equally as important as halo;
not even half as recognized
if you asked me to pick between playing combat evolved or marathon, my answer would really depend on the day. there's so much bungie got right so early into their existence. gunplay, level design and most especially storytelling were always on lock
oh and get this - good melee combat in a boomer shooter. you thought it to be impossible (maybe save for going berserk in doom) but you'd be sorely mistaken. punching aliens is either woefully ineffective or a reliable way to make them fucking explode depending on your forward momentum. how fucking cool is that? why doesn't every game have this?
and fuck, while we're on the topic of whys: marathon durandal and infinity are case-in-point examples on why there's no excuse to neglect storytelling even in a first person shooter. i'm talking about some of the best narratives in gaming. not just within the genre - that's like being the sharpest butter knife. this is real shit
not to even mention all the firsts: grenade jumps, free-aim and full mouselook, strong narrative focus in a shooter, friendly npcs - the list goes on and half-life's been wrongfully credited for way too many of them. but you know what? none of that even matters. these games are simply fucking awesome and you should play them regardless of their historical significance
and if you're not into shooters but still happen to be curious, there's a website that faithfully documents the entire narrative. the only thing you'll be missing out on is some quality gunplay
the entire marathon trilogy is now playable on steam for free thanks to the aleph one devs. you can also download the aleph one engine as well as many user-made custom scenarios and mods here
