Pros:
+An improved void system allowing for a much broader variety of Prime gear
+New Solar Map that’s a lot more in-depth
+Fusion system improvements that are more intuitive by design
+Titania’s codex quest explains more about Warframes

Cons:
–Frame rate jumps still remain problematic
–Kavat’s die extremely easy

A lot has changed since the last time we did a review on Digital Extremes’ smash-hit free-to-play title Warframe. Last time we covered the updated titled Sands of Inaros, which continued the rather well done cinematic approach that has premiered on the game. The latest update The Silver Grove continues this trend quite well as it introduces us to another portion of the`story behind both Warframes and Tenno.

However, this latest one doesn’t just carry on with that tradition, it improves upon it even more than one would expect. While this is one of the minor changes made, the rest of the game has been majorly overhauled in some major ways between Specters of the Rail and the Silver Grove updates.

The Changes to Void Missions and the new Rune Segment

When it comes down to it, the void has been heavily changed, and for the better. Instead of having to worry about Void Keys pertaining to each mission type such as Tower I Defense, Tower III Survival, or even Tower IV Interception’s. While each of these missions till exist, Void Fissures have changed the game by allowing for Relic’s to activate during alert style fissures. How so, you might ask, and the answer is clear: the galactic map is now your playground.

When selecting these missions they may call upon relics, whether they are upgraded or not, and will determine the possible loot that can drop. While each of these relics will differentiate based upon what the fissures require. This also allows for players to choose the chance of what loot they want to attempt getting. Want a Galantine Prime? Load up a Neo V3 Relic in order to have a chance.

Want a better chance at getting that drop? That is possible thanks to the new Rune Segment allowing for players to use their void fissure samples in order to upgrade the relics. Doing so, as stated, upgrades your chances to obtain the prime parts wanted. This change is one that has been highly wanted by many players as it opens up the possibilities of us obtaining more prime parts without removing others.

The Fusion Upgrading Process Changes are Spectacular

One of the biggest changes that comes to Warframe is one that’s been needed more than ever in recent days. Players have been waiting for this one to happen. Fusion cores have been completely removed from the game and replaced with a new essence called “Edo”. This new “essence” allows for players to do the same thing that Fusion Cores did, but with a bit more ease, but doesn’t change the overall cost.

Just like Fusion Cores, Edo can be picked upon the breaking of loot crates, opening of lockers, or even the elimination of enemies. However, the amount you get, seems to variate upon the difficulty of the missions. This allows for a much cleaner inventory and less need to navigate through Fusion Cores. Additionally, the addition of Edo, also makes it so that players could quite easily take their duplicates and break them down for Edo.

The Addition of the Galactic Map 3.0 Makes it Easier to Navigate

Ontop of all these additions, Warframe has made another huge leap with its addition of the new Galactic Map, which mixes the best of Galactic Map 1.0 and 2.0 and making easier to navigate. Let alone does this offer players a new way to see the planets around them and the resources they gain. The new map also allows for players to zoom in on each planet and see if the there are alerts on each planet. It also will allow for players to see if missions take place on the planet or a ship.

All That Shines Isn’t Gold, However

Warframe: The Silver Grlove – PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One (Reviewed), and PC
Developer: Digital Extremes
Publisher: Digital Extremes
Price: Fee-to-Play
Released: Available Now

Even with many of Warframe’s changes, Digital Extremes has pushed to make the game the best experience ever, and in many ways, they started doing so quite well. However, there are a few things that could be improved upon even with these most recent changes. The problems don’t sit on Warframes surface, instead many of them sit in the underlying mechanics such as the Kavat.

Much like their Kubrow twins, Kavat is another companion that can be used. Instead of packing brute force like their Kubrow cousins, the Kavat is all about speed and their cunning. They can also buff the squads they are with, however, they are also easy to die over first. Unfortunately, this can be problematic for some in higher level missions where plenty of damage is being tossed about.

This is where the Kavat, unlock the Kubrow, tends to become a casualty and constantly doing so as enemies will tend to bring it down quickly.

Rest Assured Tenno It’s Still a Solid Experience

Just as one would hope, the Warframe experience remains solid for players to enjoy. With the new update coming up titled The War Within there is plenty to come that can feature some changes, some re-balances, and even new mechanics. Warframe still remains as strong as expected and enjoyable as ever. All we can do now, is wait and see what is coming up, and tune in to the Warframe Primetime on YouTube and Twitch.

Our review is based on the full free-to-play version that can be downloaded on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

 Final Score: 8 out of 10

About the Writer:

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Pros:
+Short ball possession duration offers up team work via passing
+Inability to use abilities enforces players to work together to keep the team from scoring
+The arena is fairly well sized allowing for a fun 8 to 10 minute match

Cons:
–Minor ball delay when passing or shooting goals
–Decent players can easily stop an entire team

Warframe has been changing for many years. It has evolved past a game that was simply about going in and out of Dojo’s and missions in order to operate functionally. It has surpassed the boundaries that gave it a minimal story only to create a phenomenal story that has captivated fans from around the world. It has broken hearts, caused tears, and even created a few moments of laughter within its own story. It has even caused players to hate certain villains, and rightfully so. The evolution of story telling has also caused us to understand order and balance within the universe.

