Preamble

I have been the Clan leader (Warlord) of the Giant Bomb PC Warframe Clan (Giant Bomb Heavy INC) and a manager of the discord since 2014. Our moderator @zombiepie in his last blog series encouraged and inspired me to write about my unique player experience and knowledge of Warframe and its lore.

If you are reading this I am going to assume you are of any of the following:

1. Curious about Warframe, but you aren’t going to try it or get back into it.
2. Played or tried to play Warframe but not enough to remember anything going on about its story.
3. Play Warframe, got through the cinematic quests, but curious what my take on the story is (thank you!)

Now, I would not call myself a “Lore Expert”. There are dedicated content creators on YouTube and Twitch like StallordD and Byf that have done more comprehensive lore videos, analyzing every piece of dialogue, cutscene, codex entry, warframe description and the likes in the game. Nor, do I have any insider knowledge about Digital Extremes. There are “Warframe Partners” which I am not part of, who have better access to DE to ask questions / interview them directly. I am just a Giant Bomb fan who has played this game way too much with other duders. I do chronicle the GB Community’s Warframe adventures on YouTube, and have made small videos of the cutscenes and my personal playthroughs of quests in Warframe as a hobby.The most flattering thing I have been called by someone in the discord is: A Warframe Historian

Dark Sector But Not That Dark Sector

When Warframe came out in 2013, it was hard to imagine that it would grow and to grow and sustain a sizable audience. Warframe and its developer sort of stumbled into becoming “games as service” by accident or by circumstance. It organically transitioned into a game of service product. At the time, the term “games as a service” was not something talked about yet. "Software as a Service" was just starting to be thrown around in the business and enterprise software world but it had not come to games yet. One of the craziest things I think about now is that I started playing Warframe after a year PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2 initially released in Japan. Shoutouts to the PSO2 GB Clan at the time: TrackManiacs. Destiny 1 would not have come out for another 2 years.

If you are curious about learning more about Digital Extremes and Warframe’s origins, Danny O'dwyer’s NoClip documentary on Digital Extremes (DE) does a great job covering the studio and the game's launch.

To quickly summarize for anyone unfamiliar with the studio’s history: DE had the vision for a game called Dark Sector, which could not get any publisher funding, so the Dark Sector which was released in 2008 was a compromise, and for the sake of this lore explainer, Dark Sector is not canonical.

Warframe was a last ditch effort by the studio to try to make their vision of what they originally wanted Dark Sector to be. They choose the Free To Play (F2P) model hoping that enough players would check out the game and support it with their founders program, and microtransactions for them to continue making the game and keep their studio afloat. In the software world it is often referred to as "a minimum viable product." They knew that the shipping product would not be a $60-value product.

In 2012, they pitched an early build of the game to big F2P publishers and once again were turned down. Warframe’s creative director, Steve Sinclair, recounts one instance where they took the game to one of the big F2P publishers in China and was turned down saying "Your game is the best looking free to play game (in 2012) I’ve ever seen, [but] you will fail". Citing, "that the game cannot look as good and update as often to build your community".

This became sort of an ethos for the developers; fast and often updates to the game. Additionally, DE’s community management team keeps an open dialogue with their community to maintain player engagement, something that has not been trival.. If you then watch @mmahardy's documentary he touches on how challenging it is for the developers to keep the warframe community engaged.

It is because of these frequent content updates the drive to keep their player base engaged that not only have the gameplay systems expanded throughout the years, but also the game’s story-telling and lore as well. On the other hand, it is because the game is constantly changing / evolving that has created problems with its new player experience and on-boarding.

Finally, part of what makes Warframe so notoriously impenetrable is its lexicon. The game likes to invent its own vocabulary for things. I will use terms from other video games to explain things.

Here are three series that will let you already totally understand Warframe’s lore: Warhammer 40k, Mass Effect and Evangelion. Unfortunately, Giantbomb's resident Anime experts Austin Walker and Dan Ryckert are no longer with the site. Alternatives in case you are not familiar with the aforementioned franchises are Persona, or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

The Universe

Initially, we are introduced to the game’s main three antagonistic factions: Grineer, Corpus and the Infested. The factions all have the typical ambitions to assert dominance and control over a distant future version of our solar system, now named the Origin System.

Players are the Tenno, guided by a mysterious individual called the Lotus and using their exosuits called “Warframes” to aim glide, bullet jump and parkour their way through procedurally generated levels and corridors gunning and cutting down hundreds of grunts and mobs from these factions in a pretence of bringing balance and justice. To be fair, these enemies aren’t the most moral upstanding citizens of the solar system either.

The Grineer are a facist regime, made up of genetically modified test-tube grown clones of humanity, with an inbred hatred and xenophobia towards anyone not like them.

The Corpus are a corporate cult driven by greed, and led by a board of directors who preach commercial profit as a religion. They are known for their use of stolen technology and armies of robotic proxies called MOAs.

The Infested or "Infestation" are victims of the Technocyte virus, a parasitic pathogen created by the Orokin. Those overtaken by the virus are physically transformed into grotesque flesh creatures. These carriers go on to infect others they come into contact with - spreading like plague. Oddly enough Warframes and Tenno seem to be immune to the virus.

But, for a game called “War”-frame, it might be surprising to know how little actual war is going on. The last large scale conflict that spanned the whole solar system, occurred centuries ago.

The Orokin

Centuries ago, overpopulation and dwindling resources forced humanity to leave an uninhabitable Earth. The Orokin were one of the first factions to venture out into our solar system and learn of The Void- a mysterious pocket of extradimensional space which defies the laws of physics. Through studying the Void, it rapidly advances Orokin technology. The Orokin then began asserting dominance over all other colonists in the origin system until they became the aristocratic ruling class of what is now known as the Orokin Empire.

Ruled by seven Emperors, they establish a rigid class system. They quickly develop a god complex, proclaiming themselves divine beings who believe they have achieved mastery of the Void and gained immortality and surpassed humanity. Furthermore, working knowledge of the Void and Orokin advancements were granted only to those of the Orokin Elite, and withheld from the rest of society. The Emperors’ will is carried out by the Congress of Executors. In the game, we meet Ballas, one of the Executors responsible for the creation of Warframes.

The Orokin expands out across the solar system. Establishing Solar Rails, a faster-than-light travel system. Think of Solar Rails, as the Mass Relays in Mass Effect. In the game, the player must re-activate each of the Solar Rails that have fallen dormant after the eventual collapse of the empire. Unlocking the Solar Rails and powering them up again is how the player is able to progress and unlock travel to new planets. The Orokin terraformed several planets and moons in the solar system. A terra-formed Earth’s ecology is now feral, overgrown with jungle and barely suitable for human inhabitants.

Due to the massive territory expansion, soon the Orokin found their resources depleted, the large labor force spread too thin. Experiments began to start genetically modifying and cloning the Orokin’s working class and laborers, leading to beginnings of the Grineer. However, when they realized that the Origin System itself could not sustain their growing Empire, it was proposed that the empire could terra-from another nearby star system called Tau.

