(PAX West 2017) Dauntless
Time will tell if people will come away saying that Dauntless is the “poor man’s Monster Hunter” or not. However, it’s about time someone came around and created another group hunting game other than Capcom. I’m very excited for Dauntless and I’ll probably be playing this along side of Monster Hunter: Worlds as well. I’ve seen a lot of good video footage on Dauntless and now that I’ve gotten my hands on it, I can say that I’m solidly excited to see how it all shapes out.
The combat is very action oriented. It’s fast paced, but you can get stuck in a combo if you get greedy (which is my middle name at times). I’ve tried out the large sword and the hammer of boom so far. The sword is a fairly traditional weapon and is what I mostly got stuck in combos with. All of the movements and the sword strikes we fun and fluid and I just wanted to keep hitting things which basically meant that I ate a lot of attacks with my face. Eventually I stopped that and played more efficiently. The hammer, while also being a large weapon, acted more like what I expected. It was heavy and devastating and could also explode. It was fantastic! Finishing up a combo with an explosion is super satisfying. That happened fairly often, but most of the time it was swing, hit, run and repeat.
I can’t wait to try Dauntless out with my co-op buddy on the stream this Thursday and Friday. I believe he will truly enjoy it being a huge Monster Hunter fan. Dauntless is more in line with the traditional Monster Hunter franchise than the direction Monster Hunter: World is taking. The action combat is roughly the same, but feels easier here in Dauntless. The world isn’t so lush that you can get lost in it, but still detailed enough to be gorgeous to look at. There is still a decent chunk of work to do, but with what they’ve got going on currently you’re blind if you don’t see the promise and potential Dauntless has to offer.
Further Reading on Dauntless: Facebook / Official Page / Twitter