Soulframe Preview
2025 has been quite the year for sprawling action RPGs, from Avowed to Where Winds Meet, not to mention games like Ghost of Yotei, The First Berserker: Khazan, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and Outer Worlds 2. These have arrived in various states of readiness, but I’ve found something to enjoy about all of them. However, the RPG that’s hooked me the deepest is a free-to-play game that’s still in pre-alpha, Digital Extremes’ Soulframe. As of November 25, Soulframe dropped its Prelude 12 update and opened its Founders Program for a limited time.
Digital Extremes is best known for the massively popular Warframe. Since its release in 2013, a steady stream of updates and free content has kept Warframe’s player base enthusiastically playing. Warframe is a frenetically-paced sci-fi shooter with an emphasis on speed and mobility. While it shares some of Warframe’s infrastructure, Soulframe is an entirely different — and for me, much more appealing — experience.
Nature Lovers
Soulframe’s narrative premise is the battle between nature and technology. The bucolic island of Midrath is under siege by the technologically-based alien race called the Ode. You play as an Envoy, an ex-member of the Ode who is now working to free Midrath from the Ode’s corruption and exploitation. In large part, this means liberating Midrath’s animals and supernatural beings. Quite a number of Soulframe’s bosses are fearsome corrupted beasts like stags, bears and wolves. Tonally and aesthetically, Soulframe combines the angular, polished metal designs of the alien Ode with Celtic-adjacent fantasy nature motifs and intricate hand-hewn structures.
Many games and fantasy IPs have explored the intersection of nature and technology. Soulframe’s theme of environmental destruction isn’t terribly subtle. Still, there’s well-thought out lore behind it, and the contrast between the natural world and the alien race is effectively drawn.
Make a Pact
During character creation, players choose from three Pacts, the game’s version of starting classes. Tethren are tank-like warriors that use beefy weapons; Sirin are essentially the swift moving rogues and Oscelda are magic-users. Additional Pacts become available after reaching rank 5. Naturally, each Pact comes with stat bonuses that help the character wield weapons or magic more effectively.
Although they can be obfuscated by new names and somewhat arcane mechanics, Soulframe’s fundamentals will be familiar to RPG fans. Light and heavy attacks, dodging and parrying, magic-based special abilities and multiple skill and upgrade trees mostly act as you’d expect. Soulframe does a pretty good job of onboarding new players, but not everything is clearly explained. There’s a useful in-game codex to fill in the blanks.
During quests and exploration, players unlock various spirit guides which relocate to a parallel-dimension progression and upgrade area. Additionally, each Pact has an in-game home base that serves as a social hub.
Alone Again, Naturally
Soulframe’s core is built around cooperative PvE play and supports the usual types of events and activities like raids, instance based dungeons and challenging boss battles. That said, a great deal of Soulframe’s main quest and many side quests can be completed by a solo player. It’s quite enjoyable to explore, level, farm materials and check off some of the easier quests without a group.
On paper, a lot of Soulframe sounds like a game you’ve probably played before. In practice, the game’s excellent combat, narrative premise and beautiful environments give it a unique feel. The developers have intentionally slowed the pace from that of Warframe, making combat melee or magic-focused and much more deliberate. I’ve been playing primarily as a mage and even at this early stage of development, combat feels pretty well balanced.
Soulframe looks great, and Keith Power’s score ranges from moody to uplifting Celtic folk. Music plays a role in game play as well, with a note-matching minigame that’s a persistent element in several quests.
A New Chapter
Currently, Soulframe is still in pre-alpha, what the developers have dubbed Preludes. As of November 25, Prelude 12 has gone live, with the usual range of bug fixes and new content. Notable with Prelude 12 is the inclusion of a new fast-travel system. However, the game’s most significant new milestone is the Founders program, which sells mostly cosmetic and in-game currency add-on packs for each character class for $30. Like Warframe, Soulframe is free-to-play. While the Founders content certainly helps jumpstart progression, it’s not a pay-to-win system.
For a game so early in development, Soulframe is extremely polished and confident about its mechanics and direction. Though it’s only marginally a Soulslike, exploration and combat in Soulframe gave me strong Elden Ring vibes, though its enemy variety can’t come close to FromSoft’s masterpiece. Still, it’s more than a promising start. Soulframe is already a game that has a lot of strong and enjoyable content and feels poised for an amazing future.
