If you’ve scrolled past gaming clips of players taking down giant, screen-filling bosses or customizing flashy, unique playable characters, you’ve probably wondered what type of game is The First Descendant. I’ve sunk over 70 hours into the title since its full launch, testing every character type, running hundreds of co-op missions, and even grinding through the toughest endgame content to break down exactly what you can expect if you pick it up. It’s easy to confuse it with other looter shooters on the market, but it has a ton of unique features that set it apart for both casual players and hardcore grinders alike.
Core Genre Breakdown: What Type of Game is The First Descendant?
At its core, what type of game is The First Descendant becomes clear as soon as you start your first mission: it’s a free-to-play third-person looter shooter with heavy action RPG and co-op multiplayer elements. It’s developed by Nexon Games, built in Unreal Engine 5, so the graphics are far more polished than most free-to-play titles in the same genre. Unlike competitive shooters that pit you against other players, almost all of its content is designed for PvE (player vs environment) play, though it does have limited PvP modes for players who want to test their builds against others.
You’ll often see it compared to games like Warframe, Destiny 2, and Outriders, and while it shares some core loops with those titles, it has unique twists that make it stand out. The biggest difference is its focus on giant boss fights called Colossi, which can take up to 8 players to take down, and require coordinated team play to target weak points and avoid one-shot kill attacks. I’ve run these Colossus fights with random groups and pre-made friends, and the rush of taking down a boss that’s 10 times your character’s size never gets old.
It’s also important to note that it’s not a live service game that locks most content behind a paywall. All playable characters, story missions, and core endgame content is accessible for free, with microtransactions only for cosmetic skins, quality of life items, and optional battle passes that don’t give pay-to-win advantages. That’s a huge plus for players who don’t want to drop $60 upfront just to test if a game fits their playstyle.
Core Gameplay Loop You Can Expect
The basic loop of The First Descendant is easy to pick up, even if you’ve never played a looter shooter before. You’ll start by picking a starter Descendant (the game’s term for playable characters) and running short, story-driven missions to unlock new areas, gear, and characters. As you progress, you’ll earn better weapons, mods, and upgrade materials that make your character stronger, letting you take on higher difficulty missions for better rewards.
If you’re someone who likes to play solo, you can run almost all story and regular missions alone, though you’ll have a much harder time with the higher difficulty Colossus fights and endgame raids. The game does a good job of matching you with other players of similar skill and gear level if you don’t have a group to play with, and I’ve rarely run into toxic players in public lobbies, which is a nice change from many other online multiplayer games.
Some of the most common activities you’ll spend your time on include:
- Story missions that expand the game’s lore and unlock new playable characters and areas
- Void missions that let you farm rare mods, upgrade materials, and exclusive weapon skins
- Colossus raids that require coordinated team play to take down giant bosses for high-tier legendary gear
- Training grounds where you can test new builds, weapons, and character abilities before taking them into high-difficulty content
One thing new players often miss is that mod customization is far more important than raw weapon stats in The First Descendant. You can tweak every part of your character’s abilities and weapon performance with hundreds of unique mods, so you can build the exact playstyle you want, whether that’s a support character that heals the whole team, a close-range brawler, or a long-range sniper that takes down weak points from across the map. I’ve spent hours testing different mod combinations for my main character, and even small tweaks can make a huge difference in how effective you are in missions.
Multiplayer and Community Features
While you can play most of the game solo, The First Descendant is clearly designed with co-op play as a core focus. Missions get more fun, and more rewarding, when you run them with a group, and the game has built-in features to make finding a team easy even if you don’t have friends who play. You can filter lobbies by mission type, difficulty, and required gear score, so you never end up in a mission that’s way too hard or too easy for your current build.
The game also has a very active global community, with players regularly sharing build guides, boss fight strategies, and free giveaway codes for cosmetic items and upgrade materials online. If you ever get stuck on a tough mission or can’t figure out how to unlock a specific character, you can usually find a step-by-step guide or a group of players willing to help you out in just a few minutes.
One thing to note is that cross-play is enabled across all platforms, so you can play with friends no matter if they’re on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, or Xbox One. Your progression is also saved across all platforms if you link your account, so you can switch between playing on your console at home and your PC when you’re traveling without losing any of your gear or progress. That’s a feature I use all the time, and it’s a huge quality of life upgrade that many other looter shooters still don’t offer.
Who Is This Game Best Suited For?
The First Descendant isn’t for every type of gamer, so it’s important to know what you’re getting into before you download it (it takes up around 60 GB of storage, so you don’t want to waste time downloading it if it’s not a good fit). First, if you hate grinding for gear or repeating missions to get rare materials, you probably won’t enjoy the endgame content, since a lot of it revolves around running the same missions multiple times to get the perfect mod or weapon roll.
On the other hand, if you love experimenting with different character builds, playing co-op with friends, and taking on tough, rewarding boss fights, you’ll probably have a ton of fun with it. The free-to-play model means you don’t have to spend any money to test it out, so you can play through the first 10 hours of story content to see if it clicks for you before you decide to invest more time into it.
It’s also a great pick if you’re looking for a game you can play casually for a few hours a week, or grind for 20 hours a week if you’re chasing endgame gear. There’s no pressure to keep up with a strict content schedule, and you can progress at your own pace without missing out on limited-time rewards that give gameplay advantages. All limited-time event gear is added to the general loot pool a few months after the event ends, so you don’t have to stress if you can’t log in during an event run.
At the end of the day, what type of game is The First Descendant depends a lot on how you want to play it. It can be a casual co-op game you run with friends on weekends, a hardcore grind where you chase perfect endgame builds, or even a single-player story game you work through at your own pace. It has its flaws, like occasional long queue times for high-difficulty raids and a somewhat steep learning curve for mod customization, but the free-to-play model and polished gameplay make it well worth giving a try if you’re a fan of looter shooters or co-op action games. Give it a download, try out a few different characters, and see what playstyle fits you best.