The Orokin conducted an experiment to send a colony ship on an expedition through the Void to colonize Tau. The ship was Zariman class military ship with the designation: Ten-Zero (Ten-0 *wink*). The Void jump from Saturn to the Outer edges of the origin system fails, and contact with the ship is lost in the Void. Orokin history refers to this as the "Void-Jump Accident". Years later, the Zariman mysteriously reappears, when the Orokin sends a recovery crew in which they discover that all the adults were brutally slaughtered,.The only survivors are children, mentally and physically scarred by the long exposure to the void. Soon it was discovered that the long exposure to the Void had additional side effects on the children, namely the development of volatile abilities and sensitivity to the void. (more on this later). Initially fascinated by the Zariman children, Orokin Executor Ballas, an eventual creator of Warframes, tasks his lover, an Orokin Archimedian (scientist) by the name of Margulis, to study the children.

The failed expedition proved Tau to be initially too dangerous and inhospitable to keep sending colony ships to. The system would need to be first pre-terra-formed. The Orokin then decided on “The Plan,” invent and send artificial life forms which could rapidly adapt to the hostile surroundings to spearhead the colonization of Tau without the need to send humans. Originally, these synthetic machines started as nothing more than simple worker drones, automatons sent to scour Tau, they then rapidly adapted and evolved. Not only able to replicate themselves, but build more complex versions and upgrade themselves. These machine life forms evolved themselves to the point they inadvertently gained sentience, and are known now as the Sentients.

Similar to what conspired between the Quarian and the Geth in the Mass Effect series, the Sentients came to the revelation that their creators would likely eliminate them once they had served their purpose, and the Orokin’s eventual colonization would only bring ruin to Tau. Furthermore, due to something engineered by the Orokin called the “Flaw,” when Sentients began returning to the Origin system traveling through the Void left them sterile, unable to reproduce even though they had evolved the ability to do so before exposure to the Void. Originally, the Orokin had intended “The Flaw” to kill any Sentient crossing the Void attempting to return to the Origin System, however, it did not work. The Sentients then went to war with their creators, seeking revenge thus beginning the“Old War”.

The Orokin are quickly overwhelmed, and soon realize they are fighting a losing war. The Orokin high technology proves ineffective in stopping the Sentients. The prestigious Orokin warships and weaponry were assimilated by the Sentient and turned against them. The Sentient armada and fleet only grew in number, fed by the wreckage of the Orokin warship and machines. The Dax, the Orokin elite guard, and finest troops adorned in gold armor are no match to the sheer overwhelming number of Sentients. The Orokin repurpose their cloning technology into engineering battle bred soldiers. Even combined with numbers of Grineer clone soldiers, the Sentient were still seemingly unstoppable.

What transpires from this point of the Old War is finally better told in the game’s ‘cinematic quests” the Second Dream, the War Within and the Sacrifice.This part of my lore explanation will now go into heavy spoiler territory, explaining the major revelations in these three major narrative quests. This is your final spoiler warning!

Brief Aside: Challenges With The Game’s Narrative

The reason why veteran players say Warframe's story doesn't begin until 20-70 hours into the game is because up until The Second Dream there is no player agency, nor personal stakes, or a distinct narrative for the player to follow the game. The game struggles to tell the backstory that I just explained. I frequently encounter new players drop off before reaching this point in the game despite best efforts. One such as our moderator @mento, who wrote an excellent blog series “Seeking Warframe & Fortune" giving Warframe his best shot despite inevitably hitting a wall.

Even today, at the time of this writing to wrap your head around Warframe and progress in it to this point as a new player is a non-trivial task. As a fan, I would say you only played Warframe if you at least got past the Second Dream.

For a player like myself, who has been following Warframe since its release, it was not until Update 18, more than 2 years after the game’s closed beta, did Digital Extremes make their first big leap with Warframe’s main story with the release of the Second Dream. My explanation will not break down details of each quest individually, instead it will explain everything as a whole - taking plot points from all the quests.

Diving Into The Spoiler Territory

Traditional Orokin weaponry was proving ineffective against the Sentients forces and the Orokin were forced to manufacture alternative forms of weaponry.At this point where things start to turn a bit Evangelion.

Ballas narrates in his Vitruvian (Old War Recordings) found during the Sacrifice Quest:

“Our hubris shone like a black star... for our technology, our war machines, were your kin. How easily you turned them against us. We were forced to older means. Not circuits, nor light... but flesh and disease. Our horrors past, our ravaged outer colonies... became gardens!"

The Orokin turned to engineering weapons made of flesh and disease, matter that the Sentient machines could not assimilate.What they developed was Technocyte-a living organism that was able to assimilate other biological life, bonding with and strengthening its host.

If you recall the Infested faction, they are made of the victims of the Technocyte virus, a strain of Technocyte that grew out of control and spread throughout the solar system attempting to assimilate all biological matter it contacts. But the Orokin were successful with a different strain of Technocyte, a Helminth. Ballas took the Orokin’s best warriors, the Dax, some who volunteered, some unwillingly and infected them with the Helminth Technocyte reagents. Through this process a human is transformed into a Warframe.

“Their skin blossomed into sword-steel. Their organs, interlinked with untold resilience. Yet their minds were free of the Infested madness. Or so we thought. We set them upon the battlefield, bio-drones under our command” - Ballas

Further In the game players may eventually discover how to access The Helminth Infirmary on their ship. Located on the starboard side of the Tenno’s Oribter, the room covered over by what looks to be the infestation, however, this is actually where the Helminth resides, intentionally integrated into the ship and according to Ordis is integral to the Orbiter’s biological functions.

"Disgusting, is it not Operator? Ordis would enjoy PURGING THIS ...uh, cleaning this room but sadly this... vile mass serves you and your Warframes. A necessary evil."

Knowing how a warframe is made, Ordis explains the Helminth Infirmary is responsible for assisting in the crafting of the Tenno’s Warframes on the ship. The material needed to reproduce a copy of the Warframe from blueprints.

When the player crafts a Prime Warframe, it is a reproduction of one of the original forms of the Warframes. At some point the Orokin later invented the technology to mass produce replicas and variants of the prime Warframes.

The Helminth strain is also designed to subsume the host’s mind when they are turned into a Warframe, their free will is stripped away. While these Warframes proved effective against the Sentients, they still retained echoes of their former selves and enough that it made their behavior unpredictable and they became just as likely to turn on their Orokin masters as the Sentients.

In rare cases like Excalibur Umbra, Umbra is able to remember his final moments as a Human before being forced to become a Warframe. Haunted by those memories he is able to retain his sentience and act on his own accord.

"The Warframes... all of them... failures. Surprised? They turned on us, just as [The Sentients] did. And so we had no choice but to commit them... to grave... - Ballas

The Orokin realize they require a means to control the Warframes. They discover that they can use the Tenno’s power, and use a newly devised technology called Transference to force the Warframes to comply.

The Tenno

Now that the origin of Warframes is explained, you might be then asking: “What then is the Tenno?” Recall the events of the Void-Jump Accident, the Zariman Ten-Zero recovered with only the children still alive. Children who developed volatile abilities due to being exposed to void. The children were constantly in mental and physical pain. Margulis showed them love and compassion, treating them as if they were all her own son and daughters. Researching means to help ease their suffering, and control their powers.

One child named Rell however, is outcasted due to his autism, he develops a unique awareness and understanding of the void. He is able to sense a mysterious entity within the Void he refers to as the “Man in the Wall”. Rell claims that this entity is indifferent, an embodiment of the void’s consciousness and has always existed. As an outcast Rell is taken in by a group that eventually will be called the Red Veil. They heed Rell’s warnings of this entity and study the Void.

