Introduction

The First Descendant is a free-to-play cooperative action RPG for up to four players that immerses players in a vibrant sci-fi fantasy world. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity’s survival relies on the skills of powerful warriors known as Descendants who wield unique abilities. Players team up to battle against the Vulgus, a formidable alien threat, to reclaim the Earth from its clutches. The story unfolds as players uncover the mysteries of their own origins and the secrets behind the catastrophic invasion. There’s many character customization options, enabling players to upgrade their Descendants’ skills and gear through a comprehensive progression system, encouraging diverse playstyles and strategic team play.

The First Descendant (TFD) is developed by Nexon Games, a South Korean game studio known for their online multiplayer titles. Epic’s Unreal Engine 5 is used, which delivers impressive visuals and detailed environments that enhance the overall gaming experience. Using DirectX 12, the game has support for ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 ray reconstruction, and NVIDIA Reflex. In terms of upscalers you can use NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR or Intel XeSS, or even the temporal upscaling available from UE5.

This benchmark review will evaluate the performance of The First Descendant on a wide selection of modern graphics cards, show image quality comparisons and look at what’s required in terms of VRAM usage.