Soulframe: Where Dark Fantasy Meets Empathetic Storytelling

This year’s TennoCon has come and gone, bringing with it another deep look into Soulframe , the upcoming new title from Warframe studio Digital Extremes .

In this fledgling free-to-play fantasy adventure, players become Envoys, agents who traverse the broken and corrupted world of Alca to reclaim it from the forces of evil. It’s been two years since it was first announced, and each new deep dive into its ongoing development at TennoCon has had us on the edges of our seats.

But what is it that sets Soulframe apart from Digital Extremes’ flagship Warframe and other games in this genre?

Putting Soul Into Dark Fantasy

From the first moments of Soulframe footage I saw at last year’s TennoCon, I knew it would scratch an atmospheric itch I’ve been unable to scratch with other IPs lately. The majority of its environment, from what we’ve seen thus far, is a lush, forested overworld, with a sprawling, ancient city beneath its surface and areas claimed by oozing corruption which we need to cleanse. Nature lives hand-in-hand with the creations of man, ivy creeping over the ancient stone structures of the Undercity. (And sometimes nature lives too closely, as the antagonists, the Ode, have been assimilating great forces of nature into their twisted image.)

Soulframe also offers a deeper metaphysical or emotional layer to its environments. At any time outside of combat, the player can do a literal trust fall to disappear into the Nightfold—a purgatory realm, a lake where our ancestors dwell and render their aid, once the player recruits them. As revealed at this year’s TennoCon , the character customization process will begin from the moments of the character’s birth, their mother still holding them for the first time as we customize her features.

Already, this world, Alca, feels fully realized in a way that some finished, released games don’t attain. The human, the natural, and the spiritual are all intermingled in a compelling way, along with a dash of the truly bizarre or alien—like the giant “Collector” that descends from the sky in last year’s demo. There’s a beautiful contrast between the violence of Soulslikes and an empathetic philosophy , exemplified in the way the player’s avatar rises from a nap alongside forest creatures upon logging in, right before they run off into the forest to do violence for a good cause.

Though I hate to compare it to Elden Ring —the developers have already been joking about the inevitability of this— Soulframe truly strikes me as having the dark fantasy feel of that instant classic, yet with a deeper sense of metaphysical purpose. It’s not throwing yourself into punishing comba t for the sake of punishing combat or bits of a deeper lore. And if nothing else, it’s undoubtedly more deliberate and poetic than anything else in the free-to-play realm.

Poetry In Motion

On a similar note, I have to commend the writing so far. Despite being in the closed beta phase, Soulframe has already blown most other games’ dialogue out of the water in terms of poetic license. On the surface, it has the high fantasy feel of Tolkien with a bit of the highbrow, Shakespearean aspirations of Final Fantasy Tactics —and all the while, it sounds like poetry, depending on who’s speaking.

Each of the characters we’ve seen so far (the scholar Orlick and the Rat-Witch Verminia for the ghosts, Lady Deora from the antagonists, and Avakot from the inhabitants of Alca) have radiated personality in every department. Orlick and his “Little Genius” give insights without beating players over the head with obvious, tired video game clichés. With a musical flourish, a couple of lines, and a gesture, Verminia’s personality instantly shone through.

Soulframe feels familiar despite being a full thematic 180.

It’s not afraid to be humorous or light-hearted, either—whether it’s the spritely Avakot’s signature curse, “sun’s arse,” or the great stag Garren unceremoniously knocking the player on their ass after they rescue him.

At a time when many gamers are beginning to tire of video game banter, every line of dialogue in Soulframe ‘s public footage so far feels deliberate, meaningful, and uncondescending. It has all the makings of a game that demands your attention and defies auto-pilot design. It’s not only refreshing, it’s commendable. And likewise, the voice acting is all-in, fully committed and realized.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed

In a lot of ways, the team at Digital Extremes is deliberately breaking Soulframe away from Warframe , the now 11-year-old title that put them firmly on the map. Where the old game is fast-paced science fiction and cyberpunk, the new is more deliberate fantasy and faerie tale. RPG elements are more prominent than its big siblings, and metasystems like crafting are not just tabs on a menu but an entire corner of the Nightfold with an NPC ancestor, complete with their own personality and story.

Whereas Warframe ‘s player characters and their ability sets revolve around the titular Warframes— full exosuits that function as job classes— Soulframe has gone in a different direction. Players customize their own avatar, called an Envoy, and can choose their armour gear to express themselves as they wish. Instead, the class they’ve currently equipped is represented by Pacts, a form of stylized right-arm gear. The Fey pact, for instance, renders the player’s arm in a turquoise design, while the

This system also shows that the studio isn’t starting entirely from scratch— Digital Extremes’ tradition of having a cursed-looking arm is back in full swing.

Kidding aside, the Pact system inherits Warframe’s class structur e while recasting it in a form that suits the new world and gameplay and allows player expression. Fans will still see the sort of procedural content that has helped keep Warframe ‘s content fresh. Soulframe feels familiar despite being a full thematic 180.

Full Transparency

One thing that helps set Soulframe apart in this busy industry is the studio’s transparency. Digital Extremes has a long history of showing players the rough edges—from the earliest days of Warframe ‘s early access to the present day, where the Soulframe Preludes program has brought players into the experience since December. (It’s about to expand tremendously, as well.)

There has been a common thread in the feedback to this year’s demo, claiming that the combat gameplay looked a little janky. Whether you agree with that or not is subjective. But what matters more is that these wrinkles and unfinished corners are on display.

Maybe the staff member playing the live demo didn’t play their best run during the show, or the build had an unexpected glitch live. We can see the growth over time and see how feedback is being implemented. And more importantly, we’re seeing the actual game , not just the well-polished segments selectively chosen for a trailer, and we aren’t being fed nothing but flashy, cutscene-only trailers like so many triple-A games.

The early-access system isn’t like other titles that infamously charge you for the privilege of beta testing and spend eons in early access . Interested players will be able to participate for free and help shape this new world into something better, above and beyond just beta testing.

Healing The World

At last year’s TennoCon I had the privilege of chatting to Soulframe creative director Geoff Crookes about this new project, and something he said has lived rent-free in the back of my head since then:

“There’s combat in this game, there’s conflict—as you saw, we attack and kill people. But what we hope is that this is a game that doesn’t present this conflict as black and white. Hopefully, we convey that the player’s role in this game is a healer. Heal themselves, heal nature, and heal people. We’re really trying to nail stories of redemption. That’s the theme of [Soulframe]. I think what we’re trying to offer that’s fresh is a game that can have a healing optimism.”

He touched upon this notion again during the game’s first Devstream , stating that once they touched upon the idea of healing the world during their brainstorming, the game truly began to solidify.

That element has truly stood out for me in each of the annual gameplay demos to date. Whether it’s the way the Envoy breaks the thunderclouds above to render its foe vulnerable in the new footage or the way they break the Ode’s hold over Lady Devora by dunking her into the Nightfold and playing a song from her childhood, these moments have so much more narrative punch than simply pummeling a big boss into the ground.

Sure, that’s still satisfying, but we’ve done it a million times . Instead, Soulframe , even in a work-in-progress state, has shown a taste of something truly rewarding. Not only do we beat the bad guy, we show them the error of their ways, and balance is palpably restored to nature. If that’s not the ultimate “power fantasy,” I don’t know what is.

( Interested players can register now for the chance to be selected for the closed beta program Soulframe Preludes ; in fall 2024, participation in Preludes will open to all. Soulframe is currently only playable on PC but console versions are in the works. )