New shooter “The First Descendant” launches on Steam – Plays like a Korean Outriders

Since October 20, fans of futuristic science fiction can try out the new co-op loot shooter “The First Descendant” in open beta. The game has garnered significant attention due to its impressive graphics, as well as its similarity to well-known shooters like Destiny 2, Outriders, or Warframe. MeinMMO has tested the new free-to-play shooter and reveals how close it really is and what it has to offer.

What kind of game is “The First Descendant”? The new IP from developer Nexon Games “The First Descendant” is a free PvE loot shooter that combines unique RPG expertise with third-person shooter combat. The beta of the free game started this week on Steam, and you can experience the shooter in Unreal Engine 5.

After the somewhat lengthy introductory sequence and a few intros, players immediately take on the role of their first so-called “Descendants”. These characters possess various and unique abilities. In the beta, we initially had 3 Descendants to choose from – Viessa, Lepic, and Ajax.

The remaining 7 Descendants can be unlocked later through the research institute. Each of these 10 unlockable characters can be played and upgraded, allowing you to face the invaders.

Your first Descendant quest ends in Albion

After the first introductory mission, which you complete solo, you will initially be separated from your team and reach the social space Albion after the mission against a first, still simple colossus.

In addition to your humorous post office, various NPC contacts will assign you quests or tasks, as well as sell you items. A teleport system will take you from there to other locations where you will complete various missions.

Here you can watch the impressive gameplay trailer for “The First Descendant” again:

Co-op mode for optimal team builds: “The First Descendant” offers you the opportunity to team up. The RPG/shooter hybrid can be played not only solo but also in co-op mode with up to 4 players.

• You can invite up to 3 friends to your group using your friends’ exact Steam nick plus the additional “The First Descendant” user number.
• They will then be teleported to you, and you can tackle quest missions and boss battles together.

The cooperation makes sense because the different characters should encourage you to play with optimal ability combos in a team to always maximize damage. This is essentially a principle you already know from Outriders, only here without the cover shooter elements.

From Albion, players then continue to the Lost Village in Kingstone, where several smaller mission steps such as investigating faulty detectors and more await in a larger area.

Grand graphics and a “Sinister Dog” await you

The gameplay in third-person is active and very fast. The movement is fluid, and especially the grappling hook, which lets you swing to higher points, is fun. However, as previously mentioned, in “The First Descendant”, unlike in Outriders, you cannot take cover. You play openly and receive healing through enemy drops or abilities.

However, the variety of weapons is also in focus:

• Your character can equip 3 firearms and switch between them in combat.
• The overall selection is visually appealing and varied, both in terms of weapon types and names. Some visual weapon designs remind me again of Destiny 2.
• The assault rifle “Sinister Dog” is for example one of the first weapons you can use in the game. Which slot you use it in is up to you – you have complete freedom.
• You can further improve all weapons with runes to gain additional advantages that suit your playstyle, such as more HP regeneration, faster running, or immunities.
• In the social hub, you can pick up more weapons or runes after missions at the event terminal.

Each Descendant plays differently: Your Descendant has four active individual abilities that you can use in combat. When used eagerly, only the respective cooldowns will slow you down. Your melee attack is also individually customizable – for those who prefer a dagger instead of a fist, for example.

To fulfill the game’s objective, you gradually level up your character through the so-called “Mastery Rank” and unlock additional rune slots for it. This will make increasingly difficult missions and boss opponents achievable for you.

How challenging are the enemies? The first missions in “The First Descendant” are achievable by everyone and are not very demanding.

It only becomes really impressive and challenging in the big boss fights. There, combined special abilities in battle are needed, and it is anything but easy.

• The gigantic colossi in the game have various weak points that players should coordinate to attack in order to defeat them.
• There are also mechanics through which bosses can heal themselves, which players must immediately interrupt.

Unfortunately, these special boss enemies can only be played through separate missions and only in a team. Solo, you can master the regular field missions, which sometimes feel boring – even in a group.

Who is the game interesting for? One should primarily be a fan of PvE shooters if one wants to play “The First Descendant”. The game has a fantastic open-world storyline that guides you through various missions and stories with increasing difficulty.

For our team, the game was particularly interesting because we have already spent thousands of hours in games like Destiny 2, The Division 2, Outriders, or Warframe.

Thanks to this experience, especially as a long-time Destiny 2 player, the visual similarities with Bungie’s loot shooter have definitely caught my eye.

• The first three Descendants together look a bit like the three main classes in Destiny 2.

• My first Descendant “Viessa”, a former member of a criminal gang, uses ice as her unique ability, which inevitably reminds me of Stasis from Destiny 2.
• Ajax can even create a kind of barricade that protects allies and deflects enemy attacks, just like a Titan.
• Many enemies look like familiar Destiny foes. Some are Cabal with shields, Vex Harpies, or thralls.
• Even the emotes are heavily influenced by the style of Destiny 2.
• One could even draw parallels to the new enemy generation of the upcoming Destiny 2 DLC “Lightfall”.

