Digital Extremes intros free-to-play co-op shooter, Warframe

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104

Digital Extremes, the Canadian studio behind titles such as The Darkness II and BioShock 2's multiplayer, has offered a first look at its upcoming free-to-play first-person-shooter. Expected to go live this winter, Warframe will provide fast-paced PvE (player versus environment) co-op action, allowing you and up to three buddies band together to advance your characters through randomly generated combat missions.

It's said that you'll endlessly improve the abilities of your Warframe, an ancient exo-skeletal technology, as well as other weapons while raiding new areas of space seeking exotic Warframe augmentations and other gear. Because the game randomly configures raids, it should offer tons of replay value. While it's not a true massively multiplayer online game, the developer referred to it as an MMO-lite experience.

warframe

The fiction revolves around a nearly-extinct alien race called the Tenno who have been long enslaved by another alien species, the Grineer. Upon discovering the power of Warframes -- and the fact that they're the only ones who can use them -- the Tenno have an opportunity to escape the shackles of oppression. The press release and accompanying video suggest that Warframes provide high-tech ninja-like abilities.

Although we've only just heard about the title, Steve Sinclair of Digital Extremes says it's a new name for an old concept the developer shelved but kept revisiting. The company feels comfortable pursuing the project now because of the increasingly popular free-to-play model. "Free to play lets us take risks," Sinclair said. You'll be able to play for free, but "enhancements" will be sold in the game's marketplace.

"We've heard for years now that PC gaming is dead. It isn't dead; it just went underground for a few years and is now re- emerging with this massively growing free-to-play market that has matured to the point where the quality of games we're seeing rivals many AAA retail games," said Digital Extremes CEO James Schmalz. "In many ways, we're going back to our PC action-based roots," he continued.

Although the game isn't expected to be available until the end of this year, you can currently register and reserve your in-game alias. Doing so will grant you access to an exclusive weapon when the beta begins sometime this fall. You can secure an earlier beta invite if you're willing to recruit three or more friends. Digital Extremes also plans share more details about a closed beta this summer.

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Starting to personally get tired of f2p games.

So far, Valve's the only one doing it right by keeping the nickle-and-dimeing to aesthetic items only. Pretty much every other f2p game I've tried so far has an option to level-up faster or give you an advantage in battle.
 
@ramonsterns

uhm I think youve been missing out then in the f2p market.

and there is nothing wrong with people outleveling you because they pay. its not like you are going to compete against them after they have leveled... levels are there to sort out the potential of a hero. so a level 50 doesnt have to fight a level 10. so I honestly dont see a problem with "buying levels"

but I have to agree on exclusive items, or Extrme-legendary-golden-pistol. those things just ruin the game for the f2p group.

and another thing, I find it funny, pathetic and sad that people pay for some of those hats. but thats me, I prefer the game over the visuals.
 
Buying levels is no way to play a game,

It's like, if you were playing Halo on Xbox 360 and you had bought yourself the skill rating of 50. You would get your *** handed to you so unless you've really played through before I don't see why you'd take away the practise and jump head first into difficult combat.

I think it's more of a trap for some users on PvP games.
 
@ramonsterns

uhm I think youve been missing out then in the f2p market.

and there is nothing wrong with people outleveling you because they pay. its not like you are going to compete against them after they have leveled... levels are there to sort out the potential of a hero. so a level 50 doesnt have to fight a level 10. so I honestly dont see a problem with "buying levels"

but I have to agree on exclusive items, or Extrme-legendary-golden-pistol. those things just ruin the game for the f2p group.

and another thing, I find it funny, pathetic and sad that people pay for some of those hats. but thats me, I prefer the game over the visuals.

And I find it disgusting people are allowed to pay to have an advantage.

I have never given Valve a dime of my money for hats.
 
[FONT=Helvetica]"We've heard for years now that PC gaming is dead..."[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica]Who said that? Some totally uninformed reporters?[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica]It's not even been underground it's just always been a completly false statement that good medias should just ignored instead of repeating it over on and over PLEASE...[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica][/FONT]
 
"You'll be able to play for free, but 'enhancements' will be sold in the game's marketplace."

Free to play, pay to win.
 
"You'll be able to play for free, but 'enhancements' will be sold in the game's marketplace."

Free to play, pay to win.

Again, this (it sounds like) is a PvE game, so who cares? It's not like you're going to be able to buy an OMGrofflePWN weapon and then just beat everyone else at PvP. Also if it's these people that buy the gear to fund the making of the games to let other people play without having to spend any money, then surely they're doing loads of people a favour.

I'm loving the emergence of all these F2P games and it really is impressive at how advanced they now are (as mentioned in the article, a lot are AAA). This can only help bring PC gaming back to limelight. It also shows that PC gaming isn't that dead or there wouldn't be so much money to develop these sort of games in the first place.

On another note - for anyone looking for a decent truely MMO FPS - check out Planetside 2. The first one was one of the best games I've ever played and I'm hoping 2 will be released shortly (they're just about to start beta testing, I hope I'm included).
 
I haven't played much of the f2p market in the last couple years, but when I did play them a lot it was agonizingly slow to get anywhere w/o shelling out real money. IDK if they have improved on that, since I gave them up several years back for that reason.
 
I dislike peoples attitudes towards f2p. The developers need to make back their money and then some from the game (if its exp bonus', aesthetics, etc). However, when they make it clearly pay-to-win, then I'll join the people bashing the game :p (as it should not be the f2p model if you NEED to pay)
 
"You'll be able to play for free, but 'enhancements' will be sold in the game's marketplace."

Free to play, pay to win.

Again, this (it sounds like) is a PvE game, so who cares?

I care, he cares, your argument is now invalid.

So you're that bothered about what someone does in their own private gaming session?

Sure if it was PvP, whole different story. But for PvE, if someone can "pay to win" but it makes the game F2P and I don't have to spend any money, sure go for it. Everyone's a winner.
 
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