However, the Orokin Executors objected to Margulis’ work. They ordered her to cease her research as they see the children as abominations, calling the children “Void devils” which needed to be destroyed. Despite warnings from Ballas, Margulis continues her research and enlists the help of another Archimedian specialized in biology and apothics named Silvana. Margulis is able to suppress the children’s memories of the Void Jump Accident, and places limits on their sensitivity to the void which then allows the children to better control their abilities.Silvana and Margulis develop a process known as “Transference” in which the child’s mind could be transferred into a surrogate body strong enough to withstand their full power. The Orokin however discover Margulis’ transgressions whereupon she is ordered to appear before Orokin Executors and recant, but refuses and they sentence her to death.

However, desperate to use any means necessary to achieve victory against the Sentients, the Orokin soon order Silvana to resume research into Transference, realizing it could be used to project another mind into a Warframe and fully control them. The children are trained to become “Operators” of the Warframes and are given the title of the “Tenno” (Ten-O). The Tenno prove to be highly effective in combating Sentients turning the tides of war back in the Orokin's favor.

Ballas, filled with grief over Margulis’ death, and feeling resentment over the Orokin Emperor’s judgment starts to plot to betray the Orokin. Ballas then conspires with a Sentient known as Hunhow on a way to bring down the Empire. The many quotes I have included from Ballas, are from his communications with Hunhow disclosing the true nature of the Warframes and Tenno weapons the Orokin were using against the Sentients.

Collapse of the Orokin Empire

Ballas reveals to Hunhow the secret weakness of the Warframes, the Tenno Operators. The Tenno themselves are un-guarded, vesseled in pods, induced in a perpetual dream-like state. The pods are on Earth’s moon, Lua in a place called “The Reservoir”

Hunhow sends his daughter, Natah, to secretly infiltrate the Orokin hierarchy with Ballas’ aid. Natah becomes close with Tenno, changing herself to closely resemble what the Tenno saw Margulis was, their mother and caretaker. However, in doing so, Natah deluded herself into becoming the role she was pretending to be.

As part of Hunhow’s plan, the Sentients initiate a false retreat, falling back to the outer edges of the origin system. Hunhow fakes his own death, by allowing part of himself to be destroyed and fall into the seas of Uranus where he hides in a hibernated state, making it look like a tomb.

With Hunhow seemingly defeated, the Orokin believe the war to be over. The Tenno are hailed as saviors and the Emperors descend from their thrones for a “Tenno Absolution Ceremony”.

However, all this is part of Hunhow/Ballas’ ploy. When the Emperors arrive, the Tenno initiate a coup, slaughtering the Orokin Emperor and nobility at the ceremony. A soldier at the ceremony witnesses the Tenno’s slaughter and vows to enact revenge on the Tenno for their actions, a soldier who later becomes known as The Stalker.

After the coup, the final act of Hunhow’s plan was to have Natah reawaken Hunhow and recall the Sentients back to finish off the remaining Orokin. In the process Natah is supposed to also destroy the Tenno. But after learning of Margulis and her love and compassion for the Tenno, it drove Natah to abandon her final objective. She fully embraces her role, becoming the Lotus, a mother and guide to the Tenno.

Without the Orokin Emperors the social hierarchy of the empire collapses. Civil war erupts across the system thus leading to the emergence of the factions in the game’s present timeline. The Grineer take advantage of the conflict and chaos, and due to their large number of clone armies form a regime of their own, The Grineer Empire, led by the Twin Queens, become the established dominant civilization of the origin system. The Corpus conglomerate,industrialists profiting from the war end up with control of almost all commerce in the origin system. Without the strong presence of the Orokin, the Technocyte virus the Technocyte virus malignantly propagates into uncontrollable amounts of the Infestation

In order to protect the Tenno from the various conflicts, the Lotus hides Lua inside the Void. Both the Warframes and the Tenno are put into a deep sleep.. The Warframes are dormant, and hidden in crypods, deep inside ancient Orokin ruins. During the Second Dream Quest, the Tenno are tasked with shifting Lua back into nomal space, therefore adding it to the Star chart as a playable location.

The Warframe Era

In the present Warframe timeline, the player Tenno, answers Lotus’ call to action, waking up in the transference state, falsely remembering themselves to be the Warframe.

Guided by the Lotus, they journey throughout the origin system aiding and defending the colonies and inhabitants in need from the Grineer, Corpus and Infested. The Tenno become heroes to many of the inhabitants and cultures across the origin system.

All that is left of the Orokin besides the Tenno are the lost artifacts, derelict towers and Old War wreckage. Knowledge of how these ancient relics functioned is lost due to the absence of the Orokin Elite which the knowledge was withheld by.

Warframe Cinematic Intro

Natah / The Second Dream

On Uranus, Tyl Regor, a Grineer scientist in search of Orokin artifacts, begins to excavate an Old War tomb under the sea. This inadvertently reawakens Hunhow. Enlisting the help of The Stalker, they track down the Tenno’s true self on Lua and attempt to permanently end the Tenno. Learning of Hunhow’s resurrection, The Lotus sends the player in pursuit of the Stalker, ending up on Lua. The Moon re-emerges out from the Void and back in the solar system. When the player reaches the Reservoir, they unknowingly open the pod where they themselves are sleeping. The activation of the pod causes the Transference Link between the player and their Warframe to become severed, their Warframe collapses stoically to the floor. The pod opens and the player, as the Tenno Operator emerges from the pod. Weak from their long stasis, the Tenno struggles to crawl towards their Warframe. The Warframe is unable to move on its own until the Tenno grasps its shoulder and temporarily re-connects themselves with their Warframe. The Stalker then appears in front of them. Upon seeing the player’s true form, he is hesitant to cut down the child. The Stalker allows them to escape. However, Hunhow does not relent, and sends several Sentients after them. The player and their Warframe retreat back to their Orbiter.

On the Orbiter, the player is directed to go to a never before entered part of their ship. At the back of the ship is a device called the Somatic Link in which the player must connect the Operator to in order to fully re-establish transference with their Warframe. They encounter the Stalker on-board the ship, and this time the Stalker no longer hesitates to kill the Operator; grabbing the child by the throat and choking them. Suddenly the player’s Warframe unexpectedly begins to move seemingly on its own to defend the operator. The Stalker is forced to retreat.

Afterwards, the Lotus appearing in person for the first time, arrives and carries the Operator to the Somatic Link. The player is allowed to choose their in-game appearance as the Operator.

The Lotus then begins to explain to the player who they really are, and the details about the Void Jump Accident, about Margulis and her work on Transference.

The War Within

Released in November of 2016, “The War Within” was a followup quest to the Second Dream. The Tenno, now aware of their power, encounter for the first time the Grineer Twin Queens.The Queens survived through many centuries by utilizing a ritualistic and more destructive form of Transference called “The Continuity”. It allows the Queens to transfer their entire consciousness from one body to the next. The Queens attempt to leave their rapidly aging bodies and invade the mind of the Tenno Operator. Using a mysterious resource called Kuva, they are able to borrow and poison the Tenno’s mind. If the Tenno succumbed to the effects of Kuva, their mind would become erased, leaving only the Queens’ consciousness to take control of the Tenno's body.

