* While the gameplay and any shared graphics are from my own play through, all credit for this game goes to developers & publishers Nexon Korea. Go show them some love!
This game was recommended to me by a new acquaintance I met through my Twitch stream. Released in July 2024, The First Descendant (TFD) is available on PC and consoles. It’s a free-to-play MMORPG, third person looter-shooter. Before I had a chance to check out the game, a few Reddit posts about it came up in my feed. The threads and comments were unflattering to say the least. Regardless, I like to make up my own mind about most things, so ThreeDcycle and I made plans to check it out together and do a first-look stream.
TFD feels like a bunch of devs pulled tidbits from their favourite games, and other geek culture, and mushed them all together.
I’m all for acknowledging other games or geek cultures in games, books, etc. Those little moments are fun, unexpected & can be a nice nod to previous games & the hard work behind them. But there’s a fine line between giving an appreciative nod to a beloved game, vs copying. I won’t go so far as to say this was an outright copy, but it does walk a close line.
While fun, I’ve played this game before. In fact, I’ve played several games before, that when combined, make this game. The game mechanics & story have been frankensteined together from several other games. In less than two hours of gameplay, I was transported back through Destiny, Warframe, Overwatch & Shadow of the Colossus.
Despite the familiar mechanics and story, there is a more prominent reason this game didn’t sit well with me.
That is, the overly sexualized female characters. It appears each female character shares the same body. The “perfect” body. They all have big tits, thick thighs & the perfect juicy ass. For the most part, their outfits are skin tight and revealing. Bounce and jiggle mechanics are at play. Asses have a permanent wedgie to show off the perfectly round butt cheeks and ass crack. They all wear high heels. Character skins include French maid outfits for each of the women, as well as, other stereotypical sexy outfits. None of them have options for practical armour.
By contrast, all male characters are completely covered. Some are covered to the point you can’t even see the shape of their bodies. There are no six pack abs hanging out of crop top armour. No juicy booties bouncing. They wear armour and practical footwear. The male characters are completely practical and not oversexualized at all. There is no consideration for the female gaze. No thought about those who may enjoy watching, or playing as, sexy male characters. The men are not portrayed as sexy. They are badass.
If you are a man and like to play as a sexy female character then this would be a very enjoyable game for you. This game was likely made with you in mind. I am not the target audience of this game. It definitely wasn’t made for me.
Spoiler warning! The following album and videos have spoilers. If you haven’t played the game you might not want to see this!
Real life is hard and stressful. Dropping into games is how I relax. It’s nice to pretend to go on wild adventures and live in ways I never could IRL.
While adventuring, I want to play characters that are a reflection of who I want to be. For that reason, I play almost exclusively female characters. Hell, I basically will only play games where I can play as a female character. However, they need to be realistic women. Women with brains in their heads, armour on their body and sensible footwear! It was fun to check out TFD. But for a free-to-play game with this story and game mechanics, I’m more likely to play Warframe again. Same game, better female role models & less controversy over originality.
