Soulframe is already nailing down its storytelling formula with Preludes 16

• Feature
• Preview

As part of my time at Gamescom, I got a first look at what's next for the Soulframe pre-alpha and walked away impressed with its narrative potential.

Ozzie Mejia September 15, 2026 12:15 PM Digital Extremes 1

While Warframe continues to be Digital Extremes' most recognized piece of work, the studio is also getting ready to launch its fantasy counterpart. Soulframe looks to be everything that Warframe is, except the futuristic weaponry is swapped out with magic. Storytelling has been one of Digital Extremes' strong suits, regardless of the genre, so I was excited to walk into Gamescom and take a first look at what's coming with Soulframe's next Preludes pre-alpha update.

Souiframe's next Preludes update will focus heavily on story. Warsongs are the term used for major story drops, which flesh out the tale of the main playable character known as the Envoy. This particular Warsong has the Envoy seeing a vision of their mother, holding them as a child in one moment and quickly flashing to her falling in battle the next. The vision is brief, but enough to leave the Envoy shaken and curious as to what it could mean.

The Warsong will utilize gameplay to further explore the Envoy's vision. There will be sections in which players take on the role of the Envoy's mother, riding into battle atop their white wolf mount. Mounts have been a long-awaited feature and the wolf will be the first one that the player gets to try out. The story (at least for this particular behind-closed-doors demo) unfolds like an accelerated timeline, bouncing between the Envoy's mother at her peak and then fast-forwarding to her defending her kingdom as she sends her baby to safety with one of their nurses. The climax comes with an encounter with the villainous Tempest Bayor, who was revealed at this year's TennoCon and will be voiced by Ben Starr.

For those, like me, who hadn't seen a lot of Warframe, I was able to behold more of the game's aesthetic. The setting is high fantasy, but fantasy with the kind of advanced technology that fits into that type of setting. Think about things as complex as floating obelisks to things as simple as moving lifts and blacksmith kilns that run on assembly lines. Combat is an exciting mixture of medieval-style melee battles and magical spells.

Soulframe is in its early stages of development and I don't feel like I'm at a place where I can judge the game's combat and progression systems just yet. However, what I did see was the game's method of storytelling, shifting between multiple perspectives, offering unique playable sections (including one where the player controls a beaver), and effective ways of fleshing out its long-term lore. Between the visuals, the music, the dialogue, and the sequencing in which events unfold, I'm much more interested in Soulframe now than I was prior to that Gamescom meeting.

It won't be much longer before Soulframe players can experience this Warsong for themselves. Those who have picked up a Founders Pack from the Soulframe website can look forward to Preludes 16, the pre-alpha's next big update, later this month. Soulframe, as a whole, needs some more time in the oven, so keep it on Shacknews as we track its progress from this pre-alpha stage to something bigger.

This preview is based on an early PC build played by the development team at a behind-closed-doors meeting at Gamescom 2026. The final product is subject to change.

Shacknews staff does not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in their content. Shacknews strictly prohibits the use of its content for AI training or to generate text, including text in the style or format used for this publication. Shacknews reserves all rights to this work.

Ozzie Mejia Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

Filed Under

Login / Register