I returned a little over a week ago after a several year hiatus. My computer was falling apart, as was I, so I was more than excited to have a new PC and able to play like I never had before.
When I left, Deimos was the newest thing on the block. I saw the Duviri trailer. And that's it. I was at MR27, had a massive amount of content completed. The lore was always more expansive than I could feasibly wrap my head around and also still save room for reality and other games, but it was always manageable. Upon my return, I had mixed feelings after logging back in. The rush of joy at seeing my orbiter and remembering the high-speed gameplay and adrenaline I've missed out on, but then I started reading the update logs.... and the quests I need X/Y/Z for.... and the multitude of different, hyper-specific tasks I need to perform to acquire the plethora of items to engage with another snippet of the storyline before I can then repeat the process in another set of missions with specific mechanics that I've never seen before. Also, the lingo and terminology was always a bit fun, but it feels excessive. I need regal aya, which is different from aya, to buy certain things from Varzia, a person I do not know. I don't know what Aya is. I don't know what Riven slivers are. What's the real difference between a void storm, and a void fissure? I continuously failed a few missions because there were mechanics I'd NEVER seen before in my years of WarFrame and there was nothing but exposition dumping to try and clue me in. The thing with sentients spawning and I have to use my operator to attack the beacons to destroy the whatever-it-was-called? Had NO idea, aside from Father(I think?) barking at me. I don't even understand why he, of all people, was the one trying to guide me. I couldn't figure it out if I was wide-awake, cheeks clenched, let alone just an average night after work trying to blow off some steam. I'm only scratching the surface of how I feel because WarFrame has always brought a lot to the table, that's part of why we all still love it, but I feel so far and away from everyone now. There's so, so many different, disjointed and largely disconnected parts of the game, be that by design or just major barriers to entry, and it's like I can't figure out where I'm supposed to be, what I should be focused on. The open worlds are great (aside from a certain one) but keeping up with the different gear and resource-farming involved for each of them was hassle enough. I was happy to do it, though. As a veteran player of 9 or 10 years? 4,500-some hours in the game - I've been very familiar with a lot of the directions DE takes and can anticipate how the gameplay will feel and so-on. Coming back, though, there's so much new content that it hurts. Not that new is bad, but it doesn't feel like WarFrame in some of these new stories and content releases. If I'm actively trying to engage with the story, I proactively take a few ibuprofen. I'm so serious. It HURTS my head trying to keep everything from coming in one ear and spilling out the other. I need to build a Voidrig to play The New War, and I am loathe to do so. I don't know what, if any, of the Brother/Sister/Mother/Neighbor/Pet Dog/High School Crush tokens I need to try and keep track of, I've heard nothing particularly kind of TNW, Kahl???, The Walls. What the heck is the wall thing? I thought that was what Harrow and that storyline was about. Is this a different wall person? Is Wally a moniker or what? I want to love and understand the lore, but even after so, so many years and hours of gameplay, I still need a TL;DR, an encyclopedia, and some Advil.
Duviri was fun until I finished it and realized it wasn't an open world, it was an island with none of my prior experience accounted for aside from the Undercroft(?) which is not fun, I don't get a say in who or what I'm bringing aside from one of my frames and 2 that aren't mine. I have no idea what WarFrame 1999 is about, why it's relevant, or who asked for it. I don't suspect I'll figure it out any time soon. I'm not trying to dog on what is presumably many hours of work put into these things, but I'm speaking as an experienced player. I can't imagine how someone starting out feels. Why would anyone who has so, so much between them and the newest content release be excited for new content? The new player experience must be absolutely BIZARRE. I told a coworker I started playing WarFrame again because he said he plays. Apparently, what he meant is he just does fashionframe. We all do that, but he doesn't know how to interact with the game in a meaningful way. There's so many places one could be, that it becomes choice paralysis. I love this universe with all my heart, but between trying to manage decorating a dojo, an orbiter, gearing out my frames, weapons, railjack, k-drive, archwing and archwing weapons, farming resources to do all those things, running daily missions and syndicate things all while trying to keep up with a story I don't feel I really understand, the new content feels like an inevitable chore. Just the many frames and prime releases and weapons I've missed out on will have me busy for who knows how long.
Is the 1999 thing relevant? Is it just a fun, little fan-service thing or what? Am I alone in feeling this way? I'm not trying to be insulting at all but the plains and eidolons, railjack, vallis, deimos were all great additions to the game aside from their own quirks and time-sinks involved. I was able to jump into Duviri without any hassle and so I did, and I was sooooo sad when I realized what was happening. I really thought it was going to be like the other open worlds, just with a strange story taking place before I could access it.
I'm sure someone out there loves it, but why pay service to the outlier when the core content has been what has stuck and worked all this time?
