WARFRAME on PS4 - Survival

(For an intro into Warframe, Tutorial Videos and Gameplay, check out these two posts:  
Warframe - a Christmas Present  and Warframe - More Info, More Gameplay) 

Warframe, the very nice F2P-Title available on the PS4 and PC is built around what is called a "tile set". Basically, these are different building blocks that can be mixed and matched to create ever different levels - albeit with the same parts. There are seven relatively unique tile sets, and while you'll often come across familiar areas during your missions, the game keeps it fresh by randomly changing the arrangement - and it's actually quite easy to get lost, because you thought you knew the way.

What's more, Warframe has different types of missions, and in this post, I will take a look at one that, as is my experience playing with randoms, seems to be a bit misunderstood:

SURVIVAL

Logic would dictate, that you'll try to keep your Tenno-ish Deeds unknown for as long as possible when engaging in a mission. An alerted enemy is a tougher enemy, and all that. Not so in Survival. Your goal is to draw attention, specifically away from another Tenno Operative doing sneaky things somewhere just out of sight. The longer you manage to do that, the more sneaky stuff your operative will get done, of course, but that part is admittedly kind-of omitted by the game.

Your Survival is measured in five minute segments, with a five minute minimum to successfully finish the mission, and every additional five minutes netting you increasingly rare rewards. The timer starts after you, hesitantly but intentionally, trigger the alarm, and the enemy will do its very evil best to kill you. Your Goal: Survival! (So, yeah, that was kinda obvious, but I couldn't resist.)

Which sounds not that hard, given that the tile sets come with many handy bottlenecks, where one could set up and dig in. Which is why, simply out of spite, the evil enemy turns off all life support systems. (How do you know they're the evil enemy, by the way? Shutting off life support even for their own guys in order to get to you is a very clear indicator. It's a check mark. A pillar of Evil Enemy-ness.)

With time, quite literally, running out, Lotus, that Cyber-Honey with the Helmet on, manages to teleport life support capsules into your vicinity. For some reason, though, she cannot teleport them all to the same place, but the game did need a reason to keep you on the move, and this one is not as bad as some I've seen.

So what you do, is you run around the level, trying to stay alive against endless waves of increasingly evil enemies, while finding and then activating life support capsules. Life support is constantly draining, and it is in your best interest to keep it above zero. It is called life support. Every capsule you activate increases the life support running time by 20-30% , but the hordes of enemies can get pretty distracting, so don't just start looking for the capsules once you start taking constant damage because there's no more air.
Because once it's gone, your mission is over. Capsules - and the smaller, dropped-by-enemies personal life support modules that regain everyone 4% when picked up - will stop working, your shields and health will drain, until you have only 5 health points left, but even those will go away after five minutes of vacuum (which is quite impressive, really).

On the other hand, don't activate a capsule until life support has drained to around 70% - anything added to over 100% will be lost, and you might come to regret those lost seconds of precious oxygen. Capsule drops will become less and less frequent the longer the mission continues, so you need to find a balance between keeping it up and not wasting any.

After five minutes of running and killing and killing and killing, your extraction becomes available. You'll still have to reach it, but it will be there waiting for you, which apparently seems to be the General Call to Flee for many of the newer players. Granted, once you hear "Extraction", people unaware of Survival's possibly endless mission length, could be forgiven for heeding the siren call of freedom - especially if you managed to net a nice mod for your collection. If you die and fail the mission, everything you picked up (except for the things you "picked up" in way of experience) will be lost, and the way to the Extraction Point will be filled with enemies.
In Survival, enemies will follow you and appear where you are, even if you don't do anything but stand around the extraction pods, waiting for your teammates to do all the heavy lifting and get you some more XP and Survival Rewards.

But still, there's really no reason except "I really need to use the bathroom, RIGHT NOW!" for a team of three or four Tenno to not remain, and last until minute ten. After ten, things might get tricky for newer or lower level players, but for the love of Pete, don't start a 60-second Extraction Timer with at least half of the team waiting near the pods at 8:50 min. Just don't. Do remember, however, that once you decide to bail out, there might be tight hallways teeming with enemies between you and a successful mission. If you get downed, you can be revived or revive yourself (eventually), and if just one of you makes it out alive, it's all good. But if at any given time all players are down, the mission fails and all those nice rewards are gone, gone, gone.

Wow. That was a lot of reading, and in these literally challenged times, too. So, here is a complete Survival Mission in two videos, going strong until minute 20. This is also the "easiest" Survival Mission, but by the end, the enemies are pretty damn tough.

That's me with three Randoms, playing a Level 20 Loki Warframe, toting the Braton Rifle, Sicarus Pistol and the Orthos Heavy Melee weapon. Notable Mods are an Aura Energy Recharge (with a raise in Warframe Mod Energy), a 45% increase in Shield Recharge, 120% Extra Health, and the 30% increased Maximum Rifle Ammo.
And yes, I am that bad. Also, I was not really used to the heavy weapon with its long strike animations, so you'll see me hitting air quite a lot after I actually had wanted to stop striking anything quite some time before...

