Now that Bungie has officially unveiled Marathon, revealing to the world gameplay from its upcoming PVP-centric extraction shooter, fans can look forward to actually playing it for the first time ahead of its release.
Marathon is due out this September for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. However, as a live-service game, Bungie is seeking community feedback while simultaneously testing the servers to ensure they can handle the load.
To do so, Bungie will be hosting a Closed Alpha Test for Marathon this month. The alpha will run from Wednesday, April 23 until Sunday, May 4th and Bungie is giving players in North America and Canada (ages 18 and up) a chance to join.
To sign up, you simply have to head to the Marathon Discord and agree to the rules. You'll be prompted to type "/alpha" in the #alpha_access channel if you want to sign up for the Close Alpha Test. Once you do that, you'll be asked to sign in to Bungie.net and fill out the Closed Alpha Test sign-up survey. Then you'll have to connect a platform account to your Bungie account. The platform account you pick will be forever linked to this Bungie membership and save our Marathon data.
You will have to sign an NDA, which forbids you from streaming or sharing any videos or images from the Closed Alpha as well as discussing any of its content publicly.
Once you agree to all of that, you'll be asked to complete a survey "to help us optimize your Marathon Alpha experience." It asks pretty straightforward questions about your current gaming habits, including your preferred platform, experience with past Bungie games, and familiarity with other competitive PvP titles. Filling it out does not guarantee a spot in the alpha, though.
Invites to the Closed Alpha will be sent out both at the start of the test and continuously during the two-week period. If accepted, you'll receive an email.
The Closed Alpha Test is approximately 6GB in size.These are the specs for PC:
- Processor: Intel Core i5-6600 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4 GB) / AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (4 GB) / Intel Arc A580 (8 GB)
- Video Memory (VRAM): 4 GB
- DirectX: DirectX 12 with Feature Level 12_1 support
- Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
Marathon is a PvP-focused extraction shooter in which you engage in scavenging hunts to find powerful relics, equipment, and gear. Teams are comprised of three Runners — Marathon's term for classes/heroes — with unique abilities and playstyles. The alpha will probably give you access to a small selection of Runners as well as a few contracts (quests that help improve your relationships with factions) and limited access to upgrading your character.
There will probably be other tests between now and when Marathon launches later this year, so don't worry if you miss out on this initial invite. Maraton launches on September 23rd for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.