The wasted potential of The First Descendant

Overview

Ryan (“Gamer Tron Show”) reviews The First Descendant after 125+ hours (with a later addendum noting he played an additional 60 hours after the script was recorded). He argues the game has “wasted potential”: it isn’t bad overall, but multiple key design flaws prevent it from becoming truly great—especially in ways that hurt story retention and long-term engagement.

What the game gets right

• Combat and feel are solid: weighted movement, responsive gunplay, crisp sound, and abilities with clear visual impact.
• Presentation is strong: impressive Unreal Engine 5 visuals for a free-to-play title, plus a soundtrack he describes as beautiful/epic.
• Progression systems are satisfying: leveling and resource/mod acquisition consistently provide meaningful power increases, with quality-of-life tools that streamline targeted farming.
• Colossi boss fights stand out: excellent design and visuals that add variety to the loop (his high point).

Biggest problem: the story

Ryan says the story is the central reason for poor retention, describing its writing and dialogue as messy and filled with:

• Unnecessary techno-babble that isn’t explained
• Characters talking about frivolous details that don’t advance plot or character
• An oversized cast, which prevents a strong core of characters from developing

He acknowledges that some side plot moments—including:

• “Eugene and his lost medical team”
• “Glay searching for her missing daughter Daya”

…and some voice acting are genuinely good, but he claims the rest of the narrative doesn’t reach that level.

He also singles out “the Guide” as especially frustrating: it often teases big reveals but rarely delivers meaningful substance.

To support the idea that story matters in looter shooters, he compares retention outcomes to:

• Warframe: big story updates draw players back
• Destiny: the Light/Dark saga drives engagement; he attributes Lightfall backlash to weak storytelling
• Borderlands: criticism around Borderlands 3 focuses more on story/writing than gameplay

Second major problem: predictability

Ryan argues the game is less “repetitive” and more predictable:

• The campaign/seasonal structure follows the same loop: hub → NPCs → open zone missions → linear infiltration → return hub → talk to NPCs → fight Colossi → repeat

• Outside boss fights, enemy spawns and encounter beats happen the same way every time, with little to no meaningful RNG or dynamic behavior

He claims other looter shooters feel fresher because variety is built into encounter design—not just new characters/weapons. Examples include Warframe, Destiny, Borderlands, and The Division.

Third major problem: grind and drop rates

While he appreciates the game’s overall progression, he criticizes the grind required to unlock new Descendants/Ultimate weapons:

• Crafting parts have abysmal drop rates
• Repeated farming attempts frequently fail to produce needed drops

He provides a specific example for Serena: to build her for the video, he spent over 10 hours grinding nonstop for required crafting parts and says he never wants to repeat it.

He implies this grind harms retention by actively discouraging players, even if the moment-to-moment gameplay is fun.

Balance problem: meta pressure kills variety

Ryan says the game’s balance is “out of whack,” with only a few Descendants clearly outperforming the rest.

He frames it like: why play other roles when top-tier characters can “delete everything on screen.”

After unlocking Serena, he reports that she matches what players claim—extremely strong, hard to die with, and capable of killing enemies in seconds. He argues this:

• makes some characters/weapons feel non-viable
• creates strength/weakness gaps so noticeable that preference and skill matter less than optimal meta choices

In a live-service looter shooter, he calls this “poison,” because variety should be rewarded.

Overall conclusion

Ryan believes most gameplay issues—predictability, grind, and balance—could be fixed and would improve the game’s health and retention.

However, he says the story quality is a massive, harder-to-overcome barrier, because compelling narratives and characters are what keep players invested despite other flaws.

Still, he recommends giving the game a try since it’s free-to-play, and because the core shooting/boss presentation is fun and visually stylish. He also expects to return for new content.

Presenters / contributors

• Ryan (channel creator; “Ryan from the future” addendum voice and “past Ryan” main narration)