Im really only writing this for two reasons. 

1. because i've heard Bungie has been very open to feedback from the community which truly is a gem in modern times.
2. I really care about Marathon, and have been super interested and hyped ever since the teaser trailer back in 2023. 

About two years ago, Bungie opened my mind to the universe of Marathon. I was blown away by the amazing artstyle which immedietly spoke to me like no other game's artstyle ever has. It had that same aesthetic as the "Into the abyss" part of the Titanfall 2 campaign if anyone has played that, but cranked to eleven. Then i read that it was going to be an extraction shooter about playing as a cybernetic mercenary, expressing yourself through your own personal runner kinda like in Destiny, but instead with this crazy cool artstyle to back it up. And having the possibility to potencially get memorialised for unlocking something to the whole playerbase. I fell in love, and had such high hopes for this game, but when i got the news that this was going to be a Hero shooter my hope kinda died. I wanna stay enthusiastic but I truly don't see a world where Marathon is going to be both an amazing game and a hero shooter. It might just be good or decent, but nothing revolutionary that can change the fps genre forever. Marathon with heroes to me just looks like they added an extraction mode to Apex legends, and if it looks like that to me, than so will it do to everyone else who hasn't been as hyped for this as i have. Even if it's way different.

Arguments:

In youtuber HiddenXperias video: https://youtu.be/VeFMbLXQ98c?si=BVcpy9Uq0Nep0xyY&t=633 at 10:35 He basically tells the viewer what the devs told him about the storytelling. Basically they said that the player gets to experience their own story with what happens to them in their own matches. But that simply isn't possible with heroes. Thats not my story, its Locus, or Void's or some other heroes story. Heroes will make everything less personal since even with some skins, you can't create your own character and it will be less immersive since you will fight against copies of yourself. You just cannot get that same immersive feeling playing as a hero compared to the likes of Destiny 2 where you design your avatar in and out. 

Customization is undebatably one of Bungies main strengths, and not implementing it into Marathon is nothing other than criminal. Bungies advanced costomization systems has always been an integral part of what makes their games stand out, and is one of the main reasons i started playing destiny which i now have 800 hours on.

The hero shooter blueprint is highly overused, and it won't make Marathon stand out, even with it's artstyle. So many games these days follow the same boring blueprint of choosing to have pre made characters instead of going the what once could be called "the bungie way" where the player can express themselves through their own character.

Solutions:

Either you keep the classes, but make their looks fully customizable, but maybe with some details still showing what type of class they are, like Hunters, Warlocks and Titans from Destiny. 

Or you could go the route where every runner originally builds from the same class, and you get to create your favoured playstyle through armor, cybernetics, and new biomata that you unlock after progressing. Like it having a sheild hand like Locus or glitch's arm cannon. But also being able to have Voids camo, and combining different class abilities. That would also make the build crafting a more unique experience, like a mix between Cyberpunk 2077 and Destiny.

Another worse solution would be that you can change the look of the heroes to the point that they're unrecognizable. It's an easier solution, but not a perfect one. 

We already got a masterpiece of a short film by Alberto Mielgo featuring our infamous heroes, which might make the average person think it's to late to switch away from heroes, but thats not true. They can still be implimented into the game in many ways.

They could become major npcs for quests, and if you don't have anyone to play with, you could use them as AI teammates that you can command like in Ghost recon.

Im kinda just brainstorming here but i think my ideas are pretty solid + I don't wanna come with only complaints. I want Marathon to be a perfect game that is both immersive and competative. If im right, then this game has been in development for almost eight years. Thats half of my life spent on making a video game, which i just can't get my head around. So it would be a real shame to see eight years get wasted on something that is just alright, or atleast had way more potencial than the final result. I don't wanna sound like some grumpy old timer, but this new wave of hero/operator shooters is not it, and the market is yearning for a breath of fresh air. And Marathon in it's current state is not a breath of fresh air.

Doing this would of course probably mean that the developers need more time, but it's absolutely worth it. In the end an amazing game is better than a decent one. And a game should be amazing after you've put so much blood sweat and tears into it. Please make Marathon great, Please do what the community wants, and please give back our beloved character customization.