The First Descendant players believe the game won’t last long without this feature being added

The First Descendant has already been a huge hit, with it seeing hundreds of thousands of players jumping on to check out the latest looter shooter to hit the market. But as players get deeper into the game, some are worrying about the future of The First Descendant if matchmaking isn’t implemented to help with the higher difficulties.

U/GW2Quinn took to Reddit to share their thoughts on The First Descendant’s future after playing the endgame content, noting that the lack of in-game matchmaking could cause the game to lose players eventually. “After playing endgame for a few days, this game will not live long if matchmaking is not added for Hard mode Dungeons / Intercepts,” they said.

“The vast majority just want to hit a button and do the content. Matchmaking may be a tiny bit frustrating, but, as long as some sort of power check is put in place, it will be much healthier in the long run in terms of maintaining a population, otherwise, you are going to lose LOADS of people. That won’t be enough to keep the money flowing.”

U/Cosmic__Anomoly22 noted that The First Descendant has taken a lot of inspiration from the likes of Destiny 2 and Warframe, even going as far as copying aspects of the game, but chose to leave out matchmaking mechanics saying “It’s funny how much of this game is a direct copy of another game but they forgot to copy the lessons learned from those same games. Ammo scarcity, no LFG tool, no social systems, etc. This game was already going to have a very niche audience and the endless barriers they put in place to actually be able to play are going to make a lot of people lose interest quickly. This game is another stark reminder of how badly people want a GOOD looter shooter, but companies still can’t seem to get it right.”

U/NoAd8660 suggests that Nexon Games looks to popular MMORPGs for inspiration with how they allow players to find parties to complete missions, which is incredibly important on hard mode, saying”I understand if they don’t wanna make a direct matchmaking thing but at a bare minimum add a party finder in-game for everyone to find stuff, party up, and kill things together. Like.. a dev literally needs to go on Final Fantasy XIV or some MMO and copy that system and paste it here.”

Finally, U/CaptainBackPain touched on what the future could hold for Nexon Games if they choose not to implement matchmaking soon, “I’ve played games before where they stick to their no matchmaking BS, only to change their minds later but by that point, a large portion of the community had moved on.”

Although some missions can be completed on hard mode while playing solo, the majority of players will struggle with the higher difficulty without other players helping them out, which makes matchmaking an essential mechanic that should be in the game. Unless you happen to have friends who play the game or are willing to look for groups in Discord servers and on social media, you will likely hit the wall with how far you can progress before finishing all of the content. When this happens, most will simply move on to another game.

With The First Descendant only being released for a few days at this point, it would be unfair to write it off before it even had its first major update, so these mechanics and features could be implemented soon. Even while it is not in the game, I still highly recommend checking it out because I have been having a lot of fun with it so far, as a newbie to the looter shooter genre. To help get you started, I highly recommend checking out our The First Descendant beginner’s tips and tricks guide.