The dark vision quest that entails features the player, as the Operator, overcoming puzzles and platforming challenges. Teshin, a mentor figure to the Tenno, appears inside their mind and reveals himself to be a former Dax Soldier from the Orokin Era who knows of Margulis’ work. In order to save the Tenno from the Queens, Teshin undoes Margulis' suppression of the Tenno’s memories, and sensitivity to the void.

“Now you're trapped inside this place with the Queens burrowing in. Now I am forced to undo what Margulis did, to open the gates... and make you suffer. Margulis lied to you, a lie of omission. She did not cure the Zariman children - she erased them. My only hope is that truth still lingers inside you, buried within your mind. The power and the misery... of the Void”. - Teshin

Confronting their repressed trauma, the Tenno emerge gaining new Void abilities, and become strong enough to repel the Queens from their minds. The unlocking of their true powers also causes the Tenno to begin to see and hear the “Man In the Wall” that Rell, the outcast child referred to.

The Lotus Disappears

Sometime after the events of War Within, the Tenno discover a purple orb in their Personal Quarters on board the Orbiter. Upon interacting with the orb, the Tenno is transported to Lua, where they experience visions of Margulis’ trial and her final moments before execution. The Tenno eventually find themselves transported to the Enclave of the Lotus. But before the Tenno can speak with the Lotus, Ballas suddenly appears in front of them. Addressing the Lotus as Margulis, the two hold hands and walk through a mysterious portal of light. From this point, the Lotus has disappeared, leaving only her helmet which was dropped on the floor.

The Apostasy Prologue

The Sacrifice

The Man in the Wall appears to Tenno more frequently, and they start hearing the Lotus’ voice calling to them inside their head. One day upon being beckoned by the voice of the Lotus, the Tenno touches Lotus’ helmet to suddenly experience a vision of Ballas and Excalibur Umbra.

This begins the previously covered quest, The Sacrifice, in which the player learns of how Warframes are created, and of Ballas and Hunhow’s plan to collapse the Orokin Empire.

Warframe Lore Recap Ballas' Vitruvian

The Tenno eventually track down and confront Ballas. With the help of the Tenno, Umbra is able to stab Ballas through the stomach. The Tenno demands from Ballas the whereabouts of the Lotus, just as she then appears from the sky - now reverted back to her true form of Natah. The Tenno questions her new appearance, provoking Natah to declare, "This is what I really am." She then takes a wounded Ballas back to the Sentient mothership.

The New War Soon(™)

After the events of the Sacrifice, the Man in the Wall manifests itself yet again, transporting the Tenno to witness Ballas’ fate in the Chimera Prologue.The quest’s cutscenes reveal that Ballas following his grave wounds, has been operated on, parts of his body replaced by Sentient growth. Sensing the Tenno’s presence in the room, he tells them that the Lotus has deceived them both, and must be destroyed. He imparts the idea of a “Sentient Slayer”, a weapon called Paracesis into the mind of the Tenno. Before Natah catches onto the Tenno’s presence, the Man In the Wall transports the Tenno back to the Orbiter.

Natah, fully Sentient once more, begins preparations to invade the Origin System with her Sentient brethren. She manipulates Alad V, a member of the Corpus Board of Directors, to start the Amalgam Project - tasked with research that inadvertently fuses Corpus / Grineer technology with Sentients

Warframe New War Official Teaser Trailer

Empyrean / The Erra Quest

To prepare for the imminent return of the Sentients, the Tenno reconstructs an Old War, Sigma Series Railjack warship. Traveling to a region of space called the Veil Proxima, they discover Sentient Outpost ships already converging on the Origin System. The Man in the Wall appears once again, showing the Tenno vision of the Natah and her brother, Erra on the Sentient Mothership preparing to deploy their Sentient fleets to begin the new Sentient invasion on the Origin System.

Erra Quest Recap

This is presently, where the main Warframe narrative is at. The next cinematic quest to advance the story will be “The New War” and it is scheduled to come sometime this year in 2020.

Warframe Cinematic Quest Recap

Thank you for reading this blog which as I was writing became a deeper and more deeper dive into the lore than I initially expected. Although there are plot details I intentionally left out to simplify the lore for those unfamiliar with the game. By all means, if you have comments or questions, please post them! I would love to discuss Warframe with you. A big thank you to @tbk and @dannyhibiki for their help in proof-reading this massive blog post and making sure everything I wrote was readable!

Finally, If you enjoy reading.this style of blog by me, back in 2016 I wrote and in-depth breakdown of the Black Box developed Need for Speed game connecting the lore from Need For Speed Underground to Ghost Games’ 2016 reboot, and how the franchise changed hands throughout 2000-2016. I mention this only because of the recent announcement that Criterion Games is back to making the next Need for Speed. If you are interested in a way in-depth dive into the lore of Need for Speed (at the level of a Fast and Furious) and how each of those Need for Speed games loosely ties with each other, check it out here:

https://www.giantbomb.com/profile/rapid/blog/i-feel-the-need-the-need-for-speed-examining-the-s/113236/

Ghost Games, the developers behind the most recent Need For Speed (initially released on consoles November 2015), have announced that their latest SpeedList update will be their last free content update for the game. The game came to the PC this March, and up to now Ghost Games has been offering free additional updates including new game modes, cars, and patches. Ghost Games also announced that they are working on the next Need For Speed title to be released in 2017:

“We are now building upon the foundations that have been laid with Need for Speed and delivering our next game in 2017.”

I’ve been playing Need for Speed, and recently finished all of the game’s story missions, but this is the first NFS game I have played to completion in over a decade.

The game has made me think about the series and re-examine the series as a whole. I am a fan of particular time in the Need For Speed series.

Ghost Games’ announcement of the next Need For Speed building upon the “foundation” of the current reboot raises the question of exactly which aspects of Need for Speed they are going to build off from? It would be easy to define the Need for Speed series as just an arcade racing game, but look at its history, and it is evident that the series has undergone several changes in identity- from tone, gameplay, to playstyle. Need for Speed can mean something different to someone depending on when they experienced the series.

Where I Started and Stopped

In my mind, I split the Need For Speed game series into eras, and depending on when you were introduced to the franchise makes you a different Need for Speed fan. The more I thought of how to define these eras in my head, the more I thought about the games, and how fun it actually sounds to group the titles together.

Pre-Underground Era: “High Stakes, and Hot Pursuit!” (1994-2002)

The pre-Underground era consisted of the games that came out near the late 90’s to early 2000’s, before the release of Need For Speed Underground in 2003. Games in this period of the franchise were High Stakes, Porsche Unleashed, and the Hot Pursuit games. My first experience with Need For Speed was Hot Pursuit 2 on the GameCube. The design of these games were straight forward; you chose from a variety of real-world cars that raced on set race tracks / courses. The Need for Speed series popularised Police Pursuits; events during races in which players would be challenged not only to win the race event, but do so while outrunning Police vehicles and choppers.

Underground Era: “Underground Most Wanted” (2003-2006)

This is the series I grew up with, and therefore represents the class of Need For Speed game that I most pine for. As a fan of the games in this era, the Underground era games are the standard in which I hold all other Need For Speed games that have come after in comparison to.

