Warframe’s New Introduction Quest

Alongside the massive update that is the Heart of Deimos, we actually got a new introductory quest. The brand new player will now experience a completely different start to Warframe. We get a cool cinematic and everything! Let’s talk about it, and whether it’s any good.

The introduction quest, Awakening, is pretty and interesting, and is split into two parts: a long cinematic cut scene and the tutorial bit.

The cinematic is very shiny and unrepresentative.

I mean, it’s definitely a cool cinematic, mostly split between the little girl and Excalibur. It features a girl running away from Grineer who have just massacred her village, and running into an abandoned Orokin temple. Inside the temple, you have your three starter frames, so covered in dirt that they look like petrified statues.

We then get short snippets of each of them in combat, culminating into a big “good guys fight bad guys and help each other a little” scene. The action is cool, but it’s not exactly accurate to actual, in-game gameplay. Which I really don’t get, because the in-game gameplay, when you break it down, is actually pretty cinematic. Especially the melee combos.

It also completely misrepresents Volt’s Speed and Shock and pretty much all of Mag’s kit, which, again, is weird, because the normal abilities themselves are cool. I know it’s a cinematic, but still! I suppose at least the cinematic gives you a hint that dogs and Archwings exist, but damn, no Kubrow has ever been as useful as the one in the cinematic.

Also Volt’s kinda shafted in the amount of screen time he gets. Almost as if he’s an afterthought to Mag and Excalibur.

The little girl is clearly an Operator, a Tenno. But what is she doing there?

Like, I get it, you need this sense of wonder. And a new player watching this has no idea what they’re looking at except for cool space ninjas killing Grineer. It’s all very pretty, but are we instilling wonder or confusion in all of this?

It’s also rather weird how the Grineer are literally chasing after this girl, then just shrug as she disappears in a puff of smoke. I guess Grineer grunts don’t get paid enough to care.

The tutorial area is just a pretty, more linear version of the old tutorial.

More precisely, it’s no longer random Grineer Earth forests. It’s an actual set piece based on the cinematic. You run through the ruined village in your bid to escape. It’s been a long time since I actually ran though the tutorial area, but it’s basically the same.

You pick your Warframe, then you use your first ability. After that, you grab a melee and you jump around a bit. Then you grab your secondary as your ship explodes. Next, you fight Vor and he runs. And finallt, you grab a primary, find Ordis and your actual ship, kill some enemies and get the hell out of there.

The tutorial though IS insanely basic. It only teaches you basic mobility and firing your weapons. Anything past that is left to Vor’s Prize. Which could probably do with a rework as well.

But does it really do anything? Not that I can tell…

While this new quest is pretty and shiny and all that, it’s still… well, it’s the bare basics, which leads you straight into Vor’s Prize.

All that being said, it really is a beautiful cinematic. Well animated and pleasing to the eye, with lots of cool video game action. And it’s the sort of beauty that Warframe can somewhat achieve, if you’re not on a potato computer.

There’s one big problem though…

WHAT HAPPENED TO EXCALIBUR’S DOG?

I hope it got adopted. Please tell me it got adopted. It was such a good boy…