The First Descendant, a sci-fi looter-shooter with fantasy elements and a live-service model, is currently one of relatively few titles in development using Unreal Engine 5. The title will be produced by Nexon's Magnum Studio, boasting a host of customization options and content that will be tested through an upcoming closed beta on Steam. The First Descendant is facing stiff competition, but next-gen graphics, raid bosses, and a wealth of support may help Nexon carve out a niche alongside Destiny, Outriders, Warframe, and other space-opera shooters.
Game ZXC spoke with Magnum Studio producer Lee Beom-jun about The First Descendant's numerous influences, the fun side of grinding, consumer-sensitive monetization, and more. Interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself, and describe The First Descendant in a few sentences for readers who are unfamiliar with the title?
A: Hello, I am Lee Beom-jun, the Producer of The First Descendant and the head of Magnum Studio in Nexon Games. The First Descendant is a third-person cooperative RPG shooter game in which players will have to grow stronger to fight against invaders for the survival of humans as a Descendant.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself, and describe The First Descendant in a few sentences for readers who are unfamiliar with the title?
A: I want to highlight the two points that differentiate The First Descendant from other games of the same genre. The first is our service philosophy. Our goal is to create a game that will be loved and enjoyed by players for a long time. We aspire to provide continuous updates and satisfy our players with stable online services. The second point is related to the game itself. The First Descendant has diverse, attractive characters that battle with their unique skill sets and a variety of guns. Based on this combat system, we provide huge boss battles where players must defeat the bosses via co-op. There are many other differentiating points, but these are the two we think are the most crucial.
Q: Players will be able to choose from different characters with customizable cosmetics and skins planned for the future. How else do playable characters differ from each other?
A: You're right. As you expected, we are preparing a variety of cosmetics and skins for each character that you'll be able to enjoy it in the future. Moreover, as you may know, the characters are one of the key features of The First Descendant. Thus, we consider the perfection and differentiation of each character to be very significant. Our goal is to create different combat styles for each character as well as unique appearances. Hence, the character's stats and abilities are all pre-defined as a default. In the upcoming Steam beta, character skills can only be enhanced in a certain way, but we are discussing whether to allow players to change a character's skill function in the future. If this is added, players can specialize the same character in various ways.
Q: According to the game’s Steam page, players will be able to equip three guns and various sub-weapons simultaneously. Roughly how many different weapons or weapon classes will be available in the game?
A: Combat styles are dependent on the player's character, weapons, and runes. The characters are the core axis, and each character has unique appearances and skills. Each character can also configure a combination of weapons, accessories, and runes. Weapons and runes have various additional effects and functions, so you can combine them well to create your own strategy.
Also, the rarity of gear currently exists in three levels. However, this does not mean that the higher the rarity of the gear, the better it is. The more features a piece of gear has, the higher the cost required to equip it. Thus, combining them well within a limited cost becomes one of the key strategies. Players should consider all aspects and create an optimized load out. Moreover, during the upcoming Steam beta, eleven classes of guns will be available in various designs. Each gun has different usability, so you can choose a gun that suits your taste.
Q: Players will also be able to use up to 4 pieces of support equipment in their load outs. Do you have any favorite tools that you recommend players experiment with?
A: Yes, you're right. As mentioned, players will have three guns along with four pieces of support equipment. The support equipment is designed in a simple form that enhances the character's stats in the Steam beta. So, you can use it to supplement the character's stats or wear it as equipment that further enhances the character's characteristics.
Aside from the support equipment, the rune serves various purposes. So if you research and combine them well, players will see how the character's play-style changes more than expected. We recommend that you enjoy th game.
Q: Do you have any other advice or tips for new players?
A: The First Descendant's pursues a fairly hybrid play-style in terms of combat. Compared to other FPS games, we designed it so that the combination of the fast movement, grappling hooks that enables free movement, various melee attack means, HP items that can only be obtained by defeating enemies, and distinct character skills allow the players to actively jump into the battlefield to enjoy action-oriented battles via shooting and skills. We hope that players will enjoy this challenging attempt of ours.
Q: How large is the game world?
A: First, I think I should explain the world structure of The First Descendant. The First Descendant's stage is the Ingris Continent, which is not seamless but consists of multiple separate maps. We decided to have different maps because we thought it would be more appropriate than a seamless world for the skill-oriented and exciting PvE gameplay we are pursuing. So it's currently difficult for us to tell the size of the whole world at this moment. For your reference, we'll have three maps along with the city of Albion during the Steam beta, and I can assure you that we'll have more maps for the official release.
