Six years, 3 months, and 11 days after Warframe first came out, it now has its very own intro cinematic. The six-minute CGI video is meant to introduce new people to the game while simultaneously giving seasoned fans a new perspective on Warframe's weird sci-fi story. It's also meant to be an action-packed chunk of visual spectacle, brought to you by the director of 10 Cloverfield Lane and Hungarian CGI studio Digic Pictures.
The intro cinematic cuts between the present day (of Warframe, which is thousands of years in our future) and the distant past (which, again, is still thousands of years ahead of us) to establish the eponymous Warframes' place in history. We see the three Frames new players can pick at the beginning of the game as ancient, mossy relics and in their final battle before being left inactive for ages.
Just as importantly, we see the Frames kicking so much stylish ass. Flowing CGI action may not be the first thing you'd expect from director Dan Trachtenberg's suspenseful-yet-grounded filmography. But it's something he's been wanting to do ever since he was a young film (and video game) geek.
"I grew up watching Hong Kong action movies, those were my formative years. John Woo, Tsui Hark, Jackie Chan," Trachtenberg told me. "And the things I'm doing today are influenced by those, but not in a direct way, and I've been craving to do straight-up action scenes. There's a little bit of action in [upcoming Amazon series] The Boys that I got to unleash, but this is really me finally unleashing in the way I've always dreamed of. And so that was a dream come true to, really say, 'This is how I think an action scene should go down.' So it's been fun."
The cinematic intro ties in with a long-awaited (overdue, some might say) revamp to the way the game starts for new players. Developer Digital Extremes hasn't yet confirmed when they will be added to the game, but you can always watch the trailer again and play the slow-motion bit in 0.5x speed for even slower motion until then.
Warframe's free-to-play, but you could always save some cash for buying new space ninja scarves with our early look at Amazon Prime Day game deals.
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