Developed by the EA studio Black Box, Need For Speed Underground marked the beginning of a dramatic shift in tone for the franchise that rewrote the definition of the games from 2003-2006. Heavily inspired by and capitalizing on the increasingly popularity and appeal of the first three Fast and Furious movies, the series shifted from semi-realistic open track racing to urban, illegal street-racing fantasy that defined the movie franchise. Games of this period were Underground, Underground 2, Most Wanted, and Carbon. The games perfectly mirrored Fast and Furious’ portrayal of street racing. Racing fast cars for money, pinkslips, and women. The import car and tuning culture that was introduced is evident in game mechanics like car customization and performance upgrading and tuning. Even to this day, these games and other racing games are still perpetuating the misconceptions of Nitrous Oxide (NOS), which I defend as while not realistic, is a great game mechanic. The games even paid homage to the movie series with car designs and skins inspired by cars in Fast and Furious. The BMW M3 GTR featured in Most Wanted was painted to resemble Paul Walker’s Nissan Skyline GTR from 2 Fast 2 Furious.

From aftermarket body kits, spoilers, rims, decals, and vinyls to the ridiculously out-of-style neon lights and hydraulics, Underground 2 still beats out many of the games which came after it in terms of the sheer number of unique car customization options.

Carbon was released in 2006, the same year as Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Carbon featured canyon drifting events, and players could customize the Nissan 350Z to nearly replicate the look of Takashi aka D.K’s (The Drift King) car, as well as Han’s RX-7.

The customization, upgrades, and over-the-top plot in the Underground games made the series seem more than just an arcadey racing game; it was a role-playing game with cars. These games featured a narrative told through the form of in-game cinematics, or in some games, campy FMV (Full-Motion Video). Endearing to me is the fact that the narrative in each game during this era was loosely connected. Underground 2 picked up at least 6 months after the events of Underground and Carbon continued the story after Most Wanted.

In Need For Speed Underground you play a nameless, silent street racer who is new to the scene in Olympic City and is shown the ropes by your new friend Samantha who acts as a mentor for the player. The player spots the game’s main nemesis Eddie and his hot, blonde girlfriend Melissa however, he lacks the credibility to challenge Eddie to a race. The player is challenged by a list of street racers and wins each successive race until Eddie is no longer able to ignore the player’s prowess. In order to challenge Eddie, the player must win a race against all street racers. The player must even challenge Samantha. Samantha’s Honda Civic gets wrecked and smashed up in the race with the player, and she becomes angry at him, feeling that the player had betrayed her comradery. In a later race, the player wins back Samantha’s car from a racer named, TJ who recovers it from the junkyard and restores it for himself. The player returns the car to Samantha to make amends before facing Eddie. After defeating Eddie, the player races against one final mystery opponent who after is revealed to be Eddie’s girlfriend, Melissa.

The plot of Need for Speed Underground 2 picks up right after the events with Eddie and Melissa. As the top ranked underground racer in Olympic City, the player races around the city in a Nissan Skyline GT-R. He receives an invitation from an ominous racer that offers the player a spot in his crew, and will not take no for an answer.

“We like what we see, there’s room on my posse for you and I ain’t taking no for an answer. What’s it going to be?”

The player drives off, headed to a party to celebrate his recent wins when he is suddenly ambushed by a mysterious driver in a black Hummer R2. His Skyline is totalled in the resulting crash, much like how the character Han in Tokyo Drift crashes his orange Mazda RX-7 after it is T-boned by a Mercedes S-Class. If you have seen Fast and Furious 6 or Furious 7, you know the crash is not an accident.

6 months later, the player is on a flight to BayView, presumably to pursue a fresh start. Samantha refers the player to her friend Rachel Teller when he arrives. Rachael hooks the player up with the local race scene, and in particular encourages him to gain enough reputation to enter the exclusive Underground Racing League (URL). As the player wins race events, they begin attracting the attention of investors interested in sponsoring racers in the Underground Racing League. The player will be offered to appear on magazine covers, and gain access to new cars and exclusive upgrades from sponsors after earning enough reputation. Rachael acts as the player’s agent and liaison between the player and the sponsors, and informs him of deals and races with other prolific racers. Eventually the player will run into a rival crew, “The Wraiths”, led by Caleb Reece- the game’s main antagonist. Caleb has been manipulating races and sponsorship deals, and Rachel needs the player’s help in order to prevent Caleb from taking control of the racing scene in BayView. Caleb is also revealed as the person driving the black Hummer H2 that ambushed the player back in Olympic City. Caleb begins sending racers, including members of his crew, at the player. The player defeats each member of The Wraiths, including their best driver, a female driver named Nikki Morris. Nikki later leaves The Wraiths, joins the player, and helps Rachel. This pushes Caleb over the edge. Caleb challenges the player to a winner takes all race, and the loser must leave BayView. The player defeats Caleb and becomes the Race King of BayView.

While it is established that Underground 1 and 2 narratively are in the same universe, Most Wanted and Carbon likely take place in a different universe. However, the games are similar in tone and gameplay that categorize them into the same era.

Need For Speed Most Wanted begins with the player arriving in Rockport in a BMW M3 GTR. The player is introduced to police officer Sergeant Cross. Before Cross can have a chance to apprehend the player, Cross and his partner are called into a police pursuit. Cross lets the player go this time but not before keying his car.

The player then meets the infamous Razor Callahan, currently the #15 driver on the “Blacklist”, a list of the most notorious drivers in Rockport. The player is helped by fellow street racer Mia Townsend, who is confident that the player can beat Razor. The player challenges Razor to race for pink slips and initially five grand. Razor response with this infamous line,

“First I’m going to take your ride, then I’m going to take your girl. Get Ready for that.”

The race starts out well until the BMW M3’s engine gives out, suddenly causing the player to lose the race and the M3 to Razor. Razor and his crew drive off as Cross and police cruisers arrive. The player is left on the side of the street unable to escape; he is arrested by Cross.

After some time passes, Mia picks up the player from the police station. The player is released due to a lack of evidence to convict him. She informs him that Razor had sabotaged the player’s car engine before the race, and now has become the #1 driver on the Blacklist because he is driving the player’s BMW M3. Mia sets up the player in a safe house and a new car, which allows him to race against the members of the Blacklist until he can face Razor again.

Eventually the player challenges Razor to a re-match and wins, becoming the #1 racer on the Blacklist. When Razor refuses to admit defeat and return the BMW, Mia physically subdues Razor and reveals herself as an undercover cop. Cross and police units swarm in, arresting Blacklist drivers on the spot. The player nearly escapes again with the aid of Mia, giving him the keys to the BMW. Cross orders every officer of the Rockport Police Department to pursue the player. In the game’s finale, the player escapes the cops and leaves the city by jumping their car over a incomplete bridge.

The plot is then continued in Need for Speed Carbon. Some time after the events of Most Wanted, the player drives into Palmont City while being pursued by Sergeant Cross who slams into the player’s BMW M3 GTR. It has been some time since Rockport. Cross was fired from the Rockport Police Department for letting the player escape, and now is a bounty hunter that is after the player. While trying to outrun Cross, the player crashes into a truck hauling logs. But before Cross can arrest the player, Darius, an old acquaintance of the player, shows up in his Audi Le Mans quattro. Darius pays Cross off in exchange for the player. It is revealed in a flashback why the player was in Rockport in Most Wanted. Prior to Rockport, the player was racing in Palmont City. Nikki, the player’s ex-girlfriend, also arrives on the scene. She seems infuriated to see the player.

