The First Descendant has emerged from the novelty phase, the will they or won't they phase, and now it appears to have truly entered the rotation. Sometimes called "Warframe But Your Face Doesn't Look Like A Bug," to hear our own Gabriel tell it it's a game where when they patch something most of the time you're happy to see it. For example: in the strip, we talk about a rando teaching Mister Gribbz a 'sploit to reset the timer on bosses. Trying to, at any rate. Well, between the time this incredibly patient entity attempted to help him and the moment I'm speaking to you now, they closed that loophole. But, they dropped the timer on the boss refresh from five minutes to one. Right? Affable design of this sort is indistinguishable from a "bro manoeuvre."

I uninstalled it because some part of my brain, possibly the hypothalamus, detected the skein of freemium lures with a quickness because I've been hurt before. Also, I didn't really know how long he was gonna be playing it. But he's playing it all the fucking time! He hooked back up with a friend of ours we tend to meet up with again when we pick up new games, and "that friend" is now dragging their friends in from other games and they're landing in The First Descendant.

It doesn't hurt that the characters - the seed crystals around which the entire gameplay loop is scaffolded - look fucking sick. Like collectible figurines, or… you know… Warframes I guess, and maybe eventually Soulframes, they are playable characters each with their own elemental dealio.

They have to be cool, because that's a huge part of the chase. You essentially "build" them, craft them I guess, and they're on a timer like a cake in the oven. The realism of Concord feels… off to me, too real almost, veering into scary in some ways. They look real, but they're not real, so it's weird. The First Descendents' version of realism is about juxtaposing ultragreebled, whirring tech with inconceivably attractive human heads. They're aspirational; a good trait to have in something you're meant to spend all your time earning.

(CW)TB out.