I’ve been hyped about playing Dauntless ever since I first saw Phoenix Labs’ Monster Hunter- esque brawler at PAX East 2016. Gliding to an island with three fellow adventurers, slaying a crazy monster and collecting some badass loot sounded like my perfect gaming experience. Now that the playable Alpha’s out and I’ve clocked in a few hours as a Slayer, I’m going to offer a few of my ideas and pieces of constructive criticism.
Keep in mind that the game has only just released its Alpha, meaning the game is nowhere near completion. Some games tend to get stuck in virtual limbo, choosing to use Steam Greenlight or a Beta as a permanent testing phase. They use a game’s status as an excuse for shoddy updates, poor fan communication or just a broken game, which I’m hoping Dauntless won’t do. A lot of my complaints stem from its lackluster polish, which I’m hoping gets evened out as the months progress and the game continues to improve. Unless we’re getting another H1Z1 on our hands, then we’re screwed.
Weapons Are Everything- Dragons and owlbears are cool, but what had me excited for Dauntless was the combat system. When I played the demo at both PAX East and South, I loved dodging, weaving and slashing giant monsters until they fell to the ground. On live, it’s still pretty much the same thing: you slash a monster until it gets enraged and bruised, then you slap it some more until it’s dead. Your abilities are determined by what weapon you pick and I found faster weapons allow you to do more. Playing with the double kunai-with-chains, I was able to quickly combo and dodge attacks without feeling over encumbered. My editor, who played with the axe, was barely able to get off two attacks before whatever he was fighting ran away.
Teaming With Randoms: Since the game’s still new, you’ll find yourself stuck with teammates who don’t know how the game works. Knowing how to spread out to find your monster, shoot a flare into the air and gather as a group won’t make sense instantly. If you need to collect anything, like iron ore for weaponsmithing, you’re going to have to hope your allies don’t charge head first into a fight while you’re foraging. Dauntless recommends you play with friends for a reason, but not everybody has three other friends online at all times to play.
That Voice Acting Though- When you enter Dauntless , you end up in a central hub town. There, you can accept quests, craft armor or weapons and open your aether canisters. The town itself is gorgeous, with winding roads, babbling brooks and a sense of majesty similar to Stormwind in World Of Warcraft . It also happens to have the worst voice acting I’ve ever seen in a professional video game; it’s like they just had a couple of developers speak into a microphone. The female armorsmith going “I’m too old for this” sounds like it was recorded inside a garbage can.
The VA reminded me of Zelda’s Adventure , the worst Zelda CDI game, and that’s saying something. Watching the Game Grumps is the closest I’ve gotten to playing that monster, but I still see the similarities. I know professional voice actors will likely be coming to Dauntless , but the weird noises really distracted me from immersing myself in the world.
Overall, Dauntless has a ton of potential that it isn’t living up to yet. The combat is fun, but clunky/the crafting system is large, but grindy. And the user interface needs major tweaks. That said, I truly believe that with some spit shine and a few more months in development, we can get one of the best free-to-play games on PC.
