Hello and welcome to Rock Paper Shotgun!
Exciting times are afoot in Warframe, as the big Fortuna update fast approaches.
It's due for release in November and I was given a tour of its new open world area, Orb
Vallis, and shown some new features.
If you've already seen our Fortuna video from Tennocon, this footage shows off some
of the ideas more clearly and we've got loads more info on everything from hoverboards
to bounties to the new warframe Garuda and her magic wall of blood.
Which is as awesome as it sounds.
Lots to get through, so let's jump on the k-drive and do it...
Say hello to the Orb Vallis - if you can defrost your lips to talk, that is.
Considering this is on the surface of Venus you might find the frosty climate a bit unusual
- the average temperature is meant to be 464 degrees celsius.
But in this fictional universe, the planet was visited by the Orokin - basically the
Roman Empire of Warframe - who terraformed it with coolant towers.
These went haywire and turned it into a permanent winter.
Might be a potential solution to earth's own ecological woes.
Having shown they could handle open world areas in Plains of Eidolon, the aim here was
to create a planet with some Orokin flair - the mixture of fantastical nature, like
forests of giant mushrooms - and huge alien-made structures looming on the horizon.
Whip out your trusty arcwing and you get a sense for how massive the space is, but also
how much more varied it is than the last area - a world that put the plain in plains.
As I watch this footage I'm actually reminded of what Bioware are trying to do with Anthem
- flying over these incredible mountain peaks really does look as epic as that game's
jetpack-powered fun.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more Anthem's Javelin suits begin to look and
behave like Warframe's Warframes - the big difference is that this is free to play.
And Anthem isn't.
There are also vast cave networks hidden beneath the surface - these hide unique ecosystems,
which means you can find rare species of animals and fish - more on them in a second.
There are even hoverboard race courses that take you through them, which sounds like a
recipe for concussion to me.
All this is good, but I'm more interested in seeing a world that feels more like a world
- all the activities aside, I think there's going to be a sense of discovery here that
I never quite got in Plains of Eidolon.
Also, if Plains were a playground for the Grineer enemy faction, then Venus is all about
the Corpus.
Think of an evil capitalist robot army stripping the universe of its ancient technology.
They've mined giant bases deep into the landscape where they extract the secrets of
the Orokin and do experiments of local wildlife.
It really is a crime to deface an ecosystem as impressive looking as this, so go inspiration
to smash them up/
What better way to stick it to capitalist pigs then, er, fishing.
Yeah, that's right, I'm going to take all your robot fish.
That'll teach ya for oppressing the people.
Unlike Plains, the fish here are made of metal, so traditional spear fishing is swapped for
an EMP based version.
You sit on the bank, target a mechanical mackerel and throw your spear - this time you have
to hit the Pulse marker on a swing meter to zap the fish and grab it.
Unlike flesh fish, these aren't rated on size, but are valued based on how much you
damaged them during retrieval.
Look at that beauty!
That's the best robocod since James Pond.
There are 14 species of fish to hunt at launch but the activity is not as necessary to progress
through the wider area as it was in Plains of Eidolon.
Sounds like it can be more of a hobby, which is a jolly way to spend a few hours.
If you prefer your animals with a bit more meat on their bones you can also take part
in conservation missions.
At launch there are five species to rescue from the Corpus, which involves finding a
location you can lure them from - the hunting interface at the top of the screen tells you
if one is nearby.
Once at the spot you call to the animal with an echo lure - you need to use this to replicate
their call and convince them that you are a small fluffy animal and not a seven foot
tall death machine.
Successfully trick those dumb beasts and you can sneak up and tranquilise them.
It looks like a nice change of pace from the endless murdering elsewhere, more focused
on stealth and creeping through the weird landscape.
As fun as EMP spears and echo lures are, I imagine the thing most people are here to
see is the K-Drive - Warframe's answer to the hoverboard.
The board is given to you by ventkids - a gang of orphaned mini Banksys, who live in
the city below and make a terrible racket with homemade drums.
It's a good thing you can go to the surface to get away from the noise.
What with Orb Valli's vast size, the K-drive is a necessity to get from A-to-B, although
riding it does let you perform tricks which earns you standing with the ventkids - they're
basically a small side syndicate with their own K-drive gear and mods to purchase in exchange
for impressing them.
A little trick meter in the bottom corner makes you think Warframe is turning into Tony
Hawk's in space - the only place he's allowed to skate after stinking up earth with
the dreadful Pro Skater 5 - but the systems are much friendlier than those games.
You are magnetised to rails for easy grinding, and tricks are more about flourishes as you
thunder forwards at speed.
As you unlock more boards and mods you'll be able to go even faster, which is an enticing
reward.
Find a ventkid out in the wilderness and they'll challenge you to race a fixed course - hitting
light gates along the route doesn't look to tricky, but performing tricks lets you
propel your board over impossible gaps for even better times.
