Marathon's new season is impressive, but probably not enough to save it

Bungie gave press an early hands-on with Marathon's new season, and the verdict from Push Square is cautiously mixed: the update is genuinely impressive in places, but probably not the turnaround the game needs. Marathon has been fighting for relevance since launch, and a new season alone may not be enough to change that.

The hands-on suggests Bungie has put in real work — new content, mechanical tweaks, and additional gameplay layers show the studio is responding to criticism. But reviewers note that the core issues that drove players away haven't been addressed at the root level. The season polishes the surface without fixing what's underneath.

Marathon launched to a rough reception, with complaints centring on thin content, slow progression, and gameplay loops that wore out their welcome quickly. Bungie has promised improvements before, but the live-service reality is brutal: players who leave rarely come back just because a new season dropped.

The enthusiast crowd will find things to like here, but the harder question is whether this moves the needle for lapsed players or newcomers. The next few weeks of player counts will tell the real story.