Marathon first user reviews are in - and the results may surprise you

Following a Server Slam open preview weekend, where players could check out the game for free across available platforms, Bungie's extraction shooter Marathon has now fully released.

The first user reviews are in and the results may surprise you.

Marathon is a first-person sci-fi extraction shooter from the developers of Halo and Destiny focusing on PvPvE (player versus player versus environment) gameplay.

When the Server Slam started on 26 February, there was a lot of hate for it in the comments of those streaming gameplay.

The title released worldwide on 5 March at 6pm GMT (1pm ET / 10am PT) when players were able to play the full Marathon game for the very first time.

Despite the initial frosty reception, if early reviews from these players are anything to go by, Marathon is going down really well and seems to be building quite a dedicated fanbase.

Marathon is going down very well among those who have already bought the full release / Bungie

The gaming community uses Steam player counts to gauge interest and popularity in games, even though these games are also usually available on other platforms and counts are not usually shared elsewhere.

According to Steam charts, Marathon has peaked at 88,337 concurrent players since it launched and the ratings these players have given the game so far have been glowing.

At the time of writing, Marathon has a score of 4.71 out of five based on 3.1k reviews, has an average rating of 4.5 stars across its editions on Xbox and has a 'very positive' rating on Steam, with 91 per cent of more than 5,300 reviews being positive.

That's pretty impressive for a game that's been getting a lot of hate online...

Having been hands-on with Marathon during the Server Slam, with plans to dive into the full release, I can certainly see why the game has been received so well at launch.

I've had a great time with it so far and can't wait to see what the deadly planet of Tau Ceti has in store for me going forward.

Marathon is out now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• I've played Marathon Server Slam - there are two things I wish I knew before starting
• Marathon: Bungie's three-word response to Dr Disrespect's 'partner' post

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