Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Nexon’s Project Magnum now known as The First Descendant

Nexon’s bombastic Unreal Engine 5 RPG looter shooter just got its official title ahead of an appearance at Gamescom: The First Descendant.

Nexon — a South Korean video game developer and publisher known for games like MapleStory, KartRider, DNF Duel, and LawBreakers – first revealed this game under the title Project Magnum in September 2021. It looks like a mixture of every major AAA gaming trend. The First Descendant will be a free-to-play, sci-fi, cooperative shooter. Hot off the heels of games like Outriders, The First Descendant is all about mowing down hordes of enemies and giant bosses with friends to unlock new loot to upgrade your character with. 

The First Descendant│Official Trailer Teaser Reveal (4K)

Taking notes from hero shooters, players will choose from at least 12 characters, all of whom have unique abilities; meanwhile, each character’s grappling hook and the game’s fast-paced gunplay also look like they’ll keep the action moving. While it isn’t the most unique-looking game out there, The First Descendant looks pretty in Unreal Engine 5 and could strike a chord with players if its gameplay is enjoyable and the microtransactions aren’t overbearing.

While we got a brief new teaser with this title change confirmation, Nexon also confirmed that it would show a lengthier trailer and reveal even more about The First Descendant at Gamescom 2022. After that, interested players will have a chance to go hands-on with the game before the end of the year. A Steam beta will occur between October 20 and October 26 this year. There’s no word on when a console beta will happen, but people can sign-up for the PC beta on the game’s Steam page.

Although The First Descendant’s beta in October is limited to Steam, the final version of the game will be available across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X at an unspecified later date. 

Editors' Recommendations

Tomas Franzese
Gaming Staff Writer
Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
Dead Island 2 had to ‘start from scratch’ to deliver better carnage
Dead Island 2.

In a shocking resurrection at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022, Dead Island 2 came back from the dead. Despite having been in development for a decade, the version of the zombie action game coming in February has much fresher blood than what was teased in 2014. That’s because in 2018, development passed to a Deep Silver Dambuster Studios team that was content to start from scratch to create their own vision of the game.

“We thought it had loads of potential for characterful locations,” creative director James Worrall told me during an interview at Gamescom. "But when it came to the actual gameplay engine, what we really wanted to laser focus on was the up close and personal melee combat. There are guns in the game – gunsies are for funsies! – but it’s all about the melee combat … and to do that, we had to start from scratch.”

Read more
AEW: Fight Forever delivers N64 nostalgia at a cost
A Wrestler knees his opponent in the face.

The rise of All Elite Wrestling hasn’t just been great news for wrestling fans looking for an alternative to WWE; it also stirred up excitement for fans of wrestling games. Those who grew up with playing games like WWF No Mercy on Nintendo 64 have been waiting for a return to arcade-style wrestling, something that 2 K’s simulation-focused take on WWE doesn’t deliver. All Elite Wrestling: Fight Forever, the promotion’s debut game, looks to return us to those nostalgic glory days.
AEW: Fight Forever | Showcase Trailer 2022
But don’t get too excited just yet. While new footage premiered this week showing off a full match was promising, playing it was a different story. I took the game for a spin at Gamescom and walked away unsure of what to expect from the final product. While its approach to arcade wrestling has potential, AEW: Fight Forever is going to need a fair amount of polish before it hits the ring. A good gimmick can only get you so far with a crowd.
Taking bumps
To properly test the game, I pit Kenny Omega up against Adam Cole -- a dream match, no doubt. What’s immediate off the bat is that AEW: Fight Forever really isn’t trying to emulate the live TV experience. Wrestler entrances aren’t recreated, as the camera only shows the character models walking down the ramp for a moment before hitting the bell. There’s no ringside commentary, so you’ll just hear the roar of the crowd and some bumps while playing.
Some fans may enjoy that stripped-down approach, especially if they don’t really care about the simulation aspect of games like WWE 2K22, but that lack of extra detail does leave the experience feeling a little empty. If large ideas like that are missing from the final game, what others might get cut from the roster?

None of that would matter if the core wrestling was spot on, but I’m not entirely sold on the game’s N64-throwback style. During my match, it felt like I was mostly just throwing strikes as I mashed the attack buttons. The right trigger is a dedicated Irish whip button, hilariously, but I otherwise found it difficult to stumble into a big spot. If I ever got onto the top rope, it was an accident. And if I ever managed to jump off it, I could not tell you how to reproduce that.
(I'd return to the demo later in the week with the intent of treating it like less of a pick-up-and-play experience. When I took a more deliberate approach in my Hikaru Shida vs. Paul Wight match, I still came out with similar feelings. The game's reliance on grappling to set up flashier moves particularly stands out, as it makes most big moments feel telegraphed. I don't think that's bad and WWF No Mercy fans might adore it, but it does feel a little at odds with the explosive, unpredictable nature of the actual wrestling show its based on. WWE 2K22 feels like an AEW game and AEW Fight Forever feels like a WWE game.)
My match didn’t look nearly as fluid or clean as the one THQ Nordic showed off at Gamescom.

Read more
Sonic Frontiers release date confirmed for November 2022
Sonic opens the gate to Cyberspace in Sonic Frontiers.

Sega announced that Sonic Frontiers will be making its way to consoles and PC on November 8. Sega revealed the release date at Gamescom Opening Night Live on Tuesday alongside a new cinematic trailer for the game.

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/1562146956356464640

Read more