Warframe, my go-to grinding game, is a complex and cooperative free to play third person shooter experience enhanced by an enormous sci-fi world that has been ever expanding since it’s beta in 2013. Digital Extremes have been constantly updating and polishing the game while adding new things every single month since it’s official “release”. Yes, it’s hella time consuming, but the good kind of consuming, it’s actually enjoyable and engaging.

As with all of my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences; please check out other reviews too!

While Warframe has a tutorial, it is not nearly sufficient enough for the insane complexity. It teaches you basic stuff about combat and movement, and then you are basically thrown out of the nest. Sure, there is the ingame codex that tells you all kinds things but the wiki/wiki threads will always be your best friend while playing Warframe. Many aspects have to be learned and discovered by yourself which can lead to a lot of new players quitting the game early since they can’t figure out what to do or where to go. You often have to keep the wiki open in the background since there is just that much information to the game.

Digital Extremes are in my opinion one of the best developers out there. They communicate with their community and listen to feedback. But even despite that, Warframe suffers from feature creep and old additions to the game that just feel left behind. Great concepts like archwings, raids, PVP or the glorious void fall flat compared to the rest of the game since they get boring pretty fast or just feel unpolished and there haven’t been many updates to them in ages. Additionally, most weapons and mods are just weak compared to other, better versions rendering them either useless or only good if you get a good riven mod for them.

Riven mods help to counter the weapon feature creep if you would be able to get them more frequently but unfortunately you only get them from daily missions, warframes daily quests, or other players. These are weapon enhancement mods for a random weapon with random stats, dropped randomly as a reward from said missions. The chance to get one of these is already very small but then you have to get the right mod for the right weapon with the right stats. While stats can be rerolled, most rivens will end up sitting in your inventory forever unless you turn them into endo, sell them, or find a player who is willing to spend some platinum on it.

Each faction has its own tilesets which are randomly put together at the beginning of each mission making it less repetitive than it would be otherwise. Each area of the solar system is controlled by a different faction and some of them even by two while the whole galaxy seems to be at war which each other. Enemies look original and well fleshed out and there is a big variety of them present in each faction while all of them have uniquely themed bosses.

Warframe offers an overwhelming variety of enemies, locations, weapons and warframes each with their own unique style and charm. It’s easy to get lost in all this and apart from some story quests, it’s really up to the player how he wants to spend his time in this game since Warframe won’t give you any goals, you simply have to set your own, there is no real endgame. Want to be the best looking warframe? Collect all the weapons/warframes/mods? Reach the currently highest Master Rating? Create one of the biggest Clans ever? The possibilities are vast and that is what’s so captivating about this game.

Obviously, warframe is pretty grind-heavy and can feel pretty tiring at some points. Why is warframe so enjoyable though? First and foremost because of the excellent polish and design in general but also because of its fantastic movement system which features wall-running, double jumping, sliding and more that really help in making you feel like a ninja in space. The shooting is just so refined and precise while different damage and enemy types force you to switch weapons and warframes accordingly based on your next mission. Many different mission types like extermination, spy, defense, and many more ensure that no warframe is truly useless. If you should get bored with your current setup, try recommended builds for warframes and weapons or simply create your own. Augments can help a great deal with this since they can basically enhance your abilities or change how they work, resulting in a different playstyle.

Crafting is done similarly to other games where you just get everything and craft it, only in this case you have to wait several hours and for some things even one to three days, but it is fine if you keep building other stuff in the meantime so you get a chain going. Trade missing blueprints from other players or sell your duplicates to them and earn platinum, the premium currency, and use it to upgrade your maximum number of slots, buy weapons/warframes directly of the market or just get some beautiful fashion for your warframe, the business model is just great. But be aware, the number of trades per day is tied to your mastery rating.

Yes, Warframe is free to play but does that mean that this is hurting it? Not at all, since it is using a very fair business model. Almost all of the things you can buy with the premium currency, platinum, can be farmed without spending any money. Earning this premium currency is rather easy since you are able to trade almost anything with other players and platinum is no exception. Of course, buying things directly from the market is much faster but getting them without spending anything is not only cheaper but also a rewarding experience.

While Warframe certainly can’t be called high end in terms of graphics, it’s making excellent use of it’s engine and is very slick and clean looking as a result of that. However, the game wouldn’t even look half as good as it can be if one would turn down everything to the lowest settings. Shaders and reflections as well as many other little things add up to create an experience that is not only pleasing to the eye but one that can also stand up to today’s AAA games.

Because of its nature, story is mostly told through quests which there are 20 of. While a handful of them are interesting and make you want to learn more about this universe, most of them are just a series of regular missions with special voice lines and objectives tagged on to it. Sure, there are bits and pieces everywhere in Warframe’s world, but people who are craving for more lore have to utilize wikis and forums to get the whole picture.

Warframe’s soundtrack can be astonishingly good at times but being as grindy as it is, most of the songs will sadly fall short in the long term or will get boring to listen to if you hear the same ones over and over again. Otherwise the soundtrack just fits perfectly and some songs even make use of voice which fits for every situation and almost all of the different tilesets have their own songs which fit each of the different factions greatly.

Checkout the bandcamp page for a preview![warframe.bandcamp.com]

Besides it’s fair free to play business model, it offers a huge variety of weapons and warframes and just everything else really but it als offers an insane amount of freedom that is rarely seen in games today. I recommend this gem to anyone who enjoys third person shooters with focus on cooperation or people who are just looking for a grindy experience to pass some time and have fun while doing it.

