Warframe’s current replace helps fast-track new gamers to The New Struggle, and after enjoying it, it is easy to see why. This sizeable cinematic quest is an elaborate showcase of lavish cutscenes, enormous house vistas, and one unimaginable story beat proper after one other. The builders at Digital Extremes are utilizing all of the instruments to make the arrival of Warframe’s new massive bads, the Sentients, a momentous event for his or her years-in-the-making storyline.
Proper from the beginning, it throws you into the footwear of three characters from main factions caught up within the invasion. Beginning on Earth you’re taking management of Kahl, a cloned Grineer soldier who’s simplemindedness is surprisingly endearing. Aboard a spaceship in orbit is Veso, a helpless engineer who makes use of robots to battle for him whereas he takes orders from a laughably unsympathetic overlord who cannot even keep in mind his title. Lastly there’s Teshin, the fan-favourite ninja who carves a path by way of a Sentient ship all by himself.
None of those segments are groundbreaking, nor do they shake the truth that Warframe is constructed atop the bones of a recreation that is virtually a decade previous. Regardless of this, gimmicks like ordering robots round as Veso and juggling elemental powers as Teshin make for a enjoyable twist. Even combating towards the ageing recreation’s limitations, all of those elements serve their narrative function, fleshing out the world and giving new views. Every character will get their very own little arc. Whereas the questline retains issues small and grounded within the moment-to-moment, there’s an enormous variety of areas and characters all through, impressing upon you the sheer scale of occasions. One minute you are taking pictures your means throughout a planet’s floor and the following, you are zipping round a humongous house battle in your personal craft. The New Struggle is an enormous, inescapable occasion.
However all the pieces we have been proven pre-release was virtually a intelligent little bit of misdirection. This conflict is not fought in large battlefields however on a a lot smaller, private stage. Following the search’s first act, the Tenno are on the again foot and left with none of their warframes and even their powers of the void. You are left virtually solely human and intensely susceptible, pitted towards corrupted warframes below a brand new regime. These enemies, known as Archons, are your essential foes over the central chunk of The New Struggle and make for a enjoyable problem when it’s important to battle them with out your typical arsenal. You may sort out them in any order, and every one has its personal little tips to determine and exploit. Whereas Warframe’s age holds them again, I nonetheless had a blast determining the right way to greatest every of them.
The photo voltaic system is a fair darker place in The New Struggle, with bastions of refuge like Fortuna changed into shadows of themselves. A corrupted model of “We All Carry Collectively” is haunting, twisting one of many recreation’s most poignant expressions of its themes into a brand new anthem of subservience. On high of the destiny of the photo voltaic system, you are hell-bent on making an attempt to rescue your mentor/protector, Lotus, and there is a lingering query of whether or not it is each doable and clever to take action. Your character has extra of a presence than ever earlier than on this quest, with a number of spoken dialogue. And with no mentors left to information them, they’re making their very own decisions now. Watching your operator go from a hopeless teen to a maturing, succesful fighter is among the updates’ most compelling elements.
To face an opportunity and set issues proper, you will should name on some pals and forge unlikely alliances. The workforce at Digital Extremes have spoken about how a lot planning The New Struggle represents, and as you play, you positively see that. Even other than the sheer manufacturing worth of its lovingly animated cutscenes and new property, the plotting brilliantly ties collectively dozens of characters and subplots from throughout years of quests. It is thrilling to have a lot payoff stacked in a single storyline with none of it feeling compelled. That is the natural subsequent step for the story.
For all of the foreshadowing that precedes it, the search has various scrumptious twists that some followers will little doubt have already put collectively. Issues get unusual, and I recognize Warframe trusting its viewers sufficient to convey key beats with minimal dialogue and counting on visuals to do the heavy lifting. That I can’t solely observe a storyline that blends collectively rogue AI, psychics, the bending of house and time in addition to alternate realities but additionally stay invested in every reveal, speaks to how a lot work Warframe has picked up through the years. Greater than that, it has picked up super momentum. The New Struggle is firing on all cylinders, pulling all the pieces collectively and charting a course into all new territory. As fulfilling as this story is—and it is crucial story Warframe has instructed so far—it is nonetheless laying the groundwork for what’s to observe. There may be closure right here, although, and a conclusion to at the very least a big chapter of Warframe’s narrative. Catharsis abounds.
Warframe is essentially the most compelling free-to-play recreation obtainable proper now. As I sank hours into this newest replace I used to be frankly dumbstruck at factors pondering how this elaborate narrative journey prices nothing however time to expertise. Loads of video games on the market have extra graphical horsepower, but Warframe nonetheless goes toe-to-toe with gaming’s greatest house operas. There’s nothing in The New Struggle that basically adjustments the way you play it or that may win over anybody who dislikes what’s there already. However for followers and people in search of a grander, stranger sci-fi epic, Warframe is comfortably a heavyweight in the perfect form of its profession.