandal states, that the Security Officer will find some weapon or piece of knowledge which can be used against the Pfhor, but this must be done with haste, as the largest battle group in the Pfhor fleet is making its way to Lh'owon and Durandal's single modified scout ship will not be able to hold it off. While the security officer makes his way far into the citadel, Battle group seven of the Pfhor fleet arrives and engages Durandal's ship.

The security officer is abruptly teleported to help hold back boarding parties while Durandal teleports all remaining Human and S'pht crew to a stronghold planet side. The security officer is mostly successful in this, but matters are complicated when Durandal tells the security officer that they are being personally targeted by Tycho. Durandal, not wanting to "end up like Leela," has the security officer destroy his core logic centers to avoid capture by the Pfhor. Once the security officer destroys Durandal, nothing is left to keep him from being teleported by the Pfhor and he is captured.

In the security officer's attempts to do this, Tycho brags of the brutal aftermath of the Tau Ceti invasion, in which all colonists and crew of the Marathon were vaporized by the Pfhor fleet shortly after Durandal left. Tycho also reveals that Durandal was the one who contacted the Pfhor and brought them to Tau Ceti seventeen years prior and he does not really care about the freedom of the S'pht or protecting humanity. Durandal learned that the S'pht were caretakers on Lh'owon for the Jjaro, an ancient and powerful race of beings that vanished long ago that possessed the ability to bend space. It was here, Durandal assumed, that he would learn of a way to escape the end of the universe and become God.

The game moves ahead several weeks. The security officer has been in captivity by the Pfhor, but a group of the remaining humans launch a surprise attack on the prison and free the security officer. The security officer is contacted by Robert Blake, the leader of the Human remnants. Blake informs the player that Durandal was looking for an ancient S'pht AI known as Thoth and sends him to reactivate it. As the security officer does this, Robert Blake and the remaining humans continue to lose their struggle against the Pfhor. After being transported to the final activation site, the security officer loses contact with the human remnants, but is successful in activating Thoth.

Thoth teleports the security officer to the human remnants last stand and subsequently aids the security officer in clearing a Pfhor ship to allow the remaining humans to return to earth. With this done, Thoth and the security officer activate an ancient communication array that contacts the S'pht'Kr, a clan of S'pht that left Lh'owon shortly before the arrival of the Pfhor. Over thousands of years, the S'pht'Kr had developed to an unprecedented level of technology in isolation. Enraged by the Pfhor enslavement of the S'pht, the S'pht'Kr obliterate all of the Pfhor Battle group seven.

Durandal then makes a sudden reappearance and celebrates his recent destruction of Tycho. He reveals to the security officer that he escaped death by hiding in Robert Blake's neural implants. Durandal faked his death for the benefit of the balance obsessed Thoth, who would not have contacted the S'pht'Kr had the humans not appeared so desperate. Durandal, the security officer, and the S'pht'Kr quickly destroy all Pfhor presence on Lh'owon. Humiliated by defeat, the Pfhor launch a Jjaro "early nova" device at Lh'owon's sun. Durandal informs the player that an impending invasion of Earth has been halted permanently and the now free S'pht have gathered all they can from Lh'owon and have left the doomed system. Durandal then briefly contemplates the origin of an ancient S'pht legend that describes terrible beings in Lh'owon's sun who were trapped by the Jjaro eons ago, foreshadowing the events in Blood Tides of Lh'owon (Marathon Infinity's single player scenario).

The epilogue describes several events long after: The Pfhor are defeated and their homeworld is subsequently sacked by Humanity and S'pht, Robert Blake and his fellow humans exclusively survive the Tau Ceti incident, and Durandal is not seen by humanity for ten thousand years until he returns in a Jjaro ship, communicating only briefly with humanity.

Multiplayer modes

While the original Marathon allowed multiplayer, Marathon 2 greatly expanded multiplayer functionality by adding several game modes. Like Marathon, multiplayer can be played with eight players over a LAN connection.

