Warframe’s new quest cracks open a galaxy full of weird, wild lore

polygon.com:

With a decade’s worth of content to explore, Warframe can be intimidating, especially for those who are just starting out. However, players who are patient enough to delve beyond the high-octane ninja flipping and space-mech murder gameplay will find one of the most compelling plots in all of gaming. The game recently concluded a long-running, highly dramatic plot centered around the Lotus, players’ collective Space Mom. And with Wednesday’s new update, Angels of the Zariman, developer Digital Extremes has opened a new act for a universe that has grown to rival canons like Warhammer40K.

The world of Warframe takes place in the Origin System — a far-future, very sci-fi version of our Sol system — after the fall of the gilded Orokin Empire. The player fills the role of an Operator of the titular Warframes, mecha-organic murder machines, and fights to protect the few remaining innocents from genetically modified, rapidly decaying supersoldiers, space hyper-capitalists, and an extra dimensional infestation. Warframe also keeps a major part of its core premise secret until about 25 hours in — and the community carefully guards that spoiler from new players.

“Our biggest failure rate is how do you get a player from finishing the tutorial to The Second Dream?” community and live operations director Rebecca Ford said in a call with Polygon. “That’s the minefield of ‘Oh, god, will someone make it through’ for us, so that needs some patchwork repair — this update does a pretty good job at removing unnecessary obstacles, but it’s clear to us that getting someone there is what makes them actually like or love Warframe.”

For years, the main focus of the game was the player’s relationship with an enigmatic, maternal figure known as