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The First Descendant gameplay updates revealed by NEXON

by Chris White on February 28, 2024

The First Descendant gameplay updates news

NEXON has announced the gameplay updates coming to The First Descendant in a deep dive via their Dev Diary Vol. 8. These updates come after the recent Crossplay Open Beta of the game, and offer an insight into a variety of additions such as new content, field difficulty, and improvements to co-op gameplay.

In the official post on their website, NEXON acknowledge they’ve “made significant improvements to The First Descendant,” however, they’ve “heard a lot of frustration with the fields,” hence the reasons for the gameplay updates. As a result the developers have been working on improving field play before launch, and then keeping the momentum going after The First Descendant has officially released. The Dev Diary Vol. 8 goes into plenty of detail, but the key points are as follows:

Co-op Play Improvements
Field Content Enrichment
New content: Encrypted Vault, Void Fragment and Void Fusion Reactor, Vulgus Recon Outpost, and Records
Adding Field Difficulty and Usability Features

We took part in the Open Beta, and regarding the gameplay loop of The First Descendant, we said, “The First Descendant has a very decent gameplay loop, tried and tested mechanics, and enough loot to keep you dashing, grappling, and blasting without ever having to think too hard about what you’re doing. You have a grapple hook that not only lets you reach higher platforms but also allows you to swing in and out of combat, around corners, and through hails of enemy gunfire.”

It’s also impressive visually, with us commenting that “graphically it’s pretty good looking. The environments don’t do anything super new, but the character design is interesting. It’s halfway between Warframe and Lost Ark, with a spread of skins available for both the Descendants and their guns. It’s impossible to guess yet how much this game will rely on its cash shop, but what I’ve seen had me fairly confident that it will at least launch with a healthy slice of content – especially as the base game will be free to play.”