• Every Man For Himself - The objective here is to kill everyone else and not die. The player with the best kill ratio (kills to deaths) wins.
• Kill The Guy With The Ball - The objective is to possess the ball (which is actually a skull) for the longest amount of time. When carrying the ball, running is disabled. Also, the player can’t use any weapons when in possession of the ball, however, pressing the fire key will drop the ball and then reenable firing. The motion sensor displays an orange indicator indicating the location of the ball.
• King Of The Hill - The objective is to stand on the "hill" the longest. "Hill" in this sense is just a figure of speech, it could be anywhere on the map and is indicated by the orange pointer on the motion sensor. Note that every player is trying to do the same, and others will most likely try to kill the player if he gets in their way.
• Tag - The first person to die is "it". If the player is "it", he can tag someone (by killing them) and then they are "it". The objective is to be "it" the least. The magic orange indicator points to whomever is "it".
• Team Play - Team play divides everyone into teams by the colors chosen in the Join or Setup dialog. The objective of each team is to kill members of different teams the most. The player can see his teammate's point of view by pressing the delete key.
• Cooperative - The game scenario can be played cooperatively with other network players. The objective is to complete the Marathon 2 scenario as a team (i.e. cooperatively). All players teleport to the next level when the first one does. When a player dies, he drops his items. Save is disabled when using this feature.

Note: In the game type menu, "Keep away from Rob" and "Pile on Greg" would appear, but were grayed out and unusable.

Gameplay

Marathon 2 retains most of the core elements of its predecessor, however there are many major changes.

Environment

The biggest addition to gameplay is the addition of liquids. Unlike the first marathon, which simply used a damage effect on polygons using a certain texture, liquids in Marathon 2 can be swam through and do not necessarily cause damage to the player. Puzzles often revolve around raising water to allow players to reach a ledge or drawing enemies out of water to make combat more effective.

There are four different types of liquid in Marathon 2; Water, which is light blue and does not damage the player, is the most common. Sludge, which appears dark green, is nearly as common. In some levels, there are Flick'ta, which are the tall, green bipeds and are enemies of the player. They have roughly the same amount of health as an orange pfhor scout. A third liquid frequently used in the game is Lava. when the player is touching any of this liquid, the player is damaged at a rate of 2 health per second (on Normal difficulty). However, if the player is fully immersed in the Lava, the damage rate is doubled. Almost all levels contain one of these three liquids. Lastly, there is one other liquid. Pfhor acid is a vibrant pink in color, and damages the player approximately twice as fast as lava. Pfhor acid is only found in levels taking place on the enemy ship or on Durandal's scout ship.

Marathon 2 also contained vastly different and more varied settings than its predecessor. While the original Marathon took place exclusively in dark sections of a space ship, Marathon 2 contains vast and bright environments. Levels are also significantly larger and more expansive, placing a greater emphasis on exploration, but contains less puzzle solving. It is also notable that Marathon 2 does not contain much of the original's horror elements and resource conservation.

While the engine supports it in third party maps, Marathon 2 contains none of the vacuum levels found in the original, though the player loses oxygen as they swim through liquids. There are many levels that are played almost entirely in water so these are essentially vacuum level.

Weapons

There are 8 different weapons in Marathon 2, but most are relatively similar to their original Marathon components. The first weapon, which the player starts with, is the fist. This weapon can be dual-wielded, where both hands appear onscreen and can be used to inflict damage with both fire buttons. The fist obviously never runs out of ammo, but it only deals 2 damage.

The .44 Magnum Mega Class pistol is the other starter weapon. It also deals only 2 damage, but it can be used at a distance and, like the fists, it too can be dual-wielded, leading to a much faster firing rate and greater volume of fire than with only wielding just one. The pistol is one of the most accurate long-range weapons in the game. Pistol clips look like small, yellow boxes, and are usually found in groups. One clip holds 8 bullets, and a maximum of 50 of these clips can be held by the player.

The Zeus-Class Fusion pistol , first available in level 12 (Eat it, Vid Boi), is a faster, more rapid fire variant of the pistol. However, its ammunition (Fusion Batteries) can also be released in a charge burst, which depletes about a quarter of the battery, but does far more damage. It can also deal more damage to armored or cyborg enemies such as the S'pht. The fusion pistol is also very accurate over long ranges, however the round is not as fast as the pistol round and is visible as well. In the game, this means that the round can simply be avoided by sidestepping. The fusion battery looks like a grey cube with a yellow stripe and each battery carries energy for 20 non-charged rounds. Up to 25 of these batteries can be held at one time.

Certainly one of the most overpowered and one of the coolest weapons in Marathon 2 is the twin-barrel WSTE-M Combat Shotgun. The shotgun is also one of the few dual-wielded weapons in the game, and is the fastest to reload allowing a player to unleash a torrent of rounds. A single shotgun shell does about 15 damage, and a player can carry up to 80 shotgun rounds. However, the weakness of the shotgun is the limited ammunition capacity as compared to other weapons. The shotgun is available through a secret door in the first level, Waterloo Waterpark, but also in level 12. A shotgun shell looks like two small, red cylinders, and are always found in groups of 5 or more.

