We featured this a while back in our Retro FPS Freeware lineup, but sometimes an update is worth featuring, especally one as momentous as this. A great many years ago, a small company called Bungie (heard of them?) made the Marathon trilogy. Three heavily story-driven FPS’s that were years ahead of their time. Some time later, Bungie were kind enough to release both the game content and the engine source-code to their fans. Today, the Aleph One project has finally come to its peak. In conjunction with Freeverse, the folks who updated Marathon 2 into ‘HD’ for Xbox Live Arcade, the trilogy has finally been updated fully to modern spec.

Putting you in the reluctant boots of a Mjolnir IV-class cyborg soldier (sound familiar?), you’re meant to be stationed as a guard aboard the colony ship Marathon, on its long trip across space to colonize yet another world for the burgeoning human empire. When the ship finds itself under siege by an alien force, the three shipboard AI constructs start thinking outside the box, and – each with their own agenda – start teleporting you all over the place with various missions to complete. It’s not exactly like you can say no, what with the everpresent threat of the next teleport being outside the ship.

And thus begins one of the more ambitious stories in action game history. Reams of text are involved, with the AI’s themselves communicating  with you at great length via computer terminals hidden around the various facilities you’ve been sent to wreck. The third and final game in the series – Marathon Infinity – reaching mind-bending levels of pandimensional cosmic weirdness as realities collide and personalities fracture. On top of this, if three full games isn’t enough for you, then the Aleph One site links to six highly recommend extra scenarios, each adding their own new enemies, weapons and more. Rubicon X, in particular, is hailed by many as the unofficial fourth game in the series, following on from Infinity.

This is a real ‘no muss, no fuss’ install. Download for Windows, Mac or Linux, unpack and play. Marathon 2 now includes all the enhancements from the excellent XBLA update, and the three games are all configured for standard modern FPS controls off the bat, although if anything isn’t to your liking, it’s all fully configurable. If you’ve ever wanted to get your teeth into one of the first major FPS franchises, and even see the genesis of the megafranchise that is Halo, now is the time.

[Marathon Trilogy: Aleph One]

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