Terribly sorry to bother you once again. I just finished Marathon 2 and I don't know anyone else to get answers from. That ending text confused the hell out of me. Durandal doesn't interact with ''man'' for the next thousand years? Didn't he teleport us back to his ship at the end of the final level? Also, I like to know what's coming up ahead, so I went to check the synopsis of Marathon Infinity before downloading it. The whole jumping around in time/different realities thing does not interest me, so I'm probably going to abstain from that one. But I saw the first (and only?) Durandal terminal which says he wishes he could've sent the human to explore the Lowon ruins. But...he did? In Marathon 2? Does Infinity retcon the second game?
You’re all good, no worries. Ok so the line is
It was ten thousand years before fate brought Durandal once again into contact with man.
I sort of interpreted it as a generalized ‘man’. The society as a whole, and not only “””human””” he liked enough to continue to keep with him. But also its completely possible the security officer died of old age at that point, or is being stowed in cryo until he’s needed. Might still be kicking tho. He’s not fully human, and Durandal would for sure wanna keep him alive and kicking as long as possible. Buy anyway. The ending of Marathon 2 is the ending of that timeline.
Marathon Infinity however is a bit of a mind fuck, and takes place across several timelines where things didn’t go as smoothly as they do in Marathon 2. Its several nonlinear retellings of the battle for lh’owon where you’re jumping around and trying to find a timeline where the Pfhor or Tycho DONT piss off a very very very real S’pht chaos god, and wake it up to eat the universe. I wouldn’t say it retcons the second game exactly, its sort of like an alternate retelling. Durandal IS in it, however not as prevalent as the second game, as a big part of it is that a good chunk of the timelines place you as Tycho’s to command.
I would say its fun to play if you’re invested in the characters (especially Tycho) and wanna see new perspectives and learn about the player character as a person, but also its a lot of metaphor, and difficult to follow. If you’re having a hard time understanding where you’re at, this little chart is a big help. But generally, just keep in mind that dream levels are a segway into new timelines, and that all the terminals on those levels aren’t Thoth, despite the shared logo.
If you don’t wanna deal with it, you can play Marathon Rubicon X. Its a really really really massive fan game thats well written (tho the level design is Terrible) that picks up after Marathon 2. However it does keep the character development of the security officer from Marathon Infinity.
