Yossarian, did anyone tell you that you are, in addition to being a great guy, a genius?
: I think another major factor that is either equal or second to this is the
: fact that in Marathon, there's nowhere else to go. You basically start
: with your back to the wall; the ship is infested, unorganized, and you're
: poorly armed. But unlike M2 where you have the expanse of a planet and
: different ships, and MI where you have separate realities and times to
: jump to and from. In M1, we have only the Marathon, and, for a few
: exciting levels, the Pfhor ship.
: While on Marathon, there is nowhere to go. Psychologicaly we know that the
: levels are "closed" and we cannot go beyond the map, but we also
: know that beyond the level there is only the rest of the spaceship, it is
: an island if you will. From this, the feeling of claustrophobia we get
: while playing the game is not only visual as we run through dark halls,
: but psychological as well. This dual-layer of claustrophobia works to
: amplify the terror we'd feel aboard the ship. This is the terror of having
: nowhere to run, understanding the reality that victory is the only path
: for survival. Take also into consideration that we cannot even control
: where we are moved within the Marathon, and the feeling of powerlessness
: is even stronger.
: When we sojourn to the Pfhor vessel its out of the frying pan and into the
: fire. The environment is not only closed and strange, but there are two
: additional factors that, to me, caused a jump on the ol' adrenaline meter:
: First, the environment is not only hostile, but unfamiliarly hostile; we
: are given the psychological experience of being in the enemy's own den.
: This stirs the innate instincts within us for as animals we know that
: others defend their own territory with as much or more zeal than they
: attack. We also know/sense/feel that because we are in their territory,
: we're closer to all of them, they are now more than a shuttle trip away
: from us, they're all around us and cannot be contained.
: Second, we are cut off from our own. Even though in M1 the BOBs don't assist,
: we are cut off from them and have no way of communicating iwth our AI's.
: In the Pfhor ship we are alone, surrounded, and uninstructed.
: And that is why I think it is such an affecting game, it gets your whole mind
: involved, from the amygdala to the cerebellum, it is all engrossing.
: This is not to say M2 or MI were without these aspects, they were very much
: present, just different emotions in different combinations, and I think M1
: stays especially because it kept this same grating tone throughout the
: game. In the others the mood could switch not only from level to level but
: actually within a single level. Consider Charon Doesn't Make Change in M2:
: you go from the relative comfort of the surface where you can dance with
: Fl'ickta to the cramped confines of caves dark and filled with baddies.
: So in conlusion, I'd say M1 was more potent in its effect, even if that
: effect was more or less monotone, whereas the sequels take you through a
: series of moodswings within levels and from level to level. making them
: richer overall but lacking an dominant "feel".
: Does this make any sense?
: Yossarian.
