Warframe or Destiny 2? Both games have been out for years, both are popular, both can be hard to get into, and both are begging for you to try them out. In this guide, I’ll tell you which one I think is best in 2024.
Warframe vs. Destiny 2
Even though they have different gameplay styles and payment models, Destiny 2 and Warframe are surprisingly similar. In each game, your goal is to get stronger by beating hard challenges, getting upgrades, and grinding for hours to get the best gear.
Destiny 2 is a first-person shooter with excellent gunplay, plenty of PvE events, and a solid but often-forgotten PvP mode. In Destiny 2, you play as one of many Guardians, a powerful soldier with special abilities. There are three classes to choose from and plenty of guns and swords at your disposal. Destiny 2 has a rich lore, and the story progresses more with each new expansion. It has fantastic dungeons and raids that require a coordinated team and mechanics that demand memorization, timing, and skill. It’s certainly a game that requires time and dedication and isn’t really meant for casual play.
Warframe is a third-person action game where you play as an overpowered space ninja (a Tenno). Movement is incredibly fluid, the graphics are decent, and the game is very free-to-play friendly. The whole point of Warframe is to gather materials and craft new weapons and Warframes (classes). While it does have a story, Warframe is more about what you make of it than following a narrative.
Warframe’s gameplay loop focuses on repeating the same levels and grinding the same areas over and over again until you get enough materials to build something new. Then, you do it all over again but with new weapons and Warframes. Does it get old? Surprisingly not.
But, while Warframe has good combat, it’s not nearly as polished as Destiny 2. Enemies spawn constantly, and it’s a waste of time to try and kill them all; other players often rush ahead and will leave you behind if you can’t keep up. That said, Warframe is definitely more solo-friendly than Destiny 2.
Destiny 2 in 2024: The Good and the Bad
When Destiny 2 first came out in 2017, it was a buy-to-play $60 game published by Activision. Over the next couple years, it got a couple of expansions and a cash shop. While the mechanics were solid, the game lacked content, and many players were unsatisfied. Then, in 2019, developer Bungie broke its ties with Activision and turned Destiny 2 into a free-to-play game. While fans were happy at first, Destiny 2 slowly became more difficult to get into.
Even though starting Destiny 2 is free, you will only be able to experience about 10 percent of what the game has to offer. To see the rest, you will need to buy expansions. How many expansions? Way too many.
Starting Destiny 2 in 2024 can be pretty confusing. Even if you buy the most expensive expansion bundle, it likely won’t have everything you need to enjoy the game fully. The game has various season passes (battle passes), dungeon keys, currencies, cosmetics, and so much more. Because of all this, many players claim Destiny 2 is a free-to-play game in name only. Worst of all, even if you end up buying everything the game has to offer, which often adds up to over $100, Destiny 2 will always ask for more.
But, if you do have a dedicated group of friends and enjoy doing daily tasks, weekly raids, and collecting weapons, Destiny 2 is one of the best online looter-shooters out there.
Warframe in 2024
Warframe launched in 2013 to very lukewarm reviews. There was potential, but it lacked content. The game was free-to-play, which was far less common it is today. Little by little, Warframe kept adding new weapons, Warframes, and new activities—and slowly but surely, Warframe became incredibly feature-rich.
Warframe is often considered one of the friendliest free-to-play games on the market. You can buy new frames, weapons, boosters, and so much more, but you can also earn all those things through simply playing. You can even sell your items to other players for premium currency. With enough time and dedication, you could potentially earn everything there is to earn in Warframe without ever spending a dime. Players who spend money in Warframe often say it’s because “they wanted to” rather than “they needed to.”
But there’s one problem Warframe has had since it first launched: It is incredibly unfriendly to new players. Warframe has so many systems, items, mechanics, and features, and none are explained well. Many new players get so overwhelmed by everything Warframe has to offer that they simply stop playing before the game even begins. It’s often said you need two monitors to play Warframe: one for the game and the other for the wiki.
All things considered, after learning the ropes and getting into the flow of farming for parts, Warframe is a very enjoyable and rewarding experience. Unlike Destiny 2, players don’t have to worry about buying new things or playing constantly, because there is always something new (or old) to do in Warframe.
Which game is best in 2024?
Warframe is better than Destiny 2 in 2024. Even though it has one of the worst new-player experiences of any game I’ve played, Warframe just offers more, costs less, and respects your time more than Destiny 2. While Destiny 2 is a better product in terms of quality, and it’s easier to get into, it can often feel like a huge grind and a bottomless pit of microtransactions and expansions. For these reasons, you should try Warframe over Destiny 2.
