: Even in Halo, everyone is basically the same age. The lack of children (and
: elderly to a lesser extent) has always bothered me in modern games. And I
: was really hoping to see civilians in Halo 2, but it seems as if every
: human still living is in the marine corps. I guess you have to be in shape
: and armed to survive the invasion long enough to appear in the game. But
: at least some corpses or something would have been nice (that sounds odd,
: doesn't it?). But honestly, the lack bothers me less than in some other
: games.
In Halo you're basically only ever seeing military operations, so all the humans you see would be marines. Though you're right about corpses. In Marathon it's just engine limitations, although I suppose a case could be made that most families would live on the colony by the time the Pfhor attack, and the Marathon itself would only be a place of employment. If all the women are down on the surface making babies as fast as they can (which you could imagine in a harsh frontier situation like this), it would even explain why there are only men on board the ship. Hell, 300 years of interbreeding amongst a relatively small multiracial population would even explain the ambiguous skin tones...
: Ever since the series ended, I've wanted them to remake Marathon. But at this
: point it's probably a bad idea. Bungie seems like the kind of company that
: should keep moving forward, whereas Id is the kind of company that has
: been remaking the same game for their entire existence.
: Although a tactical sim based in the Marathon universe could be pretty cool.
That's how Halo began. A Myth-like game set in the distant future of the Marathon universe. I think there's some videos or screenshots of those early concept builds somewhere...