Linux Review:

The First Descendant

The First Descendant is a third-person looter shooter powered by Unreal Engine 5. Become a Descendant. Fight for the survival of humanity. Descendants have unique abilities to tackle both solo and co-op missions. Up to 4 players use varied mechanics to defeat giant bosses. BE THE FIRST DESCENDANT!

PROTON TIER: GOLD

The First Descendant is a third-person looter shooter powered by Unreal Engine 5. Become a Descendant and fight for the survival of humanity in solo or co-op missions.

Status Check Proton - Gold

TWEAKS & TRICKS

Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) Failure The game throws an error related to Easy Anti-Cheat or fails to start with an active internet connection.

• Solution: Use GE-Proton10-27.

EAC Failure with Internet Connection EAC fails to start with an active internet connection.

• Solution: Use GE-Proton10-27.

Microstutter & Long Loading Times Performance degradation can occur due to the ntfs-3g driver when using an NTFS (Windows) drive.

• Solution: Use the ntfs3 driver.

Sound Issues Audio crackling.

• Solution: -sdlaudiodriver=pulse

HDR Issues HDR functionality is failing.

• Solution: DXVK_ASYNC=1 PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1 ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1 %command%

EAC Workaround (Manual Hosts File) Bypass EAC URL blocking by locally blocking it for the game process.

• Solution:
  1. Create a configuration folder and a modified hosts file:

  mkdir -p ~/.config/game-overrides/
  nano ~/.config/game-overrides/hosts_tfd
  

  2. Add the blocked URL to ~/.config/game-overrides/hosts_tfd (replace YOUR_USERNAME with your actual Linux username).
  3. Set Steam Launch Options: Right-click the game in Steam -> Properties -> General -> Launch Options. Paste the following command (replace YOUR_USERNAME with your actual Linux username):

  unshare --user --map-root-user --mount --fork sh -c "mount --bind /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.config/game-overrides/hosts_tfd /etc/hosts && exec \"\$@\"" -- %command%
  

Verdict:

The First Descendant runs flawlessly on Linux with Proton, requiring the GE-Proton10-27 compatibility toolset and potentially a manual hosts file workaround for EAC. The performance hit compared to Windows is approximately 5%, and using NTFS3 is recommended for Windows drives. It’s a worthwhile purchase for Linux gamers comfortable managing these minor tweaks.