Dauntless, a free-to-play action-RPG from Phoenix Labs, is a good idea with lackluster execution. While not bad by any stretch of the imagination, Dauntless can often come across as aimless; a series of micro-objectives strung together without much reason to care. The moment-to-moment action can be fun, but it does not take long for repetition to set in, and once it does, there is little to keep any but the most devout players engaged.
Dauntless is all about hunting giant monsters called Behemoths. The typical hunt consists of dropping into an environment with up to three other players, locating your quarry and chipping away at it until it dies. Afterwards, players will use resources gathered from their prey to craft better equipment and hunt even more dangerous Behemoths. Dauntless boasts solid weapon variety, and each class of weaponry caters to different playstyles; I was having a thoroughly average time with the sword, but unlocking dual repeaters that allowed me to keep my distance and set traps finally made the combat click. The Behemoths of Dauntless are varied and nicely designed, and the process of slowly breaking one’s armor and learning its attack patterns is engaging, at least for a time.
While the simplicity of the game will undoubtedly help Dauntless attract players, that same simplicity is also the game’s biggest weakness. Though Dauntless is highly approachable, it lacks any significant amount of depth, with only basic strategies necessary for success. Players can certainly upgrade their gear to suit a specific playstyle, but as long as your weapon and armor stats are high enough and you have sufficient backup, there’s little need to do anything other than button-mash and dodge to kill monsters.
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Dauntless at least has some great quality of life features. Although the character creation tool is basic, anything about your character can be changed at any time. Additionally, the game is cross-platform, so players on PC, PS4 and Xbox One can all team up to hunt. A mediocre game that can be played with a friend on another system is undoubtedly more appealing than just not being able to play with them at all, but that is faint praise indeed.
As previously mentioned, Dauntless is free-to-play, which means that it is monetized through microtransactions. The prices of some of these digital items can be egregious (one particular outfit costs $20 worth of premium currency that can only be bought with real money), but the store is not overly pushy, and players can safely ignore it without adversely affecting the experience.
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Dauntless is a sufficiently functional time-waster, but only the truly dedicated will feel compelled to hunt the same monsters over and over again to grow incrementally stronger. The game looks nice enough, and being able to play with people on other platforms is a great feature that more games should strive to include, but these aspects cannot alleviate the boredom caused by the simple and repetitive gameplay. Because it is free, there is no harm in giving Dauntless a shot, but the game will lack long-term appeal to those uninterested in the grind.
