Rewrite this title for a blog post. Remove any site names from it The title is: This free-to-play shooter is my good surprise of the summer, I discovered The First Descendant and I absolutely must not fall into it

The First Descendant: a mix of shooters released in recent years

Presented a few years ago, The First Descendant took advantage of this year's Summer Game Fest to show its face again. It is developed and published by Nexon, a South Korean company that has recently been making headlines in the Western world. It is to them that we owe, indirectly, recent successes like Dave the Diver or The Finals.

This time, it's his own studio that's at the helm with The First Descendant: a third-person multiplayer shooter, free to install, that takes up the principles of Destiny, Helldivers but especially Warframe. A mix that I discovered and which, after my first games, made me realize that I absolutely should not fall into it given the addictive principle.

During the game's introductory mission, I understand that I am a Legatee: a kind of individual chosen to see the guide, a woman with the knowledge necessary for the safety of the world. During my first mission, I must prevent the big bad guy from getting his hands on the iron heart. Spoiler: no luck, he gets there right from the introductory mission. Back to Albion, a kind of gigantic platform that serves as the starting and finishing point for all our missions. These are the ones that will set the rhythm of the player's games and make him want to play, whether they are linked to the plot or simply secondary objectives.. In fact, the story is not particularly highlighted during the beginning of the adventure of The First Descendant.

Albion.

Varied and customizable weapons

Direction Kingston for my first missions. I must repel the enemy invasion by carrying out several different objectives on the map. Defend a database that is being hacked, infiltrate an enemy base or simply clean up the invaders. To do this, I have at my disposal three firearms of my choice: an assault rifle, a tactical rifle and a shotgun. Three very distinct types of weapons that allow for variety. A pleasure that can last. Our legatee recovers many weapons during his missions. Submachine gun, laser rifle, launcher… There is variety, especially since each weapon can be equipped with a module that equips its damage.The more you use the weapon in question, the more you level it up, which allows you to increase its module points and therefore the number of upgrades.

Here I have to defend a point.

So one of the loops of the game is to constantly collect new, more powerful weapons, level them up and collect the best possible modules for them. It is the firearms that, at least during the beginning of this adventure, constitute our first source of damage. They combine with the abilities of my Legatee: a hero that was offered to me at the start of the adventure among three. I chose Viessa (on the left in the big picture below), for her ability to do ice magic. Abilities that can also be boosted by equipment, regulators, depending on the weapons equipped.

Quickly nervous and addictive gameplay… which can go round in circles

But not all the regulators we recover are necessarily made for our Legatee. And then we realize that it is possible to summon many other legatees, each with their own skills.. You need gold coins but also components. You get them in missions to do, the rarest ones being to be caught against bosses that can be done alone or with others. More demanding confrontations than the average bad guy: you have to be careful with your life; your ammunition and the method used to defeat the opponent. This is the kind of activity that should be the main course for players at the maximum level: coming across ultra-strong opponents who, once defeated, give the resource necessary to summon this or that legatee.

On paper, The First Descendant has all the makings of an addictive gameplay loop, at least from what we've seen after a few hours of play. It's possible to level up through multiple parameters, satisfying our thirst for power at frequent and regular intervals. On PlayStation 5, the sensations are present thanks to the use of adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. However, we note the fluidity which is rarely there and a technique which leaves something to be desired: a shame for a game with a flattering visual ambiance.. Technical complaints were also observed by players playing on Steam, who criticize the title for a lack of optimization.

In short, the beginning of The First Descendant is a more than rewarding experience through its first hours of play. It is now necessary to focus on the end-game content that can jam the machine because. Too many games of the same style suffer from missions that you have to repeat over and over again to recover such an object, which has a 2 in 100 chance of falling, and yet is essential to the invocation of such and such a Legatee. If Nexon manages to seductively circumvent this inherent flaw of the genre, it could well be that The First Descendant is more than my good summer surprise… and prevents me from finishing all the games that I had promised myself to launch during the summer.