Warframe Heart of Deimos review: More than meets the eye
Explore Deimos and take on the infested horrors that await in Warframe’s latest expansion.
While we didn’t quite get anything Railjack or New War-related, Digital Extremes released its third open world in Warframe and then some. This isn’t just a new mission node on a planet, though. What was once named the Orokin Derelict has now been consolidated into a brand new explorable region just off of Mars.
Deimos, the second satellite of Mars, is the new and refined Derelict which is also the home of the Cambion Drift, the new open world. Of course, it gives players an introductory quest showing how the main gameplay aspects work with some lore sprinkled in. With the new open world and social hub, we now have two additional syndicates to ally ourselves with and grind out all sorts of goodies for.
This third open world is not as big as the Plains or Orb Vallis, which is such a nice breather for a change. My gripes for the previous two free roam areas were that they were so expansive but had lots of empty, uninteresting space. Sure you had designated fishing and hunting spots for the various fauna in these respective landscapes, but other than that, they were mostly unused space. The Orb Vallis laid out the foundation to utilize more spaces around the map by implementing K-Drive races, designated toroid drop spots, and Orb Mother locations.
Deimos, however, goes for a more in-depth, vertical and compressed approach. It’s such an immersive infested wildland where it feels like something is always happening wherever you go. There are wild animals that go about randomly, mining outcrops to extract from, obelisks to siphon rare materials from, mechs to take control of or help defend, caves to explore, and so forth.
At first I thought to myself this was going to be simple enough since by now, the Plains of Eidolon and the Orb Vallis have shown players the ropes. You have all your typical aspects of what a Warframe open world consists of. Cool, it should be an easy time for people used to this by now. It is, but at the same time it isn’t. A really welcomed addition is this new token system as a new means of earning rep. You can earn these tokens from all the vendors by completing tasks or bounties from the head honcho, Mother, in the Necralisk.
Instead of outright earning rep for completing tasks, these tokens can be redeemed for the new Entrati syndicate at any time you want. What this means is that you can grind more past your daily standing and stockpile on these tokens to redeem them when the daily caps are reset. This is good for when you take breaks on the different modes of Warframe or just the game in general.
The hard time that I have gone through, being a veteran player, is the early forced grind to progress through the syndicates. It would be something to look past if drop and spawn rates were better or if level requirements were lowered (which the developers are looking at and fixing accordingly through player feedback). I think I can speak on behalf of most players going through this right now who have or have never done the animal conservation parts of these open worlds, but hunting common avichaeas, or let alone any birds is so frustrating.
As of now, that is my only main gripe. However, the token system for every other NPC can seem like a bit much at first since it takes a lot of memorizing who does what, what they offer, and where they are.
What is also new to this update are the Necramechs, a new vehicle that can only be used in open worlds (for now). If you haven’t seen in the trailers or the hype, they essentially are warframes, but with an actual metal exterior in the form of a mecha. While they lack mobility, they make up for it with massive power. My initial thoughts about them were that they were just a cool novelty to change the pace of gameplay, but after learning that they can use archguns gives me some really big ideas for theory-crafting.
One of the biggest takeaways aside from the new toys we’re given with a beautiful landscape is the Helminth system. Warframe in its current form is already a power trip for the dedicated and the veterans. What this new system does is create even more possibilities of min-maxing, better weapon synergy, and playstyles. You can trade one specific ability of a frame and put it onto another, of course with certain limitations and wait times. Stay tuned because I am definitely going to make some really powerful endgame and possible meta builds!
What I like most about this update is that Digital Extremes really upped the ante and lethality of the infested faction and made them actually relevant again. They’re not just a formidable faction now, but also brought in one of the coolest mechanics in the game yet. I give my kudos to them for making the best of working at home and not being able to deliver something as massive as Empyrean or the Second Dream.