We haven’t had a decent Warframe quest in ages. The last ones we got were for Revenant and Excalibur Umbra, but they weren’t exactly… amazing, fun Warframe quests. Excalibur Umbra in the Sacrifice is more of a continuation of the War Within and involves a lot of the Operator. Revenant’s quest is barely a quest. But The Deadlock Protocol feels like a return to the old Warframe quest days, with the polish of modern, shiny Warframe. The Deadlock Protocol is Sands of Inaros, but for the modern era.

It’s also a pretty fun quest.

Also, spoilers ahead! Go play the quest! It only takes about an hour!

Okay, sure, there’s a lot of seriousness here too.

The idea that an asshole wants to take over a board of directors via time travel and proving he is an heir to the Corpus founder is scary. It’s even worse when you realise Nef Anyo is said person, and he’s willing to sacrifice Fortuna workers to do it.

Despite the terror, everything still feels somewhat fun. Mostly because of the dialogue and interactions between characters. You’ve got a cartoon villain versus someone who wants to help and protect others but is also rough and dirty. The conversations that take place are actually interesting, and it annoys me that they’re easy to miss.

That and the fact that murdering tons of Corpus is always enjoyable, especially in a tileset that has been refreshed. The Corpus finally actually feel like a cult, rather than just some vague sci-fi guys.

Nef Anyo steals the show.

Really, Nef Anyo is what makes the Deadlock Protocol fun. A smug coward with a plan. He is a bit of a cartoon villain, the same way Vay Hek is. But he has this amusing conman personality and some great lines. Even when he gets what he deserves, he is still a good character. Everyone else is great as well. Parvos feels like a soft, Lucifer-like character, and Eudico is her normal leader-but-blaming-herself self. I am glad however that we didn’t see any of Little Duck though, because it gave the Business more of a chance to shine.

It’s really short though.

You do an interception, then you do some running around back and forth to Fortuna, then you make a glaive, via a spy mission, then you fight the baddie. The quest is short, about an hour long if you’re wandering around, probably a lot less if you’re a speed runner.

I don’t know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Compared to Mirage’s quest, which forces you to wait for each Warframe part to build, it’s amazing. But I feel like we could have had a lot… more. I guess short and sweet is better than long and tedious though. And the quest does introduce both Parvos and the Granum Void very nicely.

We have some worrying consequences here.

Most notably, how the fuck are people seeing shit through my sensors? Does my poor Volt basically have an open mic on all the time? How comes everyone can just connect to me whenever they want? The inbox is scary enough. I’ve had tons of threats sent to me there, including one from Parvos himself at the end of the quest.

But clearly nothing I do outside of my orbiter is private! There’s no communication, people just talk at me and… access me. Eudico and the Business saw everything I saw. Including when I repeatedly fucked up using my new weapon.

We also have the issue of Parvos actually being alive now. We defeated the Protea specter, but Parvos escaped his prison and is now… looking to rebuild or… something? It’s very much a deal with the devil here, Parvos is genuinely intelligent and cunning, so he could do pretty much anything. Who knows what Parvos will do with the Corpus and the rest of the solar system?

Anyway, enough fun, back to the grind.

Not only do I have to farm the Granum Void for Protea parts, but there’s a bunch of weapon parts in there too.

And after that, it’ll be time to do the new Jackal boss. Which… is… not the best… But that’s best saved for another article.