I'd like to call it potentially the start of a new zeitgeist in pertinent industries pertaining this but that wouldn't be semantically correct. Hard for me to pinpoint the novelty of the game's art direction. I would say it would be the color use because the futuristic tech design is certainly not new in a sense we've seen it in lots of media hitherto. However, the main question regarding novelty here is whether there's a significant precedent. Nevertheless, it does feel fresh and feels reminiscent of another piece of design but I can't put my finger on it. What are y'alls thoughts?
The visual design seems generic but the unique color aspect makes it feel refreshing.
It is giving off a similar if not the same vibe of novelty when I first encountered Elysium's art direction but the similarity here is to a limited extent.
Somehow reminded me of this game from 2011:
Here's a piece of design someone made that I have saved, that fits the game's aesthetic.
I'm also a fan of Marathon's art direction. Bungie's art department has always nailed it. My only concern though is how the game's art direction will look post launch, assuming it's live-service game. They have a really strong and great foundation here, but I find that a lot of live-service games struggle to maintain consistent art direction after a long enough time. In trying to keep pace, it feels like consistent art direction ends up falling to the wayside at one point or another. Not every live-service game, of course, but there's a pattern. For example, in the case of another Bungie game, Destiny's art direction has actually been pretty great, even after 10 years. But after 10 years of expansions and updates, they're constantly expanding the world, and slowly and incrementally, redefining what "Destiny art direction" means and looks like. The Destiny of 2014 looks very different to the Destiny of today (which is to be expected, I'm just sayin that's the nature of live-service games). Not to mention, who knows how long it'll take until Marathon's microtransaction store also gets crossover outfits with Fortnite and Star Wars lol.
I'm maybe (probably) (definitely) being a little bit too critical or speculative, but it's just my thoughts. Marathon does look very cool, and I'm interested to try it out. The aesthetic they got going on is really cool, but I'm most interested to see how they bring it out of the trailers and concept art and translate it into the real game. I guess we'll just have to wait and see :)
I’ve been following the game since its announcement trailer used an unreleased SebastiAn remix of a Justice song. Between that and the general art direction combining really interesting simple shapes with those color palettes and the unique markings/decals on the runners + weapons, it feels like it was built to target me LOL.
I’ve been an avid Destiny/Destiny 2 player since right before House of Wolves dropped. As much as I love both games and have enjoyed the gameplay up to the present day, I definitely lament the loss/change in art direction. I’m sure a chunk of that is just the result of staff turnover, but the increasing amounts of crossovers is something I’m very much not a fan of. I don’t play Destiny to see Star Wars visual elements for example. Not that there’s anything wrong with Star Wars, but I think watering down the strong visual identity of a game with tons of crossovers just to chase what’s been making money for Fortnite/CoD is pretty contemptible and borderline insulting to the intellect of the player.
I have slightly higher hopes with Marathon since its visual identity is even stronger and I doubt it will make Destiny levels of money, but I could very easily be wrong. Bungie has always been great in regards to gunplay in their games so I’ve got confidence in that element of the gameplay at least.
Regardless, all the influences they list that contribute to the look of “Graphic Realism” (Designers Republic and Mirrors Edge for example) means there will be plenty for me to learn from even if it ends up decaying visually overtime or the gameplay is lackluster.
Marathon gameplay reveal was today. Don't really have any interesting thoughts to share about it (besides, that's not really the point of this thread lol).
However, I just wanted to bring some attention to this reveal cinematic they uploaded today too, it's directed by Alberto Mielgo (Most known for his work on Love, Death, and Robots). And it's like, actually really, really good lol. To me, it seems that general consensus online for Marathon rn is that the creative direction is really awesome, but the gameplay, not so much. And that's probably gonna be the prevailing talking point surrounding this game for the next who-knows-how-long. But! If you're gonna take away anything from the buzz surrounding Marathon rn, or at all interested, this short is def worth watching. It's just really cool, even as it's own standalone thing :)
