Beforehand inactive laptop terminals in Bungie’s newly launched extraction shooter have now turned on, and somebody is speaking to gamers. And it is likely to be crucial character in the whole Marathon franchise, voiced by one in all gaming’s largest names.
When Marathon launched on Thursday, you would discover switched-off laptop terminals that appeared lots like those present in Bungie’s authentic traditional Marathon trilogy launched again within the ’90s. Again within the day, these terminals offered textual content logs that advised the story of Marathon. They typically took the type of completely different AI chatting with the participant or offering new missions. Most frequently, gamers communicated with the psychotic however clever AI Durandal, the OG trilogy’s fundamental villain (?), who famously wished to flee the inevitable collapse of the universe in order to turn out to be immortal. Abruptly, the terminals are on-line, and it appears Durandal is chatting with gamers who discover them.
On March 6, slightly over 24 hours after Bungie launched Marathon on consoles and PC, a brand new stage was unlocked for gamers stage 12 and as much as discover and loot. However round this identical time, gamers found that the classic-looking terminals had been now lively. These terminals can present areas on the map, and when you head to the indicated spot, you’ll discover one other traditional terminal and listen to a voice.
👀 Durandal #Marathon
Credit score: __meh pic.twitter.com/2BXVaTHiec
— Marathon Codec (@MarathonCodec) March 6, 2026
This positive seems like Ben Starr, who voiced the “narrator” in final 12 months’s Marathon CG brief. A whole lot of followers speculated on the time that Ben Starr was truly voicing Durandal. There was even a touch in direction of that within the credit. Now, it seems like Starr’s “narrator” is again and speaking to gamers by way of terminals in Marathon. However I’d guess all my shields in my Marathon vault that the voice heard in movies shared on-line by gamers is none apart from Durandal.
What does this imply? Properly, I’m unsure. I’m not a Marathon lore knowledgeable in any respect. Nonetheless, the truth that Durandal is seemingly taunting gamers through terminals that additionally appear to be related to an ARG involving Marathon‘s upcoming “endgame” stage, Cryo Archive, makes me assume this isn’t the final we’ve heard from the maniac AI. Actually, I guess as Bungie continues to replace Marathon and add extra content material, we’ll be listening to extra from Durandal and different traditional Marathon trilogy characters. Maybe in the future I’ll get to shoot a S’pht within the face once more?