Q: Gear grinding cycles can be a major source of frustration in looter shooters. How does Nexon plan to mitigate repetition and keep gameplay fresh, long-term?
A: As you mentioned, the gear grinding in looter shooters may frustrate players. However, we think gear grinding has positive and fun aspects. We tried to avoid methods in which rewards are given based on luck and repetition by mixing definitive rewards and RNG item acquisition.
For instance, the core endgame of The First Descendant is the huge boss raid. These raids can be cleared more effectively through co-op, and the rewards change based on various factors. Different difficulty levels of raids and raid bosses will be provided, and this will be updated continuously throughout the live service. The challenge of these new content will increase the fun of acquiring gear. Additionally, we'll add a new meta to provide players with the fun of creating new strategies.
Q: What can you tell us about The First Descendant’s story?
A: As announced, the Descendant has a mission to protect the humans from the alien invaders, the Vulgus. In the past, Vulgus' invasion led humans to the brink of extinction, but humans were able to stop the crisis together. As the Descendant, the player has the mission to protect humans and spearhead the counterattack against the Vulgus. In the process of the core story, players shall unravel the mystery behind the invasion of the Vulgus.
Players will be able to find out more about the lore during the Steam beta and after the official release. Moreover, as a live service, we will continually update the game with the related settings and story plot, and our goal is to present exciting stories upon every update.
Q: How long will The First Descendant’s core campaign be at launch?
A: The story missions can be called a campaign. Players will have to clear them to proceed with the gameplay. If we were to talk about this beta test only, we expect it to take about 15 hours for players to clear all of them.
Moreover, the world mission is a co-op mission. It's a difficult and challenging mission in which players will have to team up. World missions also appear one by one as you clear story missions.
Q: Can you share some inspirations for The First Descendant’s art style?
A: First, the overall style of the game began with the background setting. In other words, it was made as a hybrid atmosphere with a setting in which sci-fi aliens came to invade a kingdom in a fantasy setting. This is what resulted in the uniqueness of The First Descendant.
Additionally, visual-wise, as the world is on the brink of extinction, we were inspired by various dystopian and post-apocalyptic content. We received inspiration from looter shooter and FPS games, Blame (animation and comic), and the Metal Gear Solid series and tried to create new visuals of our own based on those inspirations.
Q: Did any other games or media influence the development of The First Descendant?
A: As you all know, it's our first time creating a looter shooter. Nevertheless, we are all in love with this genre. We think that Warframe is a great game along with the Destiny series, The Division series, Outriders, Anthem, Borderlands, Halo, etc. Thus, we studied and worked hard to develop our game to stand proudly alongside these prominent titles. As a result, it seems that their various aspects have influenced us. I think it's an honor to be compared to these titles. Of course, we put a lot of effort into creating our unique content, such as the co-op content like the huge boss raids!
Q: How long has The First Descendant been in development? How large is the development team?
A: We started working on the title in the spring of 2019. That's when our code name was decided as well. We currently have around one hundred fifty people on our development team, and this number is increasing. If you include the other departments like QA, there are more people who help are helping with the development. This is a spoiler, but the Steam beta includes credits, so you can see how many people worked on the game.
Q: What was it like working with the Unreal 5 engine?
A: We started developing The First Descendant with the latest version of Unreal Engine 4. Unreal Engine 5 was released during development, and our team became highly interested in its visual quality. I decided to make a bold decision to version up to Unreal Engine 5 to show the best visual quality, although I was a bit worried since the development had already progressed a lot at this point.
The biggest reason for the version-up is the Nanite and Lumen of Unreal Engine 5. In particular, we believe that the lighting quality provided by Lumen, a Real-time Global Illumination solution, is essential for next-gen projects. Now everyone on the team is thrilled with the results.
Q: Is there anything else you would like readers to know?
A: We really want to talk about The First Descendant's monetization model. After the official reveal, we were surprised that there was a lot of concern about the monetization model of Nexon's games. We are well aware that the direction of the game and target market tendencies that we pursue are different from those of Asian games, and that is why there is no plan to induce excessive payment.
The characters, equipment, and stages needed to play the game will all be earned as a reward for the gameplay. There will be paid products, but they will not deviate much from the monetization model of games of the same genre. The most important thing for us is to create a fun live service game that the players long love.
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The First Descendant is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
