Warframe
Title: Warframe
Developer: Digital Extremes
Publisher: Digital Extremes
Website: https://www.warframe.com/landing
Genre: RPG, Shooter, Action
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Audience: 18
Release Date: 20/11/18
Price: Free – It does have the option of in-app purchases.
What the Developers say
CHOOSE YOUR WARFRAME
With more than 30 Warframes, each fully customizable with their own unique abilities, you can create the perfect Warframe for you.
ASSEMBLE YOUR ARSENAL
Katanas. Crossbows. Flamethrowers. Expand your Arsenal with more than 300 diverse Weapons, then modify each one to match your playstyle.
EXPERIENCE FAST-PACED COMBAT
Slice and dice through hordes of enemies, or go in guns blazing, or sneak your way in — the choice is yours.
EXPLORE OPEN WORLDS
Explore, discover, fight, and fly in massive open landscapes within Warframe.
FLUID PARKOUR MOVEMENT
Seamlessly leap, slide and glide through capital ships and underground compounds with a robust movement system.
A SOLAR SYSTEM IN RUIN
In the far-future world of Warframe, grotesque clones and capitalist machines dominate our solar system. Fight back against greed and corruption as you explore 18 worlds filled with techno-organic horrors.
SQUAD UP
You don’t have to work alone. Invite three friends or fight alongside the 38 million strong in our Tenno community.
NINJAS PLAY FREE
Warframe is entirely free-to-play. With no barrier to entry, there’s nothing to stop you and your friends from joining our world. Welcome to the Origin System, Tenno.
Introduction
I’m a big fan of action games owning a large library both on steam and other consoles, so to hear the news that Warframe was coming to the Nintendo Switch I was instantly excited! I added it to my watch list immediately and counted down the days til it launched. Even better, I then discovered that it wasn’t just coming to the Switch but I could transfer all of my PC progress to my Nintendo account instant win in my book! Read on to find my initial thoughts after a solid week of playing the sport and if it lives up to what I’m used to on PC.
The game has been converted to the Switch by the fantastic team at Panic Button. They have previous with other titles under their belt that you might have had the pleasure of owning/playing already like Wolfenstein and Doom. The team have done a cracking job, yes understandably there are compromises as with everything on a small handheld such as the switch, but if you told me five years ago, we could play Warframe sitting in bed or a WiFi cafe I probably wouldn’t have believed you.
Looks and Sounds
So after playing for well over a week, how do I feel it holds up on the Switch? Well, with it being on a handheld with limited power in comparison to its original home of the PC, you can tell they had to change FPS and certain elements to enable it to run smoothly. The game still runs at a solid 30Fps, and there’s nothing to grumble about. In docked mode, it sits at the top end of 720p and drops to as low as 540p, but on a game of this scale I was relatively happy with that and expected it. In handheld mode, the lowest it dropped to was around 430p, but even at that frame rate on a small screen, it was still fantastic to play.
The sounds of the game are great with a lot of different enemies/bad guys on cutscenes, and your very own guide the Lotus’ voice is fluid, and it’s one of the very few games I play with volume up most of the way. The ambient music changes depending on what part of the galaxy/ship you are on.
The soundtrack is excellent and includes music composed by Keith Power (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Criminal, and Hawaii Five-0), with direction and mixing by Audio Director, George Spanos and the Digital Extremes in-house sound team.
Gameplay and Replayability
So the game starts you off on a ship and throws you into a tutorial which is both helpful and gets you straight into the thick of what I love about Warframe (details left out as don’t want to spoil the start). You get to choose one of three classes, each with their unique traits. There are over 30 available in the game, and they all have different abilities that can be levelled up with a myriad of different add-ons/mods/weapons etc.
Once you start to go through the Quests/missions, you quickly begin to get a feel of aiming, melee combat with your katana etc. and it starts to become fun and fluid. Each completed mission grants you credits and resources which you need to craft in-game items and this is where the replayability begins to come in. You can unlock everything in the game without having to spend any real money if you so wish, and you gain experience for all of your equipped weapons and Warframes.
With each of these upgrades, different unlocks become available, and different parts of the universe unlock including; major bosses, different types of quests. There is everything from sabotage to rescue, assassinations etc. the list goes on.
Playing Warframe on the Switch is made easy on harder missions as you get to group up with other users in a party of 4. I’ve managed to use my headset to talk to others, but there is also an in-game chat which can be used. This element of the game makes for an enjoyable way to play as I was never without someone else to play with if I wanted to.
It isn’t a chore trying to find players that want to join you in the missions. I’m several missions in and have played with the same players for a few hours with no problems at all. I have also made several new friends from it as well which is always a good thing.
Conclusion
Warframe on the Switch is a definite must play for avid fans of the action Genre and for players who want to revisit a game they had maybe dabbled in before but not got into. With an excellent soundtrack and the great party options/in-game chat, this all adds to the feel of it being a complete title even with it being free to play. I don’t feel the loss of frame rates on the switch affect the gameplay at all and all in all it’s an enjoyable title to play.
I would give this title a 4 out of 5 as sometimes the loading screen takes a little bit of time to catch up when your itching to get into a level and slice up some bad guys. Hope to see you in-game!
Rapid Reviews UK Rating
You can play Warframe now for free on the Nintendo eShop at the following address, https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Warframe-1471859.html#Overview
