The First Descendant Review

There is another free to play game that has hoved into view above the horizon, and that game is called The First Descendant. 

It’s from the team at NEXON Games, running as a third person shooter that channels strong vibes of Gears of War and Destiny, mixing the two into a (hopefully) brand new experience. 

With a free to play model and a plethora of microtransactions available, is this a game that can transcend its humble beginnings, or are we better off waiting for the new Gears game to arrive, or to play The Final Shape in Destiny 2? 

We’ll start with the story of the game, and as is usual in these kinds of things the future of humanity is at risk and the only ones who can save the world are us, Descendants. I wonder what a game would be like where everything was going swimmingly…?

Anyway, the Vulgus crossed the dimensions years ago, deciding the best thing to do is to try and wipe out the humans who are inconveniently in the way. Of course, this didn’t go down well, and there has been war ever since. Then, just to put the cherry on the cake, there is another force that decided to join in the battles, the Colossi. We are tasked with protecting Albion, our base, and the continent of Ingris from all comers, doing so with the application of high speed lumps of lead and space magic. Sounding like Destiny yet? As we move through the story, new areas and increasingly difficult missions become available, and that’s about it. Story? Most definitely a tick!

The presentation of The First Descendant is pretty good, and whilst I’ve had some odd moments stuck in the scenery and in places that I can’t get out of, little things like this rarely annoy me. The arenas or levels that we find ourselves in are pretty and huge, so the world is well designed and each area looks distinct from the last. The Void intercept arenas are the exception; deliberately small and cramped to give you nowhere to hide! The different enemies that you have to fight are well designed, a varied bunch (to a degree). But the crown for design has to go to the sheer amount of customisation that you can stick on your Descendant – carrying a backpack with a teddy bear in it, anyone? Of course, most of these require you to spend real money to unlock them, but they are by no means mandatory. 

I haven’t felt the need to drop any real money on The First Descendant yet, but the Season Pass is extremely tempting. Not just for the extra loot it delivers, but in order to give something back for the amount of fun that is available. Oops, spoilers!

The audio found in The First Descendant should be seen as another good point, with most of the NPCs being fully voice acted and all the usual explosions, pew pew noises and bangs and booms being, well, bang on, if you’ll pardon the pun. In fact, there’s one thing that struck me as I was fighting in a cave, and that was that the guns sound different in an enclosed space than they do in the wild; more echoey. That’s a nice touch. 

Now, the gameplay is next under the microscope, and this is another good point. The gunplay is a cross between Destiny and Gears, but without any kind of cover mechanic. I mean, you can run behind a wall to take cover, but there is no blind firing or suppression, so bear that in mind. No, it is a stand up fight you are in for, every single time, in every single mission, and I for one am okay with that! And the way the guns handle is very nice again, with much more of a Destiny feel coming from the archetypes on offer. From long pressing Y to get to the heavy weapon slot, through to pulse and scout rifles, auto rifles and so on and so forth – it is all instantly familiar. And shooting enemies with them is just as satisfying…

The First Descendant is billed as a looter shooter, and that means lots of enemies, all of whom explode like loot pinatas after being shot. That is especially true of bosses and the Colossi, and so you are on a constant escalator to get stronger. Of course, the new shiny gear you have picked up may not be the type you are used to, so then you face a choice – try something new, or use the new gear as upgrade fodder to make your existing gear stronger. You use materials to do this however this route takes patience. New modules and things can also be found and slotted into your Descendant, so again, always upgrading and getting stronger makes the missions more doable – which leads to more loot and so on and so forth. 

The missions are able to be joined at any time by other players, and this is usually a great help. Of course, sometimes you join a mission right at the end of a session and get the completion without firing a shot. Them’s the breaks! But for the most part, having other people for the set piece battles is always handy; mainly as they can revive you. However, if you are some kind of elite space ninja wizard, you can challenge these bosses alone, claiming all of the loot. Guess which way my son does it? Thankfully, he isn’t above bailing his old man out at times. 

The First Descendant lands on Xbox to provide a solid start to what has the potential to be a long running game. After all, if Destiny can expand from humble beginnings to the awesomeness of The Final Shape, imagine where The First Descendant could go in a similar time scale. As it is, this is a great first step, and there is a lot of fun to be had.