Warframe developers Digital Extremes have announced a novel round of early access for their 2025 fantasy action RPG Soulframe, which I saw a bit of last year and found quite promising. They’re now adding 2,000 players to the Preludes version of the game every week, and each email invite includes an additional four invite codes so you can get your friends involved.
If you’re novel to Soulframe, it’s a majestic sword-and-sorcery game with a misty, golden open world and procedural dungeons. It has the same visual richness as Warframe, with richly woven costumes and an interface of painted scrolls and sigils, as well as the same appetite for twisted story writing in jargon. But it plays more quietly. Everything looks aged and dusty, and the pace of exploration and encounters feels closer to From Software’s work – you’ll weigh every blow. Last year, director Steve Sinclair summed it up this way: “Where Warframe is fast and frantic, Soulframe will be slow and brooding.”
A bit of plot: you are a fallen amnesiac soldier who must make pacts with the spirits of his ancestors. These pacts are the game’s equipment, which includes character stats and skill sets. You’ll also get access to Nightfold, an extra-dimensional progression hub similar to Dream Hunter’s Bloodborne. You can expand your Night Fold crafting and customization capabilities by asking your ancestors to move in.
Soulframe is another free-to-play game from Digital Extremes, and as always, the biggest concern is how much monetization sabotages the gameplay. That aside, I can’t wait. Some smaller additions: when you die, you respawn as a bird at your final spawn point and have the option to fly away to resurrect your body. As you move between dimensions, your character falls backwards through the portal with your arms outstretched, as if falling into bed at the end of a long day.
You can sign up for access to the Preludes Here. If you don’t manage to get an invite, Digital Extremes has also lifted restrictions on broadcasts and videos from the Preludes area, so by all means fire up YouTube and take a look around. I’m sure someone has already posted a 10 hour Let’s Play.
