Soulframe - A Whole New Genre of Gaming?
Nov. 25, 2024Soulframe – A Whole New Genre of Gaming?
Soulframe is an upcoming MMORPG being developed and published by Digital Extremes, the creators of one of the most popular MMO games ever, Warframe.
In this article, I’m going to be sharing my impressions after playing the alpha for Soulframe, a Fantasy co-op hybrid-MMORPG that is shaping up to be the next big game from Digital Extremes, the creators of Warframe, one of the most continuously popular games in modern gaming history. To put it into perspective for those who aren’t too familiar, Warframe has managed to retain around 50-100k concurrent players over the course of 6 years on steam alone, which rivals the likes of Monster Hunter World and Final Fantasy 14.
Warframe’s enduring success is in no small measure due to its focus on remaining a consumer-friendly free to play game while also providing an immense amount of content and continuous support for its very unique playstyle. Needless to say, Soulframe has some huge shoes to fill, and it looks like Digital Extremes are yet again trying to create something genuinely different in the gaming sphere and deliver a fresh experience just like Warframe did over a decade ago.
Around a year ago we did a preview video showcasing news and content about the game from Dev Streams and trailers, and the general gist of the game I got back then was that it’s a Fantasy version of Warframe with slower and more strategic gameplay. Now, having played a very early pre-pre alpha version of the game, I can say that view has changed, so in this article I’m going to be breaking down my thoughts and impressions based on my hands-on experience with the alpha.
Soulframe takes place in the fantasy world of Midrath, a realm of men, beasts, magic and divine entities. This is a world in conflict between its natural state and its “corruption”, as the Kingdom of Ode has entered into a war against nature and its divine entities, the Omen Beasts. You play as the envoy, someone who was once part of the Kingdom but was banished to the Isle of Midrath, and now you fight against the kingdom with the power of the Omen Beasts.
Fans of Warframe know that the game’s rich setting and lore are an integral component of the enjoyment. Much like souls games, this aspect of the game has inspired content creators and fans to delve deep and produce extensive compilations and explanations tying together everything that has happened and that is added.
Obscure storytelling is a feature or a pain depending on your stance, but for me it’s part of an interactive puzzle that I quite enjoy to put together as it reveals insignificant but meaningful points for developer choices. For example, the 3 stars orbiting the planet that signify Courage, Grace and Spirit are also the 3 main stats in the game. Or The Mendicants, an enemy faction, are the result of the Ode corruption gaining a form of sentience and corrupting old beings.
As a long-time Warframe player, the best way I could describe the overall feeling I got from this game’s setting was kind of like the Plains of Eidolon; a Tribal and sci-fi mesh of concepts and genres that excels in immersing you into a unique world. That uniqueness and mold-breaking of stories, genres and tropes is quite welcome in my gaming, and it actually carries into the more important part: the Gameplay.
As this is a very early alpha, the overall gameplay loop is expectedly undercooked, but there are plenty of elements in the game that already intrigued me.
The basic gist of the game is that it’s a PVE co-op ARPG with some MMO elements, much like its sister game Warframe. The game can be a completely singleplayer experience, or a multiplayer one. You’ll explore locations to advance the main story and get stronger over time with the new equipment and tools.
So far, Character Creation is not part of the alpha and you make a simple gender selection, but I expect there will be further customization as that is an important aspect of roleplay. Your character won’t have traditional stats or classes, however, and you will instead pick one of two available “Pacts” – Fey or Ode – that act somewhat as your class (or Warframe) by granting you three unique abiliies and extra 3 points into a Virtue of your choice. Virtues are the 3 main stats of Soulframe; Courage, Grace and Spirit, and the 3 unique abilities for each pact correspond to one of the virtues.
I didn’t see any traditional stats like Stamina or Equip Load, so Virtues seem to be focused on enhancing those abilities as well as your Weapon Damage, since different weapons can be attuned to different virtues. Both your pacts and your virtues are interchangeable whenever you want and at no cost, so build swaps won’t be rigid like in traditional RPGs or Souls games, but instead more flexible, similar to Warframe.
