Action RPG Dauntless is a free alternative to Monster Hunter that was released in May 2019 and will be four years old this year. But what about Dauntless in 2023 and who is it interesting for?
What is Dauntless? Dauntless is a free to play action RPG produced by Canadian development studio Phoenix Labs and released in May 2019.
Similar to the “Monster Hunter” games or the Wild Hearts released in February 2023, in Dauntless you go on the hunt for dangerous creatures alone or cooperatively with friends.
These creatures are called “Behemoth” in Dauntless and live on various floating islands that represent their own biomes. For example, there are forest, desert or snow areas in Dauntless.
You accept a hunting assignment in the town of Ramsgate. You can also fine-tune your equipment there.
Dauntless Console Launch Trailer PS4
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30 million players but only 70 viewers on Twitch
How many players does Dauntless have? We can’t give exact player counts, but according to a press release in May 2022, Dauntless had a combined total of 30 million players at the time. In December 2020, Dauntless still had 25 million players, according to Phoenix Lab. According to this, a total of 5 million new players were added in 2 years.
It is not known whether the numbers are active players or just created accounts. But the latter is the most likely.
Since Dauntless cannot be played on Steam, but only on the PC in the Epic Games Store and on the consoles, we do not have any average player numbers.
We will get more precise figures on Twitch.
Is Dauntless watched on Twitch? We’ll make it short and painless: no, not really. In the past 90 days, the Dauntless game category had an average of 71 viewers on the streaming platform (as of March 29, 2023 via sullygnome.com).
Dauntless will continue to receive updates and in-game events
Is Dauntless still getting new content? Yes, the hunting game will continue to receive updates. There are regular new seasons that bring their own Battle Pass and new skins. In addition, Dauntless regularly organizes in-game events, such as the upcoming Easter event “Springtide” in April.
There are also occasional major updates. For example, in September 2022 new behemoths came into the game.
Content comparison between Monster Hunter and Wild Hearts: The gameplay of games like Monster Hunter can quickly become repetitive. It is all the more important that there is a solid selection of different monsters and weapons that bring a little variety to the daily routine.
In the following overview we have compared the number of weapons, monsters and the average playing time of the main story from the various games and expansions:
Players complain about repetitive gameplay
What are the ratings like? There are two different fronts on the metacritic review platform.
While the press reviews of the PC version look acceptable, it rained nasty reviews from players. The users complain about technical problems and “boring and repetitive gameplay”.
How does Dauntless play? MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller played Dauntless for a few hours with a newly created account to give you a glimpse of how the 2023 title feels for new players:
When choosing a weapon, I decided on the hunting spear. This enabled me to attack quickly – just my taste. The fights themselves were very simple and beginner-friendly. You perform light and heavy attacks and dodge monster attacks. You can also attack with different combinations.
As beginner-friendly as the combat system is, it feels unimpressive after playing Wild Hearts in February. I miss actions that bring more depth to the combat system. I miss attacks that require more than just button spamming.
Also, the fact that I don’t follow an interesting story from the beginning, but only accept quests, hunt monsters, turn in completed quests in the city and start the cycle from the beginning, didn’t help the gaming experience. I can understand the criticism that Dauntless is very repetitive.
However, I can’t yet say how the gaming experience will change after dozens of hours of play or in the endgame.
Who is Dauntless interesting for? Dauntless is primarily of interest to players who want to find out if they enjoy hunting games.
If you have never played a game like Monster Hunter, then the game Dauntless is a good way to look into the genre for free and decide whether you like the gameplay. If you also bring friends with you who you go hunting with, you can enjoy the title for a few hours.
However, a long-time Monster Hunter fan might be disappointed with Dauntless. While the gameplay is roughly the same, the gameplay doesn’t feel as challenging and immersive.
If you’ve played Dauntless in the past, it might be worth checking back and checking out what’s new. However, if the gameplay was too repetitive for you in the past, it probably still is.
Of course, since Dauntless is free to play, you can check it out for yourself and make up your own mind.