Marathon 2: Durandal Review

Get the Marathon Trilogy FREE - alephone.lhowon.org/ (also now on Steam) Marathon 2 Fan Tracks - simplici7y.com/items/marathon-2-se-tracks THE LIST - docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_K3ziSxT9zcUUGCddS… This was supposed to come out a lot sooner, ended up sick after the lore journey.

Honestly, Durandal blasting action music over the ship's loudspeakers while you fight aliens sounds like the exact sort of thing he'd do.

I can't believe I fell for the Durandal voice actor until he said, "they're going to turn me into a crypto server!"

Regarding the shotgun, which appears to be both a double-barrel break action AND a lever action design, about which even Durandal in the game's manual says "I won’t waste my time trying to explain the loading mechanism to you -- your primitive mind could never grasp its complex nature," my favorite explanation I've heard proposed is this: the lever works a dynamo to generate electricity, like one of those emergency flashlights, which powers a receiver that lets Durandal just teleport new shells straight into the chambers from the ship.

Durandal carved the words "fatum iustum stultorum" into the inner moon which means "just the fate of fools.". Even in death, he's insulting tycho. Absolute legend.

It's important to remember that Craig Mullins was making that art digitally before Adobe Photoshop had retooled itself for digital painting and pen tablets had been developed. Marathon's art was a genuine pioneering effort.

Thanks so much for having me on as Durandal. He is unquestionably one of my favorite characters of all time. I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to voice him officially, I suppose I can dream, but whether or not that ever happens, voicing him here, that's still amazing and I am so happy about it. For those wondering, I originally came up with how to voice Durandal just kinda off the cuff when I streamed the trilogy last year, but it ended up fitting him so well as I went through the games and it is kinda now one of my pillar voice types that I love to do and branch off from for projects. If you listen to enough stuff I'm in, you'll find pieces of it. I have already had a lot of folks ask me about AM from I Have No Mouth, correct, that is one inspiration when I am (heh) voicing him. But actually, it wasn't the main one, in fact AM wasn't even who I was thinking of at all when I originally came up with how to voice him. My pull was a little more odd I suppose but just as fitting if not even moreso, it was Cephalon Simaris from Warframe. But I didn't really set out to do an "impression" of either character per se, rather kinda just voice Durandal as I want to voice him keeping those loose inspirations in my brain. A direct 1:1 of either character wouldn't really fit Durandal snugly enough, he's kinda his own thing, and Marathon kinda has its own tone that I think direct impressions of those characters would be a little off beat with. But both of those voices are legendary in my book, so comparisons to them are indeed a compliment. Thanks for all the kind words, folks. And thanks again Mandalore, it's genuinely an honor to work with you. And this is definitely the first time because I totally didn't voice the "I've got a bone to pick with you" line from Pathways Into Darkness, that voice line was totally just in that game all these years. Love and kisses, Gianni

Fun fact about the hero terminal, all of the heroes listed were known for being ridiculously angry . The Illiad literally starts with "tell me of the rage of Achilles", and Roland's most famous story is Orlando Furioso, literally "Roland's Fury". Gilgamesh is the only one listed who didn't die a raging, walking disaster, but even he had his episodes. So it's not only implying that you're a massive badass, it's that you're an angry massive badass, which makes you infinitely more dangerous.

After being thoroughly fooled into believing that Pathways Into Darkness skeletons said "I have a bone to pick with you!" every time they threw a bone, I had my ears out for Gianni in this vid and was happy to have my paranoia validated.

I like how in Marathon 1 the Pfor are all alien and mysterious, then in Marathon 2 it’s like “the 7th tactical group has deployed the 23rd pfor mechanized brigade to kill you.”

I have to be honest, I was fully convinced that the game had voice acting. Props to Gianni for such a good voiceover.

0:59 "But you're in for a loop" And Marathon Infinity is a loop Mandalore, your foreshadowing is genuinely incredible

22:45 Halo’s original story arc was supposed to end with the twist reveal that Forerunners were humanity. However the big reveal was cut from Halo 2’s release, along with lots of indicating factors. By Halo 3 the story deviated entirely, and Guilty Spark’s line retroactively no longer made good sense.

24:17 “I have rechristened the Khfiva the Rozinante.” Totally no significance to him choosing Don Quixote’s horse for a ship name as he ventures out once more to try and escape the inevitable heat-death of the universe.

"We probed them, all the way through. They are completely meat." "No brain, eh?" "Oh there's a brain all right, it's just made out of meat." "What . . . does the thinking then?"

21:10 also, durandel being able to bend space may allow it to expand into other dimensions. As Dr. Halsey's journals explain in Halo, AI rampancy is caused when the AI starts expanding exponentially and feels a tight nose around it's neck as it starts running out of disk space. If the AI runs out of space to expand, it dies. Suddenly being struck by a feeling of mortality, AIs go haywire desperate to obtain more space to expand. Durandel now controls an entire ship he is probably transforming into a huge server, so he has plenty of room to expand... but he will occupy it all eventually. Dr. Halsey theorized that if an AI was able to break into other dimensions they could expand in all 11 dimensions which would basically give them infinite room to expand and never be threatened by their own rampancy strangling them.

25:49 mandalore's comitment to a 4D chess level joke is insane

“These areas have enough flood already” Mandalore’s writing, as always, so on point

Gianni has an excellent Harlan Ellison impression, I love AM's voice lines in I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream so its nice to hear what is essentially a reprisal of that role.

The bit with 343 Guilty Spark talking to Chief within this context sent shivers down my arm.