One of the best overall weapons is the MA-75B Assault Rifle/Grenade Launcher. It has two firing modes: the standard clip holds 52 .32 caliber low-damage bullets. Each individual bullet only deals a half-point of damage, but its high rate of fire (nearly 15 bullets/second) allows it to deal damage quickly and keep the enemy at bay. However these rounds are wildly inaccurate at long range and the weapon is best used at shorter distances. The rifle also fires 20mm Anti-Personnel grenades, which have 7 shots to a clip, using the alternate fire button. Grenades deal 6 damage, but as with real life grenade launchers, like the M203, these rounds constantly 'fall' with distance, making them somewhat innacurate. At any one time, up to 15 clips and 8 grenade clips can be held. Machine gun clips are red pistol clips, and a grenade clip looks like a series of grey cylinders. Interestingly, the grenades reload instantly, because they are not the not the weapon's main focus.

Definitely the most powerful close range weapon, the TOZT-7 Backpack Napalm Unit is an amazingly powerful flamethrower. The Napalm deals about 10 damage per second, and one canister carries fuel for 10 seconds. Up to three canisters can be carried at one time, and they look like black shotgun shells. It is best used in crowded situations with lightly armored targets, such as the base Pfhor units. However Hulks, like in the original Marathon, are immune to the flamethrower. The Sph't compilers and cyborgs are also immune to the flamethrower.

Lastly, the most effective weapon against all enemies is the SPNKR-X18 SSM Rocket Launcher. This rocket launcher carries two rockets per pack, which do almost 20 damage each. The rockets also have a very large blast radius, nearly 6 times that of a grenade and can take out large groups of enemies quickly. This also means that the player needs to be very careful when firing this weapon lest they be caught in the blast radius. Only 4 rocket packs can be carried at a time, and they are rather scarce in the game. The rockets travel very slowly, and take longer than any other weapon to reload.

Note: There are no ammunition limits when playing on "Total Carnage", the hardest difficulty level. There is also an "alien weapon" that can be obtained by killing a Pfhor Enforcer. However, the Rocket Launcher, the Grenade Launcher mode of the MA-75B rifle and the Napalm Unit will not cause this weapon to appear. This weapon is akin to a ranged version of the Napalm Unit. It fires superheated globules of fire straight ahead, but the alternate trigger causes these to alternate from side to side. Holding down both triggers combines these effects. One of the problems with this weapon is its limited ammunition has no counter so care must be taken to make sure you don't suddenly run out in the middle of a firefight.

Aliens

Scouts are the standard Pfhor trooper, the most common type of enemy. They appear in almost all levels, but are rarer towards the end of the storyline. They come in green, purple, orange, and blue. Orange and Blue shoot orange spheres from their staffs. Blues shoot in groups of 2.

Drones are gray, with a blue or brown stripe. These aliens float and are surprisingly capable of dodging shots. Drones are almost always found near water, such as in the first level (Waterloo Waterpark). They shoot small, green spheres at the player with mediocre accuracy. Blue drones shoot individual shots, but Brown ones have more health and shoot in groups of threes. Drones are always found in groups.

Troopers are the advanced version of the scout. they hold weapons similar to the Machine Gun, utilizing grenades at long range and a devastating projectile attack at close range. Troopers are usually green, but are even more powerful in Purple. They are vaguely humanoid, with large, bulbous heads.

Flick'ta are (usually) green aliens with large vertical mouths that live around sludge. However, there is also a blue and red version, living in water and lava respectively. All shoot a blob from their chests that does between 2(Kindergarten) and 8(Total Carnage) damage. They also can attack directly with one of their claws.

Hulks are a marathon 2 version of a similar alien. they shoot green blobs, similar to the drones, in groups of 3. They are usually green, but sometimes are blue. Blue hulks have more health, shoot faster and more, and are taller. They are all

S'pht Compilers look like orange or purple cloaks with gray heads. Orange S'pht shoot orange spheres similar to the stans,but travel much faster. Purple S'pht shoot green spheres that travel slowly and follow the player. Both types are immune to the flamethrower.

S'pht Cyborgs are aliens who travel on treads and shoot bouncing grenades at the player. Those grenades are grey spheres with a red dot in the center. However, there is an upgraded version that looks identical, but shoots green grenades. Those follow the player, travel more quickly, and deal more damage. The upgraded tanks also carry a VERY powerful flamethrower, and have about 50 health on Total Carnage. These aliens are very powerful, but not very common.

