The First Descendant has been accused of using “barely changed” Destiny 2 icons.
The issue was first raised by Forbes writer Paul Tassi, who accumulated a series of icons from The First Descendant and compared them to similar-looking icon art in Destiny 2.
The image below, created by Tassi, appears to show that several icons share similar shapes and design motifs as those used in Destiny 2. While the icons don’t typically correspond to similar powers in the respective games, the similarities are clear.
The Forbes piece later points out design similarities between several weapons, but these are less explicit than the icons, which appear to lift heavily from Bungie‘s shooter.
While The First Descendant doesn’t appear to actually re-use any of Bungie’s art, the inspiration is clear, and players are only finding more instances.
Games in the same genre are likely to repeat design troupes, and considering that The First Descendant is an amalgam of several games, such as Warframe and Destiny, it’s perhaps unsurprising that it features skills and abilities that are similar to those found in the aforementioned games.
However, if further evidence is found of the heavy inspiration of design seemingly taken from Bungie, it’s possible that Nexxon could make changes to the art.
The First Descendant was released last week on PC, PlayStation and Xbox. The free-to-play shooter earned a large player count during its opening days, but also received criticism from players who felt the game’s microtransactions are aggressive and that the game requires too much of a grind as a free-to-play player.