The official Bungie Twitter account has just revealed that Aleph One, Marathon’s open-source engine community, has released Classic Marathon to play on Steam completely free of charge. If you have a little over 65 MB of free storage on your PC, you too can now enjoy one of the best and most elusive classic FPS titles of all time.
Readers should know this is not an official Bungie release, but it does have Bungie’s seal of approval. It’s also a port of the best version of Marathon currently out there.
What’s new in Steam’s release of Marathon
Though this is a surprise release, it’s already a proven title. The quality-of-life updates brought by Aleph One’s Classic Marathon are already known, as it’s a port of an already existing fan re-tinkering of Marathon. You can expect to find the following improvements:
- Widescreen support
- Modernized UI and UX
- Lua scripting support
- Third-party modding
- Online Multiplayer
- OpenGL support
Why Marathon on Steam is a big deal
While FPS fans have had DOOM on PC ever since it came out, the Marathon series, one of the genre’s best early outings, was only available for Mac owners during most of its lifetime. Even though Marathon was later ported to the Xbox Live Arcade, it remained unplayable on PC in any quasi-official capacity until now. If you enjoy classic FPS games, Halo, and Destiny, giving Marathon a try might prove a great trip back into the roots of this great genre.
An official new take on Marathon as an extraction shooter is also in the works, though Bungie has yet to announce a release date. The remainder of the Marathon trilogy will also make its way to Valve’s platform at an undisclosed date.
