Warframe announced The Duviri Paradox, an open-world roguelite expansion being added at the end of 2022.
Warframe’s The Duviri Paradox is a New Open-World Roguelite Mode
Many announcements were made over TennoCon 2022 this year, Digital Extreme’s annual convention to celebrate all things Warframe. The 7-year-old game has grown exponentially and has gotten so popular that the developers are able to hold entire weekend conferences just revolving around Warframe. This may not be the case next year, as they announced anew game, Soulframe.
Going back to the Tenno, however, Digital Extremes announced The Duviri Paradox, a totally separate roguelite mode. This newest expansion is a groundhog day styled game wherein death means you start over from the beginning.
The Duviri Paradox
Players won’t play as their regular Tenno or operator in The Duviri Paradox. Instead, they will take on the mantle of an unnamed Drifter who eerily looks like Pedro Pascal. The Drifter is stuck in a time loop, everyone’s favorite loop, and is tasked with trying to escape this literal hell.
His execution is scheduled, and when a blade strikes his heart, the damage is immediately undone. While escaping his captors, the Drifter discovers a disembodied hand lying on the ground that is actually colored.
That’s right, colored. This is odd because the entire world of Warframe’s The Duviri Paradox is in pure black and white, and everything in between. Our entire view is through a monochrome filter so this colored hand is immediately eye-catching. Color is used masterfully to create emphasis on points of interest throughout the gameplay demo.
Far off from Warframe
The Duviri Paradox is extremely far off in terms of feel compared to Warframe. The Drifter cannot perform acrobatic bullet jumps through the air and slow down time when aiming guns. He cannot create massive elemental attacks at the snap of a metallic finger. What he can do, at least at the start is just run away.
In the early parts of the time loop, The Drifter can merely run and hide from enemies. It is a bit disappointing to see that a single mistake, such as accidentally bumping into a foe, will restart the loop entirely. At least you’re able to use your magical, colored hand to blast enemies at some opportunities.
Blasting enemies is fun, as it creates an explosion of color at the point of impact, giving us some emphasis on how painful that attack was. It was so strong that it sucked the black and white out of the picture. Don’t worry, combat will improve later on and you won’t die in a single hit.
The Return of the Open World
Warframe is no stranger to open-world settings. The team at Digital Extremes has already worked on The Plains of Eidolon and Orb Vallis. However, those were somewhat emptier and provided players with a large playground to bullet jump, fly around, or use their customizable hoverboards.
This new Roguelite expansion will be an open-world-styled game. Quests and missions can be taken in any order, depending on where the player feels like going.
The Duviri Paradox is still visually striking despite being predominantly in black and white. Gigantic, epic entities float above in the sky, adding a sense of wonder and scale to the world. Huge metallic dragons soar ominously overhead, mysteriously patrolling the skies for unknown reasons. Massive spaceships and other ominous beings also loom over the horizon, making the player feel rather small. They’re made even smaller when one of these entities decides to attack and ram into the player.
Exploration Options
Good thing that The Drifter can take the reigns of a mechanical steed called Kaithe. Making use of Kaithe will be important to ensure that The Drifter can traverse great distances quickly. More importantly, it can be the deciding factor if our hero can escape from those aforementioned massive beasts, such as the mechanical dragon.
Players won’t get so easily lost in the open world. Strategically placed statues will act as “respawn” points when they’re activated. It isn’t quite clear yet how these statues will interact with the roguelite style of gameplay. Earlier in the demo, a single failure caused the entire loop to repeat. When the player activated a statue, the next death caused them to respawn at that point. Maybe these statues prevent a singular mistake?
Waframe’s The Duviri Paradox also creates an interesting way to implement a waypoint or breadcrumb system. The Drifter, at any time, can call on a magical wisp of energy. This wisp will travel through the roads, leading The Drifter to a nearby point of interest, and leaving massive amounts of light and color in its wake. You will definitely not miss out on this explosion of hues in Warframe’s black and white world.
Putting the “War” in Warframe
Of course, this wouldn’t be Warframe if it didn’t have Warframes or satisfying combat. Good thing that The Duviri Paradox has both. At a certain point in time, The Drifter enters a portal that leads him to a mysterious chamber populated by forgotten Warframes. Specifically, we see the basic frames, in their signature kneeling positions: Excalibur, Volt, and Mag.
While the demo didn’t get to choose a frame, they did take up a pair of dual blades. Perhaps we can get to use one of these Warframes later on when we actually get to play The Duviri Paradox.
On to the combat! The Drifter is then plunged into combat against an imposing Warframe, Denphius. This is another swordsman, so it’s good to know that we just got a pair of blades ourselves.
Fights just look mesmerizing to watch. It looks like it is a bit more skill-based than the main Warframe combat is. Parrying and waiting for perfect opportunities to strike is more important here in this roguelite mode. Dodging is also important, as we aren’t quite sure how many hits our fragile Drifter can take.
But boy, does the Drifter know how to dish out the damage. The Drifter’s blows are heavy, precise, and extremely satisfying to see. Huge particle effects erupt from every hit he lands, creating sparks and lens flares.
Parries have a cool sound effect of high-pitched ringing metal and slow down time so you can appreciate your skill. Follow-up hits are also meaty and satisfying thanks to the subtle hitstop effect that each blow creates.
Wake Up, Tenno
Warframe’s The Duviri Paradox was actually teased initially back in TennoCon 2019. It was formally announced over the weekend at this year’s convention. The expansion is planned to be released in the Winter of 2022.
For more news, check outNew World’s Summer Medleyfaire will Bring Summer Fun to the MMO, andGhost of Tsushima Almost at 10 Million Copies Sold.
