It is the year of our lord 2025, so you could be forgiven for hearing the words “free game” and immediately being filled with suspicion and animosity. After all, there are a lot of games out there that claim to be free, only to then do their utmost to lock every enjoyable experience behind an increasingly lofty series of paywalls.
That doesn’t mean that every free game should be dismissed out of hand due to the actions of the many, and it’s one of those that really does deserve your valuable time and attention.
Warframe will likely be at least passingly familiar to many of you. The sci-fi RPG shooter has been out for over 12 years at this point and accrued a hugely loyal player base that continues to rattle through its regular content updates.
That said, there are a lot of people out there who are still yet to give it a go, and the reasons for that will likely vary a lot. Some simply don’t like multiplayer games (more on that later), whilst others may feel that they’ve missed the boat. Left behind by a horde of spacefaring warriors who already know everything there is to know about the game.
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As someone who first logged into the game all the way back in 2013 (September to be precise), those are all understandable fears, and if you’d asked me a few years ago, they might have been justified.
But Warframe in 2025 is a whole different beast, and one that I believe could truly offer a home to basically any kind of player out there. To get more on exactly why that is (and ideally to back up exactly why that’s the case), we sat down with Community Director and Live-Ops for Warframe, Megan Everett, to talk about why it might just about be the perfect time to jump into the game as a new player, or even return if you’ve lapsed for a period.
So what can you expect from the game when you boot up for the first time? “I would say at its core, it's your classic third-person looter shooter with very heavy sci-fi elements,” Everett explains.
“But if you really wanted to get into it, there is a buffet of story. There's a hard hitting narrative that can take the game in whatever direction you want to. It can be a bit overwhelming that there's as many characters and weapons as there are, but the game never forces you in one direction. So you can play however you want to play. So if you're into the sci-fi looter shooter type of genre, then Warframe, I feel, is a good home for you.”
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One of the game’s most immediate and standout features is just how welcoming everyone is. Though you’re by no means required to interact with anyone, ask a question in the chat and you’ll quickly get tons of helpful responses without a single hint of people being patronising or judgemental about your current lack of game knowledge. That further ties in to playing the game at your own pace, something the development team and the game actively encourages you to do, as Everett summarises, “It has a really strong community behind it. You can build your own community or you can play it completely solo if you want to.
“You can play it any way that you feel comfortable doing. There's no wrong or right way to play Warframe despite how big it is and how it's been alive for 12 years. It really continues to be a game that you play at your own pace and on your own time, the way you want to play it. You're never forced to do it one way or the other.”
None of the progress in recent years, particularly when catering to new players, has come by accident. Warframe certainly used to be a game that could easily come off as intimidating, and the tools perhaps weren’t in place within the game to clearly signpost how to get through the story or earn that particular piece of gear/resource that you have been looking for. Obviously, Google is a tool available to most of us, but there has been a concerted effort to transform the way the game introduces concepts, and itself, to fresh faces.
“We've taken the new player experience the most seriously we've ever done, probably over the past three years. Every update has something that hopefully helps new players onboard a bit easier. One of the biggest examples, which you're probably familiar with, is the modding quest that we just added 12 years later, trying to teach you how to mod,” Everett said.
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‘It's a very new player-focused quest, but veterans can still play it and get some lore. That one's very catered towards the narrative around modding, that it is confusing, which we totally get. It's also not our last attempt at teaching you how to mod. It's just the first step into that.”
“We've even made changes specifically trying to get new players to the new content quicker, because that's obviously a huge thing. You see the newest trailer, a YouTube video or someone playing it and you're like, ‘I wanna play that. I wanna be in 1999’ (a major update from December 2024). So it's our job, and it's always going to be our job as we continue to hopefully keep growing for another 12 years, to try and get you to that newest content without skipping too much of actually teaching you how the game works.”
Part of that move to streamline the game to allow players access to the newer content has involved some pretty tangible changes to the way the game itself is set-up. Leaving the more meandering players to enjoy the game that way if they so wish, whilst at the same time reducing some of the limitations that were in place.
