(GAMES 2014)Warframe.iso

The game is based within our own familiar solar system, its missions chosen from an interplanetary map. Levels are linked together in a spider’s web and clustered around each planet that circles the sun. The story concerns the Tenno, a race on the brink of extinction, and their would-be slave masters, the Grineer. The Tenno are clad in titular Warframes, ancient performance-enhancing exoskeletal technology that only they have the capacity to operate. Many suits lie dormant across the stars, where they must be found or, naturally, purchased with a credit card by those who lack time, patience or treasure-hunting spirit.

Different Warframes suit different styles of play. The Banshee suit, for example, with its sonic attacks and acoustic target detection, favours a stealthy approach, while Saryn’s venomous assaults make it effective against organic enemies, plus it can ‘shed’ its skin to create a decoy. As you quest through the game’s stages with up to three online players, your chosen Warframe class gains experience points, increasing in power and upgrade capacity over time. Likewise, your weapons – two for shooting, one for melee – level up with you, and much of the appeal here comes from the combination of Diablo-style loot drops (better weapons, suits or the materials to craft them) and the long, winding road to showboating power over your peers.