A little clarification for those reading this, but have never played the games. The “Nikki” in Carbon is played by actress Emmanuelle Vaugier while “Nikki Morris” from Underground 2 is portrayed by model Kelly Brook. There is no evidence that the two characters are related.

In my head canon, if Nikki Morris is meant to be the same Nikki in Carbon, it would easily be the link between Underground and Carbon. However, as there is no concrete evidence to support this, it is most likely not the case that these two characters are the same person.

In a flashback, Darius gives the player the keys to his BMW M3 to race against drivers Angie, Kenji, and Wolf. Nikki was holding a bag of the prize money to be given to the winner of the street race when the race is suddenly interrupted by the Palmont Police Department, now armed with EMP rifles. The officers fire on the drivers, disabling everyone’s cars except the player’s in a scene most likely based off a scene in 2 Fast 2 Furious in which Paul Walker’s Skyline GTR is disabled by an EMP harpoon launcher. Nikki throws the money bag into the player’s car before getting arrested. The player realizes the money bag is a dud and drives away into Rockport. Nikki still holds a grudge against the player for bailing and taking the money for himself not knowing the bag did not contain the prize money. Nikki is now part of Darius’ crew, “Stacked Deck”.

The racing scene in Palmont has changed in the time the player was in Rockport. Several rival racing crews led by Angie, Kenji, and Wolf (racers from that night) and Darius, are all now competing for control of the city. Each crew currently owns a particular district within Palmont. Darius instructs the player that in exchange for dealing with Cross, the player will need to remove the other crews from the city, and help him regain control. Darius orders Nikki to help the player set up his own crew with a racer named Neville. The player gains control of the districts from another crew by challenging and defeating their leader in a head to head Canyon race. As the player defeats smaller crews, the members of those crews, including Samson, Yumi, and Colin, will join the player and present their account of what happened on the night the player left Palmont. After claiming the districts from Angie, Kenji, and Wolf, the only remaining crews in control are Darius and the player.

Darius tells the player to meet him at the Palmont courthouse, a ploy by Darius to hand the player to Cross. Darius reveals he was using the player to gain territory for him and arranged a deal with Cross to arrest the player after he reclaimed most of the city. Darius leaves the player to Cross and drives off. Nikki arrives, and Cross then reveals he is releasing the player as part of an agreement with Nikki. Nikki has pieced together the truth of what happened that night. Darius was responsible for the incident. He had arranged for the cops to be present, and was the one who stole the actual bag of money and framed the player for it. After winning a race with Nikki, she joins the player’s crew.

Darius soon discovers that Nikki freed the player from Cross and has defected. Darius hires Kenji, Angie, and Wolf to his crew to take out the player. The player defeats Darius’ new crew and faces Darius in a race in which the loser leaves town. After the race a bitter Darius warns the player that there will always be another street racer out there that is faster that will come along to challenge him:

“Enjoy it while it lasts…there’s always someone out there that is a little faster than you are, and sooner or later they’re going to catch up.”

The next major console releases of Need For Speed never followed up on the Underground or Most Wanted storyline, that is…until Need For Speed 2015.

Post Underground Era: “ProStreet, Undercover, and Shift” (2007-2009)

After Tokyo Drift, it would not be for another three years (2009) until a new Fast and Furious (the 4th installment) was released. Having no more movies to base games on, the franchise began its departure from Underground. In 2007 ProStreet was released as a return to “realistic-racing” on closed professional race tracks much like the games of the pre-Underground era. The police chases, car customization, open world free roam, and FMV narrative sequences, features which became a staple of previous Need for Speed games, were dialed back, and some of these features were removed altogether in ProStreet.

The following year (2007) after the poor sales performance of ProStreet, Need for Speed Undercover brought back car tuning, customization, the free roaming open world, and a focus on police chases. The narrative had the player playing as a undercover cop and featured full live-action cutscenes starring Maggie Q as Inspector Chase Linh. Undercover, while containing many of the features that defined Need For Speed in the Underground era, is generally criticized by the online Need for Speed community for its poor A.I.

The story begins with the player in a Nissan 370Z invading police vehicles and choppers in Tri-City Bay. After evading the cops, the game cuts to a scene between Inspector Chase Linh and Lieutenant Jack M. Keller arguing over which department should get the case involving stolen cars. The player enters Chase’s office and is revealed to be an undercover cop. His job is to infiltrate the crews in the city and gather evidence and intel about a network of crime lords linked to the street racers in the Tri-City Bay. The player must earn the crime bosses’ trust by winning races and doing dirty work for the leaders of the crews: including stealing cars and taking out other racers (totaling their vehicles). The player soon meets crime boss Zack Maio and his brother Hector Maio. The player also befriends Carmen Mendez (played by Christina Milian). Without blowing his cover, the player’s actions eventually lead to the arrest of key members of the crew including Zack and Hector. The player expands his operations by infiltrating a crew led by Gregory MacDonald, also known as “GMac”. The investigation and connections eventually lead to dealings with crime boss, Chau Wu, affiliated with the Chinese Triad. GMac orders the player to hijack a BMW M6 from Chau. Carmen asks the player to return the car back to Wu. She believes the arrest of Zack, Hector, and now GMac were due to Wu. Chau Wu eventually discovers that the player was responsible for stealing his BMW M6, and kidnaps Inspector Chase revealing that Chau knows the player is a cop. When the player shows up for the exchange of the M6, Chase and Wu disclose they have been partners working together all along. Chase then shoots Chau with a silenced pistol and frames the player for Chau’s murder. She drives off in the M6. The player then must chase down Chase Linh whilst the entire Tri-City Bay Police Department pursues the player. Eventually, Lieutenant Keller discovers Chau’s true murderer, and arrests Chase with the help of the player. Carmen had testified in exchange for her and the player not being charged for Chau’s murder. A PDA found in the stolen M6 also happens to contain evidence of Chase Linh’s criminal activities, and involvement with the stolen cars. Keller praises the player for a successful undercover mission, and not forgetting that he is a cop.

“I know what it’s like going deep undercover… Too easy to lose sight of who we are… why we do this. ”

The story ends with the player meeting with Carmen asking for a ride to the university, because it turns out she is studying as a med student.

After Undercover (2008), ProStreet was rebranded as SHIFT, a spin-off series of the Need for Speed franchise which the focused on simulation racing. The game was not developed by Black Box, but by a separate developer, Slightly Mad Studios.

Black Box would go on to make and release Need for Speed World, an online MMO released in 2010, but which would be officially shut down in summer 2015.

The World Era: “World, The Run…Autolog” (2010-2011)

This was the start of where things began to take a fall. At this point I had very much “checked out” of the Need for Speed series. Need For Speed World was a free to play game set in the the world of Most Wanted and Carbon. The map featured both Rockport and Palmont City. The game did not feature any narrative plot and was supported heavily by lots of microtransactions. “Boost” points could be used to unlock cars, customizations, and additional power ups. I spent a small amount of time with the game, but it was the free to play microtransactions and the lack of story which prevented me from enjoying and spending more of my time in World.

While Black Box focused on developing and supporting the MMO, other developers began to take up the mantle of developing the main annual Need For Speed games. This includes, Need for Speed: Nitro, SHIFT 2: Unleashed and notably, Hot Pursuit. Developed by Criterion Games, the makers of the Burnout series, the game featured “Autolog”, an online competitive high score and progress tracking system that allowed players to compare their race score and times with their friends. It also introduced concepts and mechanics from the Burnout series into Need for Speed. The game received generally positive reception, especially from the fans of the Burnout series.

