I was given the opportunity to take an early look at the new season of Nexon’s live-service “looter shooter” The First Descendant. Titled “Breakthrough,” the new Season offers a new zone, hoverbikes, large-scale raiding, and a new descendant. Along with the new season also comes a collaboration with NieR: Automata. Though I didn’t get a chance to participate in the raid, I did get to spend a decent amount of time wandering around a world I was familiar with not that long ago.
My return to The First Descendant was an interesting one, as I ran a few missions and operations that I was familiar with long ago. I simply wanted to become comfortable with the new descendant, Nell. Nell is a newly awakened Descendant, originally a tactical officer, now a telekinetic powerhouse. Nell’s primary focus is using the ecive to scan enemies and deal increased damage. Along with that, she has a projectile attack, an AoE attack, and the ability to boost allies’ firearm damage.
Much of my time in the preview event was spent in the new zone Axion Plains. Only available in hard mode, Axion Plains had a decent amount going on in the fairly large zone. First and foremost, the big scary field colossus. Acting as a world boss, the Wall Crasher appears in the center of Axion and up to eight players can work together to fight it. I fought it for a little bit solo while laughing at how little damage I was doing.
Axion Plains is big but it was easy to navigate in my brand new hoverbike! The hoverbike is… fine. It comes in three flavors: Standard, Speed, and Balance. You can upgrade the bike and it’ll have skins and attachments in a future update. It looks cool, and I imagine the type of person who enjoys The First Descendant will enjoy the view it gives of your character. You’re able to boost with a boost gauge and jump as well.
The jumping was a surprise. I kept trying to jump over things and thoroughly enjoyed missing jumps. I was pretty bad at it but it seemed both fun and had some utility. Likewise, Axion Plains has a fair amount of boost and jump pads placed around the map for ease of use. I think it’s clear that Nexon wanted the hoverbikes to have a little more utility than just getting players from A to B faster.
One of the features Nexon is highlighting is how enemies in Axion require more than muscle to beat out. This is very true, as I really struggled to complete any missions in Axion Plains. Which made me wonder why, indeed, I was alone in this zone. I would get so far through a mission and either become overwhelmed with enemies or a boss would put me in my place. While I was having a good time, I was missing any community at all.
No doubt, The First Descendant is focusing on more group play and I’m interested in that. The developers are not interested in strictly solo play, a type of play that has plagued online and live-service spaces for far too long. I’m not necessarily trying to make a statement here, but I see forced group-play as a good thing in online/live-service titles. I was annoyed during the preview, but I see the merit.
One of my bigger issues with The First Descendant is and always has been the way it treats its female characters. No doubt important women within the Descendant program, the costumes, emotes, and angles by which you can see the characters is nothing short of lascivious. This is further highlighted in the NieR: Automata crossover where there are four costumes and all of them are just for the women. Sorry fellas, there’ll be no boy shorts or blindfolds for you.
I love both NieR and NieR: Automata, so it’s exciting to see its influence spread far and wide. While I don’t doubt some players of The First Descendant will be excited to show off their NieR flair, the costumes leave very little to the imagination. As you can imagine, the costumes are simply 2 costumes of A2 and 2 costumes of 2B. 2B’s costume is her full YoRHa costume with the other as her self-destruct costume. A2’s are just the only two costumes you see in NieR: Automata.
Along with the costumes though, there’s a lil’ pod backpack that’s freakin’ adorable. There’s also a Glory to Mankind emote and one where you’re visited by your pod. I think much more could’ve been achieved by scaling back the costumes and bringing in more accessories but, I imagine Nexon knows their audience.
I was disappointed I couldn’t make the raid event but I got a pretty good feel for the new area and what ‘Breakthrough’ was offering. While I’m not the target for The First Descendant, I see the appeal. I see the pathways to new equipment, operations, and some significant changes that address some of my concerns in my review from last year. ‘Breakthrough,’ The First Descendant’s third season and largest update yet launches on August 7th, 2025.
