Warframe
Warframe is... impressive and infinitely daunting.
I have to give the developers a lot of credit for the work they've done over the years. The game looks pretty good. Movement feels sound, the weapons and abilities are varied, and it just plays well moment-to-moment. The game continues to expand fairly regularly, with new weapons, warframes, and features. The game seems to have a pretty solid player base. And all this for a game you don't have to pay to play.
Nothing's perfect, though, and there are some drawbacks. While there are variations, the map tilesets, enemies, and mission types are finite, so they'll start to feel repetitive at some point. Most of the game revolves around the mission of the moment, which very little in the way of story strung along between any of them. And probably the biggest "down side" to the game is the lack of explanation. I think I've logged over 40 hours in the game and I'm still probably a "beginner." I'm certainly still learning how some things work, and only understand a fair chunk of what I do due to out-of-game research via videos and wiki entries. There's a lot to the game that still feels inscrutable at this stage, and that's a bit overwhelming at times.
So what is it?
Well, it's a third-person action game with multiplayer elements, I guess. In a far future, you take the role of a "Tenno," sort of an elite post-human space cyber-ninja. You pilot/control warframes, techno-organic armor/avatars and run around shooting enemies. The story opens with the player apparently awakening from some sort of stasis in one of three starting warframes as someone is trying to take control of you. The Lotus contacts you and guides you in getting free, meeting up with a Tenno ship controlled by an AI. Then there are a few missions for getting fully freed before being left more or less to you own devices to run missions against the Grineer and Corpus factions (both of which sort of appear to be post-human branches themselves) in the solar system, as well as the Infested (more beastial mutants). Plot-wise... I think there are some missions later that offer some further details, but a lot is unclear at this point - who/what exactly the Lotus is, who/what exactly the PC is as a Tenno, etc. There's a database in game that explains some things, but a lot is just vague. I'd prefer a little more story, but it's serviceable.
So, you take your frame and weapons out and do these missions which include things like killing X enemies, breaking into data vaults, freeing a prisoner, capturing a target, defeating a boss, or defending a point. You go out into an instanced map (with up to three others) generated from a tile set suitable to the location. You sneak/shoot/slash/bash your way around to complete the objectives, then get to an extraction point usually. You tally up rewards and do it again. Along the way, you rank up frames and equipment, which 1) grants a greater capacity for mods that improve those items and 2) contributes to your player mastery rank - which unlocks some items along the way. You find/buy blueprints and components to make different warframes and items you can use. As you work your way around the solar map through missions, you unlock more mission nodes and access to new planets. And mixed in, there are some story missions here and there. Oh, there are also some archwing missions, which put you in space with a jet pack and different weapons to accomplish something - neat, but kind of awkward compared to regular missions. You can join/create a clan (and some items are clan-only). And... I think that's a decent rundown.
The first few missions give you something like 50 platinum, which is otherwise acquired only by real money purchasing or trading with other players. That's enough to buy an additional warframe slot and a couple additional weapon slots. So far that's been okay for me, though I can see more slots being desirable down the line. You can also spent platinum on all sorts of things that are generally available by 1) waiting or 2) farming/playing: rushing construction orders and acquiring weapons, warframes, or resources. It looks like frames/weapons purchased this way include a slot for them and an upgrade that doubles mod capacity you'd otherwise have to build and apply. I can see why people would spend money, but it doesn't seem required to me. And it seems there's enough platinum in the system that free players could probably find something to trade for some if they want something specific that way. I've tossed around the idea of purchasing some platinum to get another frame and as a way to support the game, but haven't pulled the trigger yet.
Arguably, I gamed the system a little bit. There seems to be an active code for a free sword (and slot). And I created/linked a Twitch account and activated it as Twitch Prime in order to redeem for a warframe and a couple items (immediately canceling the Prime membership after that so as not to go past the trial). That got me a Frost Prime frame, which seems to be a pretty solid defensive frame with pretty good armor and a bubble ability that is incredibly helpful on soloing Defense, Mobile Defense, and Excavation missions. It seems like the developers like to do little "freebies" like this with some regularity, with some other items on offer for Twitch viewers during the upcoming Plains of Eidolon release.
So... it's not going to scratch any itch for a story-based game. It requires more focus than a pausable offline game. But for the actiony game it is, Warframe's actually pretty good.
