Warframe's pitch should be "Cyber ninjas in space with spaceguns shooting space clones." but if that IS its pitch, I've never heard it. I was told about it a week or two ago and I tried it and
This game
is
fun.
Seriously.
The starting weapons aren't too special, but they're general purpose and will get you through the first few planets just fine. One thing to keep in mind is the whole game is co-op, with only being able to PVP against members of your own clan. Also it's still in beta and at times it feels like the company is still working through the kinks of how to be a developer of an online game. Still, if any mmo has depth, it's this game. The weapon crafting system is kind of borky and it has tones of pay to win, but in terms of functionality, anything that's purchaseable is also available for free, after grinding. A fair amount of grinding, perhaps, but even so. The mechanics are solid - and even after the tutorial, there's a lot of stuff to discover - the aesthetics are great if repetitive and the community is fantastic. I enjoy pugging in this game, even if sometimes it feels like the people I get are just running through everything and ignoring me. I still have a ways to go before my weapons can one shot mooks, after all. On the plus side, I AM getting decent gear and have replaced my primary and melee weapons.
You don't have a character that levels. Not exactly; you have a player "Level" but it's more a rank and your Warframe is more representative of what would be a class in any other MMO. In the tutorial you use the Excalibur warframe, but after you're given a choice between Excalibur, Loki and Mag. All are excellent choices that I've seen; I picked Loki. So instead of character levels, you have an "affinity" level with your warframes and weapons. This level caps out at 30. Each level in a warframe gives your player rank/level/whatever 200 points, while every weapon level gives 100. Accrue enough points and you're given a test to raise to the next rank; they're fairly easy. Some weapons (Like the Boltor, my current weapon) require you wait until you've attained a certain rank before you can use them. In order to have every weapon available to you, you need to reach rank 7, which would take a while, though fortunately most of those aren't available in the shop, even with rl cash.
When your warframes and weapons level, they don't get stronger. Well, your warframes get more health and shields, aye, but you won't see your weapons doing more damage jsut because of that. Instead, while playing you will pick up mods. These mods have a number associated with them, which you then apply to your warframe or weapon, which boosts their function in some way. Every level grants you 1 point toward mods, though it's possible to raise it up to 60, and to "polarise" it so that each mod costs half besides, but that is for endgame and min/maxing.
I'd like you all to join me in this game. My character name is UltaFlame; add me.