: Eh, I think M1 was a bit higher on the 'asskickingness' scale IMO.
No argument there. Each game had its strengths and weaknesses. M1 was by far the scariest and had the best action overall, even if the levels were by necessity small compared to those allowed by the M2/I engine. The story in M1 was well-developed and the revelations on backstory were supurb. The problem with M1 was its plausability - the levels themselves were incredibly contrived. I remember an old thread that was titled something like, 'what kind of chemical-dependent freak designed the Marathon?' Where M2 really shown was with its eye candy and its continued well-developed story. Where M1 had terminals with UESC backstory, M2 had S'pht backstory. M2 lacked the creepy dark corridors of M1 and its wide-open spaces made gameplay quite a bit easier for the experienced 'thoner. M2 can be completed in a single sitting if the player is determined so, in that way, it's a bit disappointing. But the incredible eye candy, even with the garish textures, makes up for most of this.
Infinity's achilles heel is its twisted plot line. Gameplay is comparable to M2, which shouldn't be surprising given the use of a nearly unchanged game engine. The textures have been toned down a bit to something more reasonable, but they still made the Pfhor ships and installations seem too comfortable - too human. Nothing can compare with the original M1 Pfhor texture set - it's totally alian and creepy, and dark. I tend to agree with Andrew Nagy - Infinity was too haphazard in its construction and there were too many loose ends and inconsistencies. Bungie undoubtedly had a limited budget and timeline and I'm sure many of the designers would have liked to have done more with it. Better clairty on how the levels fit together would have helped a lot. For example, did the player just give up after Acme Station, seeing that it would lead to the same dead end as in M2, or did he actually continue through that timeline until the W'rkncacnter was released, allowing hime to once again go back in time and start over? A lot of the weapons discrepancies and the like could have probably been resolved had the player done the latter, and this is what the Marathon Nonlinear project was to be all about. Call it M4 if you wish, or Infinity 1.1, but I think it would be the ultimate kick-ass Marathon game if a few people would be willning to help stitch it together.
