The First Descendant
editThe First Descendant is a free to play third person MMO JRPG looter shooter. It was developed by NEXON Korea and is powered by the Unreal 5 gaming engine. The game was launched on the second of July in 2024
Gameplay
editPlayers take on the role of "Descendants", characters which have an unexplained power and have become humanities only hope against the Vulgus. The Vulgus are an invading race of aliens who's origin is unexplained. The developers stated that the game will be released with up to 15 hours of story content, with the mystery of the Vulgus being uncovered through frequent updates to the game as part of the live service. As a Descendant, the player is tasked with objectives related to repelling the Vulgus threat. Albion serves as the main hub where the Descendant can receive quests. The quests themselves are completed in various battle areas unlocked through progressing the main story.
Each Descendant has one passive skill and four active skills that can be used after a cool down period. There is an arsenal of guns available, from sub machine guns to launchers, all with their own levels and effects. Each mission rewards the Descendant with resources which can be used to craft materials, level up the Descendant and increase their power through the research system. The Descendant can also be rewarded with external components, reactors and mods. All these rewards or drops, are used to increase the Descendants' power to aid them in Void Intercept Battles.
Void Intercept Battles are essentially boss battles, where the Descendants fight giant Colossi. These battles occur at the end of the story chapter and prepare the Descendant for the increase in stats necessary to progress to the next battle area.
The rewards that drop from various enemies, munition crates and boxes and after successfully completing a mission, form the core resource of the games crafting and modification system. These resources can be crafted into materials which can be used to upgrade or modify weapons and Descendants. The Descendants can be obtained through the crafting and research system, with the player crafting the components for each Descendant, then using those components, completes the necessary research for that particular Descendant.
Each Descendant has an affinity to different play styles, from focusing on defense to pure damage. As a result, each Descendant can be built, through the mod system, to maximize their affinities and give the Descendant more power. Each Descendant and weapon have a mod capacity which restricts the amount of mods the player can use. Mod capacity can be increased through the mastery system and by upgrading the mod, which may decrease its cost while increasing its power and effect.
As the player completes the prologue, they will progress into the end game content or hard mode. The map remains the same, however, the enemies become much harder to fight, while the quality of the rewards increases to reflect the differences between the difficulty modes. Hard mode will have its own unique void intercept battles, with each battle offering high quality rewards. In addition to the mod system, the player can continue to increase the Descendants power level by equipping higher level, weapons, external components and reactors.
The player can increase the mod capacity of each Descendant through leveling up, gaining more mastery levels and by using the prestige system. The prestige system reduces the Descendant’s level to zero, but allows the player to alter mod slots, so the player can equip mods with the same symbol at a reduced cost. This increases the Descendant’s power, by allowing the player to equip stronger mods which would require more mod capacity.
Plot
editIngris was a planet where humanity thrived. The opening of dimensional gates to other worlds triggered an alien invasion by a highly advanced race, the Vulgus and the Colossi equipped with advanced weaponry. The Vulgus and Colossi took Ingris in search of something. Originally, the invasion seemed to geared toward the extinction of humanity. However, the Vulgus and Colossi began the invasion to search for a mysterious power source called the Ironheart, believed to be on Ingris.
The Vulgus scientific faction, the Magisters betrayed their empire and sided with humanity despite its near extinction. The technology and resources the Magisters possessed allowed the remaining humans to evolve. The Magisters were able to activate a dormant gene in the human race called Arche, which gave members of humanity a special power. Armed with this new power and with the technology of the Magisters, humanity began a counter offensive against the Vulgus to protect Ingris.
The Vulgus General, Karel, continues his search for the Ironheart. As the first descendants of the humans imbued with Arche, the goal is to protect Ingris by defeating Karel and the Colossi.
Once Human
editGameplay
editOnce human gameplay is a blend of survival and looter shooter mechanics all taking place in a shared sandbox map in an open world. The player loads into the environment and is taken through a tutorial and series of early missions, designed to teach the player how the survival elements work, unlock their individual systems and progress the game narrative.
Survival elements of the game include gathering resources, crafting items, base building, eating and managing the sanity meter system. The player will have to eat and drink to keep up their hunger and hydration meter. Keeping these meter's above a certain threshold grants the player various buffs to health and damage among others. Certain behaviors, like spending prolonged time in supernatural areas, decreases the sanity meter which in turn reduces the players maximum health pool. the player must consume particular resources to restore their sanity meter, or the player must rest in a bed.
Early gameplay of consists primarily of gathering resources and materials to build a base camp, weapons and ammo, in order to explore the map and engage in the various main missions, side missions, activities and world events.Strongholds are large locations on the map which occupy particular areas. They are populated with enemies and hold various treasures and resources. Each stronghold has its own unique objectives for completion and its own theme. Each stronghold has a rift anchor, which when activated, gives rewards and helps the player progress between monolith battles.
Monolith battles are pivotal encounters that the player builds towards through progressing the main story and clearing the strongholds in each zone. These are boss battles where the player must complete battle phases to defeat the Monolith. They are currently 3 unique Monolith bosses. Silos are instance generated dungeons populating the open world, with multiple difficulty tiers. The silos have basic and elite enemies and a mini boss at the end. Each silo offers particular rewards and can be repeated to farm resources.
Dead to Rights II
editGameplay
editDead to Rights II is primarily a third person action game with a focus on shooting and fist fighting. Levels were designed for the player to be able to run and gun while providing the option to take cover and play more tactfully. The game uses an action camera which allows the player to target the nearest enemy without having to aim and would switch targets to the next enemy upon defeating the first. The targeting system is color coded to show how accurate and damaging a shot will be, red reflecting poor accuracy and damage and green indicating high accuracy and maximum damage.
The player can initiate a dive maneuver, where time slows down and the player can still shoot multiple targets, while consuming energy. Energy is a resource which replenishes after defeating an enemy, over time or disarming and enemy. It is used to dive, take human shields and get the players canine companion to take enemies down and retrieve their weapons. The player has a wide variety of guns to choose from. While the player can not reload their weapon, when the gun is out of ammunition the player will drop that weapon and use one of the many other ones available.
There are explosives which can be shot to damage targets as well as grenades and explosive canisters the player can use to defeat enemies. The player can also vault over obstacles in the environment and use them for cover. The fist fighting segments take a back role to the shooting, but the player can perform melee kills and take downs and has a wide range of melee weapons to choose from.
50 Cent: Bulletproof
editGameplay
editGameplay is liner and focused on third person shooting, with use of a cover system, while promoting a run and gun play style, all taking place in an open world with individually designed levels or arenas.
The player can run, jump, use movable objects as cover and loot defeated enemies. The game offers a wide variety of weapons to choose from which can be purchased using the game currency. The player can carry multiple weapons at the same time and freely swap between them while in combat. The player is often accompanied by AI companions during missions, who assist the player by engaging enemies and repeating helpful game hints. These characters do not take damage and can effectively clear areas unassisted.
The player must manually adjust the camera to aim at targets. The game offers an aim assist system and the aiming reticle changes color to indicate the precision of the shot. The player can perform executions when prompted, use walls as cover and execute a combat roll for increased mobility. The arenas are populated with waves of enemies all culminating to a boss fight at the end of the level.
The game has a hub, or open world, where the player can freely explore. In this area, the player can spend their game currency to purchase weapons, executions or finisher moves and consumables which replenish the players health or increase their defensive stats.