War, Resources, And The Ironheart: What Exactly Is The Story With The First Descendant?

War. Multiple factions fighting for resources and other reasons as yet unknown. An elite fighting force determined to be humanity's last hope.

Yep. We've literally heard all of that before. In fact, we've heard it multiple times. This seems to be the bedrock of a lot of games, particularly live service games.

It also happens to be the foundation for NEXON's The First Descendant, too. Headed into their final technical test this weekend before a Summer 2024 release, NEXON's looter-shooter is finally ready to talk story. Well, at least a little bit.

Short version? Humanity is in trouble and will be fighting in Albion as a "last stand" type situation. The invading Vulgus forces are just too many in numbers. Their military equipment is just too overwhelming. Finally, due to a handy portal, they are able to overrun humanity's bastion without much of an issue, despite the fact that humanity's elite fighting force, the Descendants, can kill thousands of Vulgus each.

So wait. Why haven't the Vulgus just wiped humanity from their planet then? That's a mystery that we'll be learning more about when The First Descendant launches. In the meantime, Descendants will be tracking down the "Ironheart", the shooter's MacGuffin, to close the portal between worlds and stop the invasion. We'll be led by the "GUI:de", an AI tech that only Descendants can see and hear. This "gift" from our predecessors has the ability to track the Ironheart, but it also comes with a huge catch: other processes in the AI have been damaged or erased, so the intent of the AI may not be apparent, or hell, even trustworthy.

None of this even mentions the Colossi, yet another faction that would rather see humanity not existing anymore. How they fit into the equation is unknown, but we do know that they view their mission, whatever it is, as a curse on their kind.

Sure, why not? Sounds like enough to get me started in the game. Just like Destiny though, for me at least, it's always about how much of an interesting story can be maintained as the live service ages. That's where we'll see either long-term success or failure for The First Descendant. Seeing NPC Descendants and their story arcs progressing in meaningful ways is also going to be a big factor in the game's success.

Check out today's story trailer and let us know in the comments what you think.