I learned how to play Marathon, but ONI the Irish AI taught me how to feel about it

Date:
Sun, 26 Apr 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Description:
Marathon has a brutal onboarding experience. But thankfully, your onboard AI knows just the right things to say.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Engaging affirmation protocol, says the voice in my ear as I pull out a knife and head for the nearest loot stash. Assert: you will be forgotten. Assert: you take relief in that realization.

The tech minds in Silicon Valley dream of AI agents: independent systems designed to operate without oversight, booking holidays based on a single prompt, or making complex coffee orders to your tastes. Frappuccino, decaf, semi-skimmed, Lake Geneva in the summer.

But they could be dreaming bigger. In the first-person extraction shooter Marathon , one AI agent is an eerie, maternal silkworm who helped shepherd your consciousness into your very first shell. Another, Gaius, is committed
to ensuring humanitys survival by attending to food production as our species spreads throughout the stars. And then theres Vulcan, who is flanked by an enormous digital lion - its skin rippling like a CRT monitor doused in water. Vulcan has some important functions too, but thanks to the big cat, its a little difficult to concentrate on what they say. Article continues below You may like I hope Marathon's first sale gets more players to try the game it's the most I've been consumed by a competitive FPS in a long time Marathon is a different kind of extraction shooter, and it wont be for everyone Marathon review: Bungies extraction shooter lacks compelling reasons to play it (Image credit: Sone/Bungie) For the corporations that once had a stake in Tau Ceti
IV - the doomed settlement Earth had such high hopes for - the AI agents appear to be a link in the chain of plausible deniability. As a freelance runner, youre hired to carry out tasks to disrupt the operations of rival companies or investigate whether profit might still be salvaged from the planet below. No matter the damage you cause, however, you cant be easily traced back to your employer. Since you never speak to a human being
directly, the executives who benefit from your sabotage are protected. They are, to use a Marathon -appropriate term, behind a bubble shield. Your only regular companion in this lonely setup is ONI - the Irish-accented onboard navigational intelligence, who guides you through Marathon s earliest contracts and updates you on the status of your robotic body as you creep through the ruins of the colony. You may exfiltrate if the possibility presents itself, she says on your first meeting. But a far more likely
outcome is your expedient demise. The ONI way (Image credit: Sone/Bungie) ONI is a straight talker. Its her tone that steels you against the mechanical reality of playing Marathon : you will die, frequently, without grace or meaning. When several teams spawn into a map, nobodys success is guaranteed; by the end, every player might well lie in a pool of their own cerulean
blood, after clashing with each other or the robot battalions left behind by the Unified Earth Space Council.

ONI routinely chimes in with a comment when you beam down to the surface at the beginning of a run. Neurologics optimised, she might say. Shell primed
for exploration and violence. Pay attention, and youll find she delivers practical pointers, advising caution and shrewd risk assessment. Is there any better extraction shooter advice than to calculate your strategic response to threats based on your run objectives? Get daily insight, inspiration and
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This, uniquely among the competitive FPS genres, is the one where combat is not a given - and not necessarily the wisest course. Survival in Marathon is often about deciding when to let a team pass, knowing youre already too battered to pull off an ambush, or loaded down with too many valuables to
take on the risk of a chaotic gunfight. Not for nothing does ONI recommend moderate ego detachment during your runs. Pride comes before a fall. Though I wish I hadnt phrased it quite like that. Now Im thinking about the digital lion again.

At the galaxy brain level, ONI offers a new perspective on Marathon, and perhaps failure in general. The orientation process of playing Marathon lasts for at least 20 hours, I would argue. During that time, youre still wrapping your head around the aural clues that fill the air on Tau Ceti; learning to distinguish the hi-NRG rattle of turret fire from the staccato splash of player fights. Before youve learned how to move unheard, youll give away your position without even knowing youve done so - picking up an innocuous data card, or rifling through a munitions crate.

Its a magical period of death and dawning understanding; one in which youll need the philosophy of ONIs affirmation protocols in order to push forward. Whether its a reminder that every reset refines your potential or that previous failures may inform your strategy for future success, theres a kind of mathematicians optimism to be found in her words. A comfort after yet another squad wipe. What to read next Ive fallen for a game about fighting a deadly plague and its the perfect antidote to the industrys GenAI blight Why do they climb mountains? Why do they sacrifice everything and take so many risks just to climb a rock nobody asked them to? Cairns creative director unpacks the studio's survival-climber What people confessed to me about using ChatGPT surprised me Tough love (Image credit: Sone/Bungie) Sometimes, ONIs voice is simply used to instill tension and existential horror. Observation: the settlers here valued expansion over survival, she says when arriving in the diseased agricultural zone. They are now deceased. Shell warn you not to pay attention to any apparent screams you may hear, which - as she explains with the cold reasoning of a piece of code - cant sensibly be attributed to the long-dead. Reminder: Please refer to your operating manual if you experience repeated memory loss, she says, helpfully.

But at the galaxy brain level, ONI offers a new perspective on Marathon , and perhaps failure in general. Every time you die on Tau Ceti, your
consciousness is ejected from your shell and flung back up into orbit, ready to be installed in a new bit of humanoid hardware. ONI identifies the possibility that, through mechanical reincarnation, you may one day be freed from the terror that grips every new Marathon player. Reminder: death is not the end, she says. Let it sharpen your focus for the runs ahead. You rise again on bones spun new and fresh.

Its useful to view your in-game vault in the same way. Every wipe clears space, making room for future gear and helping you to reassess your priorities. The cobwebs are blasted away each time an opponent shreds you
with their LMG, and ultimately, thats good for both parties. It might not be enlightenment, exactly, but ONIs natterings have helped me to process the repeated losses that come inevitably in Marathon , and to embrace the beauty of Tau Cetis eternal opportunity.

Move without fear, as you have died before and will again, she says. Memories of pain have been purged. You are free to run. The best gaming consoles All the best consoles of this generation

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