Among these designs, we’ve gotten to know our Tenno, ourselves through a fictional universe, but we have also gotten to fight against our fellow Tenno for training purposes via Conclave. Since its launch two weeks ago for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 while PC has had it for a few weeks more than the console, but that’s alright! The console version lives up to expectations just as it did on PC.

The idea behind Lunaro is rather close to several sports you may already know: Rugby, soccer, football, basketball, and a little bit of martial arts – because nothing says “HELLO!” like a swift kick to the jaw then stealing the ball. The objective to the game? Get the ball into the enemies goal point and win. The team with the most points between Sun and Moon will win the game. Much as expected, the game has two halves, and they take place over roughly ten minutes, which is nicely paced due to how fast paced the action can get.

Controls are simple, all normal movement schemes remain in place for all intents and purposes of the game. The only difference? Depending on your controller (since PlayStation 4 is our primary console for reviews, we’ll be going with their button scheme if using legacy where the touchpad is enabled) L2 is to help focus on the ball so you can intercept/block/catch while L1 remains to duck/slide/slide-jump. However, doing a slide-jump with the ball in-hand does make the carrier drop it in order to provide fairness for the sake of the game. In turn normal jumping and sliding remain fully usable by the ball carrier who can pass and or otherwise launch the ball towards the enemy teams goal.

To throw or pass players can combine L2 and R2 to launch the ball even further whether they are sliding or running up-right. Doing so will allow for more range, a stronger pass, and a chance to get the ball where it’s needed to go. All-the-while making opposing players work even harder to obtain the ball. Except for when you score where they get instant grabs on the ball (much like basketball) and force you to move to the halfway point before being able to go on the offensive.

While the basis of the game is short, it runs smoothly, and carries on a solid concept of what it is like to have sports in an ever-growing universe. The downsides are is the minor lag that tends to happen, which makes the ball slightly hard to track, and give those players that have mastered Lunaro a winning chance to one-man an entire match. Want to be the Kevin Durant or Michael Jordan of Lunaro? Your chance is here if you decide to take it. Lunaro is rewarding in the essence that it does provide a chance at Conclave mods and even Conclave reputation for those needing it.

All-in-all? Lunaro is a highly enjoyable game that may attract those who found a love for games like Rocket League if they decide to give it a chance. If you aren’t hooked on this Conclave mode? You surely will be if you decide to dive into it for a few hours.

About the Writer:

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Pros:
+New Lighting engine allows for a subtle change in how shadows and lights work.
+Storytelling follows a familiar trail that was witnessed with “Second Dream” content.
+New Warframe offers not seen before mechanics in the game that works quite well.
+New tilesets offer a breath of fresh air to older tilesets.
+New weapons and character skins offer quite a new appeal to the game.

Cons:
–Various bugs that are being reported on the forums regarding interface bugs and performance ones..
–Inaros quest objectives can be difficult to find for some without a guide.

There’s always been a place in my heart for new additions to games whether they are new and old. This has been something that has been amazing about Warframe with each passing day. The game has received more content than one would expect to keep the game fresh, but not ultimately changed to the point of being hard to notice due to these changes. The latest addition to these subtle changes comes in the element of mission objectives and storytelling that once more drives this content update home. This time around the game doesn’t revolve around many protagonists we’ve come to know such as “Natah” aka Lotus or even people such as Teshin, but instead our story evolves around a lesser known character by the name of Baro Ki’teer. The update itself also revolves around the game’s mechanic upgrades that evolve around mechanical and systematic upgrades such as lighting, texture collision, and even small tweaks to offer a more fleshed out experience for those who have been playing the game, but also for those returning to it.

At the heart of Sands of Inaros is the campaign, something that Christopher Adee and myself spent plenty of time with in order to experience it for both the “E.O.D. Tech Site” as well as this review. In Sands of Inaros we are given the glimpse into a civilization that had been wiped out due to a mysterious invasion, one that left a once thriving village in peril upon attack, and eventually lead to them having been wiped out. In turn it has become a task for the player to uncover the truth of what happened and the truth behind the Tomb of Inaros that has caused this Warframe to go hidden. While players do this they will find themselves undergoing the game with several new features such as lightning, particle effects, and even more detailed shadow effects. This truly shines while doing the Sands of Inaros missions where players will see several new tilesets that offer a variety of appearances for the game.

