"While it was always problematic, The First Descendant’s headlong descent into goonerism has all but destroyed any chance of it being accepted as anything more than “a game for gooners.”"
While not everyone who plays The First Descendant is a pervert, The First Descendant is tailored to appeal to a sexually deviant audience, with female characters often displaying absurd amounts of flesh.
At the same time, their oversized breasts and buttocks often have better animation than any other aspect of their bodies.
From massive breasts in barely existent bras to stripper-esque dance emotes, it feels as if The First Descendant began life as a decent sci-fi MMORPG/looter shooter hybrid and then pivoted to appeal to the worst part of the gaming community, with increasingly sexual and frequently disturbing cosmetics being released.
I seldom wish a game would cease to exist; however, titles such as Vindictus and The First Descendant are the exception to the rule, and while I have a pretty high tolerance for mature content in video games, The First Descendant crosses the line between sexy and nauseating.
While this may not be the developer’s intention, in 2025, The First Descendant feels like a game in which creating ever increasingly sexy and revealing cosmetics has taken priority over everything else and is featured heavily in marketing, which is a shame, as The First Descendant’s core gameplay and narrative are actually very decent and equal to many of the better free-to-play MMO/looter shooters on the market.
While some would dismiss this as “boys being boys” or “harmless fun,” causing people to become addicted to sexual content is never a joke, and it is something that Jesus Christ Himself addressed in The Gospels.
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. - Matthew 5:28-30
Further, He addresses the issue of tempting children to sin (Matthew 18:6) by saying that it would be better to drown than to lead a child astray.
Even if you are not religious, anyone with even an ounce of decency must admit that protecting minors from such content is desirable, something which is incredibly difficult when games such as The First Descendant somehow are awarded a PEGI 12+ rating despite containing far more sexualised partial nudity than many PEGI 18 games.
Thankfully, the ESRB was more prudent in their rating, awarding it an M rating (17+) which is far more in line with The First Descendant’s target demographic.
What I found most disappointing about The First Descendant was that the narrative was actually solid, and while it was not award-winning, I really wanted to explore more of it. But watching my chosen character’s breasts literally bounce, jump, clap, shimmy, and occasionally shine at every movement during cutscenes completely destroyed any sense of immersion I had.
While I have no issue with characters dressing attractively, or even “sexy” where appropriate, there is no reason that female Descendants would wear armour that leaves most of their chest exposed, and nowhere is this more obvious than the first female Descendant I encountered, Viessa, who literally had a massive “boob window” cut out of her otherwise very cool sci-fi military-style uniform.
The First Descendant’s one redeeming quality is how good its gameplay feels, and while it’s hard to take it seriously when the majority of player characters prance about in swimwear or less, when playing solo or with players who actually dress for the occasion, The First Descendant has a lot to offer fans of the MMO looter shooter genre.
Player abilities feel impactful, and gunplay, despite being a little substandard in places, “gets the job done,” and honestly, if the game was a little less cringe-inducing, and there were at least as many thematic costumes for female characters as there were “stripper outfits,” I would very likely spend a fair bit of time playing it.
However, when there are so many other equally good games on the market, I do not feel the need to play a game that reduces half of the human race to “boobs and butts with pretty faces.”
Nexon publishes some mechanically and visually fantastic titles, but with games such as Vindictus and The First Descendant putting the desires of perverts before those of the wider gaming community, I cannot help but feel they are wasting their considerable talents as a publisher, when they could use their power and influence to publish games that appeal to a much wider market, improving both their reputation and potential profit.
The First Descendant is a free-to-play third person shooter game developed by Nexon Games and published by Nexon Korea, it released on 2 July 2024, and is available on PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
The First Descendant supports:
The First Descendant offers the following matchmaking options:
The The First Descendant in-game store sells:
The First Descendant supports the following peripherals:
The First Descendant is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:
The most unfortunate thing about The First Descendant is that if you strip away all the gooner bait, it is actually a very solid game, and one that would have done very well if it had marketed itself as a game for everyone and not just perverts and teenage boys.
While there are still some normal gamers playing The First Descendant, as it is at its core a very solid game, a quick walk through any player hub clearly shows the morality and emotional maturity of the player base, with the vast majority of assumably male players choosing to play as mostly naked female characters, with both male characters and modestly dressed female characters being a very rare occurrence.
Ultimately, The First Descendant is a very well-made game, but one that I cannot recommend until the developers find a way to portray female characters as more than (mostly naked) eye candy. But with most new playable female characters dressing ever increasingly more sexually, I have little hope that will happen anytime soon, if at all.
We found The First Descendant to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
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