What is Warframe?
To sum it up it is a 3rd person looter shooter multiplayer game that that often is put into the same category as Destiny, Anthem, The Devision, etc.
I installed the game one week ago because I heard lots of positive about this game and was a bit curious.
In my eyes (from my noobish perspective) the Warframe is fundamentally different than all the other looter games.
It starts with the fact that this game is free.
You can download it, install it and have access to - as far I can see - ALL the content of the game (and that is really MUCH content).
That does not mean that all content is instantly available to you but in theory everything in the game is free.
The developers earn their money via optional microtransactions. e.g. certain unlocks, skins, weapons, new warframes, etc.
Do you have to buy that stuff? No, because all these purchases (microtransactions) are optional. You can buy a skin or you can earn that skin, you can buy a new warframe or you can earn a blueprint in the game and construct that very same warframe.
There certainly are players which want instant progress and want to look cool from the very first minute. They will buy stuff and finance the game developers.
But if you are patient enough you can get literally everything for free.
Additionally you can of course sell your loot for the premium currency to other players and then buy the stuff you want.
Another fundamental difference between Warframe and other games of that genre is that you are not looting weapons and equipment in Warframe. Mainly you get resources.
You start with 3 weapons and for a pretty long time this will be your only 3 weapons until you make enough progress to get access blueprints and the neccessary resources for the crafting table.
From there on you are free to craft whatever blueprint you can get into your hands.
So instead of items like in other games enemies drop money and resources as reward and then you can freely decide what you want to use it for.
I think that is a pretty interesting concept since you wont have an inventory filled with crap and you can use your looted resourced for exactly what you want. No RNG bullshit (or at least a very limited RNG).
I uploaded a vid my first steps in the game from mission 2 of the game. I struggled with the controls and also with the game mechanics.
A few days later the situation looks much different.
The "problem" with the game is that at the beginning it appears overwhelmingly complicated and complex. You literally have no idea how stuff works and how everything fits together.
The tutorial from mission 1 is only scratching the surface of the basics.
You really learn the game by playing it and get better the more you play.
Overwhelming is, that you instantly see everything that is available in the game. All the missions, all the locations, all the weapons, all the equipment, all the end game mechanics.
You very soon will notice that not everything is available to you from the beginning and that stuff depends on a reasonable learning curve that you first have to master.
You can visit all the planets of the solar system and do many many missions there.
But you start at Earth and have to unlock access to other planets bit by bit.
The missions are categorized by their tasks. Sabotage, Defense, Mobile defense, Assasination, Exploration, survival... etc.
So your task in every mission is bit different however, unlike in other games you are not playing scripted missions, at least not scripted down to every possible encounter.
The look and layout of these missions is pretty good. I also noticed that when you replay missions you the map often is different. Apparently the maps are randomly generated.
This helps to keep things fresh.
Unfortunate is the re-use of level assets. You very often see stuff you have seen before. Missions often share similar layouts which are just put together in a different way.
But I guess that is normal considering how the levels are put together.
Putting the normal missions aside there are lots of special events, alerts and also 2 open world maps which provide plenty of content to explore.
The story is told via quests. Some of these quest are apparently required to unlock your further progress and certain activities.
The gameplay of Warframe generally is fast, especially when you play together with random people.
You really need to hurry to keep up with them.
Alternative to that you can switch to the solo mode and do everything at your pace (I often play solo).
Playing together with others on the other side might help you when you are getting stuck at a boss fight or when you want to farm certain resources. The rewards of a full team are of course are much better than the reward of a solo game.
When I encounter a Defense mission I for sure will switch to public team mode simply because it really is nice to have 4 players smashing waves of enemies which drop incredible amounts of resources.
Warframe certainly remains a grindy game but it does not have the pressure element of other looter games. You wont miss content if you stop playing a few weeks. You can play at your own pace. You can rush through everything or explore every tiny corner of the maps.
There are missions in which after completing the main objective you have the choice if you want to leave or continue the mission on a higher difficulty (more waves of enemies or additional mission objectives) for higher rewards.
You can do ground missions but you can also fly around using archwings (I have uploaded a vid about that aswell). Your own ship (your orbiter) serves as your personal home which you can decorate, upgrade and unlock additional features by time.
Generally I would say that your orbiter ship is a kind of 3d menu. You can access your inventory, the mod station, the crafting table, the navigation, news, bounties, take care of your pet (pets require attention), etc.
