Noodleguitar
Moderator
Edit: Due to a bug with creating/editing threads, pictures are missing at this time.
Welcome to a new series about a pretty damn good free-to-play game you may have heard of: Warframe. It has been around for quite a few years, however, a new update has drawn both new and veteran players to actively play.
Even though this game could be described as "Put as many bullets into everything that moves", the various mechanics and items make it complex when you look deeper into the game's world. It's been said to be wiki-driven, meaning newer players will have to do some searching on the internet instead of finding all information needed in the game. That's why I thought I would do a series on basic to intermediate topics. I have about 200 hours invested in this game and there are plenty of topics that are still new to me.
What is this game and what can I expect?
On the surface, Warframe is a combat action 3rd-person shooter with hack-and-slash components. So it is a good thing that the combat system is well made. It reminds me somewhat about Diablo, except with a camera fixed behind the character and aim-down-sight support. The similarity to Diablo comes from the game's main goal, which is to improve yourself as a player by farming monsters and finding working item builds to do so effectively or not so effectively but because it is fun to charge up your knock-back arrow and send a poor unsuspecting enemy flying head first into the nearest ceiling.
Leveling experience
Warframes --of which there are many to pick from-- are exoskeletons, designed for protection in addition to offensive abilities. Your main player level is defined by Mastery Rank. Gain enough experience and you will be allowed to attempt a Mastery test to increase your rank. Experience is gained in a somewhat unique way. Warframes and items can be leveled from level 0 - 30 and in the process of doing so award Mastery experience, called Affinity. Leveling a Warframe and a set of items to 30 once will not gain you a lot of Affinity. As such, the game encourages you to try out different Warframes and weapons on your path of destruction.
[Picture]
The arsenal screen, in which you figure out how to make yourself more deadly.
Content environment
The game takes place on planets in the Solar System, each containing a bunch of various types of missions. A mission can be thought of as a PvE match; you enter the area by yourself or in a group of other players (maximum of 4 for most missions) and you kill, collect, run, jump and die your way through it to completion. The play style revolves around repeating these missions to farm items, however, repeating missions is far from boring. Tile sets are randomly connected, events occur all the time which make a mission different, more difficult or both, and your choice of loadout heavily influences your effectiveness during a particular mission.
[Picture]
The navigation panel. Planets are unlocked by completing quests and objectives.
There are main quests and side quests which contain lore and guide you through the Solar System. These are not hand-holding quests to get you through the game. On the contrary, you are given a lot of freedom to explore for yourself.
Weapons of mass destruction
You have access to four items slots: Warframe, primary, secondary and melee. Warframes help you move around the map. In addition they have abilities that do bad things to enemies and good things to allies (except the *&^! bubble shields that allies can't shoot through). Primaries and secondary weapons are generally weapons that shoot some kind of object designed to hurt that mob there in the distance, whether you were aiming for it or not. Melee weapons can be very satisfying and their use is justified in many situations. Each weapon can be heavily modified to increase its strength or compensate for its weakness. Some weapons are so ridiculous you might think the guy using it is compensating for something else...
[Picture]
Some of the weapons in the game. There are tons of them and each one is unique and highly detailed.
That is it for the introduction. And have you listened to the music track already? It's amazing.
Welcome to a new series about a pretty damn good free-to-play game you may have heard of: Warframe. It has been around for quite a few years, however, a new update has drawn both new and veteran players to actively play.
Even though this game could be described as "Put as many bullets into everything that moves", the various mechanics and items make it complex when you look deeper into the game's world. It's been said to be wiki-driven, meaning newer players will have to do some searching on the internet instead of finding all information needed in the game. That's why I thought I would do a series on basic to intermediate topics. I have about 200 hours invested in this game and there are plenty of topics that are still new to me.
What is this game and what can I expect?
On the surface, Warframe is a combat action 3rd-person shooter with hack-and-slash components. So it is a good thing that the combat system is well made. It reminds me somewhat about Diablo, except with a camera fixed behind the character and aim-down-sight support. The similarity to Diablo comes from the game's main goal, which is to improve yourself as a player by farming monsters and finding working item builds to do so effectively or not so effectively but because it is fun to charge up your knock-back arrow and send a poor unsuspecting enemy flying head first into the nearest ceiling.
Leveling experience
Warframes --of which there are many to pick from-- are exoskeletons, designed for protection in addition to offensive abilities. Your main player level is defined by Mastery Rank. Gain enough experience and you will be allowed to attempt a Mastery test to increase your rank. Experience is gained in a somewhat unique way. Warframes and items can be leveled from level 0 - 30 and in the process of doing so award Mastery experience, called Affinity. Leveling a Warframe and a set of items to 30 once will not gain you a lot of Affinity. As such, the game encourages you to try out different Warframes and weapons on your path of destruction.
[Picture]
The arsenal screen, in which you figure out how to make yourself more deadly.
Content environment
The game takes place on planets in the Solar System, each containing a bunch of various types of missions. A mission can be thought of as a PvE match; you enter the area by yourself or in a group of other players (maximum of 4 for most missions) and you kill, collect, run, jump and die your way through it to completion. The play style revolves around repeating these missions to farm items, however, repeating missions is far from boring. Tile sets are randomly connected, events occur all the time which make a mission different, more difficult or both, and your choice of loadout heavily influences your effectiveness during a particular mission.
[Picture]
The navigation panel. Planets are unlocked by completing quests and objectives.
There are main quests and side quests which contain lore and guide you through the Solar System. These are not hand-holding quests to get you through the game. On the contrary, you are given a lot of freedom to explore for yourself.
Weapons of mass destruction
You have access to four items slots: Warframe, primary, secondary and melee. Warframes help you move around the map. In addition they have abilities that do bad things to enemies and good things to allies (except the *&^! bubble shields that allies can't shoot through). Primaries and secondary weapons are generally weapons that shoot some kind of object designed to hurt that mob there in the distance, whether you were aiming for it or not. Melee weapons can be very satisfying and their use is justified in many situations. Each weapon can be heavily modified to increase its strength or compensate for its weakness. Some weapons are so ridiculous you might think the guy using it is compensating for something else...
[Picture]
Some of the weapons in the game. There are tons of them and each one is unique and highly detailed.
That is it for the introduction. And have you listened to the music track already? It's amazing.
! Didn't know about the mastery thing and probably did a couple by accident , but at least I can see now why my progress came to a sudden stop!
