Dauntless 2018: Open Beta Impressions And Why You Need To Play It
After a long stint in closed testing, Dauntless finally open its doors to all players in late May for its open beta. For those in the wilderness, Dauntless is a free to play online monster hunting game. The setting takes place in the Shattered Isles, a futuristic fantasy world where Behemoths exists, and players take on the mantle of Slayers to get rid of them.
Engaging Gameplay
The biggest compliment Dauntless deserves is that it’s managed to make it work. The entire premise of the game involves monster hunting, and players are allowed to jump straight into that without any prior content to slow you down. The tutorial teaches you pretty much all you need to know about the game. Combat is a strong point, it has weight and feels good when executing attacks. You have combos that can be unleashed using your left and right clicks. Holding down TAB will bring up the cheat sheet for attacks, so be sure to take a look at that. The hunts themselves are good fun. In Ramsgate – the main hub – where players gather to craft and group, you can get new weapons and tier them, before heading out on a hunt. The group hunts are incredibly fun, as the four of you get dropped on an isle to sniff out a Behemoth. The fight then can take up to 10 -15 minutes, depending on how geared you are, and it’s definitely engaging. Think of Dauntless as a free to play Monster Hunter World.
Gorgeous World
Phoenix Labs, the studio behind Dauntless, are made up of former devs from games like Bioware, Bethesda, Riot Games and Carbine Studios. The various influences are definitely on display, and the visuals are easy to like. The game has a very ‘cartoon’ feel to it, that will remind you of other MMO’s like Wildstar, WoW and even Fortnight. What impressed me with the game’s presentation is that it does have some intro story that have cinematic cutscenes and even voice acting. The whole new player package was done really well which always helps.
Loading Screen Issues
Unfortunately, open beta also means that there are existing issues that need to be iron out. On the first week of beta, login queues took over 5 hours and we were constantly number 17th thousand in queue. It took a week for the game to add more servers and increase stability on that front. Beyond that, other issues also frustrates some players such as the loading screen. Loading into the main hub Ramsgate from the tutorial sometimes take about 10 minutes to load. Worst, if you don’t load, you need to exit the game and do the entire tutorial all over again. This issue is prevalent, but it may or may not affect you. Overall though, Dauntless is charming, engaging and most importantly free, so check it out!
