Warframe is a wonderfully strange sci-fi epic that tells a story of fallen empires, deadly transhuman warriors, unions in the distant future and tragic betrayal. It’s also an incredibly dense game that takes tens or hundreds of hours to fully unravel. Enter the latest expansion of the game: The Duviri Paradoxa parallel path immediately open to new players. The Duviri Paradox is a quick, casual look at Warframe that’s perfect for newcomers, but also rewarding for veterans and their mighty collections.
The Duviri Paradox was originally announced on Warframe fan convention TennoCon in 2019 with a short and mysterious trailer. “The 2019 trailer was largely conceptual,” said Rebecca Ford, creative director of Warframe. “It was a testament to ambition to tell a paradoxical story. Development for design, the open world and the environment only started in earnest last year. We had tons of concept art, we had one enemy, we had the horse, and we had a vision board. That was all we had, and everything else came in the last year of development.”
Enter the villainous Dominus Thrax, a child king and master of his realm. The Drifter, a mysterious figure with some memory problems, is trapped in Thrax’s Firmament. Thrax’s moods and whims alter the realm around him, providing set dressing for runs through the Duviri Paradox. There’s a short campaign quest that takes players through the lore, introduces them to the cast, and establishes this all-new setting. Once players complete that, the Duviri Paradox turns into more of a roguelike – and Thrax’s tantrums and melancholy change the circumstances for each run. There’s also an option to relax in a wider open world, with more exploration and time to explore little corners of the world.
Image: Digital Extremes
This isn’t it Warframe‘s first open world, but it is very different from its predecessors in the Sol system. “Instead of just fighting all the time, it’s a little bit more exploratory,” says Ford. The player is incentivized to check and complete side activities in the Paradox to get new rewards for their gear. Players can play through six chapters of a procedural story or take part in the more open and less structured world. The most exciting thing is that players will get a horse inspired by other mighty video game steers, such as Elder ring‘s Torrent.
When a player opens Warframe for the first time they can jump in Warframe or jump right into the Duviri paradox. There is cross-progression and continuity between the two sides, and players can switch as needed. There are also short windows of it Warframe‘s high-octane mecha ninja battles spread everywhere Duviri.
Ford compares the Duviri paradox Unpleasant League of Legends and its mad mode All Random All Mid, usually abbreviated to ARAM. ARAM gives players a random champion to try out in a low-stakes match that takes place on a map that is essentially a straight line. The Duviri Paradox is equally approachable; veterans have their equipment on hand from Warframe, but new players can try a sample dish from Warframes without any investment. “The trick is they don’t need equipment — it’s all fiefs,” says Ford.
Image: Digital Extremes
The Drifter controls as a standalone character. While Warframe revolves around masses of enemies and powerful abilities, the Drifter fights on a smaller scale; battles go from one against 20 to one against five. “We wanted to try and create different stances and enemies that focused on counterplay, mixing your little rapid-fire gun with your blades and balancing it in a way where the ratio of enemies is smaller,” explains Ford. As players upgrade their gear and unlock more secrets of the Paradox, they’ll eventually be able to pull Warframes into the Firmament itself for some explosive power.
With the new war Warframe essentially completed its first major arc, and The Duviri Paradox sets the tone for the next. Warframe has an intimidating amount of canon, but thankfully the timeline is now less of a line and more of a loop-de-loop. Made paradoxes, time travel and other science fiction tropes Warframe less linear. Now players can jump into a new sandbox, free from the collection of junk that live service games have accumulated over the years.
It’s hard to dive in Warframe, a phenomenal game held back by its sheer density, size and intensity. For veterans, this new update is just another layer Warframe‘s delicious content lasagna. But The Duviri ParadoxThe main aim of the game is to give new players a fresh start in the world, complete with a new protagonist and a friendly ghost horse. The Duviri Paradox is a free update going live on April 26 on PC and consoles.