SPOILER-FREE ONE-STOP-SHOP Review (initially written at ~600 hours in, minor tweaks done ~1000)

It's free. FREE.
There's cats and dogs. That you can have - in your ship, where you can stare at them and coo over their tiny paws stretching out when they sleep. AND you can pet them.

If that's not enough for you, here's more reasons.

As you can see from the amount of time I've spent playing this game, I clearly adore Warframe. As a fairly experienced player, I have to tell you that I do NOT feel experienced at all; I feel fairly confident in soloing and 100-percenting about half of the game's levels. But that's part of the charm. You try something, and it's too hard. So you pull back to where you can play comfortably, and gather resources and create new weapons, and level those weapons and yourself up, until you can try it again and feel better about your odds.

I should also warn you that this game is very addicting. The gameplay is fluid, dynamic, exciting, and intuitive. There are also daily log-in rewards that incentivize you. At about the 300-hour mark, I'd log-in for five minutes. But then I'd remember that I had to pet my dogs (before the animal updates), and then I'd remember that, last time, I was trying to get enough materials to forge a pretty rad pair of swords, and then I'd go play a level, and then I'd play another, and before I knew it, I'd be five hours in.

As far as customization goes, this game has it all. You can change almost every aspect of your character. You can change colors, add attatchments, get skins, etc. Fashionframe is almost as good as Fashion Souls, only hampered by the fact that some customizations are locked behind purchases of either money or an in-game currency that is extremely rare.

There are 21 types. My personal faves are Exterminate (self-explanatory) and Spy (involving sneaking and hacking - puzzle-like and rewarding). Funnily enough, I tend to play Rhino, who, as it sounds, is a tanky behemoth who looks hilarious balancing on a tightrope above unaware enemies. There are a few mission types that are easier with a group, so if you don't have friends to play with, you can switch to global and join a team automatically. If you dislike a certain type of mission, you can join a group to make it easier on you. Or, if you're like me, you try the bull-headed route and try to brute force your way through any type of mission solo. And that's fine. You can really play the game however you want. But screw Excavation, Disruption, and Defection missions. Nobody likes those. Especially if you're new to the game or low-level.

Multiplayer. If you're like me, you just flinched internally. Calm down. You don't need to play multiplayer. You can solo almost the entire game if you spend enough time leveling up, which is my pick. You can play alone, play with a friend/friends, or play with strangers. If you do join a random group and you've spent a respectable amount of time in the game (say, about 600 hours), be prepared to either lead the group, or be shown up by at least one player that is a complete badass ninja and carries the entire team on his or her formidable shoulders.

The combat is engaging. There's nothing better than landing a headshot and blowing an enemy away. Wait, I take it back. There's nothing better than slam-attacking into a group of enemies and taking out them all in a whirlwind of slashing blades. Yeah. So there's three weapon categories - primary weapons, secondary weapons, and melee weapons. Primaries are the heavy-duty guns like sniper rifles and shotguns. Secondaries are pistols and such. Melee is melee. There are so many weapons in the game that you'll find yourself switching to ones you don't use that often just to make a lower-level mission more challenging and to gain those sweet, sweet level-ups. I actually spent a ton of in-game rare currency to expand my weapon storage just to have more of them. And what does leveling up a weapon do? It lets you add mods to it. Mods are these card-like things that you pick up in missions. These can range from simply upgrading your damage, to increasing your clip size and magazine, to upping your critical chance, etc. You can also mod your character, from upping your health, to letting you sprint faster, to being able to aim-glide farther, to letting you jump higher, and much more. I'm not even getting into the crazy stuff. I'll leave that up to you to discover. Oh, and you can customize your weapons, too.

If combat's not really your thing, you can spend hours on end hunting and fishing. Which I have. Particularly fishing. Fishing is my go-to in games like this and Stardew Valley. It's a great way to get resources, improve your aim and peripheral vision, and gain standing with the various factions. There are three planets you can fish on, and each has a unique visual style. Learn the best fishing spots by trial-and-error, or seek an online guide. I've spent hours doing nothing but fishing, because it is a great mix of relaxing and stimulating. Hunting, on the other hand, is more dangerous. BUT, it also has its own rewards.

