There were a couple of shadow drops a couple of days ago on the eShop, courtesy of Nintendo's Indie World Showcase. Today, I try out one of those games. BACKGROUND:
We've known Dauntless was coming to Switch for a while now, so while its shadow drop was a pleasant surprise, most people knew it was only a matter of time until it graced the console. I personally have not heard of this game until it was shown at some Direct a while back, and nothing about it stood out to me as blow-your-mind must-play. I learned that it was free-to-play shortly after, so I promptly reserved my judgment until I got a chance to play it. PLOT: Dauntless is set in a world shattered into several "islands" floating in space, a situation caused by a man-made cataclysm. Humanity has since bounced back, making their homes on some of the habitable planet chunks. Unfortunately, the humans aren't alone, as fearsome monsters called Behemoths have also made their home on these islands. A select number of brave folk became Slayers, tasked to take down these Behemoths, in an effort to both protect and provide for their fellow people. I thought it was neat that there was a bit of world-building at the beginning, but from what I can tell, this premise seems to be all there is to the story. If you're looking for a story-driven experience, this may not be for you. PRESENTATION: There's not much to write home about in this aspect. In the case of the Switch version that I played, it looks like a downscaled Fortnite (which already looks meh on Switch). It's not at all bad, and it gets the job done, but there's really nothing distinct or striking about how the game looks. Much like many other games of this nature, monster and armor designs can be hit or miss. Some look cool, others unremarkable, but thankfully, not many things look straight up awful. There are also ways to customize existing armor and weapons, via skins and palette swaps, but they seem to be locked behind either paywalls or game progression. The character creator provides a bit of freedom for your avatar's basic appearance, though some aspects (like granular body adjustments) are rather lacking. In terms of the face, there's plenty of room for experimentation, but overall, most avatars will end up looking a little samey. GAMEPLAY: It's Monster Hunter. I don't know what you want me to say. That's what this game is: Monster Hunter, but F2P. The fundamentals of Dauntless are the same: gear up, gather your squad, kill some monsters, loot their corpses, make cool, stronger gear, kill stronger monsters, repeat. It's a tried-and-true gameplay loop. You can switch freely between a small assortment of weapons, ranging from your jack-of-all-trades sword, slow but strong axes and hammers, a ranged gun that works better in close quarters, or rapid damage punch gauntlets and double pikes. It's not a lot, but there seems to be something for most types of players. Combat is pretty simple, with only two attack buttons and not a lot of combos to keep track of. Defensively, you have a combat roll and the ability to sprint, but that's about it. Most of the challenge is figuring out the monster's patterns and finding the opening to lay the smackdown, and even the early monsters have some tricky attacks to avoid. The unique gimmick of the game is Overdrive, which is akin to super meters in fighting games. Inflicting damage builds up this meter, and once it's full, you can activate it to temporarily get a boost in damage, and gain access to special abilities and buffs. In addition, you also have a lantern, which gives you a temporary buff depending on what kind you have. You also have the ability to forage, which allows you to make things like healing items and the like. Armor is split into four pieces: helmets, chestplates, leggings, and boots. They each give you an individual boost to your defense stat, and you can equip them with special cores (earned by finishing hunts) to give yourself all sorts of passive buffs. Both weapons and armor are crafted from the parts of the monsters you slay, and both can be upgraded to increase your stats. Getting the materials you need for crafting or upgrading varies from simply killing the monster or targeting a specific body part (like the tail) until you get the drop you want. Some armor sets have elemental attributes, which can give you an advantage (or disadvantage) versus certain monsters. Weapons function similarly, with some weapons being more or less useful depending on what monster you're facing. Going on hunts with no team doesn't seem to be much trouble (at least i the early game), as there are likely to be players within the same skill level playing as well. I think this game has crossplay, so I doubt there will be a shortage of teammates anytime soon. The tutorial quests are plenty helpful, though the game is simple enough that you can figure it out yourself (even the weirdly large hub area with tons of important NPCs in it). There are also plenty of useful UI elements (quest markers, teammate markers, etc.), so getting lost isn't much of an issue. I didn't take much of a look at the microtransaction aspect of the game, but from what I can tell, it seems to be limited to cosmetic options, so it doesn't seem to be a problem. VERDICT: Dauntless is a solid experience for what it is: a free-to-play co-op monster killing action RPG. That said, I honestly can't say if it does anything different or offers something truly unique compared to the likes of Monster Hunter, which is a long-running series that has had time to polish its formula. I don't want to make a habit of comparing new things to other existing things, but it feels appropriate in this case. If you haven't played a game like this before, this is the perfect opportunity to get a feel for this sub-genre, as it's pretty simple to get into and there seems to be a decent player base. Otherwise, if you're like me and have played a Monster Hunter game before, you may be left with the feeling that you'd rather be playing Monster Hunter instead. In any case, it's free to download, so in the end, it's for you to decide if you like it or not. You can play it for free on all current gen consoles. Alternatively, you can play it on PC (I know it's heresy, but it's only on the Epic Games Store): https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/dauntless/home - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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