The live service looter shooter genre is one of the most competitive genres to stand out in. However, that doesn’t stop some from trying to through their hat into the fry. Nexon is doing that with their upcoming free-to-play game The First Descendant. Honestly, the game has a lot going for it that should keep players engaged.

The game tells the story of humanity’s war against an alien species known as the Vulgus with you playing as a Descendant. Descendants are humans that have enhanced abilities thanks to a genetic power known as Arche. The story itself is told through completing the main questline throughout the game, and the developers are planning to expand the story. The main story isn’t the only story in the game either as each Descendant will have their own stroyline to progress through. However, only the Descendant, Bunny, will have her storyline available at launch.

At launch, there will be eleven Descendants in the game at launch that characters can choose to play as throughout the game. However, you are only given the option of three to start. Other Descendants will be able to be crafted as you progress through the game or via side quests. If you want to forego that grind, they will also be able to be purchased from the game’s shop.

Then, obviously, there’s the gameplay.  The First Descendant is a third person shooter, and the shooting mechanics feel great. There are eleven different weapon classes to explore with and you can equip multiple weapons at a time. You’re also zipping around the area thanks to having a grappling hook to get you around faster. The mission structure of the game sees you going out into fields to take on a variety of missions and dungeons. Each of these can be completed on a normal or hard difficulty to receive a different set of rewards.

The biggest experience that the game is pushing is the Void Intercept battles. These are basically the game’s versions of raids which feature giant bosses for players to take on. The game can be played with up to three other players, and the difficulty of the bosses is adjusted based on the player count. These fights are a lot of fun when you have a group trying to take this massive boss down together. At launch there will be a total of 16 Void Intercept battles with eight being normal and eight being hard difficulties.

The biggest fun factor to The First Descendant is the insane amount of customization for your playstyle available to players. Not only can you customize your characters and the plethora of weapons, but the most important part of your strategy is the modules. Modules grant different abilities to characters and weapons and there are so many. According to the developers there will be 560 at launch, thus you’ll be able to build and create the best playstyle that works for you. Characters and weapons can have specific loadouts, so it’ll be easy to switch between them and experiment for players.

Like other games in the genre, The First Descendant will have constant seasonal content and run on a three month cycle. When the game launches, there will be an eight week long preseason which will add new content during its fifth week such as a new Descendant named Luna. Afterwards, the first two official seasons are set to launch this year with Season 1 starting in late August and Season 2 planned to start in early December. Seasonal Content will include new dungeons, Void Intercept battles, Descendants, growth systems, and story content.

Eager players won’t have to wait long to try the game as The First Descendant will launch as a free-to-play game for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Series S|X next week on July 2, 2024.