The First Descendent is another live service game in the long list of such games. We are seeing more and more of these games with some of them being good and some downright horrible. The First Descendent stands in the middle of that spectrum and is heavily inclined towards horrible in some aspects. Like any other game, it has some good elements but some bad as well. A single misstep can turn this game into a failure so developers have to be careful with the updates.
There is no content to keep players engaged for hours and there is too much repeatable content. Combat is intense but it does not reach the point of difficulty. Players can go through the game at a chilled pace. The game has a multi-regional approach to the world instead of a completely open world similar to Destiny 2. Despite its negative aspects it is still fun to play and provides a good play time.
The thing that really stings is the microtransactions because the game has some pay-to-win stuff attached to it. Unlocking stuff is tedious and takes lots of resources to do so. A lot of these items can be bought with real money. All this makes you wonder, Is The First Descendent Worth it? Let’s find out.
The Background
Story-wise The First Descendent is not that good but it is not like anyone was expecting a story-driven narrative from it. It focuses too much on the Iron Heart and Vulgus. These words get repeated so many times that they become tedious. There is no proper focus on the story and the story is handled as an afterthought. Most of the time it is the repetition of the same ideas. However, the intro is good and creates a strong first impression. It sets the tone for the lore to come.
There are a wide variety of characters but some of the characters are more prominent than others. Players get to interact with some characters more than others. Some of the characters are so minor that you only get a chance to talk to them once. There are only a few characters in the cut scenes. The cut scenes are good and don’t feel like an afterthought.
Combat
There are a lot of good and bad aspects to the combat of the game. Some aspects of the combat are so light that it almost feels like a mobile game. Even some mobile PVE games do a better job at weapon mechanics. For starters, weapons have no kick to them. When firing a weapon, the feedback is so weak that it feels like you are firing with no recoil. Weapons do have a recoil but no animation to back it up. It feels like you are spraying bullets with no visible recoil.
Most looter shooters become harder as you progress and unlock new content. The First Descendent follows the same logic but faintly. Most of the game is easy and you can get to the end without much hassle. However, harder versions of missions unlock once you are done with the campaign. Even these missions are not that hard once you reach level 30 and you have high-level gear.
Enemies
Fighting tanky enemies can be a problem because you will be spraying it with a lot of bullets. Not only are they bullet sponges but shooting them also costs a lot of bullets. The thing is that there are not enough bullets to shoot it with. So you have to rely on taking down ads that spawn alongside the boss to get ammo.
Characters and Abilities
Different characters have different abilities. So unlocking new characters can have a huge impact on the gameplay. Some characters are offensive, some defensive, and some support. The mix match of these three types of characters adds up to the total number of characters.
Some of the abilities are blatant copies from other games. There is a dash of Warframe with a pinch of Destiny and The Division thrown in the mix. The First Descendent doesn’t even hide it as some of these abilities are complete copy-paste. Even the icons are barely changed. The amount of copy-paste going on is baffling.
The Melee attack is a simple punch that can do a lot of damage. The problem is that the melee attack is so wacky that it is almost unusable. You can miss the melee even when the target is standing right in front of you.
Weapons
One of the things that feel completely out of place is the weapon firing sound. Not only is the sound of guns bad but their feedback is also not that good. All the same class of weapons will have similar sound effects. The firing sound of all machine guns is the same and the situation is no different for other weapon types. It starts to feel boring after hearing the same sound of firing again and again. The reload sound of all weapons is also the same. When all this is combined with the shallow feedback effect of weapons, it can have a major impact on how the weapon feels.
There are many types of different weapons. These weapons look different but as long as they are from the same class they will have the same feedback and sound as explained earlier. Weapon upgrade is another thing that adds a little complexity to the relatively simple game. You can put different mods on weapons to increase their efficiency. Each weapon also has its own perk that makes them more potent. There are weapons with special ammo and then there are ones with normal. Special ammo is more scarce similar to special and heavy ammo in Destiny 2.
One of the things The First Descendent does poorly is the cost of upgrades. It costs a lot of material to upgrade a weapon. You can either farm for the material which is going to take time. Or you can just buy it in the store. That’s when the game’s free-to-play and pay-to-win nature shows up. You can buy material from the store with real money which goes in the opposite direction of other looter shooters. If you are not spending real money then get ready for farming.
