Warframe

Warframe
Developer(s)	Digital Extremes[1]
Publisher(s)	Digital Extremes
Artist(s)	Michael "Mynki" Brennan[citation needed]
Engine	Evolution Engine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4
Release date(s)	Microsoft Windows NA March 25, 2013 (open beta) PlayStation 4 NA November 15, 2013 EU November 29, 2013
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Distribution	Download

Warframe is a free-to-play cooperative third-person shooter video game, developed by Digital Extremes for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4.

Players control members of the Tenno, ancient warriors who have awoken from centuries of cryosleep to find themselves at war with the Grineer, a race of militarized human clones; the Corpus, a mega-corporation; and the Infested, victims of the Technocyte virus. To fight back, the Tenno use advanced exo-armor with unique abilities—the titular Warframes.^[2]

Gameplay

In Warframe, up to four players work together to complete missions, such as eliminating enemies or retrieving data from terminals. Players wear a battlesuit called a Warframe, each with its own set of abilities and statistics; and are equipped with three weapons—a primary weapon (such as a rifle or shotgun), a secondary weapon (usually a pistol), and a melee weapon (like a longsword). Players earn Affinity (experience points) for killing enemies and completing challenges and missions, which allows them to level up their weapons and armor. Warframes and weaponry have access to modifications, or "mods", that can be installed, removed and upgraded before and after missions; the higher the Affinity rank of any one piece of equipment, the more mods it can accommodate.

The camera is positioned over the shoulder for third-person shooting. The player can jump, sprint, slide, and roll, as well as combine techniques to quickly move throughout the level and avoid enemy fire. The game also allows players to utilize parkour techniques to evade enemies, bypass obstacles or gain access to secret areas. Maps are generated procedurally; with prebuilt rooms connected together so that no levels have the same layout. At times, the enemy faction can initiate a lockdown of the area, forcing players to hack security terminals by completing a puzzle minigame within a small time limit.

Credits, ammo, resources, and mods can be found in set locations, such as lockers and destructible containers, as well as dropped by enemies. New weapons, Warframes, and equipment can be purchased in the market (either the items themselves or their blueprints), using either Credits earned in-game, or Platinum purchased via microtransaction.^[3] Blueprints can be constructed using resources found during gameplay.

Missions

There are currently 11 available mission types, scattered across the planets of the solar system, along with the moon Phobos and dwarf planets Pluto, Ceres, Eris and Sedna. These missions can also be played in a pocket dimension known as "The Orokin Void" or "The Orokin Derelict" that can be accessed through the use of keys. Occasionally, a new objective may either be added after completing the original objective or may override it during the mission. The mission types are as follows:

• Assassination: Players must eliminate an enemy boss unique to the given planet. Said boss usually has unique abilities and weaponry to distinguish them from common soldiers;
• Capture: Players must find the VIP targets within an enemy ship or stronghold. Once a VIP is located, he must be incapacitated before then captured. Depending on the difficulty level or level setting, some VIPs are able to fight back or have longer headstart to a safe zone where they cannot be captured. After all VIP targets are captured, players must fight their way to extraction;
• Survival: Players must fight endless hordes of enemies, while grabbing life support pick-ups to maintain a limited supply of oxygen. An additional reward is given for every five minutes that the Players stay in the mission;
• Rescue: Players must locate a hostage inside the location, then bring them to extraction;
• Sabotage: Players must find and destroy either a ship's generator or a random number of mining machines;
• Deception: Players must take a "datamass" to the ship's navigation core, upload the datamass to the target, and then escape to extraction;
• Spy: Players must locate and hack a set number of terminals to obtain their datamasses. Players must pick up the datamasses and then bring them to the extraction point to complete the mission;
• Defense: Players must protect an artifact from waves of enemies. The waves become more difficult each time and every five waves there is an opportunity for extraction with an additional reward;
• Mobile Defense: Players take a datamass and must fight their way through the ship/outpost to a set number of consoles, activate them and defend them from waves of enemies for multiple minutes;
• Extermination: Players must wipe out all hostiles in the level, with the number remaining displayed on the upper-left below the minimap.
• Invasion: Players will team up with either the Grineer or the corpus in order to fight against an opposing faction. It was first offered through the Gradivus Dilemma event held in October 2013. Main rewards are offered as a Battle Pay, given after completing the mission 3 times.

