The First Descendant's tutorial robot is talking so fast, players are having to screenshot its dialogue just to learn about the game

The tutorial robot for The First Descendant, who speaks far too quickly for its own good.
(Image credit: NEXON / Yellowexz on The First Descendant subreddit)

The First Descendant (TFD), Nexon's take on Warframe-slash-Destiny, has been doing pretty well in terms of raw numbers. Hitting a mightily-impressive all time peak of around 260,000 players, the game does look a little derivative of Bungie's live-service giant—to the point where both games went to the same pool of free-to-use icons, an entire wasp's nest fellow PC Gamer writer Andy Chalk appears to have stubbed his toe on yesterday.

Although, despite the fact that everyone and their mum appears to be playing it right now, TFD isn't exactly beloved by its playerbase. It's sitting on "Mixed" reviews at Steam to the tune of only 51% positive reviews at the time of writing.

The consensus appears to be that it's "Nexon makes Warframe", which has all of the baggage and boons you might expect out of that summary. Annoying free-to-play practices abound, with players alleging that the game's also got quite a few bugs under the hood.

The funniest one, at present? The tutorial is also a reading speed test—at least, in the English translation. As displayed by user Yellowexz on the game's subreddit, the "Descendant Instructor", a robot meant to convey vital info about TFD and its mechanics, seems entirely unwilling to actually let you learn anything:

I can’t for the life of me read anything this mf is saying from r/TheFirstDescendant

The tutorial in question is about Reactor Enhancement—a core cog in the machine of the game's loot treadmill and upgrade system. There's no option to slow this dialogue down, and no option to pause it at present, which sounds like a bad time when your game lives in a genre rife with obscure numbers and enough proper nouns to fill a glossary. 

Doing a little digging in the game's Discord, I found a handful of threads complaining about this issue—which appears to have been in the game for a while: "The Defendant Instructor speaking too fast has been an issue through all 3 betas," writes one player, with some debate proceeding as to whether Nexon even tried to slow it down before the game's full release.

A quick search of the server's community support channel confirms this, with similar complaints going back past the 30 day mark, the earliest being made in September last year.

(Image credit: The First Descendant Discord)

The only workaround right now is to either record the tutorial, or take screenshots of every individual piece of dialogue to pore over later. This, as you might have guessed, is not ideal. Still, considering we gave Destiny 2's latest expansion a 92 in our Destiny 2: The Final Shape review, as well as the fact that Warframe isn't going anywhere anytime soon, the competition's still stiff—so TFD needs to up its game, and soon.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Read more
Two characters from Warframe 1999 lounging in a bar.
The warframe with a guitar that shoots fire is out today alongside a bunch of metalcore-inspired skins, cementing Warframe's spiral into Y2K madness
farcana
'The Middle East's answer to Marvel Rivals' is an 'AI-powered', crypto-infused hero shooter that looks like hot garbage
Synduality Echo of Ada mech and Magus
Synduality Echo of Ada review
A fish-man looking stoic
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is an aggressively old-school MMO that hates hand-holding so much it won't even give you a map—but a certain type of player might just love it
Steel Hunters hands-on
Steel Hunters is like a more tactical Titanfall, but as an extraction shooter it's undermined by boring loot
Beyond Citadel
Beyond Citadel is a horny, ultra-violent retro FPS that I want to recommend to everybody and nobody
Latest in Third Person Shooter
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Steel Hunters hands-on
Steel Hunters is like a more tactical Titanfall, but as an extraction shooter it's undermined by boring loot
helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 composer recalls stomping around his apartment and channeling 'Super Patriotism' to capture Arrowhead's satirical vision in music: 'The satire works because the music believes it's a pure patriotic love without irony or criticism'
farcana
'The Middle East's answer to Marvel Rivals' is an 'AI-powered', crypto-infused hero shooter that looks like hot garbage
Marvel Rivals characters - Invisible Woman preparing to cast a shield.
'Searches for Invisible Woman went up 3,000%': Marvel Rivals devs innocently reflect on how popular some of their heroes have become
A Helldiver charges through the fire and flames in Helldivers 2.
Helldivers 2 CCO Johan Pilestedt says the industry's got it backwards by putting features over fundamentals: 'We talk way too little about the core philosophy'
Latest in News
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'
A witch riding a broom sails past a Fish and Chips shop.
Cozy gamers rejoice: Witchbrook finally has a release window, and yes, you can fly around on a broom with your friends
starcraft 2 face
StarCraft fans taunted by the announcement of a new StarCraft... board game
kingdom come: deliverance 2 henry looks confused
'Medieval Batman' completes Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 pacifist playthrough with zero kills and 535 knockouts