Black Box’s last Need for Speed game was titled The Run. The game featured race events across key locations in the United States, with the conceit that players are taking part in a massive organized and illegal high stakes race across the country. While the game did not feature an open world, it focused on a heavy narrative with 3D-animated cutscenes and quick-time events. For the first time in Need For Speed History the main character exited the car and ran on foot!

The player assumes the role of a named, speaking character: Jackson “Jack” Rourke, a street racer / mechanic who is indebted to the mob for loaning him money to start his garage business.

After the mob kidnaps and almost kills him in a car crusher for not repaying them, Jack seeks his ex-girlfriend and business partner Sam Harper for a way to get the money to pay back the mob. Sam tells Jack to participate in “The Run”, a large 3000 mile (4828 km) race across America, starting from San Francisco and finishing in New York City, with the winner receiving 25 million dollars. Jack must race and beat 210 racers across the country on his way to New York. His biggest rival, and the game’s main antagonist, is the mob-connected racer Marcus Blackwell. He tries everything in his power to make sure that Jack never finishes the race. Eventually Jack is in 2nd place as he reaches New York, after being pursued by other racers, the mob, and police. Jack races Marcus in a final showdown in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Near the end of the finish line, Marcus’ car is flipped and is totaled in the issuing carnage. Jack wins the $25 million jackpot.

Because of the game’s under performing sales the studio was eventually closed down by EA in 2013, ending the Black Box Dynasty.

Burnout Marriage

The “Criterion Era” (2012-2013)

After Black Box’s closure, responsibility of the Need for Speed franchise was given to Criterion Games, in turn developing Most Wanted (2012) and Rivals; both open world and always online, requiring players to be constantly connected to the internet even in single player. The gameplay was very much built on top of what Criterion had done with their release of Hot Pursuit. The Criterion games did not feature plot or narrative story, although Rivals allowed you to play what constituted as a “career mode” in the game, as either as a Racer or Cop. This “career mode” was only just a list of race challenges for each side.

In my mind, Criterion Games was trying to port the design and style of a Burnout game by applying it to Need for Speed. While police pursuits and street racing are checkbox items for a Need For Speed game, many of the features and design of the games were inspired by or seemingly lifted from Burnout Paradise. Features like the cutscene crash cam, handling of the cars, how players navigated the world with GPS mini-map, and online multiplayer hoppers are all features that feel like they pay homage to Burnout. Still quality games, the Criterion games did feel like Need for Speed.

Rebooted

Need for Speed 2015 is a franchise reboot for Need for Speed, inspired by the games in the “Underground” series. Ghost Games itself is a rebranded studio comprised of developers that have worked on Need For Speed Rivals, as well as other titles like Forza Horizon. Need for Speed Rivals was developed in collaboration between Criterion and Ghost Games.

Ghost Games solely was responsible for the development of Need for Speed 2015. The development team retooled and rebuilt many of the systems in the game. From a design perspective, Need For Speed broke up with Burnout, but the relationship resulted in a child over which the two are fighting for custody of. There are features that carry over from the Criterion games while re-introducing some returning features that originally came from Underground. Need For Speed 2015 is a mixture of the gameplay systems that Criterion Games left behind, and Ghost Games taking inspiration from the previous Underground Games developed by Black Box.

The game was announced to feature an open world, deep customization, and to present “authentic urban car culture” in an immersive story. The look and feel of the game was developed in collaboration with EA’s own car culture community called Speedhunters, who provided research about the present and emerging trends surrounding car culture.

The culmination of all of the past Need for Speed titles yet, the studio’s desire to depict a more authentic portrayal of real-world urban car culture results in a product that closely resembles Need for Speed Underground, but with a tone that is completely different than the inspiration.

Need For Speed (2015)

The game features the standard modes one would expect from a Need For Speed title: circuit racing, time trial, and sprint races, both drag and drift races, and pursuit events. Gameplay aspects from the modes are combined to form other modes like Drift Trial, Touge, Drift Train,Time Attack and Gymkhana events.

The game presents you with 5 different gameplay types: Speed, Style, Build, Crew, and Outlaw.

“5-Ways to Play”. The gameplay types are meant to highlight certain game modes and facilitate player choice and playstyle. Each playstyle has an in-game character that is part of the player’s crew who represents that archetype. There are as well five “icons”, people whom are real-world motorsport and street racing figures. Performing actions corresponding with each play style will earn you reputation points and levels.

Throughout the story of Need for Speed the player hangs out with Travis’ crew, with each member working towards getting noticed by their idols, one of the real life icons.

Spike is the first character the player meets; a caffeine-fueled, energetic, young and inexperienced driver who is often made fun of by the gang. He is determined to impress his idol Magnus Walker, who in real-life is a well known Porsche collector and tuner. Missions with Spike focus on speed to match his energetic personality.

Amy is the mechanic of the crew and is often seen working in Travis’ garage on her car, in which she hopes will catch the attention of Japanese car mechanic, Akira Nakai (referred to in the game as Nakai-san). Amy will often encourage the player to tune and customize his “build”. Completing her missions will unlock new car upgrades. Her missions will also require the player’s ride to sometimes meet certain specifications in to order initiate them.

Robyn is the socialite of the crew, and takes on a tomboyish personality. She enjoys being with and racing as a group either when it is with Travis’ crew, or when she is hanging out with the members of “Risky Devil”, a street drifting team based in Chicago. Robyn will introduce the player to them after completing several Crew-based drift events.

Emanuel or, “Manu”, as he is referred to as by the rest his crew members, is introduced as a rather large, brutish and eccentric racer with a both kind and charismatic facets to his personality. Manu idolizes professional rally and gymkhana-style driver Ken Block. Thus Manu’s story missions focus on style, drifting and performing gymkhana-style race events.

Lastly, the leader of the crew is Travis, who accepts the player into his crew. Throughout the story Travis acts as a mentor to his crew often bestowing advice, and encouraging them to pursue their icons. Travis seems more “connected” with the scene than anyone else in the crew. He is able to get in touch with many of the icons with his connections including Shinichi Morohoshi (referred to as Morohoshi-san), who in real-life is a Lamborghini tuner and known for his affiliation with the Yakuza. In the beginning of the story Travis will issue the player challenges to stir-up trouble with law enforcement anonymously. Afterwards he will finally reveal himself and challenge the player to impress Morohoshi.

The live action cutscenes in the game do capture the cheesy, self-aware spirit of that of Underground and Most Wanted that I long pine for, unfortunately, the story’s poor structure and pacing make the story feel completely inconsequential. There seem to be no stakes. Ghost Games created a story which I can only best compare to as a cliched, anime-esque plot with a cast of hipster characters whose sole purpose in the story is to get their racing senpai to notice them. There’s no sense of rivalry, narrative justification, or motivation for why the player is there other than the joy of street racing. The whole story plays out like a dating-sim with each of your crew members. Time to hangout with the crew so they can say how well I drove in the last race event, and another monologue about how passionate and determined they are to want to impress their senpai.

