Revisiting Warframe As It Heads To PS4

Warframe has come a long way since I first played it upon its initial public launch on PC via Steam. At that point it didn’t really hold my attention, the levels far too grey and the upgrade path too difficult to understand. So I’ll admit that when I heard it was coming to the PS4, I wasn’t all that fussed.

But it has evolved much beyond that original core game, as Digital Extremes have worked hard for the last 6 months, listening to the community feedback and greatly expanding what the game has to offer. Happily, they’ve been doing fairly well out of the game already, to the extent that they’ve been able to pack in all their other work, and put the entire studio behind developing Warframe.

For those that aren’t yet familiar, Warframe is all about being a Space Ninja, part of the race known as the Tenno. Your race are at war with the Grineer, and it’s into this pitched conflict you see yourself entering as you start the game recently emerged from a cryo-sleep.

Up to four of you can work together, going on missions which sees you using a mixture of firearms and close quarters to fight the enemies and complete various objectives. It’s in the combat that this game really pushes itself.

Naturally there is an assortment of assault rifles and SMGs, but these are combined with melee swords, batons and all sorts of other weapons. There’s even 2013’s practically mandatory bow and arrow.

However, what makes this more interesting is the mobility which you possess, playing in the third person. The Tenno are particularly acrobatic, and stand out moves include wall jumps and kicks or sprinting into a slide, which lets you continue to shoot or slice and dice enemies knees off.

It feels like there’s a bit of inspiration from Vanquish in the combat – sadly without the rockets on your feet – but it’s married to the depth and variety of unlockable items which you see in Borderlands.

These cover everything about your character, from which of the myriad of weapons you carry into battle, to the particular warframe suit you wear – many of the 14 on offer remind me of sharks, in contrast to the misshapen and freakish Grineer. They’re all very slick and streamlined, but often have protrusions from the head in some fashion. It’s certainly very stylised, and an interesting art direction to follow which I don’t think has really been explored much yet.

The character abilities have had something of an overhaul since I last played, too. They’ve turned away from the node-based upgrades, and instead headed towards a system of cards, which can be stacked and combined in many more combinations than before.

This was apparently quite a controversial decision, throwing out the previous system in its entirety, with it sparking some of the more passionate fans to protest. However, on the whole it sounds like a move which has gone down well once people got used to it, and will certainly offer up a lot more variety to how you can specialise.

One particular example would see you stacking Molten Impact, which lends you the chance to set someone on fire, with Fury, which speeds up the number of attacks. Essentially this combination is all about wanting to make things burn, and gives you more opportunities to do so. Having a duplicate of a card just means you can fuse them together for a greater bonus.

Yet, all of these tweaks and changes would be for nothing without additional variety. I found my first attempt quite dull, with the grey metals of ships or military installations a quick turn off. Thankfully, once you’re past the first few levels, you will discover much more varied locations.

The mission I played saw us on a snow blanketed planet, which I found quite reminiscent of Borderlands 2’s opening area. I think there might even have been a sky, as the pair of us defended a Tenno still in stasis, yet to wake up.

While the waves of enemies come at us, I’m messing around with all the abilities and acrobatic skills of my warframe. It definitely adds an extra level of enjoyment to the killing, and really keeps the pace high, pushing you towards ever greater feats of murder.

This is a game which will be nicely tweaked to the DualShock 4, moving from the standard controller system which it has on PC. Though it will be customisable, there’s an instantaneity to swiping at the touch pad to start up a special ability, which should quite easily match, whilst the radio communications your receive in mission will be echoed through the controller’s speaker. Cosmetic, but nice touches all the same.

As with many free-to-play titles, this isn’t a finished product, by any means, and one which will continue to evolve and expand for the community it gathers as time goes by. The number of weapons will increase, new mission types and events which will head to new planets and systems, and there’s even the imminent addition of PvP battles.

Quite frankly, it’s because they have to update the game in order to keep people interested and coming back. They have to maintain a ferocious pace of updates, and this is where they’ve been able to work well with Sony – though recent news indicates that this is a temporary exclusivity deal of sorts – living outside of the multiplayer paywall that PS+ has now become, letting Digital Extremes do frequent patches, and naturally self-publish the title.

It’s great to see this game having evolved and progressed so far since I first dipped my toes in during the early stages. With the PS4’s launch, I’ll certainly be back for another look in a few months time.