When I got my hands on The First Descendant at Summer Game Fest 2024, I really wasn’t sure what to think. I had played a mission on my own, using a character that had a more support-focused role, and it all felt a little generic. However, the full release of The First Descendant surprised me. It was fun, the movement was fantastic, and the characters had their own kind of appeal, be it through their design or kits. That said, it does come with some issues that have plagued other Korean MMOs, which holds The First Descendant back from being something truly great.
There are a handful of different mission types for players to tackle. This includes overworld activities such as main scenario missions, instance-based dungeons, instance-based wave clear missions, and instanced boss battles in the form of Void Intercept Missions. The overworld main scenario missions are generally pretty straightforward, with only a handful of variations.
You will always be clearing out waves of enemies for the overworld missions, which will sometimes have you running from point to point to deactivate console terminals and what not. What I did like about this is that if someone else has already accepted the missions, whether or not you are in a party, the game will automatically group you up. Even if they’re at the tail end of their mission you will get the full reward for completion. This makes clearing main scenario missions easy and often quick to do. The same goes for dungeons as well, and if you lag too far behind your group the game will just teleport you to them to catch you up.
Boss Battles Worth Grouping For
The Void Intercept Missions, which are boss battles against massive foes, are one of the more unique aspects of The First Descendant. Each boss has a different weak point, which can be identified through the use of your scanner, and the fight will require you to make use of this knowledge. Weak points will be instrumental in breaking down the shield of a boss or can even turn into grappling points where you can smash through their defenses and knock them down.
There was one Void Intercept Battle I completed where another player had unlocked the Descendant, Kyle, and consistently grappled onto the boss. He tore into its armor-plated shoulders before using his ultimate skill, which had him barreling into the body of the boss to deal a massive amount of damage. It was exciting to watch, but that can be said of almost any Void Intercept Battle in The First Descendant. However, these fights have a very steep difficulty curve that can feel artificial. Because, while you can play the instanced dungeons and Void Intercept Missions on your own, it will be infinitely harder without a group.
And what concerns me about The First Descendant is how some of these game modes will function when the player base inevitably drops off. As of writing this, there are over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam alone — not accounting for console players that potentially make up another large chunk of the player base. This meant that I wasn’t left wanting for players to join me in field activities and missions, for the more challenging Void Intercept Battles.
Within a span of seconds I would be matched with other players regardless of level so long as they were in the queue or in the area, which meant sometimes I would be carried through fights or I would end up carrying less gear players through encounters. I had no problem with this, but it did point out a major flaw in The First Descendant, and it’s how important weapons are by comparison to overall player level.
Weapons and their accompanying modules (which are passive modifications you can attach to your weapons, and even your character much like you can in Warframe) can make or break an entire encounter. There were instances when I was matched with players with significantly stronger guns in Void Intercept Battles and I would blink and the boss would be dead. Other times, if I was matched with players closer to my level I would struggle through The First Descendant’s instance-based dungeons or the aforementioned Void Intercept Battles. You can, of course, gain weapons simply through grinding away in the game.
I got a decent amount of sniper rifles, machine guns, and a few choice hand cannons that way. But in order to get “ultimate” rank weapons, which are the highest tier and rarity in the game, you will need to do a lot of grinding. Yes, you are able to obtain some ultimate weapons through main scenario completion, but others require grinding out Void Intercept Battles with a chance of obtaining their blueprint. After obtaining all these materials, you can then research these weapons, and their components, to unlock them.
This can also be applied to unlock Descendants, which are the handful of characters you can play as in The First Descendants. Starting up the game will allow you to pick from a total of three Descendants — Ajax, Viessa, and Lepic — to add to your roster, with Bunny available to obtain entirely for free so long as you complete the first set of main scenario missions. Both characters have decent kits, with Bunny’s primarily focused on movement as racing around and keeping up that momentum allows her to charge up her skills. Characters like the charming and fiery chef Blair or the energetic and bubbly Valby are available to obtain through Void Intercept Missions, with their various research materials appearing as percent-based drops.
I bit the bullet and ended up just purchasing Blair and Enzo through the in-game real money shop since I figured that I would want to play as either character depending on the situation. Each Descendant is actually unique in playstyle. Blair, as mentioned before, is more or less a pyromancer, able to shoot flames from his hands and summon a massive fireball to throw at enemies. His kit relies on players actively siphoning mana from the pools of fire he can spawn on the ground to keep his skills on active rotation.
Enzo, on the other hand, is more of a support character, as he can drop ammunition for players and protect himself through the use of drones. I wish there had been a way for me to test Enzo before purchasing him, because I didn’t exactly gel with his gameplay. Even though I had Lepic and Bunny in my roster, I stuck with Blair. I would rotate my weapons out on occasion, but I do think who you pick as your Descendant will impact your playstyle significantly. I had to play a lot more cautiously as Enzo, as his kit didn’t allow me to be as aggressive, and it was hard swapping between him and Blair for that reason.
A Little Help With Localization
While The First Descendant does have a main scenario for players to immerse themselves in, I can’t speak to much of that, and this is largely because of the lackluster localization. You have an idea of what the game wants to communicate in terms of the overall story — the Vulgus, an extraterrestrial threat, are actively encroaching on the planet of Ingris and only the Descendants can stop them with the help of the mysterious Guide. You encounter the Descendants that can be unlocked through the story, with each area focusing on a specific narrative that introduces you to these characters. What narrative that can be gleaned from the game is hampered by its poor localization, which does extend to some tutorial text. It is a shame, because while The First Descendant pulls a lot from Destiny 2 and Warframe in ways that are more than obvious, it’s a lot of fun.
In fact, I will probably keep playing The First Descendant in my own time with friends. I like the way the missions are structured, I like how short they are, and I like the characters. I just feel like I could get to know them even better if the localization quality was just a bit better, because it’s clear that the team has a passion for the story that they’re trying to tell. I, unfortunately, am just not able to be pulled in by it. This, coupled with some performance issues on my NVIDIA 3060, also makes it a hard recommendation on PC. I constantly dealt with screen tearing, even on the Medium setting, and would get the occasional frame drops. With how some of the Void Intercept Battles require quick reaction times, if frame drops and freezing get in the way of that, it can sometimes result in mission failure.
The First Descendant is a game that could be great, if it wasn’t for its localization, monetization model that wants you to spend money to speed up timers or skip the long grind to unlock characters, and various performance issues. It’s a game that I have a lot of fun with, but it certainly won’t be for everyone due to its variations in quality. However, I hope the development team rectifies what issues they can, because The First Descendant could become a staple in the looter shooter genre if given enough time.
