I
t’s a surreal
experience to spend
hundreds of hours
confined to
Warframe’s
procedurally generated corridors,
only to step out into the massive,
frozen wasteland of Orb Vallis. It’s a
winter wonderland of new enemies
to kill, resources to harvest, and
cute monsters to capture as part of
Warframe’s Fortuna expansion.
Released in November, Fortuna is a
transformative update that once
again sees Warframe boldly step
into a new direction from the
claustrophobic free-to-play loot
shooter it started as back in 2013.
It’s a direction I hope to see Digital
Extremes stick to, because Fortuna is
one of the best updates Warframe has
ever received. This isn’t the first time
Warframe has dipped its cybernetic
appendages into the open world
coolant, but Fortuna significantly
improves on just about every core
feature of the previous Plains of
Eidolon zone. It’s less grindy, adds
more varied activities, and is a great
deal less buggy too.
Before you can go romping
around Orb Vallis, though, you need
to win the trust of the Solaris who
live there. These cyborg slaves are
forever indebted to Nef Anyo, a
hypercapitalist overlord that is using
them to work the terraforming
machines that turn this slice of
scorched Venus into a shimmering
tundra. But Nef Anyo isn’t a
benevolent leader. The Solaris are
trapped in a cycle of debt and are
interned in a colony called Fortuna
where they live in fear of having their
robotic implants forcefully
repossessed. Naturally, it’s up to space
ninjas like us to doll out some much
needed justice for these folk.OUT ON THE TOWN
Despite the bleak setup, Fortuna is a
lively place, and one that I’m happy
to return to between missions. The
new characters are quirky, and the
chain gang song they sing has been
stuck in my head for weeks.
Fortuna acts as a hub where
players can socialize and unlock the
new features that make exploring
Orb Vallis so fun. Easily the coolest of
these are the K-Drive hoverboards,
which combine Warframe with Tony
Hawk’s Pro Skater. While you can still
use your flying Archwing to get
around, it’s more fun to ride these
hoverboards that turn every rock
formation into the MegaRamp from
the X Games. There’s just something
so cool about grinding a coolant pipe
as an exosuit-wearing cyberninja.Fortuna’s other features are just as
fun. Players can find bits of animal
tracks that they can follow that lead
you to the stomping grounds of Orb
Vallis’ fauna. Using lures, you then
play a game of call-and-response with
the critter to lure it out where you
can tranquillize it and transport it to
a sanctuary. Doing this is fun on its
own, but the real treat is that
capturing enough of a specific breed
rewards you with in-game plushies.
Activities like mining, fishing, and
animal conservation all reward rep
points with the Solaris that can be
spent on unlocking better gear and
blueprints. This time around, players
can not only customize their own
secondary weapon from various
parts, but they can also build a
dog-like ‘Moa’ companion that
accompanies them on missions.
And that’s just the beginning.
Before the end of the year, Fortuna
will receive a second update thatunlocks more of the story and a new
endgame boss battle against the giant
robot spiders that protect Nef Anyo’s
treasures. That next chapter will see
the Solaris rise up to battle their
oppressors, but the climax of that
battle won’t happen until much later.
First teased at Warframe’s annual fan
gathering this summer, Digital
Extremes announced the Railjack
update would eventually let players
seamlessly fly to low orbit above
Venus in their very own spaceship.
Like Warframe’s take on FTL, players
will have to work together to man
various stations aboard their craft
while repelling invaders and even
sending one of their own to infiltrate
Nef Anyo’s capital ship. Like Fortuna,
Railjack promises to be a
transformative expansion that once
again redefines what Warframe is.
Digital Extremes hasn’t been
content to just give players more of
the same. Warframe is constantly
trying to reinvent itself while also
iterating on that core of shooting and
looting that makes it so much fun.
Fortuna is a great update in its own
right, but it also feels like a good
omen of better things to come.NEED TO KNOW
RELEASE
March 25 2013
PUBLISHER
In-houseDEVELOPER
Digital Extremes
LINK
http://www.warframe.comWARFRAME
The new Fortuna expansion is thrilling and bizarre. By Steven Messner
WARFRAME IS
CONSTANTLY
TRYING TO
REINVENT ITSELFBLOODTHIRSTY The new Garuda Warframe’s abilities
DEATH’S GATE
(PASSIVE)
The less health
Garuda has, the
more damage
she deals.DREAD MIRROR
Rip the blood
straight out of your
foes and use it as a
shield or turn it into
a gory projectile.BLOOD ALTAR
Impales an enemy
on an altar of
talons, siphoning
health for Garuda
and her allies.BLOODLETTING
Garuda sacrifices
a portion of her
own health to
restore some of
her energy.SEEKING
TALONS
Send Garuda’s
talons screaming
into any nearby
enemies.WHAT’S NEW IN THE BIGGEST GAMES
UPDATE