When comparing Warframe vs Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the Slant community recommends Warframe for most people. In the question“What are the best action games on PS4?” Warframe is ranked 6th while Middle-earth: Shadow of War is ranked 44th. The most important reason people chose Warframe is:
Warframes are essentially space ninjas that can move incredibly fast. Just running won't be enough, so you'll have to build momentum by sliding, jumping, and rolling. Each of these moves also help you dodge enemy attacks, while allowing you to attack. It takes a while to get used to the fast pace, but when you do, it feels incredibly satisfying.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Fast-paced, space ninja action
Warframes are essentially space ninjas that can move incredibly fast. Just running won't be enough, so you'll have to build momentum by sliding, jumping, and rolling. Each of these moves also help you dodge enemy attacks, while allowing you to attack. It takes a while to get used to the fast pace, but when you do, it feels incredibly satisfying.
Pro A huge array of weaponry
Warframe boasts over 300 weapons, split into 3 classes: Primary, Secondary, and Melee. Primary weapons are the big guns such as assault rifles, shotguns, bows, and grenade launchers. Secondary weapons are the sidearms, usually handguns, machine pistols, and thrown weapons. The melee weapons consist of swords (even katanas), hammers, fist weapons, scythes, and others.
Most of the weapons have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Simulor is a weapon which creates small balls similar to black holes, which pull in and kill enemies. Unfortunately, the range is very short, so you'll have to predict enemy movements and place the shots carefully. Another example is the Zarr, a massive canon, which has two firing modes, allowing you to use it as a canon or a shotgun. The downside is that you'll get damaged by your own explosions, so you have to always keep distance.
The weapons can also be upgraded, adding various elemental damage types such as radiation or corrosion. You can also improve other stats such as rate of fire, crit or reload speed.
Pro Great contact physics
Many online titles and MMOs feature combat with poor contact physics, so it often feels like you're not actually hitting the enemies. In Warframe, hitting an enemy with a hammer will make them fly and sliding at their legs will make them trip. This makes it feel more like a single player game than an online co-op game.
Pro You can choose your own play style
In Warframe, there are tons of weapons, both ranged and melee, that will let you fight however you like. Maybe you want to be a long-range sniper, or a massive melee beast with a huge hammer, or maybe you want to stick closer to the ninja tradition and use a sword and a bow. Whatever you prefer to play, Warframe has an option.
Pro Great selection of classes
In Warframe, you're able to play as one of the many Warframes, which are essentially character classes. You start off by choosing one of the three basic frames. Excalibur who specializes in swords and has an ability to equip an energy sword and shoot beams of energy. Volt who uses electricity to boost his damage, movement speed and attack speed. Or Mag, a frame specializing in magnetism and controlling the enemy. After that you can run missions to find plans for new ones, or purchase them with platinum (the real-money currency).
There are currently more than 30 basic Warframes and their "Prime" variants, which are superior versions of the basic frames.
Pro Character connections make for a compelling experience
Shadow of War uses the Nemesis system to create a more immersive and alive-feeling world. Thanks to it, orc leaders have names, ranks, titles, tribes they belong to, and most importantly, connections to other orc leaders.
For example, an orc leader might be at war with another orc leader. This conflict won't end until one of them dies. There are also orcs that are considered blood brothers, having unwavering loyalty to each other. Because of this, don't be too surprised if you ever get betrayed by one of your followers that's trying to do right by his blood brother.
Additionally, the leaders you fight will also develop connections with you. Orcs that you've killed or spared, may come back with scars, recalling your previous encounter and vowing to exact vengeance. Orcs that you've escaped from will mock you for being a chicken, and so forth. The gradual creation of this web of connections is very enjoyable and sometimes even more compelling than the game's main story.
Pro Addictive gear collection fuels your thirst for orc blood
As you kill orc leaders, they'll drop random quality gear items, ranging from common rarity every-orc weapons/armor to legendary rarity artifacts with unique names. Each item serves to improve your character, providing various stat increases and damage bonuses. You can also upgrade gear with gems or via challenges that usually involve killing orcs, bolstering your strength even further. On top of that, there are set bonuses for legendary items, giving you special abilities such as your hits applying explosive poison on regular enemies. It's very exciting seeing what gear piece an orc leader will drop once you lob his head off, causing you to constantly seek out new victims.
Pro Satisfying combat
Shadow of War gives one of the better feeling combat systems in recent times, allowing you to be either stealthy or go for direct confrontations.
If you choose to be stealthy, you can skewer unsuspecting orcs from behind with your dagger, drop onto them from a building while impaling them with your sword, or just pierce them from afar with your bow.
If you choose a direct confrontation, it's a really quick-paced and brutal showdown against your enemies with your chosen melee weapon. You weave combos against enemies, dodging, parrying, and countering enemy attacks, which ends in a devastating finishing move, resulting in a mutilated or decapitated orc.
Whichever method you choose, the combat flows really well and you always feel like a force to be reckoned with.
Pro You can lead an orc army and expand your own dominion
As part of the Nemesis system, you can recruit orc leaders after you've bested them in combat. Each one has his own unique strengths and weaknesses, so making the best possible army for conquering enemy territories might take a while.
For example, an orc leader can be completely immune to ranged attacks, but can take increased damage from explosions. You should take such an orc leader on assaults against fortresses filled with archers but be wary of the slightest hints of any bombs.
Once you've finished building a sizeable force, you can assault a fortresses. If you succeed in the assault, you'll take over a territory, allowing you to install your own orc leader as the ruler. With enough effort you'll gradually take over Mordor and its surrounding lands.
Shadow of War makes you feel like a recruiter, general, and a ruler, which is very empowering and a lot of fun.
Cons
Con Crafting new equipment takes really long
The crafting system in Warframe involves very long wait times, varying from 12 to 72 hours. The wait times can be be skipped by paying platinum (bought in the in-game store with real money), but most of the time it's not worth it.
Con Can get repetitive easily
At the very core, Warframe is a game that needs a lot of grinding. You'll always be grinding for new blueprints, relics, materials, credits or just leveling your existing equipment. After a while some of the mission types such as defense (where you fend of waves of enemies), will get really boring. Then it turns out the blueprint or relic is really rare and you'll probably have to repeat that mission about a hundred more times. Coupled with the fact that there's no real progression outside the Mastery Rank, some players may quickly lose interest.
Con New content is poorly optimized
Warframe was released in 2012 and has received a lot of improvements over the years. This includes updating the old tilesets with new textures, which has caused a lot of performance drops. The prime example would be the Earth tileset update, which caused performance drops and made it unplayable to a lot of people, even though they could play normally before it.
Con Can get repetitive
The overall gameplay formula doesn't change much over the course of the game. You fight orcs, take over strongholds, upgrade your character, and collect blips on the world map. After a while it can start feeling like a grind, especially during long play sessions. This is made worse in the final stretch of the game where you have to fight through 20 consecutive stronghold battles without any story segments or exposition.
Con Unskippable cutscenes disrupt the flow of the gameplay
Every time an orc leader enters the screen, there is an unskippable cutscene where he rambles a bit, focusing the camera on him and halting combat until the cutscene ends. This usually happens as you're fighting another enemy, potentially disrupting your rhythm, which can be really frustrating, especially if mess up your combo or take an unnecessary hit after the cutscene.