The First Descendent Open Beta First Impressions: Is This The Destiny/Warframe Killer?

Yesterday, Nexon opened up a crossplay beta test for The First Descendant —  its upcoming free-to-play third-person looter shooter. The game involves defeating hordes of enemies, alone or with friends/strangers, while leveling up your character and guns. In other words, Destiny or Warframe. So not an MMO, but kinda.

Players assume the role of a Descendant tasked with defending humanity and the Ingris continent from invaders. There’s a variety of different characters you play as, a bunch of guns and equipment to tinker with, customization in the form of skins and dyes, a grappling hook, and abilities. The First Descendent features a storyline too, but basically you’re just going from mission to mission within one of several open-world maps (aside from the main hub) with the occasional 4-player boss battle.

Now, the gameplay of The First Descendant is awesome, yet lackluster. For the most part, you’re just emptying your magazine into enemies. Then you reload, and do it again. That’s because they’re all bullet sponges. Sometimes the enemies charge or shoot back at you, but the strategy in almost every combat scenario is the same — save for bosses. You do use your abilities (which are unique to each character) here and there, however not off cooldown always because they require mana, which is refilled through drops on the battlefield (as is health). 

Unfortanately — despite gunplay being 90% of gameplay — the weapons you collect lack diversity. There’s shotguns, snipers, assault rifles, submachine guns, pistols, grenade launchers, etc. All the usual suspects, but despite being different models/versions, the guns in each category are all basically similar to one another. Therefore, your upgrade when looting is basically just more DPS. There’s no excitement when it comes to looting because the potential to find something interesting isn’t there. I believe the “special” guns must be crafted. That being said, there is the module system, which allows you to add upgrades to your weapons and character, such as status effects like electricity, frost, poison, and fire.

Still, I liked the game. Although the core gameplay loop is underwhelming, everything feels so smooth. Rarely did I experience lag or stuttering, and the combat felt impactful. Also, The First Descendent runs on Unreal Engine 5, and it shows. The game not only looks polished as heck, it is visually stunning. I particularly enjoyed the movement too, having stellar control over my character as I ran and jumped across the environment with my trusty grappling hook (which, let’s be honest, every single game today needs). And aiming and shooting mechanics are responsive, although the sounds of gunfire are a bit loud. Another thing to note is the voice acting, which I found decent and sometimes funny because Bunny, the character I used, shouts out “That f**king hurts!” when she’s low on health. (The story is meh though.)

While The First Descendant has potential, it is evident that it requires further development because while fun, it is so damn repetitive. What you do in the first hour or two is what you’ll be doing for the entirety of your time in the game. We need better loot and more challenging combat. The foundation is there, but I don’t see any reason to keep playing besides grinding to unlock more characters. And don’t get me wrong, I love a good grindy game, but not if the gameplay itself gets old fast.