It's nice to see Digital Extremes making better use of all that space they've built
- an open world is meaningless without fun to fill it after all.
You will also be able to use your K-drive in plains of eidolon, but when i ask the team
if they'll be adding races or the ability to earn ventkid standing there, there is no
clear answer.
Things tend to evolve in Warframe to fit the fan interest, so I guess we'll see if the
k-drive scene really takes off.
The meat of your time on Orb Vallis will be spent doing bounties - these are the grindy
meat and potatoes of the open world that earn you standing with the Solaris United, who
are the workers trapped in debt to the Corpus.
Bounties change in a couple of really smart ways.
For starters, you can now collect bounties out in the open world.
You don't have to return to Fortuna as you had to return to Cetus in Plains of Eidolon.
Once you are out roaming you can keep on roaming and racking up those tasks - well, until you
hit the standing cap for the day.
The bounties themselves are a bit more freeform - it's still a lot of kill X of X, but you
can do them anywhere in the map, not just in fixed areas dictated for no real reason.
They'll also have bonus objectives for bigger rewards - in our demo the bounty is to kill
thirty enemies, with a special pat on the back if you do it in less than three minutes.
Okay, these aren't world changing ideas, but anything to give the grind a bit more
energy or motivation has to be welcomed.
If you're a new player, coming to Warframe fresh, you should be able to get to the fun
quite fast, too - once you arrive at Fortuna - Venus is the third planet in the game, so
you'll get there pretty quickly - there's a quick introduction bounty and then there'll
be enough bounties to earn what's needed for the basic gear.
Your spear and conservation goods should be with you soon.
Warframe has a reputation for eating hundreds of hours, but you should be able to get a
good feel for what's here in decent time.
This next point is not specifically tied to the Fortuna Update - its release dates are
still up in the air - but let's quickly talk about the Warframe used during our demo.
This is the 37th Warframe to be added to the game, called Geruda.
In the team's own words, she has a 'bloodmage meets gore' theme.
What this translates to is a rather sinister character whose entire moveset is about about
blood - not just spilling it, but using it for herself.
Her first ability, for example, grabs an enemy, tears them in half and sucks their blood into
a shield that blocks incoming damage from the front.
When you grow bored of a shield made of your enemies blood - not that you'd ever grow
bored of that - you can throw the blood back at other enemies.
Imagine how cross you'd be if someone threw your friend's blood at you.
I'd be really cross.
She can also consume half her own health pool to cover herself in blood - it gives her extra
energy to use for her other abilities and also boosts her damage, as her attacks get
stronger the less health she has.
It's a risk reward mechanic that is nice balanced by her second ability that causes
a giant spike to impale enemies and start bleeding them dry, turning it into health
for anyone who stands in the nearby radius.
So the art to mastering Geruda hinges on balancing health and power, judging when best to take
that hit and when to replenish.
It looks like devilish fun.
And if that's too subtle for you, you just need to whip out her ultimate attack which
surrounds her with a mass of rotating blades.
She basically becomes a walking blender, churning up anything she comes in contact with.
Time for a special Corpus-themed episode of will it blend.
The answer: of course it'll blend.
It will blend horribly.
As I said, it's not guaranteed that she'll turn up alongside the the Fortuna update - but
all that bloody red would look wonderful against the crisp white snows.
There are lots of other features due in Fortuna - many of them covered in our earlier video
- there's a link in the description.
As well as all this good new stuff there's the city of Fortuna itself, where you can
piece together secondary weapon kit guns - which is a ranged riff on the modular melee weapons
you build on Ceetus.
Or there's the option to build your own MOA, a bipedal mini mech that helps out in combat.
In a delightful touch you can install an emotional core to change their personality as it appears
in sounds and animations.
Don't know about you, but I fancy owning a really sensitive killing machine.
There's also the planets alert system that raises the more carnage you cause - the more
havoc you make, the higher the level and the more enemies spawn.
You can slow down the alert rise by shooting the alert markers as they call in guards,
but to become truly safe you'll need to break out of combat and cool off somewhere
safe.
Very GTA.
There are also the orb weavers - the giant robot spiders that lurk on the planet's surface.
We didn't see these in the footage, but these act like the giant Eidolon creatures
in Plains of Eidolon.
Although we've not seen the spiders in combat.
At launch you'll only be fighting three spaller species, and then the big daddies
will be introduced down the line - apparently they require teamwork and a hint of subterfuge
to bring down, which is an intriguing description.
I wonder if we'll end up boarding them like the Scarabs in Halo 3.
That would be amazing.
But all this is yet to be investigated in full - which won't take that long as the
Fortuna update is due to arrive in November.
We'll definitely be digging into it when it does, so please do subscribe if you enjoyed
this video or found it useful.
If you have any questions about what we saw and heard, do pop them in the comments and
I'll be sure to answer to them.
Now i better get back to daydreaming about k-drives and giant robot spiders.
Hopefully see you soon.
Bye for now.
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