Map
There are 8 total zones on the map of The First Descendent. Each one of these zones has multiple regions and each region has three different activities. These regions are similar to Destiny but there is more stuff going on in each region at any given time.
Most activities are patrols in the open regions of a map. It is mostly about protecting something, gaining material, getting batteries, killing a certain number of enemies, eliminating enemies from certain areas, and similar activities with little variations. Before each main mission, you have to complete a certain amount of activities then rinse and repeat This is the core loop of The First Descendent. The only other activities are missions and Void Intercept which I will explain later. The game will just mix and match these activities to provide content.
Activities
Even main missions are extremely generic and are usually the same as side activities. The only major difference is the final boss which kind of reminds me of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. There isn’t just enough content to keep players engaged for a longer duration. So basically you will need to do these generic side activities just to unlock the next mission which is also pretty generic as well.
Void Intercept is an activity that lets you fight more powerful robotic enemies. These are big robots that require the cooperation of different players to take down the enemy. There is a normal version of it and there is a harder version of the game. Both these versions of the activity are not hard as long as your level is high enough. In the end, it is all about leveling up, unlike other looter shooters that rely on levels, gear, builds, and skill. However, it does give you good loot which makes them worth it.
General Gameplay
It is not just the icons and abilities that share similarities with other games but the way the characters look as well. There are characters similar to Destiny, The Divison, and even Warframe among others. The game does not even hide the resemblance but instead puts it on the blatant display. Especially Ajax who not only looks like Lord Shanks from Destiny but also uses abilities similar to the Titan subclass.
There is a grappling hook to use but it’s not going to give you any major advantage. Its only use is to reach a higher place or grab on a platform. The First Descendent does not have extensive movement mechanics like Warframe and Destiny 2 so it fails to utilize it properly. During Void intercept you can use it to latch on the weak point of the enemy. However, the limitation of movement and grappling hook makes the grappling hook nothing more than a glorified jump.
In certain cut scenes, the voice-over of characters is good. Especially the voice acting of the main villain. His sound is similar to a typical bad guy in video games. The overall voiceover of different characters is not that good. The movement of a character’s mouth doesn’t match with the words being said. Don’t expect good voice acting from the character while playing The First Descendant.
Microtransaction
Now let’s talk about the elephant in the room and the elephant is really big in the case of this game. Its free-to-play money-hungry nature starts to manifest once you are done with the introduction. There are so many things that could have been done better.
Let’s start with the material. Players can earn different materials while playing The First Descendent. Some of the material is rare while others are common. Regardless of their reality players have to grind for it because they are needed for different upgrades and to unlock stuff. That’s is general looter shooter stuff but it becomes a problem when you can literally buy everything in the game with real money. So you can just skip all the grind and get the necessary material. The thing is that buying materials is expensive which makes the situation even worse.
Players have the option to unlock new characters through the use of different in-game resources and items. It takes quite a while to get enough resources to unlock a character. However, if you have deep pockets then you can skip all that by buying the character. Buying a character is expensive but that’s nothing compared to an Ultimate Characters which costs quite a fortune to unlock even one.
There are no free cosmetics so you have to buy anything that changes your looks. It means that once you get a character, it will look the same as long as you play the game. The only way to add even a little verity would be by buying it with real money or getting a few of it from Season Pass.
Verdict (Is The First Descendent Worth It?)
The First Descendent is a game that stays close to the idea of being a looter shooter. How good it is at being a good looter shooter depends on how you look at it. At its core, it is a looter shooter like any other but there is not much replay value to the game. There are petrol, main missions, and Void Intercept. The high amount of repeatability in these three types of activities leaves much to be desired.
The combat is also not as refined as other games from the genre. Gunplay lacks proper feedback that makes them feel hollow. Though there are a vast number of different weapons, they are still the same in many aspects. Enemy verity is also shallow but it is doable. The only activities on the map are petrol which quickly gets repetitive. It shares a lot of things with other looter shooters which makes it even worse.
There is a pay-to-win aspect, which is evident throughout the game. The moment you start the game, you are hit with store notifications. It establishes itself as a microtransaction-reliant game pretty early on. You can buy anything in the game which gives a huge advantage to players who are spending real money. NEXON Games is known for its predatory microtransaction practices and here it’s blatantly on display. It is even unclear how long the game will stay live. With time, it might get better but for now, things look bleak. Do give it a try because it is free-to-play so it won’t cost a dime.
