Marathon 2: Durandal

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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, Xbox 360 (XBLA)
Release date	Macintosh: NA November 24, 1995 PC: NA September 6, 1996 Xbox 360: NA August 1, 2007
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player Multiplayer (cooperative) Multiplayer (deathmatch)
Rating(s)	ESRB Mature (17+)
Input methods	Keyboard, mouse, Gamepad

Video games Portal

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 2008 is the only one released or announced for the Xbox 360.

[edit] Story

Seventeen years have passed since 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. Marathon 2 brings many elements to the game that can be considered staples of the series such as: a Lh'owon-native species known as F'lickta, the mention of an ancient and mysterious race of advanced aliens called the Jjaro, and a clan of S'pht that avoided enslavement by the Pfhor - the S'pht'Kr. At the climax of the game, the Security Officer activates Thoth, an ancient Jjaro AI. Thoth then contacts the S'Pht'Kr, who in turn destroy the Pfhor armada.

[edit] Chapters

One of the illustrations by Craig Mullins which open each chapter of the game. this is the opening scene of "ex cathedra", level 7

Marathon 2 in play

The game is divided into chapters, each consists of one or more levels.

• Lh'owon - The player is awoken from stasis by Durandal to help him access the Pfhor's computer network on Lh'owon and to explore a few locations.this chapter includes levels 1 through 3)
• Volunteers - Durandal's first ground attack against the Pfhor garrison fails, so he has the player flood their underground geothermal pumping station with lava.(level 4:What about bob?) Sick of all the humans aboard his ship, Durandal attempts to set up a human headquarters on Lh'owon. The humans run into some trouble from the Pfhor so the player is sent to help them.(levels 5 through 7)
• Garrison - Durandal has the player infect the Pfhor defense drones with a computer virus that causes them to turn against their masters.
• Citadel - The player is sent to the S'pht Citadel of Antiquity, the site of the final battle between the S'pht and the Pfhor. Here they search for more information about the lost eleventh S'pht clan, the S'pht'Kr. It is revealed that the Western Arm of the Pfhor Battle Group Seven is on their way to Lh'owon.(levels 9 through 11)
• Durandal - The Pfhor cripple Durandal's ship and force it to make a landing on Lh'owon's second moon, Y'loa. Durandal transports the player back up to the ship to help hold off the Pfhor. As the situation becomes worse Durandal asks the player to destroy his core logic centers so that "The damn Pfhor won't make a mockery of me like they did with Leela."
• Captured - The player has been captured by the Pfhor and is subsequently rescued by some humans.
• Blake - With Durandal gone the player is now under the command of Robert Blake, who was a mechanical engineer on Tau Ceti. The player reactivates a dormant Jjaro AI "Thoth" as per the last instructions from Durandal. In the process the human base is infiltrated by Pfhor simulacrum. These are designed to look like humans and are in reality walking bombs. The player is sent to deal with these.
• Simulacrums - The player loses contact with Blake as the Pfhor move in on the humans. In the absence of their previous masters the player falls under the control of the Jjaro AI.
• S'pht'Kr - Durandal returns along with the S'pht'Kr and they make a triumphant comeback against the Pfhor. The player has to fight alongside the S'pht'Kr and destroy the remaining Pfhor. In a last-ditch effort, the Pfhor use a weapon saved only for slave revolts. This weapon causes Lh'owon's sun to go in to an early nova. Durandal and the Security Officer jump out of Lh'owon before the Early Nova happens.

[edit] Multiplayer modes

Many of these modes reappeared in Halo (as well as many other subsequent FPS games).

• 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 (although it is now available in Aleph One).

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

[edit] 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, these were: lava, water, sewage and "Pfhor goo". Each type of liquid has a matching texture set and no level can have more than one type. Unlike the liquids in the original game which were little more than floors that rendered damage to the player, these liquids can be swum through. The liquids can also have tides and currents or be used to represent the vacuum of space. The lava and the "Pfhor goo" cause the player damage while going under; all the liquids cause the player to use their oxygen supply. The liquids form important parts of the game-play, as the player often has to swim through water or sewage, work out a way to raise the water level, or take a leap of faith through a harmful liquid such as the "Pfhor goo" to reach new sections of the level.

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.

[edit] Ports

Marathon 2 was ported with the first Marathon to the 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.

[edit] Xbox Live Arcade version

A comparison between the Mac OS and Xbox 360 versions.

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 ($10 USD),^[6] requires 138.5 MB of storage space,^[7] and was released on August 1st, 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]

[edit] Downloadable content

In 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]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Xbox.com Official Site (XBLA version)
• Marathon's Story: Lh'owon all the game's terminals and game information.
• Marathon 2: Durandal Spoiler Guide
• Marathon 2: Durandal at MobyGames
• http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/ Download this game for free for both Apple Macintosh and PC.
• Marathon_2 at Traxus Project, a Marathon wiki