Warframe is a success story among online games, going from a troubled MMO on the brink of collapse to a regular entry in the top 20 most-played games list on Steam. Publisher Digital Extremes has retained a consistent player base for years and has a passionate community that welcomes new players.
Telling an epic story of ancient species, far-future humans, and a sect of mysterious exosuited warriors with incredible powers called the Tenno, Warframe has built a unique experience over eleven years of refinement and community interaction. So load up your lander and grab your skana because here are ten reasons to play Warframe right now.
10. Easy and fast matchmaking
Warframe has always had very simple matchmaking, with options for playing solo, with friends, or in public queues. Warframe‘s role-agnostic design means that any combination of Warframes can tackle almost any mission, removing the need for role queues or pre-agreed raid parties. Experienced players can blast through certain types of missions in a matter of minutes, so mission loading time is very fast.
9. Rich worldbuilding
Warframe‘s setting is a majestic baroque space opera with multiple plotlines that span aeons and weave together through emotionally-resonant missions and cutscenes. The sheer variety of environments, from the mutated red ruins of Deimos to the glowing painterly landscapes of Duviri, gives Warframe a unique feeling. While Warframe’s world can feel inscrutable at times, that also gives it a richness that runs through the whole game and greatly rewards player investment.
8. Warframe values players’ time
Grind is an inescapable part of online games but Warframe values its players time more than most. The developers are keen to avoid exploiting FOMO or gambling habits, removing content that has provoked compulsive behaviour in the past. Even Warframe‘s version of a battlepass, Nightwave, is extremely forgiving for casual players, as its cosmetics, mods and occasional gameplay items often recur in future seasons.
7. Cosmetics galore
Fashionframe, as they say, is the true endgame. Not only do most Warframes have two variant models (a normal Warframe and a Prime), but they have multiple skins and helmets, and every Warframe can be recolored right down to its energy projections. Additional swatches of color options are often available through events, and you can decorate your ship with art, little robots and all kinds of souvenirs.
6. Plenty of options
One of Warframe‘s strengths is that it introduces gameplay options comparatively slowly: players start with a choice of three Warframes, each of which has a unique set of abilities that unlock as they level the Warframe up. As they progress through the main storyline, players start to gain more Warframes and weapons, eventually building up a library of options that can be customized with mods.
5. High action gameplay
The acrobatic fighting styles and mystical abilities of the bio-robotic Warframes give the game its distinctive high-action gameplay feel. Warframe feels like a tightly designed looter shooter while also having the rich story and progression of a MMORPG. The speed of gameplay might look daunting from the outside, the fluidity of the controls means that players will be bullet jumping, wall latching, and aim gliding in no time.
4. Truly free to play
Warframe was conceptualized as a free-to-play game, and Digital Extremes has made a point of focusing their purchasable items on cosmetics, storage capacity, and ways of shortcutting grind without giving players unfair advantages. DE also uses a community content program to ensure that artists and creators from their fan community can get paid to produce in-game items.
3. New access points
Warframe‘s tutorial throws players right into the fast-paced experience of running, jumping, and using Warframe abilities. The release of the Duviri Paradox added a new starting point for players that has a more self-contained story, slower gameplay involving a figure called the Drifter, and a storyline that showcases Warframe‘s worldbuilding.
Warframe‘s community is an unusually supportive online space in which questions are encouraged, and carrying low-level players is an expected part of the regular gaming experience. While any community has its bad actors, Warframe‘s dev team has emphasized cooperation throughout the game’s history without requiring a high skill level to get through most of the game’s content.
1. Unprecendented regularity of new content
Warframe has had its content droughts, but the last few years of updates have been stunningly good, with new story content, exciting open worlds and missions, and mechanical changes that have tightened up the game’s already strong play experience. Not every new idea has worked out perfectly, but the amount of content has made it a lot easier to move on from one update to the next without feeling frustrated. With the upcoming Warframe 1999, a major release that promises to tell the story of the early development of the Warframes, there will undoubtedly be enough to keep new players busy for a long time!