You generally have 3 weapons, primary (in my case a bow), secondary (in my case a heavy pistol) and a melee weapon (sword/staff/etc).
All these items can be leveled up by earning XP while using the specific weapons, your warframe also can be leveled up and depeding on your level you can freely add a certain number of mods to your warframe and your weapons which increase certain stats.
e.g. I have a warframe with a ridiculous high shield amount (at least for this level).
Mods can be improved... combined, etc.
Overall a very flexible way to create builds. I really like this aspect.
On top of that can you get a companion pet. I personally got very early in the game a blueprint for a robot which follow me and supports me on combat.
But you can also breed cat-like and dog-like creatures. The cats/dogs are more combat focused and are really able to kick ass in combat. The robots on the other hand are more like a support unit which keeps up your shields, or heals you... etc.
Just like the player these pets (i think only the robots) can have their own weapons. And just like for the player the pet and their weapons can be leveled up and improved via mods.
The customization options in terms of modding stuff is really good.
Even better is the fact that literally everything the player owns (the own ship, the ship interior, the weapons, the warframe, the effects, the pet, etc. can be customized with new skins and pretty detailed color options).
Warframe is very flexible in that area.
The graphics of the game are... different from other games.
There is lots of stuff which looks incredible good... some other stuff looks a bit outdated. I guess that is because Warframe is already a relative old game which got improved multiple times. It looks much better than it used to but I guess it is also a matter of style.
The game in many areas tries to achieve a very organic look. Often the look seems to be strange on purpose.
e.g. the very first enemies you encounter is ugly clones with tech implants. They are meant to look disgusting and rubbish.
Later on you encounter other creatures which look more like a kitbash than something that would naturally exist.
Warframe in my eyes is not meant to be the serious game where everything has to fit. Warframe is more a game where crazy ideas get a chance.
The developers don't seem to take everything dead serious.
In my eyes one of the best aspects of the game is that you only loot resources and blueprints.
Why?
Because the crafting of items leads you back into missions you have played very early in order to get the resources for your next warframe or weapon.
This way no mission (no matter how easy or how early in the game) loses relevance. It also means that there always will be experienced players to help new ones because the rewards are worth it.
When I think about other looter games, once you completed a certain area/mission in these there almost never was a reason to return to these missions because the loot from the early missions was crap compared to the endgame loot that you can get in later game areas.
Warframe does not seem to suffer this problem.
Also Warframe does not suffer the endless pressure you get from games like Destiny where you have to grind 6 weeks in a row every 3 months just to keep up with the other players. You don't have to play every ingame event for a limited time reward set that you would never get again if you miss it.
Warframe is a more relaxed experience.
Let's also talk about the negative aspects.
- The game can be overwhelming for a new player because there is so much content and only very little of explanation how to get started. My advice here is to slowly explore the game. Just play it... you will get better with the controls... you will soon discover how stuff fits together. Don't let yourself overwhelm by the content... just play a bit.
- This overwhelming aspect of the game most certainly is scaring new players to get started. I can only advice to play a few planets and see if you like it. It is a game you learn by playing it.
- The controls can be a pain at the beginning. I have a relative good mouse and usually play at a DPI setting of 5000-8000 while scaling down the sensitivity. That does not work well with Warframe. I had to lower the DPI significantly in order to really be able to aim at enemies. The ingame sliders are not very useful here.
- The graphics in some areas feel outdated while in other areas they are extremely good. Its a shame that the quality is not consistent. (I guess the good thing about that is that the game might not be as resource demanding to your PC as other games)
- I think this game needs a better market feature where players can trade. From what I have seen so far there is a trading chat (and a website where players can offer stuff) and players then have to meet somewhere in order to trade. This is so retro. Really, I think a automatic market feature where players simply offer their goods would be a nice addition to the game. Star Wars The Old Republic has such a market and it is a much more comfortable and less confusing way of getting it done.
- The game on the very first look appears like Pay2win since every item in the game has a value based on the premium currency "platinum" which you can buy with real money. But actually every item also can be obtained for free by just playing the game and I guess thats just the purpose of the game... playing it and earning the stuff instead of buying it with real money. Whatever platinum you have when you start the game... keep it. There are more valuable things to purchase than stuff like cosmetics or boosts later in the game. You can also get platinum once you start selling your loot to other players. I think this aspect is not really known to new players and also can scare people away from the game.
- ... hmm, I certainly will find more points of critic once I made more progress.
