I love fantasy RPG Soulframe’s cosy start screen even though it could be a creepy piece of habit-forming design

I continue to have a soft spot for Soulframe, the new, sort-of-early access fantasy RPG from Warframe developers Digital Extremes, despite the fact that the lore writing is often wyrd to the point of giving me a concussion. Especially when it creeps into studio press announcements. For example, here is a snippet from the developer’s summary of Soulframey doings in the year 2025: “Together, we stepped into sap-dreams and freed Bromius from rotting roots. We Bestitched with a certain witch and crept into the crypts of The Circade.” …Right then! I expect you shall be tending to your ravens next.

Still, don’t let that turn you off. There’s a lot of gentle craft beneath the plus-plus-ultra world-building. Soulframe is a game that often comes alive in the quieter moments. Take, for example, the login screen, which I’ve just realised could be a hidden creature collection game.

When you login into Soulframe, you’re shown your character sleeping in the undergrowth like some questing knight fallen under the spell of a forest witch. Delicacies of sunlight and shadow play about your slumped shoulders and exquisite armour – a really lovely advertisement for the game’s costume design, which is as posh as you’d expect from the people who spent a decade making neat suits for Warframe. Beside you doze various woodland animals. Press a button to resume play, and your character will awaken and disturb the creatures, who disappear gracefully off-screen.

It’s a sweet touch because it’s mildly perverse. Start playing the game, and you’ll ruin Bambi’s slumber time! It’s also reminiscent of what happens when you idle at the start menu when playing Shadow of the Colossus. The view cuts to Wander asleep with his back to the last shrine you saved at, then follows his horse Agro out on a tour of the landscape. There’s a simple point being made here about passivity and nonhuman animal agency, perhaps.

The twist with Soulframe is that, according to much fan speculation, at least, the dozing animals are actually a login bonus. You’ll see more of them if you log in every day. I can offer limited corroboration of the expanding menagerie, based on infrequent time with the Prelude builds, but I haven’t had confirmation from Digital Extremes that it’s actually a feature. In any case, I suspect it’s the kind of thing they’d rather leave mysterious.

In general, I dislike anything in a videogame that seems designed to kindle compulsive play. I find generic, Polly-wanna-cracker login bonuses both predatory and self-sabotaging. You decide to fire up a game, and the game immediately reminds you that it wants to monopolise your time – immersive! Fun! I much prefer stuff like the above, which at least doesn’t openly present itself as an engagement-farming machine.