Standing. I just mentioned it. There are 17 syndicates in the game. There are 4 'cities' that you can complete bounties for (which I almost never do), or you can fish and hunt, and turn in your gains for standing. Standing is used to rank up with the associated syndicates, which gives you access to better rewards. There are a couple 'hidden' syndicates in each city that are much harder to get standing for, like hunting down the big baddies of the area or doing some sweet tricks on your hoverboard. There are also 6 'factions' that you can choose from. Choosing one faction affects your relationship with the other factions; each one has a faction they are allied with (giving you +50% reputation gain with them), opposed with (-50% reputation loss), and enemies with (-100% reputation loss). Upon joining a faction, there are technically 3 ways of gaining standing - completing specified missions marked with that faction's sign, collecting and turning in faction-specific medallions that you find on those marked missions, and wearing that faction's sigil on normal missions and earning standing based on a percentage of your exp gain. I prefer to wear the sigil, but it's super fun to go on a bunch of marked missions, gather a bunch of medallions, and turn in a bunch for the max amount of standing for each day.

Also, the game is seriously pretty, from the particle effect on the abilities, to just the maps themselves. There are many planets, each with their own unique looks and maps. There are overarching themes to the planets based on what type of enemy holds it. For the more intrepid gamer, there's secrets to discover. Your scanner might be more important than you think, just to let you know.

And there's a surprisingly in-depth storyline to follow, full of twists and lore.

Alright. I've spent enough time extolling the game's virtues. As for negatives, the biggest thing I can think of is that it takes a ton of grinding (playing and replaying levels). There are rare resources which you might not come across on a casual playthrough. You'll have only a set number of missions unlocked at a given time, so replaying is something you'll get used to quickly. You start to recognize the maps and rooms, which isn't necessarily a negative; I enjoy knowing the layout and the best spots to hide in/for a quick escape, but I realize some players might not like seeing the same things over and over. If you like singleplayer only, then you'll dislike putting in the hours of extra time to level yourself up, or having to join a team just to get past this one level or boss so that you can get a story arc done or to make it to a level that you CAN do by yourself.

But, again, it's a free game. If you don't like it, just uninstall it. But try it out. What's the harm? You'll figure out pretty quickly if it's something you want to invest your time in.

