Warframe

Genre: Third-Person Action

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Online)

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS

Warframe is a Free-To-Play Third-Person Action game, and while I include the warning at the start of this article about microtransactions, in this case I credit the game with being pretty reasonable about things – this is a pretty major release to just give away for free, and the microtransactions are largely used for unlocking additional characters beyond the initial one you choose, and those you can get via other means during the course of the game as well. There’s also expanded inventory slots you’ll need to pay for if you want, but again, kinda’ understandable since the base game is free. In short, I’m saying that while this game does use microtransactions, I don’t think it’s being sleazy about it.

In this game, you take the role of the titular Warframe, an autonomous humanoid war machine awoken from slumber during an assault on a facility for nebulous reasons. The game kinda’ throws you right into the thick of things without much explanation about who the characters are or what the story is with the world they inhabit, and you’re expected to more or less pick things up as you go along, which can be a bit disorienting.

Players will get both melee and long-range attacks to use against enemies, as well as the ability to use stealth and character-specific powers. Controls in the game take a little getting used to, in part because your character moves really fast, and zipping around the levels with the camera right behind you can be a bit… again, disorienting.

The game gives players various customization options for their character, allowing you to change out your weapons, or focus on boosting your speed, your melee strength, health, and so on. In addition, the game includes a crafting system, along with various components to collect through the levels you’ll be running through.

I quickly found that it seemed like I did more damage with melee attacks, and took to running from enemy to enemy, slicing them up with my sword. As a result, the gameplay I played through was a bit simplistic, but still fun.

And imagine my surprise when suddenly, without warning, I was joined by another player. By default, the game is set to allow anyone to join, and you have to go in and change settings if you want multiplayer to remain invite-only, or if you want to play solo.

Which… kinda’ brings me to one of this game’s bigger problems. It’s clear that this game was designed with online multiplayer in mind. You and up to three other players head into a level, fight off enemies together, and raid all the loot, that sort of thing. It does this well, but it’s clear that the Nintendo Switch is not the ideal place for this sort of thing – it’s the sort of game where you’d want to communicate with teammates, and while the game does thankfully let you use the headphone jack to use a headset, you’re not going to be doing that in docked mode.

What’s more, this version of the game clearly suffered a graphical downgrade. It still runs at a decent 30fps, but the textures are really muddy and ugly in this version. On top of this, while this is clearly personal preference, I found this just overall to be an ugly game in terms of design.

Still, what we’re talking about here is still a solid online multiplayer game that is free to play and pretty reasonable about its microtransactions. If you want a good action game to raid enemy bases online with friends and don’t have another good game machine to play it on, Warframe is still a solid title on the Switch. If you do have another platform to play it on though, you’ll be better off playing this anywhere else.

tl;dr – Warframe is a Free-To-Play Third-Person Action game that actually does the “Free-To-Play” part right, and provides a good multiplayer online experience for up to four players, albeit one that’s disorienting for newcomers. However, the Switch is not the most ideal place to play this game, and if you can play it on another platform, you’re better off playing it there.

Grade: B

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