The creators of Warframe have been working on their new project Soulframe for several years now. The well-known MMORPG YouTuber TheLazyPeon recently had the opportunity to check out the online RPG for the first time.
What does TheLazyPeon say about Soulframe? The popular MMORPG enthusiast (759,000 subscribers on YouTube) was allowed to play the new project from Digital Extremes (Warframe) and summarize his impressions in a video.
In almost 34 minutes, he shows character creation, parts of the game world, dungeons, environmental puzzles, quests, many skirmishes against regular enemies, cute wolf pets, and a well-staged boss fight. At the end, there’s the usual conclusion drawn from the strengths and weaknesses experienced.
Here is one of the trailers for Soulframe:
The YouTuber praises:
- The fights feel great and are fun, even though the start was difficult due to the unusual key layout.
- The voice actors heard so far are doing an excellent job.
- The sound design is among the best currently available on the market.
- The graphics are appealing, and the game world has many beautiful corners.
- The setting and style are quite unique.
- The minimalist UI is initially a bit odd but enhances immersion.
- With the combination of graphics, presentation, and sound design, there are already some great moments in the current demo that have goosebumps potential.
TheLazyPeon criticizes:
- The camera behaves dangerously in fights, for instance, when it targets the wrong opponent or doesn’t want to aim at any enemy at all.
- The standard keyboard layout for mouse and keyboard is a bit unusual and unintuitive.
- The displays of content on the map can often confuse more than they help, as events, quests, and points of interest are hardly distinguishable for new players. Furthermore, the discovered dungeon entrances are not shown on the map.
- In crafting, you need to plan a lot of real-time to make items. An item that the YouTuber wanted to craft at the end of his playtime took 5 hours to complete.
Overall, TheLazyPeon is impressed and pleasantly surprised by the alpha version of Soulframe. He even commented on the fully showcased boss fight in the video with an enthusiastic “This game is so damn cool”.
You can watch the full video on YouTube or below:
MMO or no MMO?
What does the community say about the video? The video has already received 4,434 thumbs up and more than 520 comments. Here is a small selection:
- Faolan_Grey is looking forward to YouTube for Soulframe: “This game looks damn fantastic. Once they fix the bugs and it is fully released, it will definitely be a hit.”
- WaterGuuru writes on YouTube: “I trust Digital Extremes. Warframe is a labor of love and has received so much free content over the years. It is also so cool to see a continuation of their unique art style, the bosses look so great!”
- 5H4D3 explains in his post on YouTube: “Some of the systems present at the time of this recording have already been overhauled, and more massive changes are planned (the polearm as a starter is still crap).”
- Additionally, 5H4D3 comments on the MMO term used by TheLazyPeon: “The game is NOT an MMO, it is better described as a multiplayer online action RPG rather than a massive multiplayer RPG; you will not be running around seeing hundreds of other players on the map.”
What kind of game is Soulframe? The new project from the Warframe creators was first presented at TennoCon 2022 and is currently in an early alpha testing phase. The developers themselves describe Soulframe as a “Free2Play open-world adventure” with a fantasy setting.
The gameplay shown so far is reminiscent – in terms of atmosphere and combat – of the Souls games from From Software. However, the developers insist that despite the name, there are many more differences than similarities. The world is not as grim, and the combat is not as punishing. Soulframe is supposed to be even less hardcore than Warframe.
Due to the multiplayer content and Warframe roots, the MMO term often comes up for this action title. However, so far there are no indications that players will actually be roaming around with a “massive” number of other players in the world or certain regions. The developers themselves avoid the MMO designation. By the way, there should soon be significantly more access to the test version: New fantasy RPG from the Warframe makers is making access easier, soon distributing beta access via Twitch
