Since July 2018, the development team behind Warframe has talked about giving Its players something different than the tried-and-true procedurally generated corridor shooters and open-world expansions they have become used to. They have wanted to expand Warframe’s gameplay into real-time, ship-to-ship space combat.
With that first Railjack demo shown at TennoCon one-and-a-half years ago, they turned a wild, nearly impossible dream they once had with our original third-person action-adventure, Dark Sector, into a reality. Empyrean, available now on Xbox One, is just that. Warframe players now have the keys to a powerful battleship and dares them to fly into fast-paced, all-out battleship combat.
Starting with three gorgeous new space environments, Earth, Saturn, and Veil Proxima, Warframe players must build a Dry Dock and the Railjack battleship, rally together their clan, and launch into the wild unknown of deep space. In these all new tilesets, Tenno (players’ names in game) will crash head-on into hostile Grineer forces in next-level, team-oriented cooperative play.
This first stage of Empyrean is designed as a real, honest-to-goodness cooperative experience. Solo players will still be able to enjoy Empyrean, but the difficulty and progression is balanced around two-, three-, and four-player crews. Come 2020, Warframe will bring enhanced solo capabilities and even more surprises!
Empyrean will be an intense rush for both new and veteran Xbox One players. By shooting waves of opponent Fighters and Crewships from the pilot seat or gunner positions, we hope to capture some of those early Millennium Falcon moments from “Star Wars: A New Hope.” You might just reflexively yell to your teammates, “Don’t get cocky kid!”
Blasting like a bullet from the Archwing Cannon into enemy vessels to commandeer or destroy their ships might feel a touch like our version of those powerful action scenes from “Captain Marvel.”
Before and during each fight, players will experience Empyrean’s new on-board ship systems. Starting with simple Railjack aesthetics like giving your ship a name, selecting colours or skins, and moving on to constructing weapons, Armor and actual ship powers, players will uncover deep, rich systems designed to fulfil their space ninja — and now, space pirate — power fantasies.
All of this, while working together to take down enemy ships, putting out fires, welding holes in the hull, boarding enemy craft, being boarded by enemy craft, and more, create a unique urgency and gameplay tension totally new to Warframe.
Over the Christmas period with family and friends around, there is nothing quite like a great cooperative experience, so we think you’re going to love Empyrean. So, give it a shot.
Warframe is free and available now on Xbox One via the Microsoft Store.