Visually Destiny 2 with the gameplay of Outriders

The comparison with Destiny 2 works visually but not in terms of gameplay. At heart, “The First Descendant” is much closer to Warframe and Outriders, especially because of its specific gameplay with relatively defined character roles that you develop and the uncommon third-person perspective for a Destiny-style gunplay.

To me, it doesn’t feel like a truly creative and unique game design anymore. “The First Descendant” seems to have taken some cues from several successful gaming titles. In essence, it seems to be designed so that everyone finds something from their preferred shooter in this game.

However, if you look past that, the missions in “The First Descendant” are still engaging. It is fun to discover the locations during your first exploration. Meanwhile, you level up your abilities and use the countless new weapons.

I personally still miss that certain something that could excite players long-term for the new free shooter, even though there is supposed to be a live service aspect later on.

• Those who were initially curious about every corner eventually realize that there seems to be nothing to discover in the surrounding world in the beta, neither chests nor secrets.
• In the missions, you can only expect a varying amount of suddenly teleported enemies once you reach a certain point.
• It is also unclear whether and how more content will be available in the future. However, the developer states that characters, equipment, and levels could all be earned completely through gameplay in the future, and although there will be paid products, this would align with other live service games in the genre. (via gamerant interview)
• Despite microtransactions, the game is also not supposed to be pay-to-win.

Are there cosmetics in the Nexon shooter? It is somewhat unfortunate that players cannot further customize the Descendants. The appearance is predefined for each character.

In the final game, however, there is supposed to be the option to “decorate” your characters. But Nexon Games emphasized that they want to maintain the unique aspects and appearance of each Descendant. So, one should probably not expect large options for individuality of the virtual self.

Currently, it is mainly the futuristic science fiction story of “The First Descendant” that captivates me the most in the beta phase and that I want to experience to the end.

Graphically, the game in the beta still has major issues: The scenario should ideally create visually unique experiences through the usage of Unreal Engine 5. The last 4k trailer made players curious about the supposedly high-quality in-game graphics.

In the beta of the game, however, this enthusiasm of the players has first turned into disillusionment. Because graphically, “The First Descendant” is anything but smooth.

In our play test, we tried the game in 2k and 4k resolution, and yes, it really looks good. However, the engine also makes the game incredibly graphics-intensive.

• Many beta testers report that they are constantly facing stuttering and FPS drops.
• They can only play with the recommended PC configuration on “Very Low” or “Low” settings. Even owners of high-end gaming systems complain about the few options available to optimize the graphics.
• In addition, many find the enforced motion blur effect of the game extremely annoying. Although it can be disabled, it is still not completely gone.
• You have hardly any customization options in the graphics settings to improve graphics effectively. There isn’t even an FPS setting.

In summary, the beta feels poorly optimized in terms of performance. Player Cidriel on Steam writes, “A real joke when the highest settings run well, but everything is a smeary mess on the screen.”

Players hope that Nexon Games will quickly address the feedback from the beta and work on these issues before the final release. If you are playing along in the beta test, you can support the developer on Steam.

Currently, maintenance sessions are also being repeatedly inserted into the beta test, where the developer is already integrating the first fixes.

Try it – Because the story promises enough excitement

For my part, I’ve come to the conclusion that “The First Descendant” is ultimately mostly an Outriders game of the next generation. While it lacks the classic cover gameplay of Outriders, it also doesn’t offer a better, Korean Destiny 2 or a more modern Warframe.

Will I still play it? Yes. The story promises me enough excitement and unique scenario missions in a team that it is definitely worth experiencing the free shooter, which my fireteam agrees with as well.

However, my main game Destiny 2 will not be able to be replaced by “The First Descendant” despite all the high-end graphics and similarities. Bungie has just spoiled me with its excellent gunplay and perfected character movement for most shooters.

So while looking beyond the horizon is always exciting for me, it currently doesn’t feel engaging enough, with the experiences from the ongoing beta, to call the Nexon shooter the upcoming Destiny or Outriders killer.

How you can participate in the beta test of the co-op shooter

How long will the beta run on Steam? Officially, developer Nexon Games has scheduled the Steam beta test for “The First Descendant” from Thursday, October 20, 2022, at 09:00 AM to Wednesday, October 27, 2022, at 08:59 AM.

Currently, no registrations for the beta are possible via Steam anymore. However, if you are still interested in participating in the beta test on Steam, you can secure access to the game test through other means.

Through the “The First Descendant” Twitch event, players can still receive beta keys by watching Twitch for 15 minutes.

• To do this, link your Steam account with Twitch to watch The First Descendant in the live stream and receive the Steam beta key along with various rewards that allow you to explore your characters and improve runes.

A small drawback: All game data from the beta test on Steam will be deleted after the test. This means you will not be able to carry over your progress earned in the beta to the finished game.

Is there already an official release date? No, that is still open. However, it is rumored that it should be as early as 2023 for the official release.

What about you? What do you think of the free-to-play co-op shooter from Korea? Are you perhaps already part of the beta and have been able to test the shooter? If so, what did you like best, and what not? Feel free to share your first impressions with the community in the comments.