The First Descendant has stirred up a surprising design controversy

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Gamers may recognise these icon designs.

Publicity shot for The First Descendant video game
(Image credit: NEXON Games Co., Ltd.)

NEXON Games's new third-person looter shooter The First Descendant has been getting a lot of hype, but it's also now causing controversy for an unexpected reason. It's been noticed that a lot of the in-game graphic design appears to have been very closely influenced by another game.

There can be a thin line between influence and all-out copying, but some of the designs spotted seem to stray close to the latter (see our guide to the best game consoles if you need a machine to play the game on).

As spotted by Forbes gaming writer Paul Tassi, players have noticed that some of the in-game icons in The First Descendant have an uncanny similarity to designs from Bungie's Destiny 2. And we're not talking just one or two designs, but a whole series of them.

The designs all appear to have been tweaked, but in some cases the changes appear to be quite small. Players have also noticed that a gun looks like a Destiny 2 design. Tribute or theft? Gamers are divided. 

Some people are writing on social media that they don't see it as a problem, with some even saying that they would like to see more similar design language across games that are similar so that it's only necessary to learn them once. After all, "it's not like the icons are the secret sauce that makes games good or bad," one person wrote on X. 

Bungie may feel differently if it feels that it's designs were copied. But that might depend on how the designs were created to start with. One observer has suggested that the icons bear a resemblance to designs that are available for free online in open-source collections.

Based largely on Warframe DNA, the First Descendant is out now for Steam, Xbox and PlayStation.

Joe Foley
Joe Foley
Freelance journalist and editor

Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.