I’ve never been a big MMO player – as a contributor to a site that covers releases of new games (and music, and film, etc) I didn’t want to be in a position where I was letting an MMO devour time that could be spent enjoying new releases over the year. If you cast your minds back to last December, I covered a game called “Survived By”. Essentially a twin-stick roguelite with other players and random quests, it was promising enough but I didn’t know if it would hold my attention when there was always a risk of having to restart at Lv1. On that day I learned that if an MMO wanted to devour my time, a roguelite format may not be the best way to keep me hooked. Since then I haven’t returned to the genre… that is, until trying the new Dauntless console release. I had tried to play Dauntless in the past – a free-to-play MMO seemed like a nice way to kill some time when I had nothing else keeping me busy – but the PC launch featured packed servers and lengthy queues as you attempted to join them. There would be days where I would edge closer to the front of the queue, only for the server to encounter an error somewhere and send me to the back of the line again… put simply, the demand on the servers resulted in a lot of curious players missing out Being able to get into the game at least makes the Dauntless console release a more worthwhile use of one’s time.

Hunting staples

Dauntless doesn’t win many points for originality. The character creator is limited but generally fine, and the game eases you in well, but this is standard hunting game fare. After picking a hunt from the noticeboard in the hub world, you form a party, get dropped in the gameworld and go through the usual routine of any hunting game – follow the waypoint to your target, kill off any minor enemies, learn your target’s attacks, weaknesses, and tells… until the target is slain. When playing the Dauntless console release I at least had to give credit to the way they’ve made hitting things satisfying. Character attacks can have a nice sense of weight to them, every successful hit is rewarded with a shower of damage numbers and the occasional spray of blood, and you have a serviceable roll to get yourself out of danger. Those initial encounters are mostly about learning the attack patterns and swinging when you know it’s safe, and although the large health pools can make battles last a long time, getting into a party successfully makes everything a little more enjoyable.

Grinding in the Dauntless console release

It’s just as well that the hunts are enjoyable, because I get a feeling that gathering materials and consumables is something that will involve the typical F2P grind, and that basic combat loop has to be engaging enough to make the grind worth it. As mentioned before, I wanted to try this game so that I had something to keep me busy during a quiet moment in my gaming schedule, and the Dauntless console release could at least be enjoyed as a mindless distraction between games. Sure, there are damage-sponge enemies that barely react when soaking up damage, and there will be some repetition involved when you’re just starting to make progress, but Survived By had its fair share of repetition as well. Of course, this is an MMO and so there are always opportunities to come back and revisit the Dauntless console release after patches and updates have been applied. In the meantime, if you want simple filler to keep you occupied for a while, consider trying this.

Dauntless is available to download and play on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.