I feel like running a Marathon

I highly recommend you check out this quasi-interview that Bungie conducted with Marathon: Durandal (XBLA) developers Freeverse. In my recent list I mentioned that I had dropped Marathon: Durandal from my “Probably Will Buy” to my “Could Buy” category, but with a completely new 3d engine (that looks extremely colorful and beautiful), new network code, 8 player online coop, 8 player deathmatch, and what sounds like a really fun new mode with new levels, I may have to bump it back up again. The new mode? I’ll let Freeverse explain:

When you start a Survival game, you’re dropped randomly into one of four brand-new deathtra–er, levels and given a metric -blam-ton of guns and ammunition. After you gather your bearings, we start teleporting groups of enemies, dozens at a time, into the level. It’s literally wave after wave of Pfhor and S’pht against you, and we keep the action moving by changing things up every sixty seconds. The more enemies you sack–and the less damage you take–the higher your score will be at the end. (And we all want to be at the top of the Leaderboards, right?)

As you progress through each round, we rotate new threats in and out of the game, from lowly Pfhor Fighters to Hunters to Juggernauts. (Did I say Juggernauts, plural? Hmm.) Our goal was to keep the experience fresh both while you were playing and between individual games. By rotating the enemies in waves and randomizing the placement of the enemies each time we add more, we keep Survival challenging and unpredictable–each time you play, it’s a little different.

While the placement of the enemies is random, the progression of the waves is not. Thanks to our wonderful testing crew, we’ve been able to craft a cleverly escalating difficulty ramp for the Survival rounds. It’s also a pretty awesome way to play with some of the weapons the game doesn’t give you much time with outside of multiplayer.

Does this sound sort of like a 3d FPS version of Geometry Wars to anyone else? Can’t wait to see it on my own 360.