Why you should be playing Warframe 1999’s romance minigame

The Hex, Warframe 1999‘s ragtag band of do-gooding vigilantes, has immediately captured the hearts of Warframe players around the world.

This latest free expansion to the online game provides a romance minigame in which players can text-chat and eventually kiss the stoic biotechnologically-enhanced warrior of their dreams on New Year’s Eve. Going far beyond the longing looks and implied romance of games like Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft, Warframe has a thoughtful, in-depth system around friendships and relationships with the Hex that is well worth playing.

Rich characterization and damn good writing

Warframe has always been known for its strong writing, but 1999 lifts this to a new level with the text exchanges you have with the Hex. It’s a great opportunity to explore the world of Warframe in more depth, as well as develop friendships with the Hex. Warframe‘s story is also notoriously high-concept and summarising the events of ten years of increasingly baroque gameplay to the modern-world-adjacent Hex is a great way to refamiliarise yourself with the storyline in a much more compact way.

Every member of the Hex has their own distinctive style of interaction, from Aoi’s emojis to Eleanor’s detached and curious messages. If you see a half dozen messages pop up on your screen before you’ve even read the first one? That’s definitely Amir! The writing team has clearly put a lot of thought and love into these characters, who will reveal surprising backstory moments and ask you hard questions about the ethics of the world you all share. Good interpersonal dialogue is something that is often seen as secondary, but Hex’s conversations show how much really good writing can do in a five-minute text conversation once a day.

Investigative conversation

Romance storylines in computer RPGs are often accused of being an emotional vending machine that oversimplifies social interactions: put in a gift and the right dialogue responses and a romance comes out. While Warframe isn’t immune to this, the depth of the exchange feels way more important. It isn’t just a case of putting in the right response because the randomization and branches of the dialogue make it hard to use a guide to choose the right thing. Instead, you’ll need to pay close attention to the little profile summaries you can access by clicking each Hex member’s portrait.

As you get to know them more, you get clues as to the kinds of interaction they may or may not respond to. Amir doesn’t like overt flirting as much as Quincy, while Arthur will back off from questions about his past until you’ve reached a certain level of trust. You need to learn the quirks of these new friends through your own judgment to get those coveted golden responses from them. Plus, the dialogues are their own rewards as the Hex members confide their past traumas, backstories, and hopes with you, as well as fleshing out the 1999 setting and maybe hinting at future content.

Faster chemistry increases

The finale for the Hex allows you to complete the storyline you started when you went back to 1999, but to access it, you need to have chemistry with each Hex member, represented by a silver tether that forms in a cut scene. You also can’t rank up to Hex Status 4 until you’ve completed the Finale, and while you can max out your chemistry with each Hex member by doing bounties for them, you can also rapidly increase your chemistry by messaging them and sending them gifts using the chat system. Chatting allows you to get clues through their profile as to the kinds of gifts and responses that have the greatest impact. So, really, while you can just do bounties to increase your chemistry if you really want to opt out of the romance minigame, it’s much more convenient to do it through a few minutes of messenger conversation.

The vibes are immaculate

1999 is made by 90’s kids for 90’s kids and there’s a lot to love in the presentation of the chat function. It takes place on the Pom-2 PC, a clear reference to the Apple II, which has a pixel graphics interface and soundtrack that feels like a nostalgic point-and-click adventure game. The messenger program brings back memories of 90’s chat rooms and messenger services, and the dev team has even included the dial up modem sounds so many people grew up with. The whole thing feels like a labor of love and gives the game a warm feel that means I look forward to my daily catch-up with the Hex. The music is even a gentle synth version of the incredibly catchy in-universe song The Great Despair from evil boyband On-Lyne, and you’ll find yourself humming it long after you’ve logged off.

It’s near impossible to fail

Any gamer who loves a good in-game romance is familiar with games where one wrong response can scupper a carefully-cultivated emotional connection in a single moment. It sucks, and it leads you to check out walkthroughs and guides rather than feeling confident enough to play through conversations organically. Because Warframe 1999 exists on a loop, you can go back and play through the romances as many times as you want, choosing different paramours, experimenting with different responses, and enjoying the ride without caring about the end result. Warframe‘s romances also don’t have the same level of nuance as say, Baldur’s Gate 3, because they’re designed to reward regular and consistent play rather than making the “right” choices. This allows for a wider range of character responses from the Hex: you’ll probably annoy Lettie and Arthur when you first talk to them, but that won’t stop them from opening up to you over time.

Even if romance storylines aren’t usually your thing, consider trying out Warframe 1999‘s Hex text chat: you may find yourself drawn in despite yourself!