Warframe takes place in the distant future, when already-ancient warriors called the Tenno wake from suspended animation to find themselves at war with multiple enemies spread across the vastness of space. First released over 12 years ago now, Warframe is both a game and story that asks you to accept a lot of information all at once. But few games have been able to grow with their audience like Warframe has, and the game’s many systems and the story’s many twists and turns reward those who stick with it.

Now Warframe’s latest expansion is here, bringing the story to an exciting new battleground—the year 1999, when the internet was brand new to most people and online dating was an odd, futuristic idea. As you’d expect, Warframe 1999 is a big update with many changes, aesthetic and otherwise, to help ring in that turn-of-the-millenium spirit.

Today we’re going to focus on two aspects of the Warframe 1999 expansion that have us most excited, though: the text-based romance system and a new game mode called Faceoff.
 

Looking back to move ahead

1999 isn’t just the name of the expansion—it’s also when many people started to go online for the very first time, exploring the world of text-based communication. This was long before video chat became common, and even sending still images could still be laborious and expensive. It’s the time of AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ, not TikTok and Bluesky.

In Warframe 1999's new romance system, the interface is completely text-based, as it would have been at the time, back when folks were first beginning to experiment with meeting and falling in love with other people online. If you’ve ever put song lyrics as your away message to tell people you’re upset, you’ll know what I’m talking about. And if you’re confused about the previous sentence, you’re probably under the age of 30 and your back doesn’t hurt—great job!

Warframe 1999’s romance system isn’t completely fleshed out yet—the furthest you can take a relationship is a kiss on New Year’s—but it’s another way Digital Extremes is expanding the scope of what Warframe can be. The team has expressed nervousness about how the game’s often vocal fanbase will take to the new romance options, but this continual evolution is also what sets Warframe apart from most live-service games.

That said, Warframe’s live-service trappings could also present a challenge for long-term romance. When you play a game that lasts for years, you’re typically either stuck with your choices for a very long time or they have to be designed in a way where they don’t matter at all, so no one is ever disappointed with an outcome and loses their enthusiasm for the game as a whole. How do you solve these problems with a text-based romance system nestled inside a third-person online shooter? Digital Extremes isn’t saying, but they did think of that issue ahead of time.

“We're not gonna spoil how we solved it, but rest assured for readers and players that we tried to make it as impactful and real as possible, but we also know you might want to change your mind and we have solved for that,” Game Director Rebecca Ford told VG247.
 

Taking the fight to the enemy, human and virtual

Digital Extremes is also adding a new mode called “Faceoff” to Warframe 1999, which brings PvPvE combat to the long-running game. Two teams of four players each square off on opposing sides of the sprawling environment, racing against time and each other to complete objectives while fighting off waves of enemy troops.

“While speedily completing objectives is one thing, we want to make sure you can still impact your competitors’ progress,” Warframe’s official blog explains. “Various Boosts and Hindrances will spawn amongst the landscape; pick them up and trigger them to brighten your Squad’s day or add a wrinkle to the other team’s mission. There are currently around 10 different Boosts and Hindrance types to play with!”

In the developer stream above, you can check out a lengthy demo of the Faceoff game mode that Digital Extremes put out, but so far it looks like another ridiculously fast-paced and stylish addition to Warframe. There’s an intricate web of tactics here, forcing players to split their attention between fighting human opponents and AI-controlled enemies, work both solo and as a team, and race to finish objectives first. Faceoff looks like it will reward quick reactions, knowledge of each individual challenge, and ability to think on the fly. It’s a mode tailor-made for multitaskers.

Warframe, including the 1999 expansion, is available now on the Epic Games Store.