Warframe on PS4 - Survival Mission Gameplay pt. 1 and 2





For all your PS4 needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...

Warframe - More info, more gameplay

So, as you know, I have been looking into Warframe, lately, and the more I play, the more I enjoy it.

And yet, the more I play, the more I learn, the more I want to share.

As I previously stated, Loki is not my first choice for a starter frame, nor is it my opinion that it's necessarily a bad frame. It's actually quite good, especially when playing with a diverse team, and, once you progress farther into the game Loki can become quite essential - or at least very helpful. Thus it was assured to me by the Warframe Community, and their arguments do have merit.

As you've previously seen some Gameplay with Loki, and since I actually did want to try another frame, I bought a bit of platinum, and got me a Volt. Now, Volt, is a different animal. Volt is offensive and not in the least bit stealthy like Loki. And at least during the first 20 missions, he is quite deadly.

This is some gameplay from an Alert Mission, which is a special randomly occurring event mission, only available for a short time (mostly for 30 or 45 minutes):

WARFRAME PS4 - Alert Mission Mobile Defense


Now, as you can see, Volt can keep his own in this fight, featuring good crowd control and decent defensive abilities. And it is and plays completely different to Loki. Volt is slower, and has no deception or stealth abilities at all. But it is quite fun to play, as you can probably understand. Granted, Volt is especially effective against the synthetic and shielded Corpus enemies, but there's also a Mag Frame in there, that does quite well, too.

Which is something that makes Warframe pretty attractive. Every Frame is almost a completely new game. Mag and Excalibur are two of the more offensive and more immediately gratifying choices for starters, but they are also much easier to come by through the game than Loki. So, ultimately, your choice of initial frame greatly depends on whether or not you plan to spend any money on Warframe. As a US PS-Plus member, you actually get more options, since US PS-Plus nets you a Starter Package with some Mods, an XP and Credit Bonus for three days, 50.000 in game credits (enough to buy two decent weapons, like the Braton AR) and, most importantly, 100 Platinum - enough to buy a second Warframe (either Loki, Excalibur or Volt are available for 75 Plat).

Another thing to think about, is the number of equipment slots you have available. When you start, it's only two Warframe slots and 8 weapon slots. And slots you can only get through Platinum. But there are two ways: Either buy slots separately through your Arsenal-Inventory screen, or buy a weapon or Warframe with Platinum.
Because if you buy with Platinum, you not only get the instant access, but it also comes with a Slot for it, and the weapon or Warframe is "supercharged". Meaning that you have twice the Mod energy available than usual. Mods can only be equipped if you have enough energy, and you get energy by leveling up your weapon or frame. With a "Supercharge" through the Orokin Power Source included in every Platinum purchase (it's already installed, too), you get double the Mod Energy for your level: so a level 10 Frame gets 20 instead of just 10 Mod Energy.
Yes, all of the frames and weapons (even the slightly different Prime Frames and Prime Weapons, although that will require some work) can be gotten through playing the game, and no matter which region you are, you will get some Free Platinum to buy slots, but comparing what you get for the Platinum Purchase (not to mention the free game you get to play), investing a bit might actually be worth it.

Finally, here's some more gameplay, this one sadly with a few bugs showing up, something you will still encounter every once in a while. It's the full first Boss Mission, in a four-man-team, me playing with Volt, so... SPOILER ALERT.

WARFRAME PS4 - Captain Vor Assassination


NEW Videos:

Now we take a look at a little bit of Defense, a Horde-Style, "Survive the Waves and Protect the Thing!" Mission Type.

WARFRAME PS4 - Defense vs. Grineer


Here's some Mobile Defense Gameplay against "The Infested", monster from the deep, spacey beyond... (or maybe they're Mutants. They could be mutants...)

WARFRAME PS4 -Mobile Defense vs. Infested


Finally, some more Mobile Defense against the humanoid Grineer, two parts, one whole Mission, lots of hectic crazy:

WARFRAME PS4 - Mobile Defense Special Alert Mission vs. Grinner



There might be more to come...


For all your PS4 needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...

Warframe - A Christmas Present...

It's Christmas! So, merry, merry, and all that.

Seriously, though. Merry Christmas to all that celebrate, and Happy Holidays to all, like me, that simply enjoy a few free days. I'm trying to be nice here, don't spoil it...

Anyway, since it's Christmas, I thought I'd bring you a little present. Thus, let me introduce you to...

WARFRAME

Fine, okay, I didn't make it. But it's free, so it counts as a present. Because I said so.

