F2P of the Month: Warframe

Only the Tenno can wield their power...

Background: 
Warframe is a free to play game released on March 25th, 2013. It was published by Digital Extremes Ltd. Now let's get past the boring stuff.

The plot:
The plot of Warframe is pretty much as follows: There are ancient weapons created by the inhabitants of the Old Earth - the Warframes. These Warframes are so complex and hard to master, that only well trained warriors can wield them. These warriors are known as the Tenno. However, the Tenno are nearly extinct. The Grineer, a bloodthirsty alien race, seek to find and destroy all of the Tenno and take over the galaxy. Only a few Tenno are left... and they're not going down easily. Guided by the mysterious Lotus (think Borderlands 1 and Angel, it's similar to that), the Tenno seek for an ancient location that beckons them to come.

So naturally, you play as a Tenno, and you fuck things up. Obviously. I mean, there's a pretty good story here for a free to play game, but that's probably not why you'll be playing it. No, that'd be the gameplay...

The gameplay:
Let me start by saying this - Warframe is badass. It's a third person cover based shooter, but it's really so much more than that. Yes, there is a lot of cover shooting. But you're also a fucking cyborg ninja. So naturally, you wield a sword. And yes, you can do all kinds of crazy stuff with it. You can run up and down halls slicing enemies up and down, left and right. You can do a crazy dash move that is basically right out of an anime (as in, you dash past your enemy, and they get cut. It's great). There's jump slice attacks, down thrusts, and so much more. Except it takes a million years for you to really unlock anything without paying for it.

Here's my problem with free to play games - microtransactions. Yes, I understand they have to make money off of their game somehow. But that shouldn't mean the game is super limited unless you buy experience boosters, weapon unlocks, and other things that shouldn't be difficult to unlock by just playing the game. Microtransactions should give you a boost, or cosmetic stuff (skins, hats (lol TF2) and the like). It shouldn't be the main way for you to play the game. Rant over.

The game handles pretty good; I never really found it hard to hit an enemy with my gun or sword, which is always pretty nice. Honestly, I was really surprised and taken aback with how well the game controls. I'd say if you enjoy playing PC third person shooters (because I know sometimes they can be a little wonky to control with a keyboard/mouse combo), you'll feel right at home.

Visually, the game is fairly impressive, but my computer sucks ass so I can't really say too much about it. However, even at low settings it looks nice, taking into consideration that I didn't have to pay for it. It looks better than games I've paid for in recent years, which I feel says something about triple-A releases, but let's not get into that (soon it'll be "pay $15 bucks and receive the HD texture pack!"). The audio aspect is alright, but I find that the music gets repetitive after a while, and the guns sound kind of weak. But again, free game, so I can't gripe about it too much.

The game IS multiplayer, but either I'm unlucky or no one really plays it because I had trouble finding games with other people. However, it's still fairly easy to play by yourself.

The verdict:
For a free to play game, Warframe isn't bad. I'd give it a 3.5/5, and I'd say try it since it's free. It's on Steam, and isn't a very large download.