Warframe has been around for over eight years now, yet it’s still shockingly one of the best free-to-play games on the market. Its obvious comparisons are looter shooters like Destiny 2 and The Division 2, titles that let you shoot a lot and loot a lot. With both of these AAA titles being on their second iterations, you’d expect they’d have it all polished out. Nowhere near as close to the way Warframe has. Outside of having spectacular acrobatic gunplay and melee combat, Warframe has enough content density to fill a lifetime and stunning visuals that look amazing even on the Nintendo Switch. All of this for the low price of free if you don’t mind doing a fair bit of grinding.
In Warframe, you play as a Tenno, a race of beings that are biogenetically linked to the titular suits of armor. Aside from these power suits looking absolutely badass, they grant the Tenno superhuman abilities. Blazing speed, acrobatic agility, and awesome powers are all features of donning a Warframe, each of which has its strengths and weaknesses.
As a Tenno, your task is to take on missions to defend the galaxy from various threats. First, you’ve got the warmongering Grineer who use the brute force of their massive army of clones to expand their Empire. Then there’s Corpus, a faction that fully embodies the cold vacuum of space as they hunger for profits they obtain by any means necessary through their robot soldiers. Furthermore, there’s the terror of the Infested, a horde of single-minded nightmarish creatures consumed by a blight known as The Infestation. Finally, there’s the almost defunct Orokin, an ancient civilization whose remnants are using their technology to bend other factions to their will, creating enemies called the Corrupted.
Your galaxy-defending escapades in Warframe call for you to use your space ninja skills and massive arsenal to get the job done. What never gets old in this game is the blazing speed at which you can zip through the game’s levels, dashing, sliding, and propelling yourself as you shoot and slash enemies that get in your way. All the while, you’re being showered with loot that you’ll initially have a hard time wrapping your head around but ultimately get the hang of as you progress through the game.
Crafting is at the heart of Warframe’s gameplay loop. As you complete missions and gather materials, you’ll get to build weapons, mods, and, of course, Warframes. The game is quite generous when it comes to giving you the items you need to expand your collection. It even throws in a few free frames once you’ve gone through a big chunk of the campaign. Eventually, you’ll need to repeat a few missions to either get the materials you need to craft gear or to advance to the next mission set.
Where the game can feel a bit confusing is its modding system. Every frame can be enhanced and upgraded using mods, each balanced through a slot and polarity system. Wrapping your head around this without some guidance can easily lead to you making a few mistakes with your build, which, thankfully, aren’t permanent. The system, though, is pretty flexible once you get the hang of it, enabling you to experiment with builds that you can swap out like loadouts.
Once you reach the endgame, things get a tiny bit weird but not necessarily in a bad way. Warframe presents itself primarily as a mission-based game and carries on this structure throughout the campaign. Once you’ve reached a certain point, though, it feels like you’re stepping into a whole new game. Suddenly, you’re tossed into open worlds where you can fish and mine for materials, fight world bosses, and other MMO-like conventions. There’s even full-on honest-to-god space combat. At first, I found this radical gameplay change a bit jarring as I was having a blast just shooting and slicing enemies in small and short levels. But the expanded gameplay Warframe’s endgame offers in 2021 grew on me eventually. I’m still not a fan of fishing, not here and not anywhere, but your mileage may vary.
The big question when it comes to F2P games like Warframe is just how manageable they are without dropping any money. I’m happy to inform you that this game does free-to-play very well. You can acquire almost anything in this game without paying a single cent. Naturally, this requires a lot of grinding, so it may not be your cup of tea if you don’t like this type of gameplay loop. I enjoy the gameplay enough to carry on. Still, if there’s a Warframe you really want and must have now, they typically go for anywhere between $15 and $40, depending on their bundle. All other amenities you can pay for are either cosmetic or massively overkill quality of life features that aren’t essential to playing the game.
Warframe in 2021 is as polished and feature-rich as it’s ever been. The game never ceases to expand, with new content expansions coming out regularly utterly free of charge. With a new content update titled New War coming very soon, there’ll be even more cool space ninja adventures to enjoy. On top of that, this expansion may include the coveted cross-play and cross-save features, which will just make Warframe the ultimate F2P experience. To top it all off, the game looks absolutely stunning in 2021, thanks to next-gen upgrades to its graphics engine. The visuals of the frames look gorgeous on a PS5 and likely so on an RTX30 series card as well.
Overall, there’s never been a better time to dive into Warframe. The game holds up better than most looter shooters, and if you’re willing to give it the time of day, you’ll be greatly rewarded with shiny sci-fi ninja looks and outstanding acrobatic combat.