Warframe is a Free-to-Play, Sci-Fi Co-Op Heavy 3rd-Person Shooter, and it's available on PS4 to EVERYONE. Yes, no PS-Plus needed. Interested? You should be. Read on and watch the vids to get set with all of the info you need to start out. Because, while Warframe is quite a good game, it sadly does almost nothing to explain how things work. I will try to change that, but, as I've been told, I am not always right. I'm sure that violates a law of nature somewhere, but it is the truth. There's also still stuff I don't know or haven`t seen yet, but since this article is mainly to provide people with a place to put their feet and not be swept away, it should suffice. If you want, head over to the Warframe Wiki, but be warned, the Wiki is mostly for the PC version, which is usually a bit ahead of the PS4 when it comes to fixes, events, balancing and stats. Finally, this is my personal impression and my personal opinion. Nothing more. Maybe, arguably, significantly less, but it is what it is.

What's it about?
I'm not quite sure. You play as a Tenno, which I guess means "Space Ninja" in a language yet to be made. Your goal is to fight back against Evil. Space Evil. Ninja-Style. It all happens in our familiar solar system, but presumably far, far into the future. You shoot and kill baddies. What more do you need to know? Also, there's an in-game codex with lots of answers, if you really want to know...
The Tenno-You wears a Warframe, an exoskeleton. It looks pretty sleek. It also has powers.

There are many different Warframes with many different abilities (four to each) available, but you only get one of three for free. You can choose which at the end of the tutorial mission, so choose wisely. Actually, choose either Excalibur or Mag. Probably Mag. Loki might sound cool, but where almost every other Warframe has a devastating Area of Effect Attack, killing lots of enemies, Loki's "Ultimate" makes all the guns in his vicinity jam. Yeah.
Don't get me wrong. As I have been told by more experienced members of the Warframe Community, Loki is amazing, especially when complementing a steady crew, and even more so in the later, harder missions, but I did choose him, and I mostly felt like that guy that always comes late to the party. So, I'd advise you to choose either Mag - because it is the most expensive to buy if you don't choose it for free - or Excalibur, which is apparently the hardest of the three to get through the game without paying. Of course, all of this becomes moot, if you don't mind spending a few bucks, and in that regard, Loki, Excalibur and Volt are the three cheapest to get.

The Three Choices - well, actually, Volt has been Replaced by Mag, so...

How does it play?
Well. It's a 3rd-Person Shooter. It comes with a primary weapon (mostly a Rifle), a secondary weapon (mostly a pistol) and a melee weapon (you start with a sword). You can aim-down-the-sights, you can jump, dodge, crouch, sprint, slide, grab ledges, wall run and do some nice combo moves. You can use your Warframe powers.
Every Planet of the System has missions, and missions range from Killing all Enemies in a certain level, to assassinating a Boss.
It's best to be played with up to three friends, since the missions, even early on, can get pretty hard. If you want to see some Solo Gameplay, scroll down to the last three videos for a taste of gameplay with horrible commentary. By me.

What's the Premium/Paying Aspect?
It`s not that bad, actually. You can buy Platinum with real money, and use that Platinum to buy new weapons, Warframes, a Robo-Buddy called a Sentinel, new Skins and Resources. You can speed up the building time for stuff that you will eventually build with resources. You can do a lot. And I won't lie to you, it's not cheap. Then again, there are people that threw hundreds of dollars into that Simpsons Build-a-City F2P mobile game, so the audience is there I guess. When you start you get a small amount of Platinum for free (more if you're a US PS+ member), but, sadly, not enough to really buy something good. It's a free taste, and it's useful especially early on for some small stuff, like weapon slots.
BUT, you can get pretty much all of the stuff you can buy by simply playing the game. It will take a while, though. To build stuff, you need blueprints and resources and credits. All of those can be earned and bought without ever spending a dime. But it will take some time to get them. Well, quite a lot of time. Yes, it's a grind, quite literally, but if you have a few friends to play with, it's a FUN-grind. No, I'm serious. This is not a pay-to-win game, but the incentives to buy with Platinum (a free equipment slot and a supercharge to your purchase) are there - and for such a fun game, the devs do deserve something, right?

How do you get to kill stuff?
Anxious, are we? Alright. First, you download Warframe, then go through the update process. As with many F2P games, content is constantly added, so there are mandatory updates.
Then you play the tutorial, choose your Warframe (don't choose Loki unless you're planning on running with a crew, did your Warframe research far beyond what this article provides, plan on playing Warframe for quite some time and really like being stealthy with a rather steeper and less immediately rewarding learning curve), and then you can go on missions. There's only one mission on one Planet available at the start, so once you enter the Main Menu and select "Play", you choose Mercury, Mission 1 and you can start.

