They're all for nothing, all of these loot games.
Not in the same way, no.
Warframe is even more for nothing as there's nowhere to take all the gear you've earnt and truly put it to the test.
But then again I've never understood the desire for end-games. End-game is when you decide you're done, otherwise end-game systems can always be described as another more difficult grind for the game's loot.
You don't understand end game raid style content.
Raids are about figuring out encounters as a team. Puzzle solving and finding the most efficient routes. Working together to overcome something seemingly insurmountable. It can be exhilarating stuff, and even Destiny nailed it.
It's also something to aim for as you grind. It's a reason to acquire all this gear. It's not "where you decide you're done". In many ways it's where you decide you've begun, actually, the point that all the progress feels truly worth it.
At least here the game is free, so you'r not out $60 if you get burned out, and there's no barriers to jumping back in like you get with premium DLC.
You said it yourself, the game can be incredibly confusing to jump back into. For a veteran player to be made to feel like a newbie again is most certainly a barrier.
I don't play Warframe like an MMO though. For me its just a fun time to wall run and shoot bad guys in the face, run circles around enemies while hip-firing a bow (the best shit ever), or disembowel em with a pole-arm or glaive throw, and to do all of this solo or with a few buddies.
Not mutually exclusive things. You can do this in better designed games that have end game focus too.
So you could say I just play it more like a co-op hack and slash and shooter hybrid, and all the progression stuff is just bonus stuff you unlock over time. But that's me, and for my tastes its got far more variety on offer than Destiny, by miles and miles.
Quantify that variety please, I honestly don't see it.
Adding in multi-hour, trial and error based dungeons against bullet-sponge bosses isn't my idea of a good time anyway. But, you know, different strokes for different folks.
So instead of adding challenging content you need to overcome by working together with a team, you'd rather just run and gun mindlessly /all/ the time?
Different strokes indeed.
The biggest difference between bullet sponges in Warframe and in other games is that - thanks to Damage 2.0 - you can actually customize an arsenal to take down specific bosses.
If they're heavily shielded you bring in magnetic and cold, if they're armored up the ass, you can look up the armor composition on the wiki, or scan the enemies with the Codex scanner to do the same, and then pick the best weapons and slot a solid set of mods to counter-act that particular sponginess. At the very highest levels of difficulty and in endless wave-based games, eventually the enemies so out-level the players that there isn't much that can be done besides smart group composition, but even then you can craft an arsenal and team to take the most advantage of how the enemies scale in difficulty.
Customising load outs based on the threat or to exploit enemy weakness is not a unique system.
And raid style content is about puzzle solving and group co-ordination much more than Warframe has ever been, there's much more to raid style content tan bullet sponges.
Also endless wave does not require any kind of "smart group composition". It's just a power spam fest, and to edge a little further forward than last time you just need slightly better gear. This isn't "intelligently crafting an arsenal", it isn't a selling point.
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I get that you enjoy Warframe's core hack and slash gameplay, and that's perfectly fine.
You're playing down the lack of end game and trying to dismiss raid style content as redundant while singing the praises of endless wave gear checks, though, which I have a difficult time understanding.
Why would you not yearn for more intelligently designed content for the game you love? Why not have both the hack and slash style gameplay /and/ the raid style content?
) Still spent some money on the game to support the devs though.
