Just as AAA studios are cutting budgets left, right and centre, Bungie's gone and broken the mold. It brought in an Oscar-winning director for its Marathon reveal cinematic, and it looks incredible.
Gamers have been divided over the vibrant colours and glitchy Wipeout-influenced art style of Bungie's new Marathon game. The verdict on the new reveal cinematic short should be less contentious. Calling it a 'reveal cinematic short' is really underselling it. This is a mini sci-fi movie with stunning animation, an intimate narrative – and, yes, a lot of killing.
The eight-minute animation was reserved as the final for Bungie's Marathon gameplay reveal stream. It sets the scene for the game's background as characters scavenge for loot on the abandoned colony of Tau Ceti IV and prepares us for what looks like a brutal extraction hero shooter game.
The cinematic was written and directed by the Spanish director Alberto Mielgo, who won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar for The Windshield Wiper in 2021. He's known for his work as art director on Disney's Tron: Uprising and for directing the animated short The Witness in Netflix's Love, Death & Robots anthology.
Alberto's style is visible in the blend of photorealism and abstraction, vibrant colors, clean light and the rich detail. It does feel like it could be an episode of Love, Death and Robots. There's a touch of Cronenberg in the piece, which becomes genuinely moving at times as well as offering plenty of shocks and sensory overload.
The game's premise is that runners transfer their consciousnesses into cybernetic 3D bodies to be dropped onto Tau Ceti IV. Most seem to meet quick and vivid ends, after which their psyche returns to their host body. They are then shown objects of emotional importance to anchor them to their actual bodies.
Some fans were were worried about the new Marathon game being a hero shooter (and looking very different from the originals) are now saying they're happy to at least get this piece of art, regardless of how the game turns out, and I'm not the only one suggesting it deserves to be a full sci-fi series.
"Marathon can end up being a hot piece of garbage that dies within a month after release but hopefully this lives on and gets talked about, one of the best visual experiences I've had in my life," one person commented on YouTube. "Sony picked the wrong game for a Secret Level episode," another person suggests.
See the Marathon gameplay trailer below.
The new Marathon will be released on 23 September 2025. You can wishlist it on Steam.
For more gaming news, check out Netflix's real Thronglets game from Black Mirror. Game developers might want to check out Epic Games' tutorials on switching from Unity to Unreal Engine 5.