There are a few things to be looked at before, though:

First, default setup is to automatically look online for people to play with. You can change that in the lobby by pressing "Triangle" and selecting options from open matchmaking to playing solo. Enemy Strength scales with player numbers, so if you have friends to play with, set your Online Connectability to Private or Invite Only. Having buddies is not only good for fun, buddies can also revive you if you die. If there`s people with you, once your health reaches zero, you bleed out. During bleed-out, your buddies can revive you, while you can still use your pistol to keep the baddies of their backs.
If they don't make it, well, you can revive yourself. You get 4 free revives a day, reset at 0:00 GMT, but if you run out, you can spend a small amount of Platinum to recharge. Since you have a bit of free Platinum already, it's not that big of a deal at first. But it's good to know, especially since if you die and forfeit the mission, you ONLY get experience. Resources, Weapon and Warframe Mods, anything else you picked up will be gone.

Second, there are a few options you might want to look at: Specifically the control options, for inverted y-axis for camera movement (if you're so inclined), and something very, very useful for pulling off advanced wall-running maneuvers. The Video later on will show this more clearly, but in short, if you like to be able to aim while wall running, you need to set "Hold Jump/X to wall run" to OFF.
One more option of interest is the Maximum Ping for open matchmaking. We all hate laggers, and setting this option to a lower value than the default 300ms will alleviate that somewhat. But it will also limit your matchmaking pool, so be aware.
And lastly, the way to activate your powers: either via the touchpad - which requires a certain dexterity if you want to keep moving and aiming while swiping in a direction; or via the D-Pad and then activate it with L1. Both have disadvantages, but you'll have to try them for a bit to really see what they are. Okay, fine, the touchpad can sometimes choose the wrong power to go off, and it's kinda hard to swipe with your index fingers, while the D-Pad and L1 option makes it really hard to slide and adjust your aim. But that's just me.

What now?

Now that you've been through a mission or two, it's time to look a bit more closely at what this game and its features have to offer. But don't worry, enough with the reading, here come my personal intro videos, with horrible commentary. By Me.

First off, is a look into the menus, the Arsenal where you choose your loadouts and the markets:


WARFRAME - AN INTRO VIDEO - THINGS TO KNOW - The Menus and Stuff


Second, here's a look at the Play Screen, the Mission Selection, Mission Types and the different Resources of different Planets:

WARFRAME - MORE THINGS TO KNOW - Missions and Resources


Finally, here's a how-to on doing some of the more Advanced Moves in Warframe. This is especially useful, since the game does nothing to explain all those. This is also where the option change concerning wall-running comes into play.

WARFRAME - MORE THINGS TO KNOW - Advanced Maneuvers



A few Tips:

Of course, this is not all, and there's still so much I don't know about. Like Clan stuff, the Clan Dojo (where you can apparently spar against other clan members, and even do some research for new weapons). Or the freshly introduced Conclave system, allowing you to fight 1v1 or 2v2 PVP. Mod Fusion and Mod Transmutation. Maximization, special builds for special missions. And more.
Still, I know more than SOMEone, so let me leave you with a few tips:

If you like Warframe, log in every single day. EVERY single day, even if all you do is log-in. Why? Because every day you log in, you enter the log-in-lottery. And the more consecutive days you log in, the better the prices get. I once got a Weapon Blueprint for logging in the fourth consecutive day. It's free stuff for a log in. Just do it.

Buy the Blueprints for Team Heal and Team Ammo, and if you can, build a few and carry them around with you on missions. You equip stuff like that in your Arsenal/Gear by selecting an empty slot and choosing the item you want. You use it by holding "down" on the D-Pad, selecting it with the Right Stick and pressing X.

Buy a Codex Scanner from the Market/Gear and scan enemies for some free XP and info on their abilities, resistances, and possible drops, to be perused in the Codex. You need to equip the scanner in the Arsenal, then use it as you use all gear, and scan enemies during missions (for all the info you need to scan the same enemy type multiple times). When used, the scanner is held instead of a weapon, so you aim with L2 and scan with R2 - but you also need to press "Triangle" to change back to a weapon that can actually shoot. The Scanner not only scans, but it also shows you un-scanned enemies and un-scanned storage containers through walls!

Don't play a Rescue Mission Solo unless it's really far below your current level, or you really, really know what you're doing. Also, don't try a Capture Mission Solo with a slow Warframe. Just trust me on this.

Invest some Money in Platinum. Support the people who made this. I'm not talking about hundreds of dollars, but you get a great game to play with friends. And it's Christmas. Let's show some love.


WARFRAME GAMEPLAY - with horrible commentary. By Me.

This is a three-parter of me playing a Solo Capture Mission. It should give you an idea of what to expect. Of course, this is just me playing an early mission Solo. Things get exponentially crazier the more you progress and the more people are involved.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Enjoy! And for more info and more gameplay of Warframe, visit: Warframe - More info, more Gameplay - Yeah. Subtle, I know.


For all your PS4 needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...