Warframe is one of the most fascinating live service games, having spent a decade constantly reinventing itself. Heaps of updates and expansions have added an ongoing story and total reworks of the game over the years, but none has made me so eager to finally take the plunge into its robot-filled playground as Warframe: 1999, an upcoming Y2K-themed expansion that brings boy bands, shopping malls, and flirting over AIM to the sci-fi shooter.
At this year’s Warframe convention Tennocon, developer Digital Extremes debuted a 22-minute gameplay demo for 1999, along with lots of details about what to expect from the time-traveling expansion. 1999 takes place on New Year’s Eve, transposing real-world fears of the Y2K bug into a crucial event in Warframe’s history. Your character and their companions are early versions of six of the game’s most iconic robotic frames, which will be playable both in the 1999 storyline and the main game.
More important than how 1999 connects to the main game’s storyline, though, is how it sets itself apart. The expansion introduces the city of Höllvania, an open-world area that’s far closer to a modern city than it is to Warframe’s futuristic landscapes, despite being filled to the brim with evil androids. To get around Höllvania, you’ll be able to use protagonist Arthur’s motorcycle, a brand-new form of transportation that will also be usable in the game’s other open-world areas.
A new city, vehicles, and playable characters are pretty standard for an expansion, but it’s the wilder additions 1999 introduces that really caught my attention, and they all revolve around its retro theme. For the first time, Warframe will be getting a relationship system, built on the extremely relatable experience of nervously messaging your crush over AOL Instant Messenger on the family computer. 1999 lets you use its version of AIM, called KIM, to select from dialogue options in the hopes of getting the user on the other end to like you more. Digital Extremes hasn’t said exactly who your romantic options will be, but with six members of your crew, they seem like likely candidates.
Along with AOL, boy bands were ubiquitous in 1999, and the same is true of Warframe’s version of the past. A Backstreet Boys equivalent called On-Lyne is everywhere in the new expansion, showing up on billboards throughout Höllvania and on the 1999 soundtrack. On-Lyne also makes an appearance in a much different form in Warframe’s usual far-future setting.
It seems that a virus unleashed in 1999 has survived and evolved for centuries, eventually spawning the most awe-inspiring sight shown off yet from the expansion. Back in the game’s main timeline, players can find an asteroid floating in space that hosts a twisted version of a stadium holding an On-Lyne concert. In the heart of the arena sits a concert stage complete with pulsing music and a laser light show to accompany it. But rather than a boy band, there you’ll find a boss fight against a warped version of the group.
It’s pretty wild stuff, and even as someone who’s only played Warframe in short bursts before bouncing off, I’m fully here for the wackiness of 1999. The expansion arrives sometime this winter, though there’s not a more precise release date than that announced yet. Further out, Digital Extremes is at work on Soulframe, a fantasy action-RPG spinoff of Warframe, which was also shown off at Tennocon. Details on the upcoming game are even more sparse than they are for 1999, but if nothing else, it shows that Digital Extremes is all-in on taking what it’s learned from 11 years of Warframe and using it to innovate both within the game and in other projects. Getting into a live-service game 10 years after launch is a daunting task for sure, but both 1999 and the upcoming Soulframe are compelling reasons to start paying attention now if you haven’t been already.
