16 Short Stories Prove Marathon Is One Of 2026’s Best Games

Marathon is a great video game. What makes it so rattling good isn’t the wonderful capturing or the hanging visuals. What makes Bungie’s latest sci-fi shooter one among 2026’s finest video games is how its cutthroat, high-stakes design creates unforgettable moments of triumph, defeat, friendship, and shock. It’s the sort of recreation that has me considering and speaking about it lengthy after I’ve put the controller down. The subsequent smartest thing apart from taking part in it’s swapping tales with different Marathon gamers, like outdated conflict buddies sharing tales from previous battles and glories.

So, I asked the internet to share with me a few of their brief tales from taking part in Marathon during the last two weeks or so. The response was superb, and I used to be flooded with one thing that has rapidly turn into one among my favourite elements of 2026: Cool tales from Marathon. Now I carry them to you, calmly edited and formatted in your studying enjoyment. Oh, and you probably have a Marathon story or two to share, be at liberty to drop it within the feedback!

No pictures fired

“I used to be attempting to exfill. 2 minutes left. One other Rook appeared and shot at me. I scurried away. Healed. I heard much more gunfire. Bots received him. He was down and the exfill was lively. I ran in and in-game chat mentioned: “When you didn’t shoot at me, I’d have allow you to reside,” after which completed him. Exfilled” – Zack (me lol)

“Performed a fill recreation in Outpost. We tangled with a participant, however once we realized it was a Rook, we referred to as out and made a truce. Went into Pinwheel Base, cleared it of aggressive Runners, and referred to as Rook in to loot. Seems, it was *two* Rooks, who have been additionally working collectively. The 5 of us exfilled.” – Phil

“Enjoying solo, I climbed a ladder and heard footsteps by way of a door on the prime. Different runner will need to have heard me. We each froze silently for a full minute whereas I waited for my echo pulse to recharge, then I pinged and confirmed somebody was there. I hit that pleasant emote and RAN. No pictures fired.” – ‪Korlis

“I used to be taking part in as Rook on Outpost and got here round a nook and was deleted with a WSTR shot. The opposite man runs out and says over prox chat, ‘Oh no, I’m sorry, little Rook, you startled me. I really feel dangerous.’ Then he threw me a self-revive so I may get again up and proceed on.” – Justin

“Joined a random trio match and one of many Runners was clearly a youthful boy and he mentioned he hadn’t extracted as soon as. Me and the opposite Runner gave him some blue loot, and we extracted efficiently. He was screaming and freaking out, and it was very candy and lovely.” – Wesley

“Enjoying solo, drop right into a run solely to satisfy a fellow runner fifteen seconds in, they open fireplace instantly, I don’t return fireplace. I’m capable of talk with out comms that I’m pleasant, I flip round, going again the way in which I got here, turning a nook, solely to be gunned down by a special runner.” – idyllicghost

“This absolute legend carried our crew by way of a number of fights and all our contracts. We needed to take the guarded exfil. i received downed by the bots instantly and began crawling into the exfil. The opposite duckling and I watched because the legend received knocked proper because it activated and was left within the mud. I’ll always remember his sacrifice.” – Ada

They didn’t have a shotgun

“An entire mirror match. I traded with a runner, each of us emptying our Shotguns on sight. We rezzed ourselves in sync, neither of us hesitating to instantly cost again within the second we have been up. I used to be faster on the draw, punching them again down. We each laughed, mentioned ‘GG’, and I ended them.” – Nate

“Enjoying with my buddies, and we exfiled… besides, I apparently wasn’t shut sufficient, and I didn’t get pulled into the sky with them. With 8 minutes left, managed to journey midway throughout the map, whereas taking out 3 different gamers by sheer luck, and managed to exfil.” – Keith

“After clearing out a safety field on Perimeter, I observed {that a} Thief Drone was shadowing me. I shoot it down, however have to reposition quick in any other case I’m nearly as good as useless. I dash to an overhang. Their footsteps stopped above me. Solely a shotgun would beat my knife. They didn’t have a shotgun.” – Raxtian

“Early after launch me and one other solo managed to down one another on the identical time, my knife and his pistol. “Fuck you man, you scared the shit outta me!” “Identical to you!” We sat bleeding earlier than realizing I had triggered exfil proper earlier than the battle. We crawled collectively and each made it out!” – This One Guy, Tom 

“Doing a Rook run on Dire Marsh. I take a pair pictures at what I assume is a lone runner, after I notice it’s one other Rook. I cease firing as he aggressively shakes his head. He teabags. I teabag. We go our separate methods. I hope he made it out of there.” – Rumble Pack

“One time taking part in Outpost, we bumped right into a pleasant crew within the first minute… then one other… then a 4th squad ran up asking “whoa a pleasant server?”. We ended up with a totally pleasant match and all coordinated to get into Pinwheel. The one threats have been a few Rooks who confirmed up later for 1v12.” – Thomas

Cowards

“As Triage in solos, I spot a Vandal, we begin capturing. Center of the gun battle they are saying “we don’t should die”. We cease capturing, and I apologized. We each do our targets. I name ’em for an experiment to see if they’ll use my med bot. I throw it they usually hack it. I discovered you may hack them!” – Ass Ass In Kraid

“Final night time operating with Jessie and one other buddy. One other crew swept in and took out me and our third, leaving Jesse to cover in some grass in a nook, retaining completely nonetheless, ready for them to go away whereas they have been instantly above him. After a couple of minutes, they left, and we received out.” – Kam

“I’m taking part in with two buds, we’ve got been orbiting one other crew all match. Lastly run into them, they outgun us, and my one buddy runs away, waits for them to cease chasing them, then circled and revived us each. Cowards exfil motherfucker.” – Gita