With no weight or defense stats present so far, the armour you choose is purely cosmetic, giving you a significant amount of freedom on how you can look. It’s possible that this will change as the game develops, as they have the opportunity to introduce armor bonuses, faction boosts, etc, but right now as of the alpha it’s there just for fashion.
For armaments, there are currently 5 different weapon categories to choose from: Short Blades, Long Blades, Polearms, Shields, and Bows. Most weapons in each category seem to be attuned with a single virtue, like Long Blades and Courage, but each category has at least one weapon that deviates and attunes with another virtue. The alpha doesn’t have a huge amount of weapons to pick from, which is expected as they are still working on feedback and systems, but they have already added the Bonding feature. Using weapons and pacts levels up your bond with them, granting you points to invest in their respective skill trees to unlock “Combat Arts”. These are special moves of each weapon category that enhance your combat, and since they have made it easily refundable, it can be very flexible to allow you to find your preferred playstyle.
Now as we move into the combat I must stress that it’s actually much better than I expected. With no lock-on and the somewhat floaty animations, I thought it was going to feel very clunky, but I found myself enjoying it thanks to the ranged options you get in your kit. Whilst you can do the basic light and charged attack, what’s really fun is chucking your sword 50 yards into an enemies’ head 5 times, turning them to stone for 20 seconds, summoning annoying birds to nibble their ears, or exploding them with a super bow that can one-shot enemies in specific circumstances. The combat arts feel quite unique and varied and kept me trying out new things.
The great part is that there is no stamina or mana bar, just cooldowns on abilities, so you can just keep going even after rolling a bunch to avoid enemy attacks, which feels great. The challenge is a little limited as a result, and I can’t tell is intended or not, but given how Warframe isn’t exactly a difficult game, I think this is what they are going for.
In general the combat feels quite fluid but not as fast as Warframe’s, and it felt a lot more explorative than challenging at this stage. An aspect of note is that death has no repercussions, so boss fights don’t get very tense or stressful. Of course, this is an early alpha and the devs are looking for feedback, so it may be entirely different by the time the game comes out.
Your exploration is guided by the main quest, that focuses on finding Ancestors to bring back to the Envoys base, the Nightfold. Here, the different ancestors you find will providing you unique services, such as a codex for lore entries, a workshop, or an upgrade station. You can jump into the Nightfold whenever you want, and this is where you will be able to use the rewards you get from chests and items, as well as tinker with your build.
The main location for the alpha is the Northern Isle of Midrath, where the Envoy washes up after their exile. In this alpha, you only get a small glimpse of the full island, but in its entirety it is a vast forest that branches into procedurally generated dungeons and cool structures like an abandoned blacksmith, a whole village with their own houses and farmland or a full blown castle. There’s even some special landmarks like a corrupted deer boss spawning from a gooey part of the ground in the east.
I found these areas are interesting to find and explore, since they feel like random bits of civilization scattered throughout the world and it piqued my interest and curiosity about the universe and lore. The fidelity and overall look of the game is beautiful, so when you see a small bridge going over a stream, it stands out a lot from the natural foliage and genuinely intrigues me to investigate around the area to uncover any secrets.
Unfortunately, that interest is short-lived since there isn’t really much to do other than kill a few enemies at these locations and loot some chests. This is most likely because we’re trying out such an early version of the game, and I’m sure they can think of more to add to these locations. I hope they get fleshed out to give you that satisfying feel of discovery and loot rewards that we’re all looking for.
Right now the “real” gameplay lies within the dungeons, with random procedurally generated rooms and pathways leading to new areas every time you explore. Forget about Warframe’s parkour large busy rooms, Soulframe’s dungeons feel a lot more distinctly man-made, something perhaps similar to Remnant 2, featuring grandiose or labyrinth-like and complex ruins to investigate. These areas are usually home to a few super rare chests, the secret runes that reveal the location name, and a boss that drops some unique items.