I suspect that the desire to portray authentic car culture inline with the game’s marketing is the reason why unlike the other Need for Speed games, there is no gripping dramatic story and no consequence. While I do not expect the narrative and writing in any Need For Speed game to win any game awards, I had expected the story to at least concoct a cheesy villain. Instead, this installment of Need For Speed presents no antagonists, everyone just races for joy and to express their passion. Each of the 5 storylines follow a similar structure: the player wins race after race until the icon invites him to race with them and then they race for the enjoyment of it. It leaves the story stale and unmemorable. The cutscenes do not feel succinct. They just play out, the narrative turning points unfold abruptly, and then are wrapped up wistfully.

That is not to say that there was no attempt at presenting drama in the story, only that it is disappointing; written and executed poorly. For instance in Spike’s storyline, after the player has beaten several Speed missions, he receives a voicemail from Magnus Walker. He is invited to race exclusively with Magnus. When Spike finds out, he becomes wrought with jealousy and frustration towards the player. What could have been a turning point in Spike’s story and a chance at developing Spike’s character in the scene when he confronts the player, this possibility was quickly extinguished. The scene is quickly resolved with a rather dismissive approach. Travis steps in and ends the fight. It is clear from the last scene of Spike’s story that he still has resenting feelings towards the player even though ultimately he was able to meet his hero Magnus Walker. At the very least I expected a faceoff between Spike and the player to finally resolve things but that did not come to fruition. The other storylines while also featuring Spike, do not touch upon the events of his story. All the storylines are self-contained and do not reference each other. Spike was angry at the player about Magnus, but when I started the cutscene for Robyn’s storyline, Spike suddenly was super chummy with the player. “Hey Dude what’s up?!” as they deliver a signature Need For Speed 2015 fist bump.

Other aspects of the story and cutscenes present the player as almost a third wheel. Spike is presented as having an obvious crush on Robyn, with Robyn having some feelings for Spike. The B-plot of Robyn’s story is that she’s conflicted with her love of drifting, however Spike is terrible at it, and thus dislikes the activity. Robyn is conflicted by having to choose between Speed racing and Drift racing. The player fulfills Robyn’s passion of drifting, which causes Spike to be jealous when Robyn turns down Spike’s offer to race with him, in favour of drifting with the player in a cutscene. The plot thread is resolved rather plainly after a couple of missions in which Robin convinces Spike to join her and the Risky Devils to do some drift trains. Just simply by inviting him to the race she pronounces Spike to be also a drifter now.

After meeting every icon in each of the storylines, the player is then invited to a “final” race in which all crew members and the icons compete in a large sprint race to conclude the story. The game’s story basically resolves itself by saying , “You did it player, you got all the senpai to notice you and now your reward is one single big race with everyone. Congratulations!”

Ghost Games did tie this new Need For Speed with Underground in the “Legends” update which added “Eddie’s Challenges”, referring to Eddie and Melissa from Need For Speed Underground. When Travis introduces the player to a new set of races by Eddie, Travis also implies that he and Eddie are old rivals and that Travis has slept with Melissa. Eddie’s challenges do not feature any live action or FMV cutscenes, but rather voice overs of Melissa from her messages to the player, introducing each event with some“commentary” from Eddie. Travis tells the player to race in these races in his stead. After completing all of Eddie’s challenges and defeating Eddie, the player wins his Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec (1999). This is the only direct reference that this Need for Speed is connected to the Underground series.

The customization and the ability to decorate your car is a welcomed returning feature to the series in this game. The wrap editor is slick-looking and relatively easy to use. However the amount of customization options for modifying the body and parts of your car is limited based on the type of car you own. Most of the body kits and car parts available for customization are modelled after real brands to harken back to the point authenticity. High-end super cars like the Lamborghini and the McLaren have limited customizability due to the lower number of available aftermarket parts. This is likely due to the limited number of real world modifications for those types of cars. As a result those cars receive the least amount of customizability in the game. Ghost Games have also design their own assets but they are also limited to the model and brand of the car.

Story and game features aside, Need for Speed 2015 is a graphical spectacle, from its rendering of its cars to the environmental and weather effects. Visually, the game is currently one of the best-looking racing games available. However, there are some technical issues and bugs that sour my enjoyment of playing the game. The handling, strange physics, and all the other technical issues in the game can combine to make it feel frustrating to play at times.

Frequently I found myself falling through the map while driving at high speeds. The game also has egregiously poor difficulty balance, and heavy handed AI rubber-banding. AI racers cheat, and can score better at Time Attack than you, even when they are behind you at all times. They teleport to catch up, and overtake your car at any time regardless of the fact that you have a fully upgraded car and are maintaining high speeds. Collisions that cause the Crash Cam cutscene to play out allow the AI racers to instantly spawn in front of your current position in the race.

In addition to the racers, the AI traffic and “pedestrian” vehicles tend to spawn and pop-in directly a few meters in front of your car while travelling at high speeds. They will have a tendency to drive directly towards your vehicle in what seems to be a deliberate design to try to cause a collision with your car.

For a game released in 2015, and requiring a constant internet connection, the multiplayer and online features of the game seem half-baked and unpolished. One aspect in particular that frustrated me about the Crew Play system, is that if you want to play with one or more friends while in the game, you must exit the game re-launch it to create a dedicated lobby before entering the game world. The game will fill all the Crew slots in the current lobby with random players if you do not do this. In other words, there is no way to create a new lobby without completely exiting from the game. Furthermore, whilst you are trying to do this, the game has very long initial load times to make the experience even more frustrating.

The Future of Need For Speed

Ghost Games’ reboot of Need For Speed showed that Ghost Games understands that for the fans of the series, Need for Speed is more than a driving game; it is a driving role-playing game that is steeped in car culture. The game misses the mark in some of its execution of their vision but, the game has taken the right step in that direction. My hope is that the developers continue to explore the urban theme, and to revamp the game systems and mechanics while improving the role playing aspects of Need For Speed including customization and story.

I've been reading the L4D comic for the sacrifice  these past days and I must say I found that there was a good and coherent  narrative that I didn't get by just playing through left 4 dead one. I've always thought that the L4D story was tacked onto the game and didn't sense really  the story coming together. After reading the comic, however I feel that I get better sense of what the survivors are going through and the chronology. I also enjoy the short glimpse into each of the 4 survivor's past. 

So Koei Warriors the huge Koei Fansite brought up that, Dynasty Warriors Online (BB) the Dynasty Warriors MMO that came out 4 years ago in Japan is finally coming to North America and turns out it's going to be the "Free-To-Play" model.   Being that this is came out 4 years ago, it's going to be based on the Dynasty Warriors prior to the redesign 6. 
No release date but you can try to sign-up for their closed beta. It seems that Aeria games is publishing / supporting  release of this game. Aeria games is best known for publishing many free MMO / MMORPG's like  Twelve Sky, Kingdom's Online, and probably more notably Shin Megami Tensei : Imagine.
Closed Beta Sign Up Here 
  Word from the Aeria games community is that the Closed Bea is running the current build in Japan and Taiwan.   
  I'm probably going to make a really obvious guess (cause its Aeria Games) that there's not going to be cross-platform PS3 version like in Japan.   
 
To be honest more of a Empires fan than a regular Dynasty Warriors fan I rather have the risk-type where you craft your own kingdom and rule all of China but meh check it out
 
Be nice to have a fast pace MMO I guess? rather than the standard click and wait, it's going to be CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK! (I joke but mostly like true...)