The First Descendant Review - Worth The Hype?

Innovating in the looter shooter space can be challenging, especially when there are only so many kinds of progression, monetization and gameplay systems proven to work. Nexon's The First Descendant seemingly forgoes much of that by copying many of its systems from other shooters, with a dash of patrol spaces from Destiny.

While its snappy gunplay and impressive visuals will impress from time to time, it stumbles in some more fundamental ways. The storytelling is uninteresting. The characters feel like cardboard cutouts who only serve to dispense dialogue and little else. The missions and activities range from repetitive and tired to insipid and uninspired.

The end game has some potential with its Colossus but ultimately falters due to the lack of matchmaking on Hard difficulty and abysmal drop rates. The First Descendant isn't the worst option when considering looter shooters, but it only highlights how much better its inspirations can be.

[HimiJendrix]

Wow, the fans of this game can NOT handle anyone disliking it

[sikevillain]

Its nothing groundbreaking but its a fun looter shooter, moreso with friends. Story is whatever.. shooting & abilities feels good with a fast paced feel to traversal.. needs some optimization imo but otherwise a decent time..

[Megare]

"If there's one redeeming factor to the First Descent, it's the GAMEPLAY." WTF else are you here for if not the gameplay? 😂

[guydownthehall]

My lord no. The prices for the skins are IN SANE and unjustified. The skins that they are using to promo with are the ones that mostly everyone is drooling over and has a 60-70 bux price tag. Its an okay game, but its rumored that all the body movement and bounce have been removed since the awesome beta, especially from the girl selections. So its a rock in a hard place of a game: you have money on hand for the best ascetically pleasing stuff or stuck between Sony's play safe - never play sorry console rules. 😮‍💨

[careyunknown]

Im having fun leveling my characters and grinding for good gear. Has a lot of content for launch which cant be said for a lot of f2p titles. Seems like everything can be earned in game which is nice

[nickjordan]

I think it's fantastic. My sons and I have been playing this since release and we're really into it.

[joshscrivens]

Ppl act like the skins cost a billion dollars it cost 10 dollars to change the whole look of ur character armor color helme... u don't gotta buy the ultimates jus yet I mean the game jus came out it's still in pre-season on top of all the criticism

[__Why__S__seriuss__]

I personally love this game. It's what I wanted anthem to be. It feels like a great mix of gun play with character skills, not taking too much of a lead in battle.

Yes, it's not anything new we haven't seen. It's a NEW FRESH WORLD TO DIVE INTO. There's isn't a single review video that doesn't mention warframe or destiny.

Let me remind you that warframe got an excessive amount of hate for its grindyness. Yet all of you are so hung up on a game from 10 years ago that you refuse to give anything new a chance.

Destiny still gets hate for the prices and monetization. ..but those are the games you guys can't help but mention?

A YouTuber said it a few years ago, " gamers today would rather cry and complain than to play or try anything new", and it's hilarious to me. Every single new game for the last 5 years has been hate reviewed on arrival. Then, in 2/3 years when another random game comes out. ALL OF A SUDDEN EVERYONE LOVES THE SAME OLD GAMES THEY CRIED SO MUCH ABOUT YEARS BEFORE. 😂😅

[Joey-wwlh]

I like this game a lot and I keep getting the creeping suspicion that it’ll turn into another anthem and I’m hoping that it thrives because of how good it is

[jonathonspears]

I'm a Warframe player, MR21. Came over to this game for a bit of a different flavor. I'm only 6 hours in so take my opinions with that in mind.
I've found this game quite enjoyable so far. If I had to complain about something right now it would be how weak my powers feel compared to my Warframes, though that might just be due to my low level mods and I don't know how high they scale. The game is slower than Warframe which is a decent change. Not having a 24hour cool down to increase Mastery Rank is a god send for new players. The on-boarding feels good, walking you through the in game systems (which Warframe is really bad at) all in all, I'm having a good time.

[rangersnut]

I am downloading it, looking forward to trying it. Updated: honestly thought the graphics were sub par and the gunplay wasn't tight, it was floaty and loose. It all feels cheap.

[redguardgaming]

The character animations feel rigid and stiff, the loot fills up your inventory space so much so quickly you will see people inventory manage mid mission, almost every boss has the same invulnerability floating orb system, the story is -yeah I can't even recall the story. The gameplay loop is repetitive, the grappling hook is awful and your character model just bounces off of most terrain, speaking of terrain you don't climb over small objects or hop over them automatically so a branch or a curb or a rock could halt your momentum, build times exist which is something even warframe devs are considering changing as it inspires people to just not play your game for a while, a lot of missions are designed for multiple people, not because they are difficult not because the enemies are tough and challenging but because you'll have like 6 minutes to fully charge 3 different areas that slowly load and a single enemy in the perimeter will halt that progress, also timers, timers on bosses, timers on missions, timers are not fun.

This game is a gameplay loop of micro managing mediocrity in the pursuit of getting more characters so you can finally get into the end game, if you're going to play it, play it with friends, it isn't special or better than anything out there but it's new so maybe it won't suck as much later.

[mr.a]

in my opinion its an alright game, there isnt really anything innovative, its just your generic looter shooter

[alexg]

I think for those who just want something to grind with this style of gameplay, it's worth trying. I've played Destiny through Witch, but don't want to buy anymore expansions.

Warframe is of course a big comp, but I've played Warframe for so long that I am just looking forward to something a little different.

Enjoying it so far at around 8 hours.

[rabbibunga]

Is there a YouTuber who has played Warframe and tried this because everyone is saying the things that suck about this game are literally the things what makes Warframe lowkey successful

[dreminh-dgyh]

When i heard NEXON was the one who publishes this game i knew this gonna to be a another cash grab hollow MMO from them

[Xboxcampking]

It's fun for a free game if it was a 70 dollar game I be pissed

[king-sherm]

From any other looter shooter, this one seems more stable and it help with information on how to actually obtain certain things rather than warfare or outriders. It’s a chore just to know where to get the components so I can craft

[justinkrall]

This review seems a little too harsh.

I try to judge this game on its own merit.

So far. It’s fun to play, what else can I say.

[Mohammedi]

Genuine question. Whats so satisfying about these sorts of games? Whats the buzz you get from it? My first impressions is that all you do is kill bots and loot them and upgrade your weopons? Why should someone like me who gets a thrill killing humans (in games ofcourse) like warzone or fortnite. Why should i play this?