Marathon Durandal on 360

No wonder Halo is so comfy. Worth: $10
based on retail game, Xbox Live Arcade

Bloodthirsty aliens, devastated spaceships, self-aware AI constructs, and guns, lots of guns. Sound familiar? If it sounds like Halo it's because I'm describing Halo's ancestor, Marathon.

This game blew my mind when I played it back in the 90's. You could aim up! Or down! You got to use weird alien guns, and some awesome human ones like dual-wielded sawed-off double-barreled shotguns. If our guys at D-Day had these shotguns the war would have been over by lunchtime.

Plus, it had a cool sci-fi space story. Granted, it's pretty obtuse, but these were simpler times when you'd read reams of text to help you comprehend the video mayhem around you. You were also willing to deal with unbelievably complicated maps like this:


It came from the past.
But how does it play now? To mangle a Buddhist saying, "Reality is perceived, not experienced." It's a matter of how old you are. If you never knew a world without VCRs, you're too young and it'll look like crap to you. If you're a crotchety old windbag like me, however, you'll be able to appreciate the huge milestone this game represented back in the day. The graphics have not aged well, but I like them for sentimental reasons. The gameplay has aged _very_ well, and it translates to the 360 controller with sublime perfection.

And created our future.
The Gamer Gal has watched me play a lot of Halo. She was watching me play Marathon and noticed many similarities, including the collection of alien races, the profusion of gun choices, and the variety of settings. Some of the dialogue is taken verbatim ("They're everywhere!"). The Fusion Pistol is the Plasma Pistol, complete with charged-up-big-blast. There are heavily-armored aliens with shoulder-mounted cannons called Hunters. Your armor is Mjolnir armor, like the Master Chief's. The first Halo's control room is a giant Marathon logo. "Durandal" and "Cortana" are names of famous swords from the time of Charlemagne. Lots of things like this.

Some things were obviously old-school, prompting the following from the Gamer Gal, "Wow, when was the last time we saw lava in one of your games?"

The connections are clear.
By the time I finished this game, I was a huge fan all over again. It's a great warm-up for me as I await Halo 3. A caveat: it's wayyy hard. Play it on Easy unless you've got nothing to do until your Dominatrix comes back from the cleaners.