[h1][Introduction][/h1] Warframe, my go-to grinding game, is a complex and cooperative free to play third person shooter experience enhanced by an enormous sci-fi world that has been ever expanding since it’s beta in 2013. Digital Extremes have been constantly updating and polishing the game while adding new things every single month since it’s official “release”. Yes, it’s hella time consuming, but the good kind of consuming, it’s actually enjoyable and engaging. As with all of my reviews, these are my own opinions and experiences; please check out other reviews too! [h1][Negatives][/h1] While Warframe has a tutorial, it is not nearly sufficient enough for the insane complexity. It teaches you basic stuff about combat and movement, and then you are basically thrown out of the nest. Sure, there is the ingame codex that tells you all kinds things but the wiki/wiki threads will always be your best friend while playing Warframe. Many aspects have to be learned and discovered by yourself which can lead to a lot of new players quitting the game early since they can’t figure out what to do or where to go. You often have to keep the wiki open in the background since there is just that much information to the game. Digital Extremes are in my opinion one of the best developers out there. They communicate with their community and listen to feedback. But even despite that, Warframe suffers from feature creep and old additions to the game that just feel left behind. Great concepts like archwings, raids, PVP or the glorious void fall flat compared to the rest of the game since they get boring pretty fast or just feel unpolished and there haven’t been many updates to them in ages. Additionally, most weapons and mods are just weak compared to other, better versions rendering them either useless or only good if you get a good riven mod for them. Riven mods help to counter the weapon feature creep if you would be able to get them more frequently but unfortunately you only get them from daily missions, warframes daily quests, or other players. These are weapon enhancement mods for a random weapon with random stats, dropped randomly as a reward from said missions. The chance to get one of these is already very small but then you have to get the right mod for the right weapon with the right stats. While stats can be rerolled, most rivens will end up sitting in your inventory forever unless you turn them into endo, sell them, or find a player who is willing to spend some platinum on it. [h1][Level/Enemy Design][/h1] Each faction has its own tilesets which are randomly put together at the beginning of each mission making it less repetitive than it would be otherwise. Each area of the solar system is controlled by a different faction and some of them even by two while the whole galaxy seems to be at war which each other. Enemies look original and well fleshed out and there is a big variety of them present in each faction while all of them have uniquely themed bosses. [h1][Gameplay][/h1] Warframe offers an overwhelming variety of enemies, locations, weapons and warframes each with their own unique style and charm. It’s easy to get lost in all this and apart from some story quests, it’s really up to the player how he wants to spend his time in this game since Warframe won’t give you any goals, you simply have to set your own, there is no real endgame. Want to be the best looking warframe? Collect all the weapons/warframes/mods? Reach the currently highest Master Rating? Create one of the biggest Clans ever? The possibilities are vast and that is what’s so captivating about this game. Obviously, warframe is pretty grind-heavy and can feel pretty tiring at some points. Why is warframe so enjoyable though? First and foremost because of the excellent polish and design in general but also because of its fantastic movement system which features wall-running, double jumping, sliding and more that really help in making you feel like a ninja in space. The shooting is just so refined and precise while different damage and enemy types force you to switch weapons and warframes accordingly based on your next mission. Many different mission types like extermination, spy, defense, and many more ensure that no warframe is truly useless. If you should get bored with your current setup, try recommended builds for warframes and weapons or simply create your own. Augments can help a great deal with this since they can basically enhance your abilities or change how they work, resulting in a different playstyle. Crafting is done similarly to other games where you just get everything and craft it, only in this case you have to wait several hours and for some things even one to three days, but it is fine if you keep building other stuff in the meantime so you get a chain going. Trade missing blueprints from other players or sell your duplicates to them and earn platinum, the premium currency, and use it to upgrade your maximum number of slots, buy weapons/warframes directly of the market or just get some beautiful fashion for your warframe, the business model is just great. But be aware, the number of trades per day is tied to your mastery rating. [h1][Free to play][/h1] Yes, Warframe is free to play but does that mean that this is hurting it? Not at all, since it is using a very fair business model. Almost all of the things you can buy with the premium currency, platinum, can be farmed without spending any money. Earning this premium currency is rather easy since you are able to trade almost anything with other players and platinum is no exception. Of course, buying things directly from the market is much faster but getting them without spending anything is not only cheaper but also a rewarding experience. [h1][Graphics][/h1] While Warframe certainly can’t be called high end in terms of graphics, it’s making excellent use of it’s engine and is very slick and clean looking as a result of that. However, the game wouldn’t even look half as good as it can be if one would turn down everything to the lowest settings. Shaders and reflections as well as many other little things add up to create an experience that is not only pleasing to the eye but one that can also stand up to today’s AAA games. [h1][Story][/h1] Because of its nature, story is mostly told through quests which there are 20 of. While a handful of them are interesting and make you want to learn more about this universe, most of them are just a series of regular missions with special voice lines and objectives tagged on to it. Sure, there are bits and pieces everywhere in Warframe’s world, but people who are craving for more lore have to utilize wikis and forums to get the whole picture. [h1][Music][/h1] Warframe’s soundtrack can be astonishingly good at times but being as grindy as it is, most of the songs will sadly fall short in the long term or will get boring to listen to if you hear the same ones over and over again. Otherwise the soundtrack just fits perfectly and some songs even make use of voice which fits for every situation and almost all of the different tilesets have their own songs which fit each of the different factions greatly. [url=https://warframe.bandcamp.com/releases]Checkout the bandcamp page for a preview![/url] [h1][Conclusion][/h1] Besides it’s fair free to play business model, it offers a huge variety of weapons and warframes and just everything else really but it als offers an insane amount of freedom that is rarely seen in games today. I recommend this gem to anyone who enjoys third person shooters with focus on cooperation or people who are just looking for a grindy experience to pass some time and have fun while doing it. [code] Enjoyed this review? Curious for more recommendations by Excurious Curations? Check it out over [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28338439]here[/url]! [/code]