As much as the story would be one to discuss, the story is one of the several things about the update that truly shines. While I wish I had footage that could compare pre-Update 18.5 to 18.5, I truly wish it were plausible to emphasize on how well the lighting and shadows have been vastly improved upon, but so has the Sabotage missions, which now stand at Reactor Sabotage 2.0. This new variant of Sabotage is quite fun as it is no longer a single ball that spins repeatedly forcing players to shoot at it until each reactor shard is broken, but now has reactor pipes that players must destroy in order to start the complete melt down. This alone has offered up a nice change for the game. Along with this subtle and welcomed change, we are also greeted with new change on how we can gain Focus for the Tenno, which allows for players to have a chance at getting even more XP towards their focus and giving them the ability to level it up or to unlock their new focus they are using if they’ve already moved onto the next one. Convergence, however, is what causes these Focus items to drop as Convergence is a unique pick-up that lasts for a short amount of time and will spawn at a random point on the player’s current tileset in a short distance from them. This is indicated with a new icon and allows players to have a 6x Focus multiplier for 45 seconds that allows for players to enjoy their killing spree.

With this new change, player focus has also been increased from a daily cap of 75k to 100k as players will be able to get an increase with the type of lense they are using in the following increments:

Normal Lens: 1.25% without Convergence
Normal Lens: 7.5% with Convergence (multiplied by 6)
Greater Lens: 1.75% without Convergence
Greater Lens : 10.5% with Convergence (multiplied by 6)

With these lenses players are able to increase their chance at upping their abilities for their Focus and enabling their Tenno to become one of the most powerful enemies that the universe has ever seen. We can only assume this will change overtime since the Focus system is in early beta at this time.

Along with these changes comes Season 4 of the Sortie Missions, which are quite addicting, albeit they are challenging enough that some players will skip their daily sorties for the current day. Sorties now have two reward seconds: repeatable and non-repeatable. The rewards window does now emphasize what awards players can and can’t get multiple times as they play through. The non-repeatable missions are checked off when obtain and will not allow players to obtain them again for the season. Instead it is replaces with things such as Rare 5 Fusion Cores, Bundles, etc, depending on the players unlock. This could change overtime and allows for a nice change of pacing for players who are dedicated to sortie missions on a daily basis.

For many, Inaros himself will be the focus point of this content update as he offers a unique twist to Warframes known combat systems. As a first, Inaros does not come with a shield at all. Instead players will find themselves relying on his abilities to control combat by blinding enemies with Desiccation, which blinds enemies as Inaros knocks sand in their eyes and debilitates them, opening them up for a completely powerful blow that can one shot just about any enemy on the field. If he does? His health is restored, which is quite important as combat is already fast enough and enemies die quicker than needed at some point in combat. His second ability is another unique twist, one that takes notes from Nekros’ “Shadows of the Dead”, which is called Devour, which allows him to kill an enemy, heal while doing so, and summon a sand form of them self. Amidst battle he excels and changes the battlefield rapidly by turning into a sandstorm. Lastly is his ultimate ability, “Scarab Armor”, which allows him to decrease the damage taken while combat. In turn he can also turn this ability into an offensive capability where he will unleash it upon enemies so that his scarabs may damage the enemy and heal him at the same time.

For those wondering about the new weapons called Lesion, Mutalist Cernos, Staticor, and Dual Toxocyst will not be disappointed with just how powerful these weapons actually are. Their enjoyment is actually brought forth a unique experience that some may be familiar with while exploring the game with them. The Lesion is a rather powerful polearm that delivers a powerful blow as it increases in attack speed with status procs. Much like how the Mutalist Cernos fires off Toxin damage where it’s arrows land, but the Dual Toxocyst also speeds up as it kills targets with critical hits. As for the Staticor? It delivers a powerful blow that knocks enemies back while taking them out of the fight if they can’t take a hit from it once it’s charged up. Each of these weapons offer a unique twist to battle as enemies will learn to fear the armament of the Tenno. While we wish there was a new sentinel, the new weapons and appearance items offer enough for us to enjoy and keep at what we are doing and how we are doing it.

While this update could be even bigger, it’s nice to see that its overhaul, a whopping 7.8GB’s on PS4 and Xbox One, brought a nice bit of changes to the game and keeps on making the game feel as though it is a triple “A” title. While it is a free-to-play, the development team has been loyal to it, bringing the title forth even more with new mission types, more titleset possibilities, constant giveaways, and even playing with their own fan base during their weekly live-stream. Even though this review could be much bigger, it’s hard to truly dig through what this content update is about and leaving Christopher Adee a chance to talk about more-insight to this update via his upcoming “E.O.D. Tech Site”, but much of the content appraisal is because of the content that is still up and coming, that will leave this review as in-progress for this time being. We’ll add more as the patch gets underway with future updates to it. As it stands now? Digital Extremes has had a great track record with their DLC releases and remains doing so as they help keep the game alive. Now if only we could get that tie in with Dark Sector one day.

Our review is based on the public release of the game, which is Free-to-Play.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

 Final Score: 8 out of 10

About the Writers:

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.