Bungie's pre Halo FPS Classic Marathon Infinity has just been released on Steam for free. This means you can play the entire Marathon Trilogy for nothing.

Steam has just released the old-school FPS Classic Marathon Infinity. This means you can play all three Classic Marathon titles for free.

Marathon Infinity, originally released in 1996 without the word "Classic" in its title, was the largest and last game in Bungie’s pre-Halo series of FPS games. The "Blood Tides of Lh’owon" campaign was available in either a solo or cooperative mode. It included 20 levels with new enemies and weapons.

The release of Classic Marathon Infinity marks the end of Aleph One Developers’ project to bring the Marathon Trilogy on Steam. The team's name is derived from the open source engine developed by the community based on the Marathon 2 source code, which Bungie provided for free before Microsoft purchased the company at the turn to the millennium. It's similar to what The Force Engine had done for Star Wars Dark Forces before Nightdive released its own official remaster of Lucasarts' classic.

The Aleph One Team has rebuilt all three Marathon games using this homebrew engine and released them over the course of the year (which also happens to be Marathon's 30th Anniversary). The rebuilt version of the game was released on Steam in May. Classic Marathon 2 was released last month.

Bungie has given its full approval to this, saying back in March that "We are very supportive of the Marathon Community and Aleph One’s dedication to bring the original Marathon on PC, Linux, Mac, and for everyone to enjoy, with cross-platform multiplayer available." This is a true homage to the original game!

Alongside simply making the games run on PC, the Aleph One rebuilds also provide optional support for widescreen HUDs, 3D filtering/perspective, positional audio, and 60+fps interpolation. Steam's Infinity page wryly remarks, "Just in case it is too authentic".

The Marathon Games were originally released on Mac, and I have a blind spot when it comes to my FPS knowledge. The Steam release is the first official release of the trilogy on Windows. It's important to note that the three games have all been available on the Aleph One site for some time. If you've played all three games but still want more, the site has a variety of community-made scenarios.

Marathon will (probably) not be the last time we hear about it, even though the Aleph One project is finished. Bungie is working on a reimagined version of the Marathon series as a PvP extractor shooter. The game was originally planned to be released this year. However, both Bungie and the game have had a turbulent period of late. Joe Ziegler, a former Valorant director of games, reportedly took over the Marathon project.

In July, Bungie announced the layoff of 220 employees following the launch Destiny 2: The Final Shape. Former employees called for Parsons to resign. If this upheaval doesn't affect Bungie's new Marathon Project, then the game will launch in 2025.