“You get a motorcycle!” There’s a gleam in Rebecca Ford’s eye as she recounts one of the key new elements in Warframe 1999, and one which already has players clamouring for this update to arrive. As Creative Director for Warframe, and having worked on the game for the past 13 years, you might think that this would lessen the joy of a further step on the game’s impressive roadmap, but there’s no sign of that here.
Perhaps it helps that the marketing for Warframe 1999 has been utterly on point for the reveal trailer, with the Nine Inch Nails-backed announcement sending collective shivers down Warframe’s immense fanbase’s spines. She tells us, “This is the wild and weird content update; our biggest in many, many, many years”. Wild and weird sounds right, and when you see that motorbike riding across the alien landscapes we’re used to seeing from Warframe, there’s a dissonance that’s both completely off-kilter, and also completely Warframe.
It definitely doesn’t end there. “It has boy bands, motorcycles, music – the boy band are also monsters.” Rebecca adds as an aside, her smile widening further. “Warframe is like this faceless hero game, but back in 1999 there’s these humans that have come across a pretty tragic fate where they’re turning into Warframes. So you, as a character in the future, have to go back and help them and figure out what’s going on.”
It sounds immediately exciting, not least because of the new-old setting. When asked what came first, the narrative or the 90s, Rebecca laughs, “The 90s! We had the style, and then we had the immediate plan right away. It was like a perfect storm, 22 atoms hitting each other with great force, then this was born!”
Style is obviously important to Warframe, particularly with their free to play business model being built on selling additional skins to their most committed players. Warframe 1999 changes things up by being the first time we can see character’s faces, and it’s a huge thing that may or may not sit completely at ease with the current player base, though the team have an answer for that, “These are skins that transform, so if you prefer playing as a voiceless, faceless character, you can stay that way, or you can transform and become one of the human frames, and that will give you the ability to banter with each other”
It’s clear that 1999 is allowing the team to really flex their creative muscles, with Rebecca continuing, “It’s been a lot of fun, because we’ve never done it before. It’s just a little bit more, it’s for different people, right? Who knows if people will love it – maybe, maybe not – but we’re working with really cool actors like Ben Starr from Final Fantasy, Alpha Takashi from Cyberpunk and Amelia Tyler from Baldur’s Gate 3.”
Warframe 1999 is pretty deeply set within Warframe’s narrative, but Digital Extremes are working on an all-new onboarding experience for incoming players in an effort to better deal with all the new players that this update is liable to bring. “We’re updating the beginning with this new player experience – we’re happy to announce that it’s called Koumei and the Five Fates.” Rebecca continues, “This is a Japanese-inspired update that’s going to fit early in the game, and it’s going to have some truly inspirational visuals.” Fans won’t have to wait too long to see this in action, as the team will be revealing more at this year’s Tokyo Game Show in September.
The team aren’t unaware that this is a big change for Warframe, but they’re hoping it hits home with fans, with Rebecca telling us, “It was very risky, because the biggest risk is this – players who’ve spent 12 years, or even only a short time with their favourite characters, don’t want them to have faces, or talk. But, they’re optional characters, and though that was the risk, the reaction to them has been great.”
They’re doubling down on the risk though, “I think the most surprising thing is we’re actually making them dateable. So, there’s this romance system. Back in the 90s, you had your AOL, your instant messengers, and in our game we’re doing a fully functional chat room that you can build romances with these character and have romantic optional content.” Once again, this doesn’t sound like Warframe, and yet, it does.
It’s clear that Digital Extremes are having a lot of fun with the 1999 update, and that even 13 years into Warframe’s journey, there’s still new and exciting ways to reinvigorate the formula. Whether you’re a committed player, a lapsed fan, or a newcomer, Warframe 1999 looks like an essential experience, and one which we can’t wait for. Heck, we’re so excited we’re going to tell all our AOL friends about it.
