My favorite game of all is a free to play  MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) third-person action game called Warframe. Created by a company called Digital Extremes. This game is on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox 1.  This review is going to be longer than all my other reviews. This game is really huge and still growing!




The Story.  

You play as an ancient warrior who has been asleep and now you are being forced awaken by a powerful who goes by the alias The Lotus.  You find yourself to awaken and captured by Grineer soldiers who are vile, relentless, power hungry and are ruled by the Twin Queens. The Lotus uses some type of wave link transfer to communicate with you, she instructs you on how to fight and escape the Grineer Captain Vor who is the one who found you and put a device on you.

By following the Lotus instructions the player gets a hold of a spaceship, rescues a very influential merchant, removes the device planted by Captain Vor to mess with the player. And in return, you can assassinate Vor. But from there you have no idea who you are but you do know there is a war going on between three major factions The Grineer, The Corpus, and the ever-growing Infestation.  But the real question is where to start?

Gameplay

This is a third person action game. In the very start of the game, you select one of the three starting Warframes. Excalibur is a pure damage dealing character who's special powers revolve around using his sword in various ways to eliminate enemies he's most know for his ability to create a sword out of his own energy which looks like an overcharged light saber which each wave of it shoots out a speeding projectile that goes through enemies and walls. Volt is the second character who commands electricity to his will, he has a lot of crowd control abilities and is able to move and attack at lightning speeds.  The final starter character is Mag who uses magnetic force to her whim. Destroy enemies shields, create zone fields that attract bullets to a single area to hit multiple times or just crush the enemies bone structure from inside.


Pick him if you love  lightsabers.


Pick this guy if you like speed runs and thunder powers.


Pick her if you like to have control of the battlefield


The movement in this game is spectacular It has a fast pace free running/parkour movements such as rolling, wall running, mid-air backflips, sliding, wall latching, air gliding, and my favorite movement feature the bullet jump. Where your character propels themselves in whatever direction you're looking at forward in a spiraling motion like a bullet where you get way more distance than a regular jump. You can also double jump after a bullet jump and then air glide to make some serious distance like crossing over a mountain gap than taking a bridge. It's a really spectacular feature once mastered you can finish missions extremely quickly, confuse your enemies or just insanely unpredictable and hard to deal with in PVP (Player vs Player). No one likes fighting a crafty space ninja that moves super fast.


Doing a bullet jump.

In order to defeat your enemies, you need weapons. Warframes can carry up to three weapons at a time. Primary which is your main weapon. Primary has a huge selection ranging from bows, rifles, Big freaking guns, mission launcher a weapon that shoots out black holes etc. Next is secondary weapons which you can switch from your primary by pressing the triangle button. they may be small but they can pack a punch and use them when your character is a downstate/bleeding out. The weapon type of these weapons ranges from pistols, dual submachine guns, throwing knives and some weird ones like shooting snowballs. Finally, there are melee weapons which you can utilize by pressing the O button or you can fully use a melee weapon by pressing and holding triangle.  Doing this puts alway both secondary and primary but allows you access to block which can parry and block bullets ninja style which your weapon. Perform unique attacks if you have stance equip and able to use channeling abilities which increases your weapon ability & attack considerably.


There are over 300 weapons in the game so it's very easy to find a couple that will fit your playstyle.

Ways to Progress

After the opening tutorial and defeating Captian Vor, you are thrust right into the universe of Warframe which covers all the planets. There are many ways to progress in this title. When looking at the map and selecting a planet any mission that glows blue is a new mission you haven't done yet. There are many types of missions in this game. Defense is where you protect a single objective or person for 5 waves of constant enemies, if successful you can keep going for better rewards or just leave, Spy missions where you infiltrate an  enemy base and steal all their valuable information on the computer by hacking  them, the hacks are puzzles which can range from easy to hard, Extermination is rather simple, kill everything that's not you.  There are so many other types of missions yet the player does not have to do them alone you can have friends join you or even random players up to a total of 4 can do a mission. On every planet, there are special missions called junctions which allows the player to access a new planet once all the conditions are met.  Once they are fulfilled you can then begin a one on one showdown with the specter who denies your access. Defeat the specter, take control of the junction for yourself and you are able to travel to a new planet.


