There are few games as absurdly crazy, visually inventive, and endlessly ambitious as Warframe. Digital Extremes clearly has one mode of game world design and goes for it.
The best proof of this is the full presentation of Warframe 1999, an update that uses striking sci-fi imagery Warframe and adds elements of the Metal Gear series, classic anime, boy bands, and early instant messaging.
Warframe takes place in the distant, distant future of science fiction. The age-old Orokin empire has colonized Mercury, Mars, and other planets in the Origin System. Their attempts to colonize other systems have failed, leading to an AI war. Players take on the role of the Tenno, an age-old warrior caste inhabiting a super-fast and sturdy robot body. From there, they leap, slash, and tear through dozens of enemies.
World Warframe is so alien and impossible to understand that it can be off-putting; Warframe 99 turns that formula on its head. The protoframes are human, with clearly noticeable faces. They ride ill motorcycles, play arcade games, and hang out at the mall. The décor is relatively newfangled and very recognizable; stylized graffiti “S”s on the wall, red plastic Pizza Hut-style cups, venerable arcade games. It all seems to have been ripped from the scribbles in the margins of a teenager’s notebook and then brought to life.
This is, of course, just a basic assumption. According to the TennoCon presentation shows that as Arthur — a man wearing the Excalibur Protoframe — delves into the infected tunnels beneath the mall, he finds all sorts of strange things. culminates in a sequence where, in the far-future Origin System, a giant boy band stage emerges from the majesty of space, playing a ’90s hit while Railjack spaceships cautiously investigate.
I’ve seen a lot of space battles, but I’ve never seen one where a metaphysical incarnation of a pop group returns and is reconstructed from borrowed flesh and meme ideas. It’s these incredibly original swings, executed with sincerity and style, that make Warframe so much fun.
The biggest problem with getting excited about Warframe 99 is that you have to get through the rest Warframe to get there. I love Warframebut it’s a large, deep game — and if anyone recent to 99 is interested in the characters, they’ll have to play through a fair amount of the nameless gun-bot gameplay before they can play with them. It’s a journey filled with imagination, character, and some really good plot twists, but it’s a journey that requires a time commitment that not everyone will be able to muster.
It will take some time Warframe take shape for a recent player, and while Digital Extremes has made changes to the new-player experience over the course of the year — and plans to do more in the near future — it can still be an uphill battle. But I have such a great appreciation for the game’s visual and original design, and the reveal of 99 at this year’s TennoCon just cemented that even more. I’d rather go on an imperfect, wild ride with a game than a sterilized, unthreatening, and polished journey.
