The First Descendant dev reveals what makes this sci-fi shooter special

digitaltrends.com:

Lots of cooperative shooters have entered the fray over the past couple of years, and one of the most intriguing ones on the horizon is Nexon’s The First Descendant. Developed by the internal Magnum Studio at Nexon Games, this is a sci-fi shooter where players’ superpowered characters, called “Descendants,” defend humanity from an invading force. Along the way, they’ll take on hordes of enemies and giant bosses as they shoot and loot. Intrigued by this bold new franchise in one of gaming’s hottest subgenres, we spoke to Lee Beom-jun, Producer and Head of Magnum Studio to learn more about the vision behind The First Descendant ahead of its Steam beta next month. 

During the interview, Lee Beom-jun discusses how this new cooperative shooter IP is trying to stand out, what Nexon wants to learn from the upcoming Steam beta, and why the team made the jump from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. We also got the first details on how character customization works as well as what players can expect from The First Descendant’s evolving narrative and monetization as a free-to-play title.

Digital Trends: The cooperative shooter genre has seen a great resurgence recently. What made this genre appealing for Nexon, and how do you plan on making The First Descendant stick out from other games in the genre?

Lee Beom-jun: As you said, the co-op shooter genre has been recently drawing attention again. And I think it’s still a growing genre. We focused on the co-op shooter genre as we wanted to create an online game that is loved worldwide. I would like to highlight the two points that differentiate The First Descendant from other games of the same genre.

The first is our service philosophy. Our goal is to create a game that will be loved