A junction requirements.

Each planet has their differences like the type of setting such as a hot desert, negative degree weather, a space station, underwater base and so on.  And many of these planets have different factions controlling them and resources you can get on that particular planet. Each planet has their own VIP boss which you can take on in the mission called Assassination. Each VIP has a completely different personality, fighting style and they always talk a lot of trash before you fight them and while you're fighting them. Don't be fooled many of these fights are challenging and have phases to them. But once defeated you will get a random piece of a Warframe they have. Defeat them enough times to obtain all the pieces to obtain a new Warframe from your starter.


Captain Vor with a Vendetta

In this game, there are two types of levels your rank of your equipment and your global rank. All equipment and companions can go up to rank 30 which is the max,  you gain experience from ranking up equipment but once it reached rank 30 you can not receive any more for that particular equip and need to switch to something new in order to earn more experience. Once you reach enough experience you can take on what's called a Mastery Rank test.  In these tests, you are taken to a virtual reality room and given specific instructions on what you need to do to pass. If the player is successful you will go up a rank. Going up a rank has a lot of benefits such as the ability to trade with other players, join a syndicate, obtain more powerful weapons/ Warframes,  create a device that mines materials and so on.


The Mastery rank test and rewards.

Gearing up for War

This particular topic can get very lengthy and detailed since there is a ton of information but here is the short version. On your landing craft, the player has access to two very important stations the foundry station where you can create new weapons and Warframes. Creating in the foundry goes by real-time. Weapons can go from six hours to twenty-four hours and a Warframe can go up to four days with the exception of Equinox where she takes an entire week to create. The next important station is the modding station where you can upgrade, sell, or transmutate multiple mods to create a brand new mod.  


How you make warframes, weapons, and gear. You can speed things up by spending plat. I do not recommend it

Mods can be found in missions,  alerts, syndicates and even events. The more you upgrade a mod the stronger the effect is.  Every mod has these three characteristics.  Rarity which determines how rare it is bronze being common and platinum white being the highest,  Drain which is represented by a number and how much capacity it takes up on the equipment, and polarity which has a symbol on it. Match the symbol of the mod on the equipment to make the drain cost in half. You can keep putting on mods as long as you have enough capacity. If you don't think you have enough there are special items in the game that can increase the capacity and lower the drain of the mod. These are key ways of becoming stronger in Warframe.


Syndicates & Revenge

Once you reach Mastery Rank 3 or higher you will be allowed to join Syndicates. Each Syndicate has their own goals, lore, benefits, and enemies.  The main five syndicates are  Steel Merdian who are Grineer deserters instead of following a queen the help protect the weak and fight for what is right. Arbiters of Hexis believe in fighting with honor and seem to know more about the past of the controller of Warframes, Cephalon Suda believes in further her pursuit of knowledge above all, Perin Sequence is all about money and power, Red Veil these guys believe in destroying all those who get in their way, New Loka wants to restore earth to how it was in the beginning and hate the Grineer with a burning passion.


All the syndicates and which warframes they have benefits for

Be careful who you decide to side with, some syndicates work well with one another but every syndicate also has enemies.  And they will send a hit squad to come after you and kill you. However, if you defeat the hit squad they always drop great rewards and A.I (Artifical Intelligence) helpers to help in whatever mission you bring them on.

When you defeat a VIP the player will get mail stating " YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES!"  The more mail you keep getting from this unknown person the higher the chance you will end up meeting them. The lights will flicker constantly your screen will go dark,  a voice will be heard in a rash deep voice and all the doors will be locked.  A strange figure then appears in the room, he is very powerful and can cancel all your Warframe abilities and use any Warframe ability at will.  At this point, you only have one choice to fight him to the death. If he kills you he will then consider his debt paid by your demise however if the player defeats this enemy he can drop some very powerful equipment. His name is the stalker and as his name, he will always be watching your every move waiting for a chance to strike when you least expect it.


Wukong always has to look over his shoulder.

