Dedicated players of games like Monster Hunter: World might feel burned out after spending so much time in the game, while players curious about the genre might be intimidated by World‘s complicated gameplay.
Dauntless is an upcoming free-to-play monster hunting game that looks to help both types of players scratch their itch for tough monster battles.
Developed by Phoenix Labs, Dauntless is a more colourful take on the classic monster hunting formula. Instead of a deeply realised ecosystem, it opts for a cartoonish science-fantasy world of floating island, airships, and magical beasts.
You play as a Slayer, a professional who wanders the wasteland to fight dangerous beasts. You’ll collect supplies, craft weapons and armour, and work your way through a series of increasingly difficult creatures. It’s a comfortable core loop: head out, fight, come back, craft, head out, and fight some more.
There’s a handful of weapons to choose from, including swords and hammers. When I played this weekend I used the chain blades. I could swing the blades around for wide sweeping attacks, or hack and slash up close using a few basic combos and special attacks.
The moveset was as acrobatic and satisfying as using my dual blades in Monster Hunter: World. The monsters ranged from a fast lion with literal fire for a mane go a rock-covered lizard whose defences were a pain to crack.
The core monster hunting experience of Dauntless is solid, and I was genuinely curious to see what challenge would come next.
Dauntless releases later this year and has some hurdles ahead of it. The open beta servers struggled to accommodate a large influx of curious players, and the prominence of an in-game shop where players can spend premium currency for items is disappointing. Crafting new armour is a streamlined process, at least in the beta.
This means getting what you want sooner, but it also diminishes the feeling of embarking on a hunt to find specific pelts or feathers.
If you push through these hurdles, Dauntless can be a ton of fun. Quick matchmaking makes it easy to embark on the hunt of your choice, and each new creature provides challenge.
Players eager to check out the monster hunting genre with a lower barrier of entry than Monster Hunter: World should be pleased.
Dauntless has a lot of potential. Also, there’s a lighting lizard and a freaky beaver monster. Enough said.
Comments
4 responses to “Dauntless Is A Less Intimidating Monster Hunter”
Unfortunately, the lower barrier of entry translates to lower quality gameplay. Since it was released on PC for free, many of my friends and myself tried it out – those who’ve played monster hunter, and those who’ve never touched monster hunter.
All of us agreed that it was boring and quit after a few hours. It was unpolished in way too many aspects. Waiting for MHW to come out on PC in a few months is probably the only gateway to quality monster hunting together.
I literally would if I could; however, I cannot get past the loading screen after the character customisation screen. All it ever does is load and eventually time out, the support team is stumped to. I think for some reason it is because I am on a 4g network but that doesn’t really make sense because I can play every other game in the world. Oh well.
I can’t stress the word “beta” and “potential” enough for anyone wanting to jump into Dauntless.
the first 3 tiers of monsters is relatively fun and decent experience of bumbling along and learning what the monster does without being too much of a liability to yourself (solo) or to your party (PUG or up to 3 friends).
when you hit the tier 4 monsters the weird / inconsistent hit box and monster attack box is glaring. visually you’ll dodge a monster attack, the buff that activates on monster attack dodge will activate yet you’ll get whacked by .
also the crafting menu is currently rather horrendous and confusing but the devs have said it’s temporary
Yeah I played it a bit on the weekend and boy is it rough right now. Janky animations and some really weird hitboxes make it frustrating to know where you need to be at any time.
Not to mention that it really doesn’t feel satisfying to hit anything with the sound and animations feeling pretty weak right now.
It’s great they’re going for Legally Distinct Monster Hunter, and the art style looks cool, but there’s a long way to go before I could give this game a fair review.
Never loved Monster hunter, but might check this out given that it’s free. Doubt it could be the type of free alternative that would receive the success Fornite got, but I’m sure it’ll get a large player base as long as they fix some of the issues
I looked into this a few days ago (blame Penny Arcade) and there are widespread complaints about the lack of Aussie servers. The Oceanic servers are apparently in Singapore and the lag makes the game quite troublesome. So even if I was more sold on the game I’d be disinclined to play it.
I’m also a bit disappointed that the games’ website is a bit too sparse. I’d like to see more screenshots or videos of actual UI, and crafting and other stuff. All it shows are some flashy shots of the monster fights. While that’s cool, I’d like to know more about it before actually downloading and installing.