Bungie’s Marathon was recently re-revealed ahead of a March 2026 release window and in addition to a number of new gameplay changes, the extraction shooter also looks surprisingly different from how it did during its 2025 alpha test. Whether that visual overhaul is good or not depends on who you ask. The glow-up has some fans more hyped than ever for the next multiplayer shooter from the makers of Halo and Destiny, but not everyone’s on board.
While the studio recently released new gameplay footage as part of a recent vidoc previewing the work that’s gone into the game since it was originally delayed, there have also been leaks of recent closed beta tests going around. Instead of shying away from how the game has visually evolved over the last six months, Bungie went ahead and released a brief before-and-after sizzle reel showing off the differences. The most notable shift is in the overall lighting, which is now much warmer with more dramatic shadows:
BEFORE // AFTER pic.twitter.com/YdthsI78nm
— Marathon (@MarathonTheGame) December 24, 2025
At first glance, it seems like there’s basically been another additional layer or two of visual depth and detail added to the visual presentation of each scene. It looks like the extra level of polish that you’d expect a game’s visuals to receive when going from alpha to the finished release, and which Bungie had already hinted at back when the game’s original open alpha test was taking place. The footage from those sessions was always a work-in-progress and supposed to be taken as such. The emphasis was more on having players react to the overall concept and moment-to-moment gameplay, all of which has been tweaked since its initially negative reception.
“Genuine question how did this change in only a few months this is gorgeous,” wrote Destiny streamer Protheon in response. “Yeah, that’s the stuff. Right into my veins please,” shared Skarrow9, another Destiny content creator. Prospective players were also impressed. “Like, come on, dude. This shit looks so good. We STILL got people who thought the alpha was gonna be the final product, too. I can’t fucking wait,” wrote X user EndlessGL.
Not everyone’s on board, however. One of the major selling points of Marathon is its “Graphic Realism” art style that makes it look a bit like an early 2000s Nike ad by way of Ghost in the Shell. A lot of the the original Marathon alpha footage looked a bit hazy and unfinished, but it was also enveloped in some more striking color palette contrasts; hyper-saturated pinks and neon yellows pop among the cold steely blues and latex blacks.
Went from kinda unique looking to “Focus M, Bowser’s castle is just up ahead” https://t.co/0SqZpOCfgB
— SSSS.ayah (@SayaDoesStuff) December 25, 2025
The shift to more conventional, warmer lighting has some dunking on the new Marathon look as a generic fan reshade mod. “They replaced the cool minimalist environment art and deliberate use of color with generic ue5 rtx shadows fucking whyyyyyyyy,” wrote one person. “Went from kinda unique looking to ‘Focus M, Bowser’s castle is just up ahead,’” wrote another. The post, with over 54,000 likes, was referencing a recent viral parody of what Super Mario Bros. would look and sound like as a conventional AAA blockbuster.
Marathon doesn’t need to win over folks like this to succeed, and many fans were asking Bungie for a grittier, more realistic look to the extraction shooter while it was being tweaked during the recent delay. They’ll no doubt be satisfied by how the game’s overall visual presentation is shaping up. Bungie, and Marathon in particular, have also become popular to hate on for various online contingents who don’t actually have any personal stake in the game succeeding or any apparent interest in actually playing it. So it’s easy to brush off any nitpicking as just more online noise.
But I’ll be curious to see just how much the striking imagery around Marathon‘s original reveal can survive the messy road to actually shipping it. Senior art director Joseph Cross, who played a central role in helping define the visual language of the game, recently left the studio just months ahead of its new release date. “I’m super proud of the project and what the team accomplished over the last six years,” he told Kotaku earlier this month.
