Warframe Plains of Eidolon Will Add Sandbox Maps This Year

At this year’s TennoCon, Digital Extremes have announced that Warframe will be getting sandbox, open world maps this year. They call them Landscapes, and they’re to be added in the Plains of Eidolon expansion. The new areas are just at the top of the long list of additions that should allow players to sink several more hundreds of hours into it.

Plains of Eidolon is supposed to introduce the first sandbox area, large enough that you’ll need your Archwing to get around. It’s also going to have different mobs roaming the area depending on the time of day. The hub in the new area will be the city of Cetus, which is inhabited by the Ostrons, an entirely new faction. They’re scavengers who harvest biomechanical tissue from living buildings, which sounds like it hurts. You will be able to customize your frames and weapons with Ostron gear, natch. Most importantly, you will be able to go fishing, because what it a game without fishing?

The new stuff isn’t going to put a shade over the old content, however. Several systems will be reworked as part of the update. For example, the Focus system is supposed to be broadened. Gene code vendors will be added. There’s a seventeen minute gameplay demo from the convention, mixed with some pretty CGI. If you’re already a player, it should give you an idea what to expect.

There’s no firm release date for the new expansion yet, but it’s bound to happen this year. Our semi-informed guess would be Fall, in order to keep the players from jumping over to Destiny 2. Warframe has the considerable advantage of being free, but part of the community has grown tired of it at this point. Either way, good times are ahead, for both existing and potential players.