Warframe | Digital Extremes
WHY WARFRAME IS THE PERFECT GAME NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT
Ninja's still play for free.
by Felipe Parada
For those of you who have not heard about Warframe, let me bring you up to speed. Warframe is a free-to-play cooperative third-person shooter video game developed by Digital Extremes for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Released back in 2013, the game received a lot of mixed reviews and quickly fell off the radar due to a confusing and hard to manage game concept that really didn't know who they were targeting. With the tagline "Ninja's play for free", I remember downloading the game and playing it for quite a while before thinking "What am I supposed to do next? Am I a real ninja?"
Next came the inevitable, I un-installed the game because I needed the room for other games that needed to be played. It wasn't a bad game by any stretch, it was just that it was a bit confusing to understand at the moment. Now I understand that there is a learning curve when it comes to new games but with Warframe I felt I needed to take classes just to know how the game worked. As the years passed I would re-visit Warframe from time to time and grind a bit here and there to get enough resources to craft a weapon and it began to dawn on me that Warframe was actually a real good game. Unfortunately I had to un-install the game yet again due to hard drive limitations but I always swore that I would go back and grind.
During that time-span 2 games released that cemented themselves as the new grind-fest of the shooter genre, namely Destiny & Destiny 2. I remember playing Destiny till the early hours of the morning when it first released but couldn't get around to buying the second installment because the series was lacking severely in content. After reading tons and tons of comments in the community threads, one phrase kept coming up over and over again,"Why don't you just play Warframe." I thought to myself "Why am I not paying Warframe? It's similar in scope, Warframe has a ton of more content and most importantly.....IT"S FREE."
There is no shortage of enemies to cut up.
Warframe | Digital Extremes
Since its release the game has received a hefty 21 major content updates and 22 might be on the way. The game has been rebuilt in every way and is almost unrecognizable since its initial launch (trust me, I played it on the PS4 launch and it was mediocre at best). As I mentioned in my Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds review, I love it when a game is made by people excited to be working on it and Digital Extremes is another developer who should be put on a list of developers who truly love their work. But with that being said I believe that the Warframe community needs a shout out as well for showing Digital Extremes the support they need to sustain this game.
With that support Digital Extremes has been able to release a steady flow of end-game content that is on par with Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch. In a nutshell the entire game of Warframe is end-game content and its mind-boggling that a staff of only 170 are able to pump out this much content. The amount of weapons and gear available to craft is staggering and the amount of areas available to explore puts games like Destiny and Tom Clancy's The Division to shame. Sure there is the option to buy most, if not all, the gear and materials needed to craft but the option is a choice and is not forced upon you. If you do decide to purchase items in the store you know EXACTLY what you are getting so there is no sense of gambling thrown into the equation.
As it currently stands, Warframe is still one of the most played games on Steam and is in the top 10 games streamed on Twitch. Those stats are impressive 4 years in the games life cycle. It's easy to see why a game like Warframe still sits up high in the leader boards when you have games like Battlefront 2, Shadow of War, The Division and Destiny missing the mark when it comes to releasing end game content properly. I feel that Warframe strikes the proper balance on giving the player the choice on how they play their game and that's what's most important.
The best statement I've heard in regards to Warframe is "I'cant believe this is free!" and I think that's what we need to take away from this. Yes the game is grindy and yes it is a bit intimidating at first but once you get into the heart of the game you have a real robust third person shooter with a ton of content and Ill say it again TON of content. it's a bit refreshing to see a game with a substantial amount of content when in contrast, you have full retail games that only provide the minimum amount of content. I remember getting back into Warframe and think to myself "This is what Destiny should have been" and that's kind of sad; great for Warframe but sad for Destiny.
Although I am not big on reviews because I feel that day one games play more like a day one beta, you can technically consider this a 2017 Warframe Review. There is enough work done to the game to have it officially reviewed. With the market bombarded in loot boxes, microtransactions, lack of content and overall AAA developer displeasure, it is sad that this game constantly gets overlooked. In its current form Warframe looks and feels like the perfect free to play game that NOBODY is talking about and more developers need to copy. If you left Warframe and are looking for a reason to get back in, now is the time to suit back up and slice it up as a ninja.