E3 2013 Preview: Warframe

I suck at using first-person with a controller. I'm an old school mouse and keyboard guy when it comes to headshots. I'm an admin in a Counter-strike: Source clan and I love being able to take dudes out with accurate precision. Even while playing Doom III or Quake I prefer playing on my PC. Can I adapt to Warframe's FPS controls for the PS4?

I'm happy to say the answer is yes. I don't know if it's the PS4 controller or what, but I love that every game I've played so far with it has felt so natural in execution. Even while playing Warframe, a self publishing indie title that pits you and three other players in a cooperative fight against alien invaders I picked it up with no problem.

The control scheme is pretty normal for a FPS game. One button fires, one switches weapons, another jumps, etc. Use the left analog stick to move and the right to look around and aim. Your objective is to take out the enemy with your teammates while building up your exoskeleton armor, aptly named Warframe.

For a free-to-play title (the demo guys weren't sure if you needed to be a Playstation Plus member to play. I'm assuming you'll have to be), Warframe is quite impressive. Character models look great and there's a lot of action. A handy mini-map in the upper left corner tells you where your teammates are on screen. And a small exclamation point on the map tells you where you need to go to take out the enemy.

Sometimes you're on the offensive, sometimes your goal is to fortify an area from an invading attack. I had a small blaster weapon which acted like a small sawed-off shotgun that did considerable damage. A giant axe was also available to me for up close and personal attacks.

Because you're a team of ninjas, you get to also do cool ninja stuff, like run along walls and slide along the floor while firing your weapon. Various items can be found which you can use to upgrade your Warframe for the next time to play. How much stuff you can actually upgrade wasn't clear, but I'm assuming you can jack yourself up to be a total badass.

I was pretty impressed with Warframe. I'm not sure how the voice communication worked in the game since that wasn't set up, but it's probably going to be a lot of fun screaming at your teammate that there's a guy coming up on his six.

I can't wait to spend more time with this ninja themed futuristic shooter. Lucky for me, it's in beta right now on Steam, so I'll be able to shoot fools with the good old mouse and keyboard. If you're a PC player, be sure and try it out. My pictures didn't come out too well as  was playing because the action was so fast, but here are some publisher supplied screens for your enjoyment.