My WarFrame Experiance: 01/07/13

[SilverBones]

So I am going to do a couple of summaries over the next few weeks, primarily so I can get my thoughts down and try to give some constructive feedback, but also because it’s nice to see how a game grows and develops. Like many of you, I am deeply thankful to be part of this process of testing and breaking and hopefully our input will create an even greater work of art.

With that said, here we go.

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PROS:

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I have to say, the best part of this game has been the Developer interaction with the community. In the last few days, we have seen a massive increase of players and understandably, the responses to the vast array of questions have slowed. This has not stopped the DE staff from providing us with their comments, their feedback and their time to even the smallest of concerns; an excellent job on their behalf.

The Community itself is filled with some great people; players, PvP and PvE advocates alike, as well as writers, artists and Pro Gamers. I have met some very interesting and friendly people through both the forums and the game and am glad to be part of such a community, so hats off to you all!

WarFrame is both very polished looking and beautiful. Gameplay is as you would expect with some nice touches thrown in. For example, the decompression of certain chambers, the Ninja-like flips and rolls and the guttural grunting of the Corpus combined with sword slashes and Taiko drumming leads to a very atmospheric environment overall. Combat is fast-paced and filled with some excellent, cinematic moves (such as sliding and dismemberment) and co-operating with your team leads to some very satisfying wins, especially against hordes of foes.

The game modes are varied enough to keep the gameplay interesting. The use of procedurally-generated maps also gives the game a sense of newness every time you start a new match. It’s hard to really ‘learn’ maps but there are some sections that seem to repeat enough for you to quickly adjust to the outlaying area. It is a brave and new approach to the TPS world, and it is one I think has been sorely missing. Keeping the installer size low, the graphics rendered beautifully on the Evolution engine and giving a very immersive atmosphere all helps in bring the game forward into an industry front-runner.

The weapons and powers are likewise beautiful to look at, with nice roaring sound effects and a real feeling of weight to them. Excellent job by the sound effects team to make the powers and guns have a nice feel to them. On top of that, the weird distorted barking of the Corpus is one of the most unsettling sounds you can hear in a video game. Good job!

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CONS:

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Unfortunately there are a few glaring issues with the game so far. Firstly there is a lot of talk about the game being a Play2Win style of economy. Although I am not totally in agreement with that statement, it does seem like many of the nicer items are priced oddly. In most games where there is a gap between in-game credits and premium currency, this gap is a little farther than normal. In many marketing tests, there is something called ‘Buyer Tolerance’ that is tested. It basically tests to see how much someone is willing to part with to pay for a service or item. It may be the case that the DE team is performing a similar test, but I think that the bar may have been set to high by their marketing team.

To me this is going to have to be the primary issue fixed for the game to be a success at launch. Many suggestions have been to make all items available by credits and keep aesthetic and non-functional items based on a platinum transaction, much like other Free2Play games. With such changes in their economic structure, I think this could be a fair and rewarding system to pay into.

Variety is an issue too. Although the various guns and effects look beautiful, there really isn’t much cause to by a burst-fire rifle when the Gorgon destroys everything before it. The guns have very basic stats (changed by Mods of course) but there is little enough difference between the weapons – especially the blades – to the point where you pick an item and stick with it until you max it out. The only reason I stopped using some of the weapons I had chosen was to up my rank. However, with a limited amount of slots available to you, selling weapons that you have invested premium currency into stings a little in the wallet. The system only lets you rank up if you keep swapping out these weapons and upgrading them, but premium currency purchases should be a permanent fixture unless being spent on affinity or credit boosters and other consumables. Going pro on an item is not a consumable, or at least should not be considered as such.

Understandably, DE has to make money and needs to charge a fair amount for their items; finding a balance in worth is always going to be an issue at first. Being an early Beta, we have not seen anything like new skins or items, nor the new areas and settings up and coming. All of these things promise to be an excellent addition and should hopefully add another layer of depth to an already beautiful game.

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IN SUMMARY:

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This is a beautiful game with great potential for growth and inclusion of a whole world of ideas. Between the skill of the people behind the engine and Aesthetics – here’s looking at you, Art Director – and the accessibility of the DE staff here on the forums; the game has been expanding in leaps and bounds. When the balance of the monetary system has been addressed and the other bugs are ironed out, this game will be a true masterpiece, of that I have no doubt.

In all, very well done!

Now.... back to being a professional Space Ninja...

Edited January 7, 2013 by SilverBones