The MMO side

Communication

This game is online only so no offline mode. You will meet a lot of players in this game so ways of communication is key here. You can use a wireless keyboard if you like typing (Those who have this have an advantage in the trading chat), A microphone/gaming headset. You can use the ones that work for a smartphone as long as they have mic included please do keep in mind some expensive headsets/headphones like Bose does not work on ps4. It's not the game it's Sony themselves.  However, if you do not own a gaming headset/ headphones or a keyboard you can use the ps4 controller with no problems.  

When starting out you have three chats which are. Region chat where this is a free for all chat, conversations on many topics happen here, and keep in mind this IS THE INTERNET so keep your expectations very low when looking at this particular chat however you can get help here. Recruiting chat is where people host missions of all sorts, Go here if you need anything specific. The final chat is the trading room and if you are on North American Server this chat is rapid-fire fast like at the stock market. Players here are buying and selling things constantly trading in premium currency Platinum (Need real money to do) for in-game items, this is very common.  Go here if you need to buy or sell something doesn't matter if it's not available anymore someone will have it.


Another feature is when players can join and create clans which are like a group of people working together. If you want to create a clan you get a Dojo where you can name, create rooms,  do research for weapons, items, characters, gear and so on. You can also host a fight club in dojos where player vs player show there skills in a test of dominance.  If you have a taste for fashion you can make your dojo look as awesome as you want. I once saw an upside-down fountain and a staircase made out of giant coins leading to a trading station that had a waterfall and dragons around it. Your limit is your own imagination.


This is dojo room decorated by players of that clan.


Rude Tenno clan trophy room. All those statues are trophies from events.

Is this game pay to win?

No, this game is not paid to win at all. You can get everything in this game for free. However, buying platinum does speed up the process significantly faster to get what you want to be done. A paid player doesn't have a huge advantage over a free to play player. Due to how this game is functions with mods and equipment buying a powerful weapon doesn't mean anything honestly.  Its all about how you customize your equipment and do you have the mods to make it powerful. So here are some advantages of owning Platinum, You can use it to increase your inventory space for weapons and Warframe (Highly recommended above all else!) speed up the development process, buy colors, purchase fashion items (True End Game) Trade with other players.

Events/ Alerts

Alerts come on frequently in this game. Each Alert is sent straight from the Lotus and there is a reward for completing it whether it is in-game currency, resources a helmet for (X) Warframe or possibly a weapon. They only last for a short while. And if you don't have access to the place that holds the alert you can always ask for a Taxi from the recruiting chat/ clan&alliance (Only if you joined a dojo to access clan & alliance)

Events in this game are quite crazy and vary in so many ways. Some are more drastic than others such as a merchant that comes every two weeks selling random equipment or extremely powerful game-changing items such as Primed Flow, Primed Continuity, a golden dual hand cannon pistols, a stylish skin for your spaceship. To insane events like the Formadian which left alone will blow up an entire relay (Space colony of people lives) which will kill everyone there and they never come back. As of right now, we have some ghoul event where the undead is trying to take over the earth but they are dumb. However, they are being led by a ruler who is very calculating.

Lore

There is tons of story and lore here. You can get them from actual quests they go behind the story of the character or previous owner of the Warframe, There are ways to learn about Ortis and who he really was. And there are really good cinematic quests that turn the whole story upside down such as The Second Dream and The War Within quests. Really amazing quests! Also, this game does tie in with the Dark Sector universe which is a game that came out for PS3 and Xbox360. There is a ton of lore here though.

Graphics

Amazing! There not much I can honestly say here a lot of the graphics look really good in the game and some of the tennogen designs have me in awe. Many of them are created by actual players.

Soundtrack

This one is a bit odd to put down. The soundtrack in the game is not great at all but neither bad. However, players can play as the Warframe Octavia who can make her own music however it loops after a while but it gives the player a lot of variety. There was just an update where the players can add music on the ship. I haven't fully explored this feature since many of us aren't even sure how to use it.

Final Score  9/10

This game is simply amazing! The game is ever growing and there are always people playing online at all times of the day.  The story, combat system, and events keep me playing and coming back after taking breaks. This game has tons of features left to explore and enjoy but I can't put all that here cause this review would end up being too long.  If you want a great MMO that's free to play you should install Warframe and give it a chance. It's even better with friends!