Dauntless

There is a lot of fun in slashing the Behemoths, especially with others; the crafting is very well designed; and the game induces the familiar feeling of ‘just one more session’. [12/2019, p.81]

I wanted very badly to love Dauntless, and for a time I think I did thanks to the fantastic combat and weapon variety. But the lack of any real storytelling makes the repetitive questing structure a glaring issue in desperate need of some TLC. If you’re looking for a new go-to F2P experience, you could do much worse — just don’t expect a world drenched teeming with lore and compelling characters.

A game with unapologetically singular focus, its distillation of deeper MMOs' elements nevertheless results in an experience that all too often feels barren.

Overall, Dauntless is a ton of fun and a great game to play alone or with friends. It occupies realm of easy to pick-up hard to master perfectly and offers a ridiculous amount of gameplay for free. There are seven different weapons which you can freely switch between, and all of them offer a unique playstyle and abilities to master. Dauntless is the perfect game to run around with your friends in or to play by yourself focusing on your goals.

All in all, Dauntless is a good free-to-play experience that has the potential to become great. Its playful art style, streamlined combat, and rich progression system can provide hours of entertainment, and the fact that it features cross-platform multiplayer is a major triumph all by itself.

Although it's not as great as Monster Hunter: World, but Dauntless is good enough as a free-to-play online game. It might be your best choice before Monster Hunter: World's Iceborne Expansion released.

Dauntless offers a lot of content, especially for a game that is free. The combat starts off a bit slow, but give it some time and you will thoroughly enjoy yourself with Dauntless.

Dauntless is a game with certain shortcomings, but the truth is that it is addictive... and FreeToPlay.

Anyone who can not make friends with a rather broad-based, but then always repetitive content and attaches importance to a story or multi-layered characters, is wrong with Dauntless.

Dauntless is Monster Hunter for those that don't have the time or money to devote to Capcom's Monster Hunter: World. Dauntless falters in certain areas, but provides the feel of hunting and gear progression in a more streamlined manner. the world can feel a bit lifeless and gamey at time, but this is definitely good enough to carve out it's own space alongside Capcom's flagship series. And being free-to-play with full cross-platform play helps a great deal.

What Dauntless lacks in layered complexity it makes up for with tightly crafted combat and rewarding progression, proving you don’t need to cram every possible feature into a game for it to be great.

Dauntless is clearly an experience that has been optimized to deliver the most stress-free multiplayer session possible. From the seamless crossplay to the way that anyone can hop into a game and confidently take up arms against formidable foes, it’s refreshingly accessible and looks great to boot. While it can feel a little empty, and there are bugs that mar the experience here and there, its fresh look and lively spark are more than enticing enough to warrant a spin.

Dauntless has plenty of room for growth, but it’s already one of my favorite free-to-play games. I initially overlooked Dauntless as another Monster Hunter clone and I was wildly wrong for thinking that. Whether you’re a newcomer to the genre or just looking for an alternative while you wait for Iceborne, you can’t go wrong with Dauntless. As the West’s first foray into the monster hunting genre, Phoenix Labs’ Dauntless is an absolute triumph.