Not all is great right now in terms of exploration flow, however. The map is contextual and only populates points of interest or quests when you are near them, so you don’t get a lot of markers that tell you exactly where to go. There is a strange mechanic which leads you directly to where the main quest wants you to go, but it will only work when you find the next stage of the main quest out in the wild. I feel like the game wants you to explore, but at the same time doesn’t want the player to feel too lost, and the solution was to add this bird that guides you to the next point.
Unfortunately, what ends up happening is that you blindly follow this bird and still get lost for around 30 minutes because it requires some obscure trigger, find the next quest step, follow the bird, and repeat. Without map markers or clear indication of what to do, I got lost on the hidden but required “find the blacksmith” step and felt like I wandered aimlessly for ages thinking I had maybe finished the alpha, when I actually had not.
I feel like games usually end up going one way or the other when it comes to exploration; Elden Ring has no markers but uses very clever world design to hint at where the next big thing is going to be, and games like Skyrim have markers for all quests. However, people do end up complaining about it either way, so this middle ground could have potential to appeal to more people if it’s properly implemented – it certainly needs some more work.
Another important part of RPGs is your character progression, which is mainly done via upgrades and crafting. In order to begin crafting, you need to first find the Blacksmith, who is hidden from the player until you discover a helmet in the east part of the world that will trigger the quest to unlock the ancestor Tuvalkane.
Once you do, she basically functions like the Foundry from Warframe. You bring her some special weapon or armour fragments you find in the wild along with some materials, and she makes the weapon in a set amount of time, like 4 hours. When you craft, you can also add a special material called a Joinery to “upgrade” the outcome of the weapon by increasing its attack damage by a few points.
The Alpha doesn’t have a huge variety of weapons or armor to unlock, but it does look like this system will be integral to the game as it’s the main motivator for doing content. Given how Warframe grew the selection to such incredible numbers, I expect there will be a very big variety of weapons and armors to unlock and craft, making this a crucial system of the game. It is also possible that different smiths or factions may have different options, and if they go deeper into RPG elements like faction reputation they could explore that sort of unlocks as well. My main ask for this will probably be to get the kind of variety in weapon styles that we enjoyed with Warframe.
The is one more Ancestor who can tune your gear, Fenn Jotar, who you find in a dungeon on the main quest. He specializes in equipping “Motes”, which are words that give you a special effect when equipped, not unlike a Talisman in Elden Ring. You can put up to 3 motes on your weapon if its a high enough rarity, and another 3 on your pact if it’s up to level 30. Some motes will just give you +2 grace, or +3 damage, whereas other motes can be more specific, such as +20 Perfect Throw Damage, or +5% Smite Chance. This seems to be where most of the build options would be right now, since you get 6 of these slots, and given a bigger range of unique motes, I can definitely see myself tinkering with builds in the future if they can fully flesh out the build system.
So overall, what are my impressions of Soulframe so far? While most Alphas are not 100% feature complete, and changes usually occur after they are published, they typically give you a somewhat clear vision for the titles they represent. Soulframe doesn’t exactly do this…While the experience Digital Extremes has honed in Warframe clearly shines through in Soulframe, such as in the lore and setting, they still need to refine the areas where they have less experience, such as the floaty feeling of melee combat and how much direction they give to the player when exploring the world. The basic gameplay loop also needs to be expanded upon from just walking around killing things and getting gear, which I’m sure will happen in future updates, I’m just not exactly sure what will be added.
Even though the vision might not be perfectly clear for Soulframe yet, the foundations of its combat systems, crafting, lore and graphics are great already, so I’m still excited to see how its going to turn out, and will definitely keep this on my radar.
Digital Extremes has been very transparent that they are seeking feedback and looking to see what their community thinks before making changes to Soulframe, so they are aware that they need to make some changes, and want their fans to be a part of it, which usually leads to better games in general in my opinion. I have a feeling the Beta will give us a much better idea of what to expect!
What did you think of Soulframe and its gameplay? Do you think it will contain some of the same Gameplay features from Warframe? Let us know in the comments below!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
