Spoiler Alert⚠️: This article contains spoilers for Warframe. Reader discretion is advised.
Warframe is best known for its fast-paced gameplay, stunning visuals, and how the game’s storyline evolves with each update.
However, there’s one design decision Digital Extremes (DE) implemented that has polarized their players: you’re forced to play through The New War to access new content. While this decision is…a unique gaming mechanic it’s prompting some players to not play Warframe out of frustration.
Getting Locked into the Quest
In Warframe’s The New War, once players start the quest, they are locked out of the rest of the game until it is completed.
This means you can’t go back to play other quests, or leave to level your Operator and gain new weapons or abilities. If a player hits a roadblock where it’s impossible for them to defeat a boss, they’re trapped in that specific area indefinitely.
“Bricking” a player’s account for not completing The New War is a bizarre feature that punishes players for encountering game-breaking bugs, difficult bosses, or simply not enjoying the quest. It takes hours for a player to finish The New War — and that’s only if they haven’t encountered any bugs and can defeat all of the bosses.
What makes this mechanic particularly frustrating is that The New War is mandatory to play any new quest that has been released since 2021. Players are barred from accessing newer content and recent quests like Warframe 1999 have the same “bricking” mechanic as well.
As A Consumer, Why Should I?
Let’s think about this logically. Does it make sense for a consumer to risk their account being bricked, the account they invested money and time in, to complete a quest?
No. What other business can get away with that?
There are players, in 2024, requesting the option to pay-to-skip the quest because they cannot finish it. There are also people who completed The New War but the game does not recognize they completed it. Their account is bricked until DE’s support team responds and, unfortunately, response times are slow.
Warframe has always been in a continuous beta state. Bugs and crashes are not uncommon and Warframe is known to be buggy. Locking players into quests without the ability to leave or pause the game is irresponsible. A single technical issue leaves accounts stuck in limbo.
Did I mention that Rebecca brought up adding a pay-to-skip option for The New War? DE realizes this is a problem. They changed their minds when the vocal minority (some of the players that already completed the quest) raged against it.
In The New War, players are forced to not use their Warframes. Instead, they use other characters and use mechanics that were not in the game originally. It’s not surprising that some players can’t complete it.
As a consumer, there are no protections for us if something goes wrong.
The Risks of Forcing Players into Mandatory Quests
As a long-time Warframe player, this design choice saddens me deeply. Warframe used to be my favorite game! I uploaded videos of my gameplay on YouTube. For example, I came up with (23:23) during The Second Dream. As you can hear in the video, I was in tears (from shock) during that quest!
Even though I wasn’t playing the game, I still logged in daily. I still watch other people play it. I watched Aztecross play through The New War the other day. He enjoyed the quest. It took him three-ish weeks to get to the point he could play it, streaming hours at a time. The average gamer doesn’t play that much.
Let’s be honest. The Second Dream, the quest, was not “amazing.” The reveal at the end was the bombshell. I could have watched the quest as a cutscene and had the same reaction. I would love it if DE made quests into cutscenes players watch before playing the new content. If these cutscenes were playable in game to rewatch…that would be awesome!
After the Dante controversy where they advertised a Warframe and released it, knowing they were going to nerf it, my trust in DE is low. I’ve experienced too many mission breaking bugs to trust I can make it through a 5-6 hour quest without it bugging out. I’m not gambling with my account.
More importantly, this approach alienates players who might have pushed themselves to complete The New War if there was a way to pause it and play other parts of the game. If these quests allowed players to step away and still be able to play the new content DE is releasing, the frustration and sense of entrapment wouldn’t be there. But with the current design, players like myself are left feeling excluded from a game we once loved.
I uninstalled it. It’s been taking up space on my hard drive for years. A game I cannot progress in.
Suggestions for Improvement
If Digital Extremes wants to incorporate an immersive storytelling experience without alienating players, here are a few ways they could improve Warframe:
- Allow Pay-to-Skip: This is the best option, in my opinion. All quests should have a pay-to-skip option. Quests unlock the ability to access an area. That’s it. There is still a huge grind after the quest is done. Power is not given to the player unlocking the zone.
- Allow Pausing or Exiting: Players should have the option to walk away from these quests and return later while still being able to access other parts of the game. This simple change would alleviate much of the pressure and frustration.
- Difficulty Scaling or Assistance: Introducing settings that can change the difficulty level or allowing NPCs to play with your character could help players overcome roadblocks without feeling stuck.
- Enhanced Technical Stability Given Warframe’s reputation for bugs, making sure every quest is stable before release is critical. Timely customer support should be available for players who encounter issues as well.
Imagine if Elden Ring, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 14, etc. released a quest where, if not completed, the player is locked out of the rest of the game. The backlash would be huge.
I think it is important, as consumers, to respectfully voice our concerns when companies implement mechanics or policies that benefit them, but are not in the best interest of the consumer.
It’s my hope that feedback like this encourages Digital Extremes to reconsider their approach, creating a more player-friendly experience that respects both Warframe’s story and the diverse needs of the community.
