I’m afraid The First Descendant will suffer the same fate as Anthem

The first descendant finally arrives on Tuesday July 2 PlayStation And Xbox, and I’m already worried about Nexon’s live-action looting shooter. After spending the last few days familiarizing yourself with the game for our First Descendant Preview, I can feel the influences of genre companions Destiny 2, Warframe, and the ill-fated Anthem running through it. However, the developer is going to have to work to convince players to stick around, given how content-free and polished it currently is. Mild spoilers ahead.

In the multiplayer game, you play as a Descendant – a human who has not only inherited their ancestors’ will, but also their supernatural powers. As humanity expanded into space via a dimensional portal, the alien undertow in the form of the Vulgus had catastrophic consequences. You are now in search of the Iron Heart – a material capable of closing the portal – led by the mysterious AI known as the Guide.

Aside from maybe Destiny 2, looter shooters aren’t historically known for their nuanced narratives, but what I’ve experienced so far with The First Descendant is perhaps its most pleasant surprise. The early introduction of the Guide heightens the game’s overarching conflict with the internal uncertainty surrounding his true intentions. Additionally, each new Descendant you unlock comes with their own story beat, fleshing them out and allowing you to form a connection with them. There are multiple layers here, and while it’s not exactly an award-winning element, there’s plenty to build on.

Beyond that, however, things start to get very difficult, very quickly. Most of The First Descendant’s core gameplay loop involves your standard array of “kill stuff, capture point, collect drops” missions, which would be fine if the enemy AI wasn’t technically stilted. Some enemies have a shield, some have a gun, and some charge at you. If you’re lucky, some have bonus modifiers that interrupt your ability to use abilities or sap your resources, but I found these to be rare, even in high-level zones. It’s all a bit mundane, although I expect it to a certain extent with this kind of game.

Of course, uninspired monsters don’t really matter as long as it’s satisfying to mow them down with your Descendant. This is something that Warframe – the game I’d most closely link TFD to – excels at, realizing its frenzied space ninja power fantasy with aplomb. Unfortunately, Nexon is struggling to do the same. While each Descendant is distinct enough in design and has its own specialties when it comes to mission types and elemental damage matchups, many lack the flash to make an impact.

Illustrating this contrast, poster Valby is incredibly fun to play thanks to its fluid puddle-based mechanics. Likewise, Bunny’s zip ‘n’ zap gameplay style is perfect for fans of Digital Extreme’s own space game. However, the defense-oriented Ajax is relegated to “loud shout, stomp, shield, and bigger shield,” which wouldn’t be so bad if its animations matched the enthusiasm of its design. Meanwhile, while I expect damage-over-time effects like Freyna’s poison-based kit to be extremely powerful, the Descendant herself felt underwhelming to play.

One thing that can’t be said about The First Descendant is that it at least looks the part. With Nexon taking full advantage of Unreal Engine 5.2, Ingris looks as gorgeous as the Descendants that inhabit her – it’s clear that Nexon and fellow Korean studio Shift Up share a similar design philosophy when it comes to sexy character design.

That being said, while the world is beautiful, I’m currently struggling to understand the purpose of The First Descendant’s open areas beyond hosting mission nodes. For the most part, they are devoid of life – the planet is supposedly overrun by Vulgus, but where are they? Running in sterile spaces that lack any other meaningful way to engage makes them feel entirely superficial. At this point, Nexon should have simply accessed Warframe’s star map and shown its environments through instanced activities, although I hope this will increase the encounter rate as players begin their journey in earnest on July 2.

If you’re an Anthem alum, your alarm bells have probably already gone off, and that’s a very valid response. Based on what I’ve played so far, there’s absolutely no reason why I would recommend The First Descendant to heavy hitters. However, the game has one glaring advantage over something like Warframe, namely Nexon’s promise of “endless end-game content”, which comes in the form of activities like Special Ops, infiltration operations and void interception battles.

Even though I didn’t have the chance to properly team up with other players – either I was playing at the wrong time or the matchmaking was poor during my playtest – I was still able to test my courage against some of the tough Void interception battles. As I mentioned earlier, each Descendant has their own specialization, and this is where these really shine. Each Colossi boss comes with its own elemental strengths and weaknesses, as well as specific mechanics you’ll need to watch out for. Defeating them earns you various materials that can be used to forge new offspring and legendary weapons. Unsurprisingly, the drop rate for really good stuff is incredibly low, so you’ll have to keep coming back for more.

And that brings us neatly to the jeweled elephant in the room – the monetization of First Descendant. Nexon’s reputation for MTX precedes it, and it’s certainly the same type of deal here. There’s a huge store offering customization options for everything – UI included. There is also a battle pass, which offers progression upgrades. It’s incredibly similar to Warframe’s offering in many ways, so it doesn’t seem too egregious so far.

That being said, I still worry that the studio is going down the path of creating problems that it can create sellable solutions for, especially when it comes to attracting players with drop rate increases. Already, there’s arguably more variety in how the game has been monetized than in its core gameplay loop, which is a big red flag to me.

Technically speaking, The First Descendant does a decent job of utilizing the PS5 DualSense controller’s haptics, but nothing out of the ordinary. Considering this is a cross-platform game spanning current and last-gen hardware, I wasn’t expecting anything more. However, my biggest technical complaint is actually with the game. I’m not sure if it was a server-side issue or an environment limit issue, but I found Vulgus moving around the field on several occasions. Additionally, Vulgus would often teleport in front of me. If this is any indication of the game’s server capabilities, prepare for a rough launch.

So far, I ultimately found The First Descendant lacking. Between its empty areas, generally flat gameplay, and mixed Descendant design, Nexon will have quite a challenge when it comes to keeping players engaged enough to actually reach its endgame content – no amount of CGI trailers glitzy with M83 soundtrack will do it. achieve it.

While its presentation is polished and its narrative beats offer enough to hook you, the developer will need to present a solid post-launch roadmap if it wants to survive the unforgiving live service landscape it’s about to enter. throw away beyond its first few months. . As always, I hope I’m wrong, but at the moment I don’t think The First Descendant will succeed.