In Hindsight, Duviri Is Pretty Empty

The Duviri Paradox took ages to be released. It was originally teased at the end of the same Tennocon that teased Fortuna and Railjack, both of which came out years ago. Since then, we’ve had the New War, which somewhat concludes the Lotus’s story line, as well as lots of little bits and pieces here and there. We’ve waited a long time to actually experience Duviri in its entirety. Yet, after all this time, it all feels very… empty.

There’s not that much to do.

I mean, yeah, there are things to do. We got a new open world, we got a new game mode for Warframes and a quest that ties it all together. But compared to other open worlds, Duviri is big but filled with a lot of holes. It consists of nothing but floating islands, after all. But much of the landscape is eerily empty, populated by random little hamlets with the odd stationary citizen just stand around. There are plenty of little things to do to earn extra decrees and stuff, which is appreciated because otherwise Durviri would be completely dead and boring without them. The Duviri equivalent of bounties on the other hand are quite tedious and repetitive due to the required Circuit missions stuffed into the bounties. At least there’s an orowyrm to fight at the end, but the circuit missions don’t really add much to the experience.

Speaking of which, the Circuit is a nice change of pace for Warframes, but it is essentially a bunch of normal game modes rolled into one. The only things that makes it different are the random gear and the decrees, which allow you to become quite powerful. At least the Circuit does do rewards a bit differently. You choose which series of rewards you want and you work towards them by playing the Circuit, instead of having plain random rewards like other missions. But it is still just several game modes in the same place.

However I think the most empty thing in Duviri is actually the lore. It’s basically “and it was all a dream” and you willingly go back and restart each time you enter Duviri. But we don’t really get many answers here, just more questions. Like, for example, how is Teshin still alive, or did he come back from the dead or something? And the much larger question of why would Drifter dream up a landscape where he gets killed over and over? It doesn’t make any real sense. Even if you just imagine that Drifter dreamed it all up from a book when he was a kid or something. I don’t know, the new lore we got is weird and nonsense. And, frankly, the Duviri Paradox quest is one third tutorial, one third lore that makes no sense and one third being basically a normal bounty.

It all boils down to two things. A random game mode for Warframes and a map for Drifter to wander around in. Aside from Incarnon weapons and Drifter intrinsics, there’s not that much to work towards, at least for a vveteran player like me. For newer players, there’s also Warframe components to be earned, but you have to build them yourself, by wandering back into the Origin system. But that’s about it.

Thing is, I feel rather bad saying all this. Clearly a lot of work has gone into Duviri in so many different ways. But it all also feels so empty. There’s no life, no real movement and no real progression either. It’s all just one big loop. Which is ironic really, considering how everything in Duviri is a massive loop. It’s like Groundhog Day, with each trip into Duviri that loops back on itself.

Still, I have very much enjoyed Duviri so far, but it does feel like it’s missing something.