Forget epic space opera, Warframe’s latest update is about to have cowering at Whispers in the Walls.
Digital Extremes just wrapped up a preview stream for the latest Warframe update, giving us a glimpse at the upcoming additions to this online sci-fi adventure. The 175th monthly Devstream highlighted new gameplay and gave us all a peek at the horrors that await at the heart of this space adventure.
Whispers in the Walls is more than just a new major Cinematic Quest for Tenno. It pivots away powerful invading armies towards an insidious threat and name that lies shrouded in the deep lore of Warframe. Lingering on the lab of Albrecht Entrati, the latest teaser follows the recent TennoCon 1999 announcement, and promises answers that might even potentially lead into the Void.
We do know that Whispers in the Wall takes a new direction for Warframe, sampling the past and setting up the future for the series. While we’ll dip into 1999 for a time and land back in Albrecht’s labs with the huge Vessel that lies dormant and unfinished across the central plaza. As you dive through what awaits, you’ll need to navigate the crossfire between Entrati and an enigmatic entity only known as “the Man in the Wall”. If you can survive that long, there’s a horrific problem waiting for you.
The Murmur are another piece of the puzzle in this mystery that seems to skew time and space. They appear as a warped new enemy that players can expect to encounter as you find reality twisting around you. These seem to be tied to the Void, as far as we can see. They mix organic augmentation with brutalist architecture to craft something that is truly not of this Earth. This new direction introduces Tenno everywhere to the depths of the Antrati Labs, a place where unfathomably large and surreal environments twist reality and escape the limitations of here and now.
New Battlefield, New Problems
New faces await anybody willing to take on this new location. Alongside the Man in the Wall faction, a new Syndicate and a pivotal character will awake from an age of cryosleep. Unfortunately, we won’t learn much about this Syndicate until things go live, u we do know you’ll get other types of assistance when fighting through these labs. A new Warframe, a powerful secondary weapon, and a unique new combat technique will assist players to cut through the monstrosities that await.
Three new missions types will unlock during this story. They add new dimensions to the tale and extra content beyond the standard Cinematic quest or existing game modes. Alchemy is an endless repeatable that challenges players to pick up the research of Albrecht. Using a powerful crucible, they can combine existing elements form across Warframe to output complex and much more powerful elemental forces. This won’t happen in silence. The Murmur will try to stop you and it is a case of feeding the Crucible without getting overwhelmed by these forces.
Netracells feel like a somewhat familiar take on existing game modes, which will unlock weekly for are loot. While We’re not getting into it in depth, don’t discount them from your to do list.
Swarm, however, is probably the most unique new take. An unexpected assassinate styled boss fight, Made up of two distinct sections, this plays with the Murmur and the twisted eldritch horrors that seem to spew out the void to produce a search and destroy featurette that shakes up what you’d expect.
Keep on Fighting
With decades old questions and new combat content in the way, help is available for Tenno. Playing off the brutalist lines of the Murmur, the 55th Warframe comes stomping into view during this update. Qorvex is another one Entrati’s Void projects being unearthed for all to see. Full of deadly radiation status ailments in a multi-layered concrete frame, Qorvex controls crowds with collapsing wall traps and fusion reactor pillars. Visually distinctive in its grey skin, the Qorvex is a powerful weapon with some deeply satisfying attacks. Just watch its walls come crashing down to see what I mean.
This isn’t the only Warframe that’s going to drop in either. Gauss will speed into battle in a new Prime form. The premium rework of a much loved Warframe might be part of Digital Extremes’ monetization model, but it feels worth it, covered in sleek angular lines, cool curved metallic components, and a gold trim that just screams speed.
If you’re looking for something more functional than go faster gold stripes, then the power of the Void unlocks between the new walls. A never-before-seen secondary weapon type, the Grimoire, will dispense eldritch blasts from the swirling pages of an unknown tome. Despite the fact that it feels thematically offbeat for a sci-fi setting and a horror tie in, this new ally will reveal more about Entrati’s master plan as you take on whatever waits across the Void.
Cross Platform Save and the Dripdate
As if the content updates weren’t enough, Digital Extremes has confirmed that we can expect cross Platform Save updates to start landing alongside Whispers in the Walls during December. This new feature will allow players to pick a single Warframe profile as a primary account. This profile, its Warframes, progress, and saves will be linked to an owner’s accounts on other platforms and pull the progress from that primary profile across your accounts and platforms.
This isn’t the only way you’ll be able to pick up and play across platforms either. With some caveats around time and eligibility, players will be able to perform a one-time account merge and pull all their Warframes, items, and loot into a single master account that synchs across platforms. This is, obviously, more complex and permeant than saving progress, as Digital Extremes explained to us during a brief post stream overview.
They confirmed the new feature rollout is set to take a number of caveats into consideration, from player status, account creatin dates, to the items that are in their inventory. the team behind this sci-fi epic confirmed that while wholly owned Warframe assets from recent updates might be an easy port, other legacy art assets, and particularly platform exclusives might run into issues, making the entire process more complex than you might initially imagine. This obviously impacts merges, linking, and eventual trading between platforms. It’s one of the many reasons that, along with the volume of requests, mean access will unlock progressively, in a Dripdate. Digital Extremes did confirm that all Warframe players on all platforms are expected to have access to Cross Platform Save by the launch at the start of 2024 and Digital Extremes will operate with complete transparency to Community as the feature is rolled out. Learn more about Cross Platform Save on the official Warframe website.
A Quiet Revolution
When we had some time to sit down and rifles through today’s Devstream and have a brief chat with Digital Extremes about what’s coming, I can’t help but feel like this update and the 1999 reveal signal a quiet revolution for Warframe. Until now we’ve fought all sorts of epic space faring enemies to save the Sol system and uncover the truth of the Tenno. Ancient races returned and huge space operas unfolded across giant open maps. Now, we’re seeing Warframe dabble in a little bit of introspection. Time hopping, events long gone, twisted realities, and horrific enemies seem to ditch the planetary bombardment and huge battlefronts for deftly crafted tales that contain an introspective laser focus, and part of it seems to be to terrify us. Personally, I feel like it’s a well-judged move that prevents Warframe from becoming a trope. To find out more about what’s coming you can check out the full Devstream 175 or hop over to the official website.