I have to give the developers a lot of credit for the work they've done over the years. The game looks pretty good. Movement feels sound, the weapons and abilities are varied, and it just plays well moment-to-moment. The game continues to expand fairly regularly, with new weapons, warframes, and features. The game seems to have a pretty solid player base. And all this for a game you don't have to pay to play.
Nothing's perfect, though, and there are some drawbacks. While there are variations, the map tilesets, enemies, and mission types are finite, so they'll start to feel repetitive at some point. Most of the game revolves around the mission of the moment, which very little in the way of story strung along between any of them. And probably the biggest "down side" to the game is the lack of explanation. I think I've logged over 40 hours in the game and I'm still probably a "beginner." I'm certainly still learning how some things work, and only understand a fair chunk of what I do due to out-of-game research via videos and wiki entries. There's a lot to the game that still feels inscrutable at this stage, and that's a bit overwhelming at times.
So what is it?
Well, it's a third-person action game with multiplayer elements, I guess. In a far future, you take the role of a "Tenno," sort of an elite post-human space cyber-ninja. You pilot/control warframes, techno-organic armor/avatars and run around shooting enemies. The story opens with the player apparently awakening from some sort of stasis in one of three starting warframes as someone is trying to take control of you. The Lotus contacts you and guides you in getting free, meeting up with a Tenno ship controlled by an AI. Then there are a few missions for getting fully freed before being left more or less to you own devices to run missions against the Grineer and Corpus factions (both of which sort of appear to be post-human branches themselves) in the solar system, as well as the Infested (more beastial mutants). Plot-wise... I think there are some missions later that offer some further details, but a lot is unclear at this point - who/what exactly the Lotus is, who/what exactly the PC is as a Tenno, etc. There's a database in game that explains some things, but a lot is just vague. I'd prefer a little more story, but it's serviceable.
So, you take your frame and weapons out and do these missions which include things like killing X enemies, breaking into data vaults, freeing a prisoner, capturing a target, defeating a boss, or defending a point. You go out into an instanced map (with up to three others) generated from a tile set suitable to the location. You sneak/shoot/slash/bash your way around to complete the objectives, then get to an extraction point usually. You tally up rewards and do it again. Along the way, you rank up frames and equipment, which 1) grants a greater capacity for mods that improve those items and 2) contributes to your player mastery rank - which unlocks some items along the way. You find/buy blueprints and components to make different warframes and items you can use. As you work your way around the solar map through missions, you unlock more mission nodes and access to new planets. And mixed in, there are some story missions here and there. Oh, there are also some archwing missions, which put you in space with a jet pack and different weapons to accomplish something - neat, but kind of awkward compared to regular missions. You can join/create a clan (and some items are clan-only). And... I think that's a decent rundown.
The first few missions give you something like 50 platinum, which is otherwise acquired only by real money purchasing or trading with other players. That's enough to buy an additional warframe slot and a couple additional weapon slots. So far that's been okay for me, though I can see more slots being desirable down the line. You can also spent platinum on all sorts of things that are generally available by 1) waiting or 2) farming/playing: rushing construction orders and acquiring weapons, warframes, or resources. It looks like frames/weapons purchased this way include a slot for them and an upgrade that doubles mod capacity you'd otherwise have to build and apply. I can see why people would spend money, but it doesn't seem required to me. And it seems there's enough platinum in the system that free players could probably find something to trade for some if they want something specific that way. I've tossed around the idea of purchasing some platinum to get another frame and as a way to support the game, but haven't pulled the trigger yet.
Arguably, I gamed the system a little bit. There seems to be an active code for a free sword (and slot). And I created/linked a Twitch account and activated it as Twitch Prime in order to redeem for a warframe and a couple items (immediately canceling the Prime membership after that so as not to go past the trial). That got me a Frost Prime frame, which seems to be a pretty solid defensive frame with pretty good armor and a bubble ability that is incredibly helpful on soloing Defense, Mobile Defense, and Excavation missions. It seems like the developers like to do little "freebies" like this with some regularity, with some other items on offer for Twitch viewers during the upcoming Plains of Eidolon release.
So... it's not going to scratch any itch for a story-based game. It requires more focus than a pausable offline game. But for the actiony game it is, Warframe's actually pretty good.
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