The Awakening update for Dauntless has instead proven to be a nightmare, as the co-op monster slaying RPG’s overhauls to weapons, armor, progression, and monetization have gone over like a lead balloon if Steam user reviews and social media replies are any indication.
Right now, the game is at an “overwhelmingly negative” Steam user review aggregate as hundreds of veteran players who have played the game over its years of development vent their frustrations about the patch.
A vast number of replies call the condensing of weapons a net negative, express anger at cells being deleted the moment they’re removed from gear, complain about having to use the new weapon token currency to get new weapons to begin with, and call the armor upgrade system a lesser version of the RPG’s systems. Fans are also furious over the new twin pistols being crammed into the limited-time paid-for battle pass and the new addition of lockboxes.
“Another game subsuming to corporate greed,” laments one player’s review. “RIP Dauntless.”
The outrage over the Awakening update has drawn forth an open letter to players from Phoenix Labs, which appears to largely defend the studio’s design decisions. Among the studio’s claims are:
- Presumptions that veteran players should be able to move through the hard-required opening quests pretty quickly.
- Arguments that players who dig into the new weapon upgrade changes like it actually.
- Assurance that players will be able to get enough weapon tokens to unlock weapons without opening their wallets provided they regularly complete weeklies.
- Claims that the return of FOMO battle passes – including the fact that they no longer award cash shop currency – was “made for the overall health of the game” while also promising that hunt pass weapons will not be pay-to-win.
- Defense of lockboxes as a fully optional “choice.”
- Finally, confirmation of a wait-and-see approach to changing the new cells system once enough players have had a chance to use it.
Still, there are a couple of concessions being offered in the wake of player feedback, including an update that granted all pre-Awakening players three tutorial-locked weapons outright (those who started from December 5th will still need to go through opening quests to get them) and plans to introduce a way to “test drive” weapons before spending weapon tokens on them. Phoenix Labs is also promising to continue to hotfix bugs, improve performance, and release a new patch on December 19th that applies more fixes and opens the Frostfall holiday event.
Despite what the studio terms as information to counteract confusion about the Awakening update, player reaction appears to be very frosty. Replies on Twitter call the letter tone deaf or state they’re finally walking away from Dauntless, and reactions to the open letter on Reddit call it insulting to veterans, outright full of lies in some cases, and the portent of more bad monetization such as drip-feeding currencies until they’re bought out of annoyance.
All of this culminates in what appears to be the start of player numbers falling off of a cliff, a lack of confidence that Phoenix Labs can right the ship, or resignation to just simply sit and wait until the new Monster Hunter game releases.
“Good job Blockchain Rug-pull Labs, you’ve really Big-Things-Coming’ed us!” concludes one player’s reply, in reference to the recent news that Phoenix Labs was bought by a crypto company under a bizarre veil of secrecy.