“Recently, we did a huge overhaul of the actual path to get you to what is essentially the end game content. While you can play the game at your own pace, there is a suggested line if you want to get to that new content. Here's the nodes you need to do. Here's the junctions you need to do. And I think we've reduced that by, if not 50%, maybe a little bit more. We cut it down aggressively, but again, without sacrificing the actual fundamentals of the game that you need to know.”
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“There's some core things that we still teach you but we take it very seriously because it is a struggle as a 12-year-old game to get new people to join. Even the games that I play are overwhelming to me sometimes, with all the characters and all the choice. Sometimes you want that linear path of just, ‘hold my hand and take me there and teach me how to do it and I don't want to stray off the path.’”
“So there's a little bit of both. You can just follow what the game literally tells you to do and you will get to the end game content or you can follow that, but kind of deviate in your own way but we've really tried to hone in on that exact path for new players, so it's less confusing.”
So why now in particular? Sure, the game is pretty inarguably better than it has ever been, but what’s the point in being so urgent about playing all of a sudden? Well, aside from being someone who always wants to recommend a good time to people when there’s one to be had, the game is also at a pretty key point in its history and development moving forward.
The end of the year will see the arrival of The Old Peace update, a major story expansion that’s set to be one of the more significant in the game’s recent history. It’s being delivered in two parts, and end-of-year updates have traditionally been where Warframe drops some pretty big changes for the community to contend with. It will also set up the story for next year, when the community gets to head to the Tau system and play out the culmination of some major ongoing story beats.
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As of now, the game has just launched another update in The Vallis Undermind, and it’s here that I feel the proverbial sweet spot lies. This update essentially functions as a (very fun) side story that actually incorporates some key details from Warframe’s wider lore. Jump into the game now and you’ll be able to hit the new content quickly, whilst at the same time working through some of the older stuff to make sure you’re in a great place when the big updates come later this year and into 2026.
As Everett explains, it won’t take you too long to get to the new content, and it’s a little lighter in tone than what’s to come later.
“You have to have completed The New War to really experience the new story and the narrative aspect of this update with Vallis Undermind. Once New War is completed, you log in and you're greeted with what we feel is a fun, whimsical addition to what is a very heavy place.”
“Fortuna is all about slavery. It's not a great place down there. When we took a step back before this update even went out, we were thinking about Old Peace coming up next, Tau, and all that stuff. Those are some heavy themes. We understand where the story's about to take itself. We had Jade Shadows, that was kind of sad and depressing. We had Isleweaver, which was spooky. So it's like, ‘what can we do to kind of like get some good vibes going and like just have a little bit of fun?’”
“That's where the themes behind it came from and there's a reason why we wanted to go back to Vallis that will play itself out. I think in the future, we’d like to revisit older places like that and give them a little bit more life.”
The fun doesn’t stop there though, as the new Warframe Nokko is one that reflects this relatively whimsical tone, whilst at the same time serving as a great option for new players who want a frame that is less mechanically demanding than some of the others available in-game.
“When we were thinking about what Warframe we wanted to add in, we wanted that Warframe to be a bit more whimsical, more goofy. When Rebb [Ford, Creative Director] said it should feel like this character is Yareli's younger brother, it just took off. Then because Vallis is all fungi and mushrooms and very organic materials, it was like, ‘what if there's a mushroom frame?’ It went from one idea to another. And we ended up with what we have now. We're not taking ourselves too seriously with this update. It's meant to be a goofy mushroom trip of a story and we just want to have fun with it.”
“There is obviously a deeper narrative story with the actual characters and what happened to Nokko and Nightcap’s story that I won't spoil for anyone, but I think once you go through it all and you understand who the Prince is, it really at the end of the day is a goofy story.”
