If you’ve booted up Marathon today before work (or for the naughtier of you out there, whilst at work), you may have noticed a major change. Not only has a mysterious mail landed in your inbox, but a locked-off fourth map has appeared on the menu. It looks as though Cryo Archive – the hardest map yet – is nearly here.

This occurred as the next stage in the ongoing Marathon ARG was unlocked, the sixth of seven steps that members of the community must solve. Alongside this step came small hints as to the requirements for actually accessing the Cryo Archive, revealed through small lines of text on the ARG website.

All we know so far is you must have contacted each of the six in-game factions, and must be level 25. This doesn’t appear to be a tall order for most players, especially given the challenge built into the Cryo Archive. Rather, it appears to be a measure to stop griefing from bots or low-level accounts. This level requirement means that those who venture into the archive for the best loot will have to invest some time into their account to do so.

What else we know comes in the form of tiny glimpses of the map itself, unlocked early on in the ARG and viewable on the official website. These, plus a selection of fancy cinematic teases posted on the Marathon channel. This series, titled ‘A New Future Beyond the Sun’, offers narrative hints as to what we may encounter on the Marathon ship itself. More wonderful visuals, one hopes.

With the Cryo Archive’s release, Marathon will seemingly morph into a full package at last. For early impressions of the game made following the conclusion of the game’s pre-release Server Slam, you can read Eurogamer’s piece to get an idea what all the fuss is about.