Bungie’s extraction shooter Marathon has been described as the scariest game released so far in 2026, a reputation built on its punishing difficulty and high stakes that leave players losing everything they carry when they die.
The report was originally published in March and republished to mark Spooky Season. According to Polygon’s coverage, Marathon is “the kind of game where you can be creeping around a quiet, decrepit little outpost looking for a bit of unstable biomass when all of a sudden, a ventilation shaft cover bursts open and a robot pops out and stabs you to death.” All the guns and loot collected during that run are gone forever.
All those great guns you had and other upgrades and loot you’d collected on this run? Gone forever. It hurts. That’s also one of the biggest reasons why Marathon feels like the scariest game I’ve played in a long time.
Polygon
During Marathon’s February server slam, when Bungie made the shooter playable to the public ahead of its March 5 release, players were immediately unsettled by the loading screens. One shows a moth chewing on some kind of wire — presumably the same wiring that powers the Runner shells you play as in the game.
The premise involves investigating how 30,000 colonists somehow disappeared from the New Cascada Colony on Tau Ceti IV. “What could a force capable of doing that do to my little robot,” the report asks, “as I run around scrambling for more ammo?”
The writer’s first experience with Marathon alongside Destiny clanmates proved how different it is from Bungie’s other title. In Destiny, missions involve rushing through narrow corridors into firefights while relying on superpowers to crush waves of enemies. Applying that same approach in Marathon “ended in disaster.”
The group rushed into North Relay and wiped out a few bots before one teammate interacted with a special objective. They hunkered down but were quickly overwhelmed by a small army of robots led by an apparently unkillable boss wearing a cape that could turn invisible. As they died, the robots surrounded them and shot cabling into their bodies to suck out their life force.
The body horror cuts deep because dying costs more than just your in-game character. Players lose every piece of equipment they brought into the match plus anything looted along the way. The stakes are compared to Dark Souls or Hollow Knight games, where failing to reclaim lost currency before dying again means losing it forever.
“In many games, the only thing you lose upon death is the time spent playing,” the report notes, “so the stakes of Marathon alone foster feelings of anxiety and, at times, downright fear.”
The game’s difficulty has drawn criticism from prominent players. Live-streamer Shroud called it “a little too sweaty.” Ninja rage quit on launch day after only a few matches, complaining that the AI enemies were more challenging than human opponents — and reportedly screamed “this game is ass!” at one point.
“The fact is, under almost any circumstances, you can die quickly in Marathon,” Polygon wrote. “Around every corner, there could be somebody waiting to stab you in the face.” The report suggests jumpy players will likely yelp out of fear often.
Proximity chat adds another layer, transforming opponents into murderers and victims. If a player is knocked down, they may beg for their life or curse at their attacker. In one viral clip, a downed player let out a “blood-curdling primal scream.” The finishing blow is often a brutal stab in the chest.
This contrasts with the extraction shooter Arc Raiders, whose community tends to be friendlier to other players who identify as friendly. In one semi-viral Marathon clip, a player gets quickly knocked down while trying to enter a building. Exasperated, he says he was just trying to complete his missions. “This ain’t Arc Raiders my boy,” his assailant responds coldly before the knife lands.
ventilation shaft cover bursts open
The report argues Marathon is at its scariest when solo queueing as Rook, a locked Runner shell that provides a free loadout including a random basic weapon and other gear. With other classes, players join a team of up to three, but Rook forces you into matches already in progress entirely alone.
“So while other people are playing an extraction shooter game, the Rook experience is basically straight-up survival horror,” Polygon wrote. Rook can cloak himself so UESC enemies ignore him and has a self-repair ability, but players still wander alone through half-destroyed buildings littered with bodies, often facing opponents who have stocked up on superior gear.
Via proximity chat, a Rook can technically team up with other Rooks or regular players, though only “through a risky verbal social contract.” The report’s author admits to trembling while grabbing loot before exfiltrating as quickly as possible during every Rook session — an approach that grants “genuinely meaningful progression.”
Marathon forces strategic play rather than rushing toward objectives. It is about pushing outward into the boundaries of the playable space in tactical ways that guarantee survival, picking battles carefully or risking loss of everything.
The greatest thrill comes from exfiltrating by “the skin of your teeth.” The report references a clip posted to X by content creator Airwing Marine, whose squad sprints toward the final exfil site. He is knocked down but uses his Triage Runner shell to self-revive and reach the site with less than a second remaining.
The writer’s own first successful exfiltration involved being downed, crawling across a platform, throwing oneself off it, then crawling another dozen or so meters into the exfil site. A UESC robot caught up and began draining their body, but there were only seconds left before the tower activated. “Literally two seconds before I would have died, I successfully made it off Tau Ceti IV — and I flipped the bird at the robot who almost got me.”
loading screen
Destiny
“a little too sweaty.”
rage quit
“this game is ass!”
die quickly
stab you in the face
blood-curdling primal scream
lot more friendly
semi-viral Marathon clip
Rook
classes
strategic
clip
Spooky Season
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