The First Descendant, Nexon’s latest entry ticket into the sci-fi looter shooter sphere, is already seeing waves of negativity due to the game’s monetization system. The free-to-play title has been compared to Warframe, only “20 times more expensive.”
Initial reactions to the game post-launch came from Steam where 50 percent of the player base wouldn’t recommend the game. This put Nexon’s shooter into the “Mixed” category, with most reviews criticizing the company for implementing aggressive and immensely expensive microtransactions into the game. One top negative review on Valve’s storefront claimed The First Descendant has an “extremely predatory monetization scheme,” while another advised players to “keep the wallet away” when playing it.
Over on Reddit, things aren’t much better, as players have been comparing similar mechanics and their costs in both The First Descendant and Warframe. In one thread, a player noted how doubling module capacity in Warframe costs about $1.5, whereas doing the same in The First Descendant requires $30, or 20 times more. “The company is so anti-consumer it’s crazy,” reads one reply to the thread, though players have been praising the gameplay despite all the monetization shenanigans.
“The main thing that can and will kill this game is Nexon greed,” another disgruntled player wrote. From all the discourse on social media and Steam, microtransactions seem the core issue for a new and rising title. Over the past years, many games have emerged and featured aggressive monetization systems (like Diablo Immortal, for example), which severely impacted their otherwise solid gameplay. The First Descendant appears to be no exception, and players are actively calling on Nexon to tone down the premiums.
The First Descendant came out on June 30 and peaked at nearly 250,000 concurrent players on Steam, making it one of the platform’s most-played titles even with all the monetization schemes.
