What do Destiny experts think of the new loot shooter The First Descendant?

A new loot shooter has launched with The First Descendant. Some Destiny experts are also checking out the game and sharing their first impressions.

What kind of game is this?

The First Descendant is a new loot shooter with 4-player co-op from the South Korean developer and publisher Nexon.
The shooter was released on July 2 for PC (Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S and is based on Unreal Engine 5.
The game is free-to-play and played from a third-person perspective.
The First Descendant is set in a sci-fi environment. You embody a so-called Descendant and fight against evil aliens.
There are a total of 14 classes that you can unlock. All classes have different abilities. Additionally, you can carry 3 weapons.

Looter-Shooter The First Descendant announces its release date in the trailer

Autoplay

Who are the experts? The First Descendant had over 190,000 players on Steam on its release day, including some Destiny experts. Alongside Swiss YouTuber and streamer “Nexxoss Gaming,” English-speaking D2 veterans such as content creator Aztecross and journalist Paul Tassi have also checked out the loot shooter.

Paul Tassi is a US journalist and author who writes for the English-language magazine “Forbes.” He is well-versed in Destiny and regularly writes about Bungie’s shooter.
Nexxoss is a YouTuber and streamer from Switzerland who creates German-language videos about Destiny 2. His content includes tips and guides. On YouTube, Nexxoss has about 102,000 subscribers.
Aztecross is a US YouTuber and streamer whose primary focus is Destiny 2. In his videos, he reports on the latest developments of the loot shooter, presents builds and new weapons or armor pieces, and shares his thoughts on the latest content. He has over 860,000 subscribers on YouTube and regularly receives over 100,000 views.

What do Destiny experts say about The First Descendant? Paul Tassi begins by criticizing the monetization system in his video on YouTube, saying it follows typical patterns for the developer Nexon: “This is from Nexon, a company that is not always known for producing the highest quality, and they are also known for a lot and a lot of monetization, and [The First Descendant] feels almost to me like a monetization model in search of a game.”

Tassi is also not convinced by the gameplay: “I’m not really impressed by the game; it all feels a bit generic, and the activities themselves are very, very boring!” While the gunplay is quite good, he feels that the abilities of his starting character do not convince him so far.

The Swiss content creator Nexxoss is a bit more positive and believes that if you like this type of game, you can also find enjoyment in The First Descendant – although he also criticizes the monetization system and the launch of the game:

The first hours of gameplay are fun, but you have to prepare for a grind-heavy game. If you like that sort of thing, you are probably in a good place. The game is well structured, even if the start is a bit rough. The gameplay is very cozy, the characters with different abilities are cool, and the gunplay feels good. Overall, it’s very solid.

However, the slight hints of “Pay to Progress” bother me a lot; I’m generally extremely allergic to pay-to-win or its little brother pay-to-progress.

Whether the game has long-term potential is very difficult to say. They have done a good job with the basic structure, but whether it will survive long-term depends on the endgame – whether that is good and whether enough content will be delivered afterwards.

Aztecross, on the other hand, initially focuses on the grind. Since the release of The First Descendant on July 2, he has streamed the loot shooter for over 19 hours on Twitch. Even before the release, he stated in a video on YouTube that he did not find The First Descendant good when he played earlier beta versions.

Now, he mainly wants to see how the Ultimate-Descendants play and how significant the difference is to the normal versions. He is also eagerly looking forward to the endgame because he liked Anthem back then, which did not have an endgame and, as is well known, died quickly. He will likely only formulate a final opinion on The First Descendant once he has seen everything the game has to offer.