The First Descendant is a new free to play looter-shooter from the minds at Nexon Games. It launches in less than a day, but should you be excited about it? Let’s take an in-depth look at The First Descendant, starting with launch times.
When does The First Descendant Launch?
It launches on Tuesday, 2 July, at 7 am UTC. That’s midnight in the PT time zone, 10am BST, and 5pm AEST. You can download the game right now, but all you’ll see when you boot it up is this launch screen.
What is The First Descendant?
The First Descendant is a third-person action RPG looter-shooter game that combines popular elements found in other games and is developed by Nexon Games. It plays like something of a mix between Warframe and Destiny 2, but feels like an amalgamation of many current looter-shooter games.
You play as a Descendant, which is one of a number of fixed characters currently in the game. That means you can’t create your own character, but rather you’ll unlock these fixed characters by doing a series of quests.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s similar to the system employed by Warframe. The game will also feature challenging player quests and co-op with up to three other players. Many of these quests can be played solo as well.
It all sounds good so far, but is it pay-to-win, given Nexon’s reputation for implementing this model in some of its older games?
Is The First Descendant pay-to-win?
Nexon is the company behind pay-to-win (P2W) titles such as Maple Story and Kartrider: Rush, but also slightly less P2W games like Vindictus, Mabinogi, and Kartrider: Drift. Their current model seems to be pay-to-progress-faster, which is certainly better than hardcore P2W.
This does mean that completely free players can expect to sink many hours into the game in a simple attempt to keep up. That said, so far it appears as though everything in the game will be possible to obtain by grinding. This includes gear and (likely) cosmetics.
If you’re okay with that sort of model, Nexon’s latest title won’t be a problem for you.
All in all, The First Descendant is not pay-to-win for the moment.
Download this game if…
If you enjoyed titles such as Destiny 2, Warframe, or even Borderlands, you will likely enjoy The First Descendant. So go ahead and download this game so long. It’s only about 36GB, and it could be one of the better looter-shooters we have right now, if it’s all executed properly.
This may be just slightly off-topic, but if you’re in the mood for a good Battle Royale-type game, why not go check out our list of ten games similar to PUBG, while we all wait for The First Descendant’s full release.
