I have been making an attempt to work out if I am eager on Soulframe solely as a result of I really feel responsible about lacking the boat with Warframe. I reviewed Digital Extremes’ hit free-to-play shooter in 2013, again when individuals have been nonetheless calling it a non secular successor to the developer’s boomerang-throwing motion recreation Darkish Sector. I did not like Warframe a lot on the time. Suppose I gave it a 6/10. Warp ahead a decade, and that 6/10 recreation has turn out to be a thriving reside service phenomenon – fifteenth on the Steam Most Performed charts on the time of writing, and worthwhile sufficient to spawn its personal annual TennoCon expo. It is also turn out to be an intoxicating, complicated morass of dynastic sci-fantasy politicking and genre-shifting expansions, starting from capital ship mechanics to questions of time journey, wrapped in layers of cosmetics that make Future look about as vibrant as Gears Of Warfare.
I undoubtedly did not see all that coming. I doubt Digital Extremes noticed it coming both. Warframe in the present day appears like a lab experiment run amok. I like its urge for food for novelty, however there’s lots for a returning participant to make amends for and, frankly, it appears like homework. As such, I had a few broad motivations for taking part in Soulframe’s pre-alpha “prelude”: I am eager to see what Digital Extremes can do once they aren’t encumbered by 10 years of world-building, and I need to get in on the bottom ground earlier than they completely swamp this factor in updates.
The query is whether or not Soulframe will develop in fairly such a chaotic method, on condition that – as I’ve considerably belaboured in earlier articles – it appears like a response towards the sheer busyness of Warframe. Proper now, it is a quieter, slower action-RPG set in a storybook fantasy realm, the place you play an outcast warrior battling a military of ecocidal imperialists on behalf of kindly/monstrous Mom Nature. The prelude quests and areas see you rescuing varied garrulous ancestral spirits, who then function blacksmiths, archivists and the like in a conveyable campfire dimension, the Nightfold, which you’ll entry in every single place by flopping backward via the veil.
The prelude takes place in a coastal open world space, the place you may presently discover scattered enemy campsites, ruins with treasure chests, and a few bigger castles or cities. Beneath the open world lurk “residing” dungeons created utilizing procedural era, which presently encompass mildly mazey sunken cities linked by cyclopean passages, the place the encircling stone often shifts and splits as if in ache. Looking these areas for weapon blueprints and crafting supplies is a spotlight, however not an overwhelming one. I’ve spent most of few hours within the prelude considering the foliage, following my magic sparrow waypointer towards promising silhouettes on the skyline, listening to pleasant ghosts say bizarre shit about previous kings, and moving into leisurely fights with varied knights, archers and enslaved magical animals.
Soulframe has splendid environment. The prelude space is a sleepy paradise of wooded crags, winding brooks, thatched roofs and parapets. It is a spot of thick daylight and vapour: there is a full day-night cycle however it all the time appears like daybreak or nightfall. Whereas nowhere close to as rewarding to discover, the panorama is paying homage to Elden Ring‘s early Limgrave stretches each within the golden atmosphere and within the presence of aimless invading troopers, who’ve arrange toxic braziers and clockwork gargoyles that fill the streams with quicksilver.
The costumes and interiors share Warframe’s opulence, with quilted material capes and armour that appear extra applicable to a harvest ritual than battle, however the opulence is comparatively contained – at this stage in improvement, anyway – which provides particular person items an opportunity to impress (I actually love my cape). There’s additionally not lots of people round on the minute, however the “Ode” enemies you combat have an amusing character, squawking at you of their harsh, theocratic jargon as they advance brandishing curved swords and maces.
If the staging is dreamier – your character visibly rises from pastoral slumber each time you log in – the melee focus is what actually units Soulframe other than Warframe. The fundamentals are fundamental: mild and heavy assaults, a block and parry and a dodge. However they’re persuasively executed, with a discreet autolock that has but to wrongfoot me, and a few muscular, sleek animations that make a well-timed counter really feel appropriately triumphant. Little touches promote it: once you defeat a warhound, there is a nifty context-sensitive transfer the place you knock away its helm to permit the beast to run free.
Apart from performing combos, you possibly can lob your blade and name it again to your hand Thor-style, a superheroic flourish that additionally enables you to slice cables to drop chandeliers and the like on approaching goons. You additionally get magic talents (inexhaustible, however with a cooldown) within the form of three spell slots, with choices starting from a forcefield to a linear earthquake spell that appears like bowling at skittles. One other little contact: when exiting spellcaster mode, your magic orb tumbles to earth behind you with a dink and dematerialises.
Precisely which magic you get is decided alongside together with your stats by your alternative of supernatural Pact, which you’ll swap out and improve at any level by flopping backward into the Nightfold. I’ve performed with two Pacts to this point, one geared for stealth and sorcery, the opposite for no-nonsense stabbing and resilience. I think about that, as with Warframe’s warframes, the builders will keep on including to their quantity whereas carving off different bits to promote as cosmetics in the midst of Soulframe’s voyage throughout the tumultuous waters of reside service.
Talking as no nice fan of reside service video games, I am to see how Soulframe evolves because it opens as much as increasingly gamers (the sport appears to be within the throes of a really drawn-out gentle launch, with extra individuals being added to the prelude as time goes by). What I would like from it proper now’s higher intrigue: specifically, deeper, extra purposeful dungeon and damage design than the visually enveloping however functionally bland choices within the prelude. I would like areas on par with Sen’s Fortress in Darkish Souls.
Past that, it may be fascinating to match Soulframe’s evolution with that of Warframe. In any case, it has the information of Warframe’s evolution to study from – will it pursue related wild reinventions, or are the basics sturdy sufficient this time that Soulframe can gestate extra elegantly, maybe boringly? How a lot of what I’ve written above will maintain true in a decade’s time? Assuming RPS hasn’t disappeared beneath the ocean by then, will another author introduce a preview by admitting that they really feel like they missed the boat with Soulframe?
