The First Descendant is an upcoming looter shooter combining third-person shooting with RPG elements from Nexon Games. Ahead of its July 2nd release, I got to play hands-on with a preview build at Summer Games Fest. Overall, The First Descendant shows promise in its character customization, gunplay, and diversity of content but the grinding and repetitive nature might be a little too much for me.
The overall loop of The First Descendant focuses on playing and unlocking new characters, using firearms with unique effects, and equipping external components to boost character skill and performance to create a build that suits your playstyle.
From the start, the game features plenty of characters called Descendants. Over 19 characters, 11 different classes, and 4 Ultimate Descendants are playable. This was exciting to see as there was plenty of variety to choose from including the newly announced Descendants: Esiemo, Enzo, and Yujin. I played the Ultimate Bunny in my preview build, which was DPS-focused with electrical abilities. Your weapons range from assault rifles, hand cannons, and launchers, and at launch, 22 Ultimate Weapons with unique abilities and dramatic effects.
Players equip modules to enhance their Descendant’s character and weapons. Modules adjust stats such as skill power, cooldowns, range, and even change abilities. For example, equipping the Aerial Maneuver module allows players to grapple anywhere in mid-air. With 560 different modules at launch, this can be overwhelming to keep track of, but The First Descendant provides a loadout function and laboratory to encourage experimentation through convenience.
In The First Descendant players will continually progress, and enhance their character load-outs to tackle the more challenging content in the game. Infiltration Operations are the game’s instance dungeons, with normal and hard difficulties as modifiers for rewards. The Void Intercept battles are the massive boss raids designed for cooperative play. You can also engage with the main story which features 8 different regions including the snow-covered Vulgus Fortress. The story has been revamped to be more immersive and Descendant characters have their own stories and role to play starting with Bunny.
The First Descendant is free-to-play but players can purchase a season battle pass that includes free and premium rewards. The rewards are designed to provide cosmetic and convenience options, ensuring that it’s not pay-to-win and all items can be obtained by progressing in-game. I was taken aback by the amount of cosmetic customization available, from skins, appearance effects, weapon skins, emotes, and even a paint system.
Post-launch, Nexon promises regular updates. The 2024 season roadmap details a 3-month update cycle and the first 8-week pre-season will include new Descendants, Ultimate Characters, Void Intercept Battles, rewards, and more. The musical Descendant Luna, as well as an Ultimate Character Valby, are included. Seasons 1 and 2 are scheduled for 2024, and the team is working on a trading system to be implemented at a later date.
Ultimately, players who enjoy the pursuit of grinding towards endgame content and its reward structure will be at home with The First Descendant. The First Descendant will feature cross-platform support across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One when it releases July 2nd.
