Marathon's Destiny Divorce Gets Bitter — Steam Players Defend the Trade While Veterans Mourn the Loss

Steam reviewer with 114 hours played put it bluntly: "♥♥♥♥ this game. It took Destiny as a franchise from us. It took a game Bungie fans loved, and decimated it." That's the loudest sentiment echoing across Steam reviews this week — not technical complaints or balance gripes, but raw anger over what Marathon cost the community.

The "real destiny killer" comment from a 67-hour player captures the frustration perfectly. These aren't casual drive-by reviews. These are players who invested serious time in Marathon, learned its systems, then walked away bitter about the trade-off. One reviewer with 28 hours summed it up: "The fact Bungie abandoned a solidified IP for this piece of crap that is already dying out is comical."

But here's where it gets interesting — for every bitter Destiny mourner, there's a Marathon convert writing love letters. A 261-hour player admits "Onboarding is kinda wack, but after u figure out the systems of the game is is so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun." Another 156-hour reviewer stays measured: "Decent game. Has a lot of potential for growth as seasons progress."

The divide is stark. Short-session players (under 30 hours) are angry about the Destiny trade. Long-session players (100+ hours) are defending Marathon's right to exist. A 28-hour solo player captured the middle ground: "Having a lot more fun with this than I accepted... Probably the prettiest game I own."

Meanwhile, r/MarathonTheGame is operating in a completely different universe. Zero discussion about Destiny. Instead, it's wall-to-wall Cryo Archive LFG posts and server complaint threads. u/JUBRANC0 is dealing with "server connection issues as frequent as three to four times" per session. u/Character_Style_2760 reports "insane lag the last couple of days."

The Reddit community has moved past the Destiny anger phase entirely. They're deep in Marathon's systems, hunting Compiler runs, trading vault keys, dealing with infrastructure problems. These players aren't mourning what was lost — they're grinding what exists.

Steam reviews reveal the truth: Marathon works for players who commit to learning it. The 12-hour reviewer nailed the core issue: "the game is actually fun, but almost impossible to play for anyone that has never played an extraction shooter before." The complexity barrier is real.

But once players cross that barrier, sentiment flips dramatically. The 32-hour reviewer praised it as "one of the most satisfying" multiplayer experiences despite being "far from forgiving." That's the Marathon paradox — brutal to learn, addictive once mastered.

The Destiny mourning will continue on Steam. But Reddit's radio silence on that topic tells the real story: committed Marathon players have already moved on from what Bungie left behind.