Warframe

Warframe is an online-only third-person action game where the player controls ancient warriors called Tenno in a high-tech, futuristic environment. After centuries they wake up from a cryosleep in a war with the humanoid clones from the Grineer Empire, the Infested who are disfigured creatures affected by the Technocyte virus, and the Corpus, a corporation with robots. To fight back the Tenno are equipped with exo-armour called Warframes. The Tenno is the only playable faction in the game. Another group called Orokin also make an appearance for certain missions. They are soldiers from different factions grouped together. Many of the game elements are derived from the original concept of Dark Sector by the same developer, where they were scrapped before release.

Tenno fight with melee weapons (usually a sword) as well as primary and secondary ranged weapons. At the start of the game three different Warframes are available: Excalibur, Loki and Volt. Later on many more become available: Ash, Banshee, Ember, Frost, Hydroid, Mag, Nekros, Nova, Nyx, Oberon, Rhino, Saryn, Trinity, Valkyr, Vauban and Zephyr. They each have access to four different abilities for a distinct play style. Their main statistics differ in maximum health, shield capacity, energy, armour and sprint speed. Warframes and their weapons level up as they are being used and when enemies are killed. This is rewarded with experience points called Affinity. Leveling up increases the power and also unlock mods to customize weapons and abilities. Mods make available deep customization, upgrading the five main attributes or altering the unique abilities. The abilities are tied to each type of warframe and offer both offensive and defensive powers. Cosmetic customization is available as well. Missions are selected starting from a main Origin planetary system. Although it is possible to play solo, the game encourages cooperative gameplay with up to four players. PvP is not supported. The game matches available players together in a squad and they can also vote on certain actions such as the mission. The missions take place in self-contained dungeon-like environments, so it is not possible to encounter other players than the initial team mates. Downed team mates can be revived for a set amount of times. By completing missions new regions are unlocked gradually. Missions can be replayed multiple times as there is a certain amount of randomness based on mutators.

The game is fast-paced and requires quick reflexes for movement (sprinting, jumping, sliding, rolling ... along with some parkour techniques), seeking cover and switching weapons. Enemies often appear in large numbers. There are also small puzzle elements in the environments based on puzzles and a hacking mini-game where a cipher needs to be solved against a time limit. Hacking a terminal can also be required when enemies lock down an area. There are different missions types, such as assassination (killing an enemy boss), capture (incapacitate and capture a target), deception (upload a datamass and escape), defense (defend an artifact against waves of enemies), extermination (defeat all enemies), hijack (take control of a Grin), interception (capture four towers, defend them and eventually kill all enemies), invasion (defeat a faction working together with another one), mobile defense (take a datamass through a number of consoles and fight off waves of enemies), rescue (locating and rescuing a hostage), sabotage (disabling machines), spy (hack terminals and bring back datamasses), and survival (surviving waves of enemies). In addition there are Alert missions only available for a limited time and missions played in a nightmare mode with a tougher difficulty level.

Credits, ammo, resources, and mods are the main items found during missions and dropped by enemies. Credits are spent in a shop to buy new weapons, while a premium currency called Platinum purchased through microtransactions can also be used. Platinum can eliminate the crafting time of weapons (often up to twelve hours) and is used to unlock additional Warframe slots as well. To construct more advanced items and warframes, a blueprint and all of the required components need to be gathered. These can then be forged into a new item in the foundry. Blueprints are found during gameplay or constructed using resources.

A distinct opponent is The Stalker. He appears when a player receives a death mark, obtained after killing certain bosses. There is then a chance that The Stalker will appear in the next mission and taunt the targeted Tenno, distorting the HUD and altering the environment. He will attack the targeted player after three taunts. If he does not succeed in killing the player and has his health drop below 10%, he flees and leaves behind equipment, such as a mod, a resource of a blueprint.

While the base game is free to play along with the premium currency, there are different commercial packs such as Warframe: Initiate Pack, Warframe: Starter Pack and Warframe: Tenno Pack that offer a large amount of currency, mod cards and boosters together.