The sci-fantasy shooter Warframe is the alluring cyborg product of 13 years of updates and expansions, featuring countless quests, locations, narratives, systems, and characters, along with a vast array of player-created art. Much of Warframe’s initial design still remains within the game, albeit adjusted and revitalized: the developers have eliminated a few larger segments, including the less popular PvP raids, but they have primarily aimed to refine elements that have dulled over time, while unfolding tales that vary from cosmic self-referentiality to reflections on indentured labor. At present, the studio is reworking Banshee, a sound-based avenger who was part of the Warframe launch lineup back in 2013.
“I know the Warframe team has been discussing the possibility of resurrecting raids and doing things with that,” the game’s original design director Scott McGregor shared with me at this year’s Tennocon expo. “But in general, there’s a significant amount of content in Warframe that has been around for a very long time. For better or worse. I believe, as a team, rather than mostly shutting it down, we either enhance it or substitute it with something superior.”