SPOILER-FREE ONE-STOP-SHOP Review (initially written at ~600 hours in, minor tweaks done ~1000) It's free. FREE. There's cats and dogs. That you can have - in your ship, where you can stare at them and coo over their tiny paws stretching out when they sleep. AND you can pet them. If that's not enough for you, here's more reasons. As you can see from the amount of time I've spent playing this game, I clearly adore Warframe. As a fairly experienced player, I have to tell you that I do NOT feel experienced at all; I feel fairly confident in soloing and 100-percenting about half of the game's levels. But that's part of the charm. You try something, and it's too hard. So you pull back to where you can play comfortably, and gather resources and create new weapons, and level those weapons and yourself up, until you can try it again and feel better about your odds. I should also warn you that this game is very addicting. The gameplay is fluid, dynamic, exciting, and intuitive. There are also daily log-in rewards that incentivize you. At about the 300-hour mark, I'd log-in for five minutes. But then I'd remember that I had to pet my dogs (before the animal updates), and then I'd remember that, last time, I was trying to get enough materials to forge a pretty rad pair of swords, and then I'd go play a level, and then I'd play another, and before I knew it, I'd be five hours in. As far as customization goes, this game has it all. You can change almost every aspect of your character. You can change colors, add attatchments, get skins, etc. Fashionframe is almost as good as Fashion Souls, only hampered by the fact that some customizations are locked behind purchases of either money or an in-game currency that is extremely rare. There are 21 types. My personal faves are Exterminate (self-explanatory) and Spy (involving sneaking and hacking - puzzle-like and rewarding). Funnily enough, I tend to play Rhino, who, as it sounds, is a tanky behemoth who looks hilarious balancing on a tightrope above unaware enemies. There are a few mission types that are easier with a group, so if you don't have friends to play with, you can switch to global and join a team automatically. If you dislike a certain type of mission, you can join a group to make it easier on you. Or, if you're like me, you try the bull-headed route and try to brute force your way through any type of mission solo. And that's fine. You can really play the game however you want. But screw Excavation, Disruption, and Defection missions. Nobody likes those. Especially if you're new to the game or low-level. Multiplayer. If you're like me, you just flinched internally. Calm down. You don't need to play multiplayer. You can solo almost the entire game if you spend enough time leveling up, which is my pick. You can play alone, play with a friend/friends, or play with strangers. If you do join a random group and you've spent a respectable amount of time in the game (say, about 600 hours), be prepared to either lead the group, or be shown up by at least one player that is a complete badass ninja and carries the entire team on his or her formidable shoulders. The combat is engaging. There's nothing better than landing a headshot and blowing an enemy away. Wait, I take it back. There's nothing better than slam-attacking into a group of enemies and taking out them all in a whirlwind of slashing blades. Yeah. So there's three weapon categories - primary weapons, secondary weapons, and melee weapons. Primaries are the heavy-duty guns like sniper rifles and shotguns. Secondaries are pistols and such. Melee is melee. There are so many weapons in the game that you'll find yourself switching to ones you don't use that often just to make a lower-level mission more challenging and to gain those sweet, sweet level-ups. I actually spent a ton of in-game rare currency to expand my weapon storage just to have more of them. And what does leveling up a weapon do? It lets you add mods to it. Mods are these card-like things that you pick up in missions. These can range from simply upgrading your damage, to increasing your clip size and magazine, to upping your critical chance, etc. You can also mod your character, from upping your health, to letting you sprint faster, to being able to aim-glide farther, to letting you jump higher, and much more. I'm not even getting into the crazy stuff. I'll leave that up to you to discover. Oh, and you can customize your weapons, too. If combat's not really your thing, you can spend hours on end hunting and fishing. Which I have. Particularly fishing. Fishing is my go-to in games like this and Stardew Valley. It's a great way to get resources, improve your aim and peripheral vision, and gain standing with the various factions. There are three planets you can fish on, and each has a unique visual style. Learn the best fishing spots by trial-and-error, or seek an online guide. I've spent hours doing nothing but fishing, because it is a great mix of relaxing and stimulating. Hunting, on the other hand, is more dangerous. BUT, it also has its own rewards. Standing. I just mentioned it. There are 17 syndicates in the game. There are 4 'cities' that you can complete bounties for (which I almost never do), or you can fish and hunt, and turn in your gains for standing. Standing is used to rank up with the associated syndicates, which gives you access to better rewards. There are a couple 'hidden' syndicates in each city that are much harder to get standing for, like hunting down the big baddies of the area or doing some sweet tricks on your hoverboard. There are also 6 'factions' that you can choose from. Choosing one faction affects your relationship with the other factions; each one has a faction they are allied with (giving you +50% reputation gain with them), opposed with (-50% reputation loss), and enemies with (-100% reputation loss). Upon joining a faction, there are technically 3 ways of gaining standing - completing specified missions marked with that faction's sign, collecting and turning in faction-specific medallions that you find on those marked missions, and wearing that faction's sigil on normal missions and earning standing based on a percentage of your exp gain. I prefer to wear the sigil, but it's super fun to go on a bunch of marked missions, gather a bunch of medallions, and turn in a bunch for the max amount of standing for each day. Also, the game is seriously pretty, from the particle effect on the abilities, to just the maps themselves. There are many planets, each with their own unique looks and maps. There are overarching themes to the planets based on what type of enemy holds it. For the more intrepid gamer, there's secrets to discover. Your scanner might be more important than you think, just to let you know. And there's a surprisingly in-depth storyline to follow, full of twists and lore. Alright. I've spent enough time extolling the game's virtues. As for negatives, the biggest thing I can think of is that it takes a ton of grinding (playing and replaying levels). There are rare resources which you might not come across on a casual playthrough. You'll have only a set number of missions unlocked at a given time, so replaying is something you'll get used to quickly. You start to recognize the maps and rooms, which isn't necessarily a negative; I enjoy knowing the layout and the best spots to hide in/for a quick escape, but I realize some players might not like seeing the same things over and over. If you like singleplayer only, then you'll dislike putting in the hours of extra time to level yourself up, or having to join a team just to get past this one level or boss so that you can get a story arc done or to make it to a level that you CAN do by yourself. But, again, it's a free game. If you don't like it, just uninstall it. But try it out. What's the harm? You'll figure out pretty quickly if it's something you want to invest your time in.