Enforcers carry an alien weapon and shoot at the player with extreme accuracy. When they are killed, they drop an alien weapon that fires fully automatically. Most have blue headpieces, but some have Orange. Orange enforcers are more accurate and have more health.

Juggernauts are the most powerful enemies in Marathon. They float, and shoot endlessly with a double-barreled alien weapon. Also, the Juggernaut launches salvos of 2 homing rockets at the player, that deal 6 damage (on normal) Most juggernauts are blue, but there is a brown version that shoots salvos of 6 rockets, uses the alien weapon more accurately, and has up to 500 health on Total Carnage.

Marathon trilogy screenshots can be viewed on http://www.bungie.net/images/Games/Marathon/Screenshots . Note: Almost all aliens fire faster or in larger groups on total carnage. In Marathon Infinity, there is a gray version of the Trooper, Scout, Hulk, and Prophet, which functions as a more powerful version of it. These gray aliens appear only in the three Vidmaster's Challenges levels.

Game developments

The game uses an updated version of the original Marathon engine. Although most of the changes to the engine were "under-the-hood", a few are visible to the user. The Marathon 2 engine offered performance gains on some machines, in addition to support for higher resolutions and higher color depths. The enhanced engine also allows the loading of maps, physics and graphics from external files, allowing users to create and play their own maps more easily than with Marathon. Unlike the mostly silent corridors of the Marathon, the levels of Marathon 2 are filled with a wide variety of ambient sounds. The background music of the previous game, however, is absent. Marathon 2 brought several types of liquid media to the game (i.e. water, lava, sewage, etc.).

Also new to Marathon 2 were all the multiplayer modes listed above except "Every Man for Himself" and "Team Play", which were in the first Marathon game.

Ports

Marathon 2 was ported with the first Marathon to the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, & Apple Pippin as Super Marathon. Marathon 2 was also ported to Windows 95. The release of the game's source code also allows programmers to make ports to other platforms including the Dreamcast.

Xbox Live Arcade version

A port of Marathon 2 to the Xbox Live Arcade was announced at the 2007 E3 Conference by Microsoft. The Xbox Live Arcade version of the game was developed by Freeverse Software, and presents a revised HUD and provides support for both 4-player split screen play on the same console and 8-player Xbox Live gameplay. Since the old Marathon network code could not handle reliable internet play the ReplicaNet middleware was used which also allowed coop play with up to eight players.^[1] The game also supports 16:9 screen resolutions, high-definition output at 60 frames per second (compared to the original 30) as well as upgraded models and graphics,^[2] support for 8-player co-op mode over Xbox Live, several international versions, and a new game mode called "Survival" where the player is given a large amount of weapons and ammo and must defeat endless waves of enemies, earning points for effectiveness and taking minimal damage, with high scores shared over Xbox Live.^[3] The only feature from the original game not present is the ability to save films, due to limits on user storage provided by Xbox Live^[4] and a bug caused by lag.^[5] The game costs 800 Microsoft Points (US$10),^[6] requires 138.5 MB of storage space,^[7] and was released on August 1, 2007.^[8] Mark Levin of Freeverse noted in a postmortem of the port that "Overhauling systems not suitable for use on a different platform can involve a great deal of work, and console platforms with certification processes may require the creation of large swaths of brand-new code and content" but they still continued working on the port because "a port is a chance for an old game to have another chance at entertaining a new audience."^[9]

Many gamers have complained of dizziness, motion sickness, and discomfort while playing the game (reportedly caused by the game's high framerate), which Freeverse plans to address through cautionary messages to gamers in an updated version.^[10] Freeverse released a patch on September 5, 2007 that included an option for the player to change the field of view to avoid motion sickness.^[11]

Downloadable content

At the February 2008 Game Developers Conference, Freeverse announced that they were working on a downloadable expansion for the game, which would consist of multiplayer maps converted from Marathon Infinity.^[12][13] On April 19, a video was released showing a network game on one of the converted maps.^[14] A new content pack has been announced ^[15] the Jjaro Map Pack for Marathon: Durandal will include 12 classic multiplayer levels previously seen in Bungie's Marathon and Marathon Infinity.

References

External links

• Xbox.com Official Site (XBLA version)
• Marathon 2: Durandal at MobyGames
• http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/ Free downloads for both Apple Macintosh and PC.