First Descendant’s rough launch continues, with players reporting significant framerate drops on PC and console.
The free-to-download Nexon heist sketch launched heavily this week with a high number of concurrent players on Steam, but user reviews have been ‘mixed’ in response to what some are calling “hell of microtransactions”, as well as various performance issues and rewards issues. Check out IGN’s The First Descendant review below to find out what we think of the game so far.
The main performance issue revolves around frame rate drops on all platforms, which for an action game can cause gameplay issues. Nexon has acknowledged this and suggested a solution.
The developer is attributing these framerate issues to those who pre-downloaded The First Descendant and suggested that if you experience the problem, you should delete the game and install it “as a temporary solution.” Meanwhile, Nexon said it is investigating further.
Gamers are reporting mixed results using this workaround, with some saying it helps improve frame rates on PC, but those on consoles still seem to have issues.
That’s not the only issue affecting The First Descendant at the moment. Nexon has offered compensation to players for launch issues that have seen promised rewards fail. Some players say they didn’t even get the premium currency they paid real world money for.
According to Nexon, here’s a list of all the current Descendants 1 issues that the developer is working to fix:
[July 3rd (Wed) ]
■ (Additional) Issue with partial distribution of Beta test rewards
– It has been identified that some rewards for participating in the Steam Beta Test 2022 and the Open Cross-Play Beta Test 2023 have not been distributed.
– We are currently verifying information about undelivered rewards and will redistribute them as soon as possible.
[July 2nd(Tue) ]
■ (Additional) Problems with frame drop for preload
– We have received reports from some Descendants who have pre-downloaded the game experiencing frame drops.
– We are currently investigating this matter. In the meantime, if you encounter this problem, please delete and reinstall the game as a temporary solution.
■ (Additional) Issue where players move immediately after starting a mission to Special Ops
– Fixed an issue where players immediately move to Albion after starting a mission when entering special operations. Partial fixes have been implemented and a full fix is currently in progress.
■ (Additional) Issue sometimes placing players on servers without other players during field transfers
– Found when transferring fields only, players are occasionally placed on a server with no other existing players.
– Void Intercept Battle, Infiltration Ops and Special Ops Match work fine, also transferring fields as a party, all party members are placed on the same server as usual.
■ Workaround for client hang issues with certain antivirus programs
– We requested exceptions for The First Descendant from antivirus programs, but some were not implemented. Below are workarounds for this problem.
(1) Bitdefender workaround [FAQ]
– Go to System Protection > Advanced Threat Detection (ATD) > Manage Exceptions menu, select the file or folder for First Successor and save it.
(2) Temporary solution ‘McAfee Agent’ [FAQ]
– Go to McAfee Security > Navigation > Quarantined and trusted items, select TheFirstDescendant.exe from the list of quarantined programs and restore it.
■ Easy Anti-Cheat solutions do not work properly
– If Easy Anti-Cheat does not work, refer to the FAQ for solutions. If the problem persists, please contact customer support with the relevant screenshots.
– Access to Customer Support: Official Website > Customer Support > FAQ > Contact Us
■ Latency when purchasing items via PlayStation Store baskets.
– When you purchase some items through the basket from the PlayStation Store, there may be a delay in the items being delivered to your inventory.
■ Case for the ‘Deadly Infection’ module. After upgrading the ‘Lethal Infection’ module to level 5, we found that the ‘Skill Power Modifier’ does not work completely.
– Identified an issue where “Skill Power Modifier” does not increase properly after upgrading the Deadly Infection module from level 4 to level 5.
■ Unused items are displayed in Access Info
– Some consumable items that have not been used are displayed in the information browsing list.
■ Sharen’s ‘Active Camouflage’ skill issue
– When you use Sharen’s ‘Active Camouflage’ ability, it untargets the named monsters, switching their state to non-combat mode, causing their HP to recover quickly.
■ Last weapon kill does not count towards quests that require ‘Kill with specific weapon’.
– Monsters killed using an ultimate weapon’s unique ability do not count correctly for quests (eg Battle Pass challenges, Awards) that require kills with a specific weapon.
■ Weapon module upgrade screen issue
– In the Weapon Module Expansion screen, the effect of reducing the capacity of the module, due to the assignment of the slot type is not displayed correctly. Although the display of the capacity reduction effect of each individual module is not displayed correctly, the aggregate amount of the module’s capacity is displayed correctly.
■ Incorrect item drops in certain regions during infiltration operations
– During infiltration operations, destructible objects in regions other than Kingston and the Castle area are dropping common items from the Kingston region.
■ Incorrect display of Hagios Dominique region NPC name and description
– The name and description of Dominique NPC in the Hagios region is displayed incorrectly.
■ Monster bugs in the white night gulch
– In the ‘Bio-Lab’ infiltration operation in White Night Gulch, monsters sometimes get stuck on the ground.
– In nurseries within the White Night Gulch region, monsters sometimes do not appear when progressing with void shard activities
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.