Dauntless

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the loop of hunting monsters and collecting their parts to craft better weapons and armor. That being said, its performance issues in the open-world hub and the inability to earn any substantial amount of platinum through regularly playing the game inhibits me from giving further praise. However, with some improvements, this game could be a sleeper hit within the library of free-to-play Nintendo Switch games.

Phoenix Labs has built Dauntless to be the same game for all gamers. That has been their mission from the start and in that they have absolutely succeeded. The game plays great and it is a fun experience to work together and slay giant monsters, however the technological limitations of the Switch in its innovative handheld or tabletop mode feel like a hindrance to the experience, and those who may only have a Switch Lite may easily be put off from investing in this game as they won’t be able to play for long.

Uninteresting and uninspired, Dauntless is certainly impressive in its own right, but as far as actual gameplay goes, what's present fails to engage beyond the surface level. Perhaps that'll be enough for most who download the free title, but between aesthetically resembling Fortnite and aping Monster Hunter's combat wholesale, Phoenix Games has failed to contribute anything truly novel to the experience. Dauntless is as derivative as they come, and while that lack of price tag may be appealing, there are much better games to spend one's time (and even money) on. Go play Monster Hunter instead.

Dauntless is one of those games that's best played in short bursts every once in a while. If it featured more gameplay variety and character growth that relied on careful decision making then it would have been a much more worthwhile game.

Dauntless is a great game dragged down by a subpar presentation. The loading and framerate could really use some work, with the hub town feeling like a slideshow now and again. Once you get hunting, however, Dauntless really comes into its own. The pure focus on hunting and looting monsters feels amazing, with fun missions and even better weapons. It thrives and pushes you constantly to completion, and slowly moves that completion goal further down the pipeline. As a free-to-play title, it is absolutely one of the nicer ones and makes for a great time with your friends.

It's hard to believe that Phoenix Labs pulled off a miraculous feat such as implementing a flawless cross-save, cross-play sub-system on the four major gaming systems! Other than needing some performance tweaking on the Nintendo Switch Dauntless is a great F2P addition to Nintendo's growing Switch library. Dauntless' design of being able to jump into a quick 4-player collaborative team-up to hunt a monster is a perfect fit for the Nintendo Switch's "on-the-go" philosophy.

Dauntless comes to Nintendo Switch with its own addictive personality and F2P. Players will have to hunt Behemoths in a magnificent port whose graphics stand out on the console.

Phoenix Labs has done a great job with Dauntless, designing a game that takes the better parts of Monster Hunter and pares them down into a rapid-fire and easily accessible action experience that’s sure to demand dozens of hours of your time once it gets its hooks into you. On top of this, you’re never hit over the head with microtransactions and it’s easier than ever to play with friends on other platforms. Though this Switch port mightily struggles from a performance perspective, it’s still enjoyable on a consistent enough basis that such issues can be mostly overlooked. It literally costs you nothing more than time to give Dauntless a try, and we’d highly recommend you give it a shot.

With performance that feels like both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Dauntless is a welcome addition to the Nintendo Switch. In addition, the free-to-play friendliness of the title means that the community can only grow thanks to crossplay. The only real criticism of the game lies in the lack of endgame progression, but for a free game that is a blast to play with friends, this can be overlooked until the developer considers how best to explore this point.