Dauntless Has Gone Open Beta

  Earlier this year I tried out a game that has a play style much like the well-known game Monster Hunter.  In Dauntless by Phoenix Labs, you will be playing a hero whose job it is to fly to islands floating in the sky to slay giant monsters.  Killing these monsters will land you mats that can be used to build and improve items. The game had a nice aesthetic but there were places where it needed improvements.  Now Dauntless is out of closed beta, and after two character resets, is onto open beta. 

It Has Improved

  This game is still very much in development but things have improved.  While the graphics have stayed pretty much the same the UI has seen some decent rework.  Where it looked clunky and an afterthought before, it is now tighter, makes more sense and just has an all-around cleaner look.  The way the loadout screen now works makes a lot more sense,  the weapons charges now all look unique and customized rather than the plain blue bar from before, and the map also looks better.  There are several other changes but this is a vast improvement.

  Matchmaking has also shown some improvement and it helps that the population has drastically increased as it has moved to open beta.  A small improvement but one I saw as a real quality of life increase is that you are kicked from the party if you were not a preformed group.  Having to leave group every time got annoying.

  The overall graphics of the game still looks clean.  I had not had issues with dropped frame rates before and still don't outside of the tutorial, which I think is bugged.  The boss movements are clean and save for not being able to hit the random animals anymore, everything feels like its working.

There Are Still Some Holes

  While Dauntless has overcome a lot of its previous issues the combat still feels very heavy and sluggish.  At the lower levels, some of the weapons feel downright heavy.  It doesn't help that the hitboxes of some of the bosses are a mystery to me and a slow swing of the hammer can mysteriously miss on some swings, while in others you are connecting with thin air.  I wish these were a little cleaner.  On top of this, the light and heavy attacks you get for each weapon can make you feel like you are doing the same movements over and over again.  It gets a bit repetitive but if you switch up your weapon types from time to time you can force some variety in.  

The crafting system is still okay.  The added bonuses for each item gives the sense that is a lot more important then it was to build sets from the various bosses that can fit your gameplay type.  It's pretty basic and is the incentive to play the same monsters over and over.  Unfortunately, it still the same small set of monsters at this time, just at different levels.

  Dauntless is still a fun game.  If you can get past the insane queue lines there is a game behind it with a draw that is yet to be determined.  I did have a crash in where we were stuck on an island but other than that the game works as expected.  The free to play glamor modal means that the gameplay behind it is even more vital.  The game needs more bosses and lands but if it can add these in, it has the potential to goad a few dollars out of players.  The biggest test will be how relevant they can stay once Monster Hunter hits PC.

TL;DR:

  Dauntless is still fun if not a bit repetitive.  There have been some vast improvements since closed beta but I still think there needs to be a bit more variety in gameplay if they are going to keep a population.