The First Descendant – Why is it So Popular?

It’s been a wild year for gaming. Sequels like Tekken 8, Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth have earned their share of success and deservedly so, with exceptional amounts of marketing and hype behind them. However, it’s the unknown variables, like Palworld, that have become global sensations despite a much lower budget. You also have relatively under-hyped follow-ups like Helldivers 2 going on to sell millions and breaking all preconceived notions about live-service titles.

Though the common theme is that looter shooters wouldn’t perform well and the market is saturated – see Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Skull and Bones – it’s not necessarily the rule. Nexon’s The First Descendant launched recently, and seemingly against all odds, it’s maintained a fairly healthy player base.

Available for Xbox, PlayStation and PC, the former Project Magnum was first announced in 2021. A name change and some closed beta tests aside, it didn’t have quite the level of hype that some looter shooters, good or bad, have seen. Look no further than Destiny 2: The Final Shape, which was close to beating its all-time concurrent player record on Steam before server issues derailed it. Even then, it received near-universal acclaim from critics and fans. It seemed The First Descendant would be doomed, arriving roughly a month after, especially since the marketing cycle began much closer to its release.

Nevertheless, it peaked at a whopping 229,257 players on Steam at launch, beat that on July 4th with 239,494 players and achieved a new lifetime concurrent record of 264,860 on July 7th. This is more than just the benefits of a national holiday or the weekend – in the past 24 hours, it peaked at 215,572 players on Steam at this time. Player numbers will likely drop after the first month, but week-to-week, they’re still going strong, unlike looters with more mainstream IPs, like Marvel’s Avengers or Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

If you’ve seen my review, where I criticized the mission design, story-telling and characters, you would know that The First Descendant has some flaws. The one redeeming aspect of the whole ordeal – the gameplay – pales in comparison to the top dogs of the genre, whether it’s Destiny 2’s gunplay and power fantasy or Warframe’s melee combat and mobility. Sure, the weapon and Descendant customization are robust, but those are systems lifted directly from Warframe. It would be a travesty if they weren’t.

Based on these player numbers, you would assume that those on Steam have an overall more positive take on its brand of looting and shooting. However, The First Descendant has a “Mixed” rating with only 51 percent positive out of its 40,978 reviews. Nearly down the middle, as mixed as mixed can be. The negative reviews criticize monetization, abysmal drop rates, repetitive missions, optimization issues (freezing seems the most common) and more.

Yet the positive ones aren’t shying away from its flaws either. “It’s definitely not the worst experience you can have in a game, but it’s not the best. It’s just painfully mid across the board,” says one review. Another calls it “heavily monetized and handled by a greedy publisher with shady practices.” They still believe it’s a “good change of scenery if you’re from Warframe,” but that one should avoid investing any money. One of the more positive reviews, who found the title enjoyable with a “well-implemented mix of Warframe and Destiny elements”, feels the grind and microtransactions need to be toned down.

The unofficial subreddit is a similar mix of complaints and praise, alongside the reposted, “Does anybody else the only Ajax in a sea of Bunny players?” meme. The complaints are starting to build up more, but there was a fair amount of positivity over the weekend. It still doesn’t answer the question: Why is The First Descendant so popular?

As someone who enjoyed all kinds of loot-based games over the past decade, it’s likely a combination of factors. If you’re someone who binged Destiny 2, Warframe or any other looter shooter in the past month or so, it can feel like a reset – a fresh start. Not too fresh, though – it has just the right amount of familiarity with its systems and customization to ensure some players aren’t lost. As much as I and many others lament its issues, that constant feedback loop of finding better loot, upgrading your character and discovering new things to craft is very much present.

For many players, that’s more than enough, especially if you give them enough freedom to customize their builds. It also doesn’t hurt that the gunplay can be snappy and the power fantasy somewhat endearing, whether it’s running around as Bunny and electrocuting enemies or dealing death from above as Kyle. You also shouldn’t underestimate the appeal of a repetitive gameplay loop, especially when there’s so much to grind. The fact that the experience is free-to-play also effectively removes any barrier of entry – something Suicide Squad and Skull and Bones would have done well to emulate, given their $70 price tags (and no, discounts months after launch aren’t the same).

Is it just a phase? Will player numbers plummet like every other looter shooter once players have their fill of the grind? It’s hard to predict, but I believe The First Descendant will maintain an audience, whether it’s the current numbers or tens of thousands of dedicated players who log in without fail. That’s because Nexon understands the other part of a live-service title’s lifecycle – content. Not only has it shipped The First Descendant with an extensive amount (agree to disagree on the quality), but it’s also outlined a fairly packed roadmap that seemingly provides more of what players want.

A new Descendant, Colossus, Ultimate Weapon and Ultimate Descendant are already set to debut in August. Season 1 will kick off later in the same month, each season lasting three months and offering a significant content update in each. New Descendant Stories, weapons, skins, Ultimate Descendants, dungeons, seasonal progression and a new Mega Dungeon are en route to keep players grinding away.

Of course, while regular new content is good, there are other challenges. What happens if players tire of the current seasonal model? Will Nexon drop any major paid expansions that add much more content at once and advance the main story (such as it is), like Destiny 2? Will we see the same kinds of content, or is there more experimental stuff in the works? How will the publisher’s historically annoying greed factor into the monetization? Is the post-launch content cycle simply an excuse to cram more microtransactions into the game (Ultimate Descendants notwithstanding)?

Time will ultimately tell, but producer Beomjun Lee outright said in the game’s Dev Launch Showcase that it began “with the goal of creating a live-service game that players will love for a long time.” Call it marketing talk, but I believe there’s some sincerity in the development team committing to long-term support. Maybe others feel the same way and look at the game’s extensive content and high-quality visuals as a sign of that dedication.

In some ways, you could think of it as equivalent to how Warframe and Destiny first started. Were they the most polished and enjoyable experiences? No. Did they have repetitive missions and woeful loot systems? Of course. Did they amass dedicated fan bases who watched them grow over the years and transform into some truly good-to-great titles? Yes, but it took time, support and a lot of money.

No one can guarantee that The First Descendant will follow the same path, but if Nexon can continue to nurture its audience, it could go from an unusual upstart to a proper choice among looter shooter fans. In the meantime, however, it has a long way to go.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.