Bounding Into Comics: Trading in the ‘narrative-based first-person shooter’ identity of its predecessors for one more akin to a ‘multiplayer extraction shooter’, the new Marathon game will put players into the role of ‘Runners’, cyber-augmented humans who use their unique upgrades to raid the ruins of the Tau Ceti IV colony on behalf of the highest bigger, and task them with fighting against both other Runners and the Pfhor forces over resources and territory.

However, while both the Marathon series and Bungie’s later Halo rhyme in a myriad of ways, including but not limited to their shared focus on the dangers of AI and their respective antagonists multi-species force of interstellar alien conquerors who operate on a strict subjugation-and-hierarchy system (an unsurprising fact given both series came from the relatively same development teams), it seems the former’s upcoming entry will differentiate itself from the Master Chief’s adventures in a major way: By going out of its way to cut down on its players’ exposure to online multiplayer toxicity.

“When it comes to prox chat, I don’t think we’re against the experience of it, to be fair,” explained director Joe Zigler to PCGamer following the game’s full trailer reveal on April 2nd. “I think the challenge is how to make sure we’re creating a safe environment for players inside of that space.”

“I don’t think anyone really has a good solution to that just yet.” he added. “Because we’re so dedicated to making sure that we’re creating a safe space where we don’t have players just flaming each other or doing terrible things to one another, I think we’re not ready to invest in prox chat until we have a solution.”

Drawing his thoughts on the subject to a close, Ziegler concluded, “I think that’s where we stand right now. Like, if it was magical and we could somehow come up with that solution, I think we totally would do it. But right now, it is a challenge that many companies are trying to figure out.”