HomeNewsSoulframe
Soulframe’s full reveal shows a “slow and pensive” fantasy RPG built on the bones of WarframeOde to joy
Ode to joy
Image credit:Digital Extremes
Image credit:Digital Extremes
I likeWarframe, Digital Extremes’ shockingly enduring free-to-play actionRPG, but I do find its sci-fantasy direction a bit much. The mashing together of tinted alloys and astral flame, the blend of over-the-shoulder shooting and swordplay, the environments that occasionally look likeGPU boxart on steroids– it’s impressive, but a lot to digest.
The Canadian developer’s new projectSoulframehas the same sense of swagger, with menus consisting of beautiful, quasi-medieval illustrations decorated with scrolls and dancing figures. But it’s a quieter thrill, a stately and absorbing world of hazy forests and sun-pierced catacombs, which calls to mind bothDragon’s Dogmaand the overlooked tiny MMOBook of Travels. After catching a hands-off presentation in advance of this year’s Tennocon, I am pretty keen to play.
Image credit:Digital Extremes
“It shares a lot of the structure, the procedural levels and dungeons, and the MMO-lite aspects of Warframe, but it is a sort of simplified, bespoke role-playing game,” observed Steve Sinclair, who stepped down from his role as Warframe’s creative director to lead Soulframe.
Elsewhere in the presentation, he added: “It’s a long-running game, it’s going to be free-to-play and all of those things you can expect from a Digital Extremes game, but the pacing is kind of inverted. Where Warframe is fast and frenetic, Soulframe is going to be slow and pensive.” Sounds pretty appetising to me.
Image credit:Digital Extremes
The game’s combat is straightforward in concept but seems well-executed, with delicately paced and readable animations, and some gentle flourishes. You’ll dodge and parry, perform combos and fire off magic spells such as fireballs and bolts of green energy that petrify attackers. You can also throw and recall your magic sword, a touch of nu-God of War, and crouch to sneak and perform backstabs. The layouts contain a few environmental traps such as dangling wooden frames, and there are wandering souls you can channel at the outset who serve as dungeon modifiers.
Image credit:Digital Extremes
Soulframe doesn’t abandon you to your thoughts entirely, however. The ancestors apparate continually as you hike about the world, and have plenty of folksy titbits to share. At one stage, some antique wizard spectre urged me to “write that down”, which I found amusing in the context of a press event. Sorry mate – I was too busy taking screengrabs. There are also friendly NPCs, such as sneezy woodland sprites in cages, who you can ask for tips about quests and suchlike.
Image credit:Digital Extremes
The big question I have, as a lapsed Warframe player, is how the game’s free-to-play MMO structures will temper its atmosphere. I’m not immune to the lure of Fashionframing, but I don’t want my experience of this lovely, verdant realm to become a process of picking through item catalogues - I’d rather pay an upfront fee. Still, that’s trying to shut the stable door after the horse armour has bolted, and given their considerable experience, I’m fairly confident Digital Extremes will walk the line between letting you savour the fantasy and flogging you cosmetics.
Over the past ten years, the studio’s had a few cracks at diversifying its output beyond Warframe - the cancelled team shooter Amazing Legends, the so-so D&D adaptation Sword Coast Legends… Soulframe feels like the most convincing effort yet. It’s steeped in the wisdom of Warframe, but it’s also a brave new world with a spirit all its own.