That accessibility extends out to the new Warframe Nokko who, aside from being one of the more out there designs for a character visually, is also one of the more approachable to play. Everett also helpfully detailed exactly what you can expect if you do decide to make the most recent frame your go-to as a new player.
“With Nokko, I feel like he is such an easy to understand Warframe and what I think is a new player friendly one with the amount of forgiveness it gives if you die. Plant a mushroom, you die, go back to the mushroom, you're alive. It goes back to that fun, whimsical vibe of what Nokko is.”
“He's also extremely cute and obviously that's not everyone's vibe, some people will want the mechs and the demon-looking people, but from a playstyle and thematics perspective he's very fun to play and very easy to play. Some characters you have to really read their abilities and be like ‘how does this synergise with this’ and you have to really experiment, whereas Nokko it's throw a mushroom, throw a mushroom.”
“Press three if I get scared and four to do a mushroom bomb. And I'm done. It's good and it's fun and it's not stressful. I feel like there isn't really a way to play him wrong because he is such a friendly Warframe to play.”
So with all of that, it only seemed right to get her thoughts on exactly what’s coming next and just how monumental it’s going to be for the game, from both a story perspective and with in-game mechanics and systems. It’s safe to say that it’s difficult to overstate just how big all of this could be for the community, so why not join them before it’s all in the rear view mirror?
“Typically or historically, the end of year updates are the pinnacle of the entire year. Last year was 1999. The year before was Whispers in the Walls, so the end of the year gives you that big story dump of where the game’s going next.
“So at its core it’s a huge update. The quest, monumental. Especially because going back to Tau is something that players have wanted to do for so long and 12 years later we're finally going back to it in a memory so that we can actually go to it at a later date.”
“If I was a player who has played Warframe before, is up to date on the story and I log in, story-wise it is going to take you on an effing rollercoaster of emotions. But one thing that we're really excited about is the fresh takes on the Operator abilities and refreshing that system because that system's 10 years old, visually and functionally 10 years old.”
“Operators themselves and other characters are ones that the community, gratefully so, has resonated with a lot. This is going to sound nerdy, but when you play video games and you're like, ‘that's me. I'm that character and I'm going through the story.’”
“I think that is going to be really special with this update. So if you've grown with your operator and your character, visually we’re upgrading them because they need some love but also power-wise, we're doing a refresh on that. I think that's going to feel really special if you haven't really delved into that.”
To round it all out, the story should be pretty groundbreaking on its own, finally answering some of the questions that the community has had for ten or more years.
“I think people are going to be really shocked with where this story is going because it's a story that we've never told. People have only assumed, only guessed. And one thing that's really important for us, of course, is to make sure that we're using the 12 years of story that we've already built and making sure that it's accurate.”
“For a player that's coming in and you've played some of the story, you've heard endlessly about Tau and you're like ‘WTF, what is this Tau situation?’ This is the story that's finally going to give you some history as to what the Operator went through for that. This is the Operator’s story.”
If all of that wasn’t enough to convince you, then maybe it just isn’t the game for you. But Warframe really does feel like it’s in a moment where it should have almost universal appeal. The story is enthralling, the gameplay is remarkably well-tuned, and it’s filled with such a broad array of activities that it’s difficult to see how someone who plays games won’t like at least some of them.
It’s also a game that maintains an impressively cohesive dialogue between the development team and the community, and I’ve lost count of how many times tangible, meaningful changes have been made over the years thanks to individual bits of feedback from the player base.
At this point, it almost feels implicitly harsh to lump Warframe in with the other free games that send shivers down our spines. You could easily pay full price for a game of its quality and never once feel like you'd been ripped off or paid over the odds. With that in mind, it's an astonishing offering that's only getting better with each passing update.
Now I can’t make anyone do anything, but I implore you, if you find yourself with some spare time at the weekend, or next time you have a sick day from work, give Warframe a go. You might just find yourself shouting at the screen in the middle of 2026 when a character you’ve grown to love inevitably gets killed. It’s brilliant.
Topics: Free Games