Alongside the set missions on a given planet are Alert missions. These are modified mission which temporarily replace a default mission on a given point on the map, but are only available for a limited window of time (from 30 minutes to up to 24 hours). These missions are more difficult, but have increased credit rewards, along with occasional special rewards (such as rare equipment, blueprints or resources). Another mission modifier is Nightmare Mode identified by a skull mark in-game, which greatly increases the difficulty of a preexisting mission (while keeping the original mission type and faction intact) but rewards players with unique modifications with dual stat effects.

Backstory and Factions

There are currently 4 major factions present in Warframe, three of which serve as enemy factions.

The playable faction is the Tenno—descendants of warriors from the bygone Orokin era. Following an unspecified war, the surviving Tenno were cryogenically preserved for centuries before being awakened by The Lotus (voiced by Rebecca Ford, community manager of Digital Extremes), a mysterious (though benevolent) figure who guides them during missions. The Tenno are extensively trained in the use of Warframes, suits that grant them various abilities for combat and support.^[4]

The primary antagonistic faction is Grineer Empire, fascistic, militaristic brutes who dominate the solar system. Relying on mass cloning and cybernetic enhancement, they primarily use sheer numbers to overwhelm and overpower their foes, occasionally supporting their troops with specialized or heavily armed soldiers.^[3][5]

The second major enemy faction is Corpus, a proto-corporation who control the trade routes across the solar system and reverse-engineer their technology from any Orokin artifacts they find, viewing said artifacts as a resource exploited at any cost. As a result their soldiers—while frail compared to their Grineer counterparts—are equipped with advanced technology and are assisted by sophisticated mechanical drones.^[6]

Infested is the last enemy faction. Being victims of the "Technocyte Plague"—largely unfortunate Grineer and Corpus soldiers—they have been warped into monstrous abominations. Much like the Grineer, they rely heavily on sheer numbers to overwhelm their targets but lack any significant ranged abilities. Occasionally scattered in the Infested swarms are Ancients, individuals in much more advanced stages of infection and endowed with unique abilities.^{[citation needed]}

While the Orokin are not directly encountered, missions that take place in Orokin derelicts are inhabited by "Corrupted" foes; raiders and trespassers (composed of soldiers from the previous factions) who have been brainwashed into protecting these derelicts at all costs.^{[citation needed]} Occasionally players may be accosted by The Stalker, a vengeful figure (strongly implied to be a rogue Tenno) who appears in response to a successful assassination, attacking a specific player in revenge. Players may either choose to evade or fight him; defeating him may grant the victor with The Stalker's unique equipment.^{[citation needed]}

Development

The video game Dark Sector was officially released by Digital Extremes' in 2008. It was originally intended to take place in a science-fiction environment in outer space, with players taking the role of a character that inhabits a sleek mechanical suit with incredible powers.^[7] However, it was overhauled, and most of the science fiction elements scrapped.^[8] In 2012, Digital Extremes announced they were working on Warframe, which borrows heavily from the original Dark Sector concept, with character and level design as well as various names making a reappearance.^[9] Digital Extremes started the Warframe closed beta on October 24, 2012. Since then it has had several version and hotfix releases,^[10][11] and the open beta was launched on March 21, 2013.^[12] A PlayStation 4 version is in development, for release at the console's launch.^[13]

Reception

The open beta of the game has received 'mixed or average reviews' by critics, holding the score of 67/100 on Metacritic, based on 6 reviews.^[14] The PS4 version of the game has also received mixed or average reviews, holding the score of 63/100 on Metacritic.^[15] GameZone's Mike Splechta gave the PS4 version an 8.5/10, stating "If you already enjoy games like Monster Hunter which require you to farm for items in order to craft better ones, Warframe follows that very same formula, except with much more satisfying and faster paced combat."^[16]

References

External links

• Official website