Players followed the announcement and development of the action RPG Dauntless with great interest. However, the game is now in a crisis.
Monster Hunter World surpassed Dauntless and took a large part of the fanbase with it. Not only because MHW is a more well-known brand with an established fanbase, but also because the game simply feels significantly more advanced and plays faster in direct comparison.
Everything is just too slow
The sluggishness with which players approach monsters in Dauntless poses a problem for many fans, who continuously criticize the game’s speed on Reddit. While it may be closer to reality to swing a massive sword slowly and dodge cumbersome in armor, it does not match the fast-paced gameplay that many players are used to today. From personal experience with Dauntless, it can be said that the battles feel really very slow.
Furthermore, Dauntless has been making slow progress lately. The last major update introduced the War Pike as a weapon and brought new Behemoth monsters. However, that was already in November.
Now Dauntless was showcased in its current version at the “PAX South” gaming convention and based on MMORPG.com’s description, it didn’t really offer anything new. What was shown were the War Pike and the new monsters. That’s simply too little. Too little to stand up against Monster Hunter World, which will be released on January 26 for PS4 and Xbox One.
The interest of the players is also dwindling. The downward trend on Google Trends continues. Players see how advanced MHW is and what this title has to offer compared to Dauntless. Additionally, the developers make it difficult for fans to communicate about the game at all, as the official forum of the game is not even viewable without an account. MHW simply creates a much rounder, faster, and easier impression – even when it comes to communication within the community.
Dauntless faces an overwhelming opponent
Dauntless could only score if it manages to gain traction among PC players, which would require a release before the PC version of MHW and only works if the gameplay and content are right – and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that at the moment. MHW and Dauntless target the same audience – players looking for an RPG where they hunt massive monsters. And MHW simply does that better, faster, and more fun.
Dauntless now has to do exactly what players in the game must do – face an overwhelming opponent in the field. How this fight will ultimately turn out, we will still see this year.
New monsters and the War Pike were already shown by Dauntless last year.
