Free-to-play monster hunting on PC, PS4, and Xbox One
It’s the first day of the rest of Dauntless‘ life. The creature-slaying co-op game has released across PS4, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Games Store. Better yet, there’s full cross-play support. You can get your war-pike-wielding slayer situated on a console and then continue where you left off on PC. Or maybe you’re more of a chain blades type of person? Whatever. That’s irrelevant. Just stick together and try to play nice. It’s a far-too-rare treat for these three platforms to team up together like this.
“When we first started talking about [having a system to enable cross-play and cross-progression in Dauntless], we knew it was a truly audacious goal,” said Phoenix Labs co-founder Jesse Houston. “No one has ever launched on console with full cross-play support from the start, but we believed in our vision and, thankfully, our friends at Epic Games, Sony, and Microsoft did too.”
Just so you know what you’re getting into, this is a free-to-play, microtransaction-supported release. There’s a Hunt Pass not unlike what we’ve seen appear in Fortnite and other battle royale titles. In short, you can level up the pass (which comes in a free basic tier and a paid-for Elite tier) to earn rewards.
Phoenix also touched up the character creator, the storefront-browsing experience, and player mobility, the latter of which should help Dauntless feel more fluid. “A new element – Terra – has been added to the aetheric spectrum, bringing balance to frost, blaze, and shock aether. Koshai, Kharabak, and Skarn have adopted this new element and have developed new strengths and weaknesses to match.”
If that free-to-play structure sounds palatable, you should soon discover the joys of the monster-hunting life. Teaming up, taking down behemoths, crafting better gear, and doing it all again – it’s quite the intoxicating loop. All it takes is that one right game at that one right time to draw you in.
Side note: if you’re having server issues or otherwise can’t load Dauntless, the developers have been investigating outages. There’s a handy site for tracking the game’s uptime and server status.
Dauntless has been sitting on the periphery for folks who prefer not to tangle with early access or betas, and with Monster Hunter‘s meaty Iceborne expansion not dropping until September, the hunt beckons. It won’t be a proper replacement, but from the looks of things, there’s an eager audience.
More than anything, it’s pleasant seeing a game tout true cross-platform progression.
