Hands-on: The First Descendant feels like a flashback, and not in a good way

destructoid.com:

The First Descendant feels like a callback to the Xbox 360 and PS3 era. There are hordes of enemies to defeat with your friends as you level up your character and guns. You’re eliminating many surrounding enemies and protecting points of interest. For some folks, that might sound great! As for me, I went back to my bed and fell asleep (literally) after playing an hour or two of The First Descendant. I’m over it. But…there’s an intriguing [good] Genshin-like aspect that might draw me in.

Shooting foes in the face and getting loot from them is nothing new, and unfortunately, The First Descendant doesn’t do a great job of bringing something new to the table. There are some cool abilities like casting ice spells and being able to whip yourself up to a higher platform, but other than that, I truly felt bored with the concept of this game. You’re defeating waves of hordes that act as bullet sponges and require little strategy to remove. There’s one enemy that has a shield, and you need ice to freeze them in place so they’re open. Other than that, there’s nothing exceptional in terms of its game design from the two or three hours I’ve played of The First Descendant. 

The guns you collect also don’t feel unique. In the modern shooter landscape (take Borderlands for example), guns often feel different from one another. The First Descendant lacks any personality when it comes to its weapons at this early point in the game. I’ve felt like I’ve played this game 10 times already in titles like Destiny, Outriders, and other shooters of this type. However, if you’re missing a game like this, I could see you dropping in with your friends over crossplay for something nostalgic.

Later on in The First Descendant, you can build special