Marathon Phoenix mod

Anonymous sources (reliable as they infamously are!) have reported Bungie is working on a revival in the Marathon series. It'll be the first Marathon game in decades if true and would mark a return to their roots for Bungie, seeing as Marathon predates even Halo in the company's gaming lineage. Rumours like this can turn out to be true (to everyone's pleasure), or false (to everyone's disdain), but we'll soften the blow just in case with these five solid mods for the Marathon games!

Marathon: Evil

By The Evil Group

Remember when you were a child, there was something about the dark that just struck you with pure terror? But you grew out of this fear, knowing that nothing really was there? Things have changed. Everyone was wrong. Monsters do exist. Marathon has a surprising number of horror-oriented mods and map packs that expand on the premise of a lone ranger on a ship full of creatures, and given the classic presentation of the games it fits handily into both fear of the unknown and the limited medium in which old horror experiences often excel.

Marathon Phoenix

By RyokoTK

A 35-level single player major conversion, Marathon: Phoenix is difficult and action-packed. Marathon: Phoenix features a full arsenal of new, powerful weapons, and more threatening enemies than you could ever want. From 1.3 onwards, the mod also has stats support for Lhowon.org's solo/coop leaderboards, and a few bonus levels from an unfinished project appended to the end of the campaign.

Tempus Irae

By Nardo

In Tempus Irae the player travels back in time... to Renaissance Italy. Tempus Irae for Aleph One features hi-res textures and stunning level architecture. The mod features almost as many new textures as the original three Marathon games combined, with a broad spread of additional levels for thirty seven new levels in total - even an experienced Marathon fan will be eating well with this one!

Marathon Red

By Ian McConville

An intense, 32-level near-total conversion. A solo scenario with a spooky vibe, a very Aliens-like feel to it. Add to that the incredible physics tricks performed throughout - no other scenario has let you change sides completely, halfway through a scenario. It's challenging, and initially, a little vague in its story (though it clears up towards the end), but this one fits nicely into an October gaming session with a freaky atmosphere!

Paradise Lost XV

By RyokoTK

Paradise Lost includes 40 maps, with a focus on high-quality aesthetic while maintaining good, enjoyable gameplay. Releasing in 2010, the map pack includes plenty of classic design for fans whilst pushing forwards a new graphical style for other mappers to take a crack at matching. Perhaps not as groundbreaking as other entries here, but sometimes all you need is peak design pushed to the forefront, and that's Paradise Lost XV.

90s Marathoning

Bungie was purchased by Sony recently, no doubt because of their success moving from the seminal Halo games to their own live-service franchise Destiny and continuing its growth even without support from a larger company in the form of Activision. Live service is where it's at these days and Sony are looking to ship a number of new games along these lines in the next few years, including - supposedly - a revival of the Marathon franchise in an Escape From Tarkov-like experience, in a reasonably bold move back into Bungie's roots as a company.

Feeling Free

Bungie has made clear that Destiny is not the only feather in its cap (the only one we publicly know of, though), and that they have plans to launch other games this decade. It remains to be seen if this rumour is just that - wishful thinking on behalf of people who have largely been starved of new Marathon content for years - or a creative retooling of a dormant IP. This is the era of franchise revivals, though, and we live in hope that Marathon will be in our libraries once again.