Home Game Reviews 3 Reasons Why I Should Hate Warframe

3 Reasons Why I Should Hate Warframe

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Warframe ticks nearly all of the boxes next to today’s trend of turning games into services. Of which we, needless to say, disapprove.

Whenever there’s something called ‘Market’, we usually run. Normally.

The Grind

All of these, what one may call games-as-a-service, have one thing in common. You see, other ‘old-fashioned’ games reward play with just that, you know, play. But games-as-a-service, in an attempt to last as long as possible, most of the time over the line of remaining actually fun, have to incentivize your time with them. We are, of course, talking about loot.

Coupled with ‘rarities’, the ruthless rule of RNG over much of all its acquisition, and the fact that it usually comes with player performance advantages, loot has basically mandated grind in these games. Well, until some clever fuck comes around and charges you real-world money to skip the… effort.

Warframe does grind, a lot of it. And I don’t mind.

Activities outside Warframe’s party piece—the combat—are plentiful, yet they never drag or seem to bore.

Bullet Sponges

Cosmetic loot is one thing. Loot that provides the aforementioned in-game ‘performance advantage’ is another. One has to design one’s way around performance loot, and the most obvious thing for shooters is making enemies sponge bullets.

Let alone the fact that seeing a dude take ten shotgun blasts straight into their ugly face and still stand is immersion-breaking. It’s how stupid and arbitrary it feels. I really, more often than not, tend to feel like a moron being taken for a ride.

Warframe does bullet sponging, a lot of it. And I don’t mind.

Progress bars and real-time hours. At least Warframe does them for free.

Real-Time

I understand and appreciate that there’s got to be some trade-off in free-to-play games. And, frankly, I don’t have an issue with something like waiting or paying in general. It’s the tie-ins to real time that hack me off to no end: companions’ State of Decay, the Void Trader appearances, the always-online requirement, and even, to an extent, Alerts.

When I first discovered this built into Warframe, I immediately recalled State of Decay. I loved the State of Decay (and yay! we loved the sequel – State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition a lot as well). Until I found that time in the game passes along with the real-world one, even if you’re not playing. Much like no video game should ever see you idling; no video game should ever be passing the time when you’re not playing. Never. Ever.

You see, something like Elite: Dangerous does all of the above, and I absolutely detest it for it. Warframe does it, too, and, surprise, surprise, I don’t mind—not one bit. I’ll see you where I tell you why in a bit.

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