Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: Digital Extremes, game review, HRL, pc, PS4, Warframe, xbox one

Warframe Review: Better Than Ever, but Still a Major Grind

Digital Extremes's Warframe is a lot of things, not all of them good. It's a free-to-play MMO with an early access pass you can pay a bit more for, which immediately turns a lot of players away. And if that doesn't do it, the grinding just might. One of the most-shared .gifs of Warframe is "grinding intensifies," since you're constantly grinding to upgrade and master your warframes.

But if that doesn't turn you off and you like the idea of immortal space ninjas, well, this game is definitely for you — especially with the new Plains of Eidolon expansion, which gives you even more content to grind.

In Warframe, you play as a member of an immortal alien race called the Tenno. The Tenno are masters of the warframes, which are these incredibly powerful humanoid war machines. You start out with a choice of three, much like you would in Pokémon, and there is naturally only one right answer.

But as you work your way through, you get access to more warframes, more grinding, and can even level up your warframes to higher destructive powers.

Of course, there is a bit of a story to Warframe, but it isn't leveraged nearly enough, so if you're a big story buff, most of the heavy lifting will be left to you. That said, there is something pretty fascinating about the lore of this game.

Oh, and if you expected to not be able to call in spaceship airstrikes while underground, you were sorely mistaken. Rules of logic and physics do not apply to Tenno.

Now, the massive Plains of Eidolon expansion does add a lot of life to the game, but if you weren't going to be drawn in by Warframe already, it doesn't do a whole lot for you. That said, now is probably the best time to play Warframe, ever.

Really, the game itself is often its own problem. The free-to-play structure, widely different gameplay controls on console versus PC, the constant grind, and lack of story really do a solid bit of damage. But all the players who manage to get past that love it. Even I do, if only ironically.

UPDATE: A previous version of this review mistakenly reported that Warframe offers a premium subscription which it does not, the game does however have a one-time Prime Access fee to get access to content earlier than the regular release time. This was our mistake and the review has been changed to reflect this, though it had no effect on the review score.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!