Warframe (Part One) ~ All You Need to Know About Games

Set within my sights this time around is a game going by the name of Warframe.

Made by Digital Extremes, Warframe appears to be a free-to-play, third-person shooter kind of video game much like Ghost Recon Online. However, quite unlike GRO, the storyline theme built here gives off a more space sci-fi kind of feel rather than the modern-futuristic one.

And as far as I can tell, from what little is being mentioned on the main site, the game is presently in open beta and its gameplay seems to be mostly focused upon co-op missions, pitting the players against masses of enemy AI mobs...which frankly speaking, vaguely reminds me of Phantasy Star Online 2.

But just how much of a resemblance is there and how good of a game is this "Warframe"? Let us find out...

The Download

While the downloading of the game client mostly goes without a hitch, I do have to warn you of a tiny potential pitfall. And this is especially important if you have a slow internet connection, which would require that you take hours to download the 5.37 gig client, or is planning to close the launcher to resume it at a later time.

If that's true, then you might want to first access the launcher settings (like as shown above) and uncheck the "Bulk Download" box before you get too far off into the downloading process.

This is because, with the "Bulk Download" box checked by default, the game launcher doesn't seem to want to "resume" your download of the game but will rather throw it all away and start over again whenever you restart the launcher. (Think I was lucky and only lost about 500 mb worth of downloading time when I fell into this "trap".)

Anyway, if you've unchecked this box, then there shouldn't be any more problem whatsoever with resuming your game downloads.

During your download, do not try to check or uncheck this "Bulk Download" option. It will cause you to lose your entire progress as it requires the launcher to download vastly different files, I believe.

Character Creation and Customization

When first logged in, instead of the usual character creation screen, players will actually be presented with some sort of simple "tutorial" instead.

In this tutorial, they will be guided on the basic mechanics of the game, like how to move, jump, wall-run and attack using their weapons or skills. And upon completing the tutorial, they will then be asked to choose their very first "Warframe", out of the three given ones, before finally being thrown out into the game world (which is just some kind of game lobby, to be honest).

And as far as warframe choice is concerned, you don't have to worry too much about it over here, at this point in time. Just choose the one who's description you like best will do for now.

Customization of Appearance

As all the different warframes can be acquired/collected by just about anyone eventually (if the conditions are right), one's "character customization" or "individualism" within the game is actually down to the modifications of the warframes' outward appearances...and perhaps the weapons that one prefers to use.

Leaving the weapon choices aside (for the time being), in terms of outward appearance, a warframe can be altered and made to look different in two ways.

By Visual Mods

These visual mods are categorized into specific types that can be applied to different areas of your warframe...such as its head (helmet), its body pattern and even additional attachments to make it look cooler or more awesome. However, I'm afraid that the majority, if not all, of these mods can only be obtained using "Platinum", a real-life cash-bought only currency that is tradeable within the game.

As such, for free-to-play peeps, your only options are to either forget about these entirely or work hard enough to sell rare stuff in exchange for those much needed "plats".
By Color
Alternatively, for the poorer players, one is also allowed to personalize their warframes by clever usage of colors.

If one chooses carefully, the right mix of colors for the primary, secondary, tint and energy options, one can actually come up with very different looks (and feel) despite it being the same warframe.

But again, sadly, the wide range of color palettes that the game has to offer will only be available if you have the right amount of plats. If you don't, then the only colors you have for selection will be the tiny 20% of the "Classic" palette.

Luckily though, these palettes (I believe) are unlock once only (for each color palette or set of colors) and so after you've bought them, you can use it to alter the colors of all your acquired warframes, weapons as well as sentinels.