I would love to recommend this game. I can't. For one singular reason;


This game is great! Good gunplay, fun story, devoted devs, *years* of dedicated time and effort put into creating an enjoyable experience. There is a lot to like about the game, and if you really want to dedicate yourself to playing it, you absolutely can. Hundreds of unique weapons, over two dozen playable Warframes, each moddable to an extensive degree to specialize in an array of playstyles - and gamemodes to suit most of those!
The problem - and why I can't recommend it - comes from it just not respecting the player's time - the time the player has to dedicate to acomplishing anything. I have over 1,000 hours. At this point, I obtained and played nearly every unique weapon available. And yet, I have a checklist of things I ""must"" do, in order to keep making progress and getting new stuff.

Let's look at one example of an object on that checklist: Baro Ki'teer.

Baro is an in-game trader that shows up for two days every two weeks, selling a psuedo-randomized inventory. This inventory includes weapons, powerful mods, skins, decoration items, (cosmetic) armors and effects, and a mission for a new warframe.

He does not sell things for the normal in-game currency, however. He sells things for "ducats". This currency is earned by selling Prime Parts (items needed to make the more powerful versions of weapons and warframes). You can always sell items for Ducats at a kiosk, so it's recommended to keep selling duplicates for more and more ducats. This means that players in posession of Prime parts have three options: Trade them to other players for premium currency, use it to create the more powerful items, or sell it for a currency for this specific trader, on the off-chance he has something useful the next time he's in town. Baro's Prices dictate that you can't farm for these the days he's in, lest you miss out on a "must buy" item.

It's not awful... but farming for Prime Parts is only one task. Others include doing several daily and weekly challenges, completing Nora Night's randomized tasks, farming for standing with one of the 17 other Syndicates in the game (each with their own weapons, mods, and sometimes frames), farming for XP, farming for new weapons and items, farming for items to build those weapons and armor, completing Riven Missions for the chance at a single item that will break the game balance for you (or do absolutely nothing), farming "Arcanes" -- specialized items that can give you immunities or incredible power-ups, farming for "Focus" -- a special EXP that is only relevant to one part of the game (which DE forces you to use, so you can't skip this), Farming for Kuva, Farming for Exilus Adapters, Forma Farming weapons so you can fit all the mods you want on them, doing the quests (which can take hours and hours on their own)...

And if you think Baro is alone in having his own custom unique currency, your optimism makes me chuckle. Some things, like factions, even limit how much of their currency you can gain each day.

My point is that so much this game is "urgent" and has to be done immediately, or you miss it. You can become a walking god, but unless you play day and night, doing everything on your list, you won't ever get that far. Your own personal time is not respected at all. If you have a job, or any IRL responsibilities, there are things you simply will have to ignore -- and the game will punish you for it.

I once joked with a friend that the Borderlands 2 Mission "Claptraps Secret Stash", where Clatrap asks you to "Collect 139,000 brown rocks" for a measly reward, is like Warframe. Except Warframe isn't joking. Go do a mission type for many countless hours, for a bit of MR and a new toy.

And that's not an exaggeration! If RNGesus isn't with you, it might take months to get to some content. I take healthy breaks from this game and got the "Gauss" Warframe in October 2022, and he came out in 2019. I was actively trying to get him.

Whats really sad is that this doesn't change at the endgame. When the final item on the checklist is completed you sigh a deep sigh of relief... and realize that there is nothing left. Older players sit on mountains of resources because that's the only thing to do - prepare for when DE adds something else and do it quickly before your checklist gets too long again. DE constantly adds new content to appease these people. Even when you dance the game's dance and complete it all... you still end up waiting for the game's schedule to change just so you have something new to farm. Your time is still not respected, even in the end.

For that, I just cannot recommend this game if you enjoy having your own schedule. If you do - this game will not be fun. It will be an agonizing fight between whose daily duties are more important - your own responsibilities... or the game's endless timered checklists.