Not many third-person co-op looter shooters have come out lately. Some might agree that we are beyond the time when the genre was at its peak, and many titles like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League have been disappointing. However, the whole premise of PvE looter shooters is entertaining in theory. Who wouldn’t want to shoot enemies with their teammates, provided the gameplay loop is rewarding enough?
Hence, I was genuinely excited at the prospect when I first discovered The First Descendant. It gave me Gears of War co-op PvE vibes with its gunplay and movement. It looked gorgeous as it was using Unreal Engine 5. I then booted into The First Descendant Early Access Preview the first chance I got, and I felt right at home, but I was also wondering why it felt so fresh.
The First Descendant releases on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on July 2, 2024.
Satisfying Gunplay Meets the Beauty of Unreal Engine 5 in The First Descendant
The First Descendant will make you feel like you are playing a next-gen game from the get-go. Granted, the build I played felt like it had some hardcoded upscaler, as I could see many things wrong with the shader and textures even after triple-checking that all forms of upscaling were turned off. There were ghosting, aliasing, and flickering issues that I couldn’t understand for my life.
It was probably because the preview build wasn’t optimized. Because I was running system specs beyond the minimum requirement. Regardless, the devs should be granted some time and headroom to optimize The First Descendant further.
But putting that aside, for the brief moments where there weren’t noticeable ghosting and flickering, The First Descendant was easy on the eyes. The gunplay, too, felt refreshing; the guns felt weighted, and the recoil felt substantial enough. Like Rico from the Just Cause series, my selected Descendant also rocked a grappling hook and platforming, which was so much fun.
The various types of grenades and explosives were icing on the cake. All of these made me feel like I was playing a game that was a love letter to some of the best third-person mechanics in video games across genres.
Despite Being Strong Everywhere Else, The Final Descendant Game Falls Short of Captivate Using Its Narrative
Sci-fi looter-shooter video games usually need a solid grounding in the form of a premise. However, I had more questions than answers during the first cinematic, which played right after I began the game. And not in a good way, like games made by studios like Remedy. The First Descendant threw me into action, but you didn’t know why you were doing whatever you were.
It felt like an aimless shooter, which is something that doesn’t work for it. It either needs more introductory cinematics or more dialogue to clarify its lore. Some of the best PvE games that have been incredibly successful in the long run or have been phenomenons have had a solid premise.
Moreover, I found the dialogue and voice acting to be a bit cheesy, which might have been intended, and it felt like the game’s characters felt very caricaturish and off-putting. The overall environment and ambiance created a grotesque vibe, and the characters felt incoherent. The overall sound design and background score weren’t all that shabby and felt easy on the ears.
Is The Final Descendant Good?
While I had a good time playing the early preview build of the title, I have to admit that it lacks in only one area, which I highlighted in the previous subheading. Apart from that, it has great potential, and since it will be free-to-play at launch, it will be easy to recommend the title. This might also make people excuse its lack of a concrete narrative.
However, all of the above only stands on the shoulders of the game’s optimization, which still needs work due to the gorgeous but incredibly demanding Unreal Engine 5. It would have to be a playable experience and not be incredibly jarring, even on mid-range systems crossing the minimum requirements mark, for it to impact the genre truly.
When the game comes out, I highly encourage readers to try it. Especially with friends, it might be a lot of fun shooting down Colossi and using all of the game’s incredible mechanics.
