The lobby shooter Warframe is making a transition to an open world, a step towards MMORPG. The huge update “Plains of Eidolon” is akin to an MMO expansion, set to be released in 2017.
Yesterday evening, a sudden flood of information about Warframe appeared. Quite a strange time for something like this, as major announcements usually happen mid-week, not on the weekend.
But: Warframe is something special. Just like Blizzard, they have their own thing going and host their own convention for Warframe, the annual TennoCon. There, they presented the update “Plains of Eidolon” and it is significant.
It frees the Warframes from the ninja action through tight corridors and brings them into the open world.
The update introduces an “Open World” that will be different from the previous levels, as they will be procedurally generated.
The “Plains of Eidolon” will be handcrafted, but with random encounters. The plains will have a day/night cycle. There is a village with NPCs where players can accept quests. The village is called Cetus, and up to 50 players can be there at the same time.
In the “Plains” of the open world, as usual, one to four players will be able to play together.
Plains of Eidolon: And at night, it’s monster hunting – flying, fishing, building
More information:
- It will be possible to fly around with your Archwing.
- During the day, you’ll fight against Grineer, at night against gigantic monsters called “Eidolon”
- In Cetus, players will be able to assemble and customize weapons and armor, effectively crafting their own weapons from collected parts. Players will even be able to name them.
- This essentially introduces crafting. What else does an MMORPG need to be an MMORPG? Of course, fishing. With new spear weapons, players will be able to spear fish.
- Digital Extremes plans to introduce more such “Open World” zones. Plains of Eidolon is just the beginning in this direction.
Open zones – This freedom is meant to keep Warframe fresh
The background to this unusual step is that the developers want to keep Warframe fresh even after four years and not become too complacent. They want to take risks and try something new.
This new approach is called “Landscape”. They are open zones. They will not reach the size of “Open Worlds” as known from other games, but they are still quite large and offer players new freedoms: They can fly over the landscapes, interact with NPCs, and meet new opponents.
Release of Plains of Eidolon: When is it coming out?
We do not yet know the exact release date for Plains of Eidolon. However, it is expected to be released sometime in 2017. So it shouldn’t be too far off. Whether it will be released simultaneously for PS4, PC, and Xbox One, or whether PS4 and “Xbox One” players will have to wait for the open world as usual is still unknown.
A lot of information, a lot of images and trailers. We will definitely take a closer look at Plains of Eidolon in the coming days. What do you think? Did Digital Extremes succeed with the surprise, or did you expect something like this?
Here are more infos:
Warframe will be polished to a shine – graphic update is coming
