Recent reviews by Mr. Incredibilis

Dauntless in 2018 was a great game, all they needed to do was continue to add behemoths, areas and weapon types, instead they began reworking the core game and progression several times.
I wasn't a fan of reforged and stopped playing around that point, after returning to the game with its steam launch I wish I'd have just let it go instead of tarnishing my memory of the game.
I had my doubts about the update the moment they announced the changes to the weapon system and the cells, but it's much worse than I could have imagined, they effectively wiped 5+ years of progress in a single update, you no longer have access to any of the behemoth weapons you crafted and potentially spent hours grinding for, instead you get one starting weapon of each type (besides repeaters, chain blades and strikers that you get through a quest) and these weapons only have one element that you cannot change and one special ability that you cannot change, so if you want to use something as basic as the ammo/firing system on the pike now you have to buy a pike from the store for 100 weapon tokens, you get 85 weapon tokens per battle pass so unless you spend $15 per weapon, you'll always be behind if you try to actually "earn" weapons.
The battle pass also no longer contains any platinum, before you could work your way up to a premium pass through the platinum in the free passes and the premium provided a sizeable refund to make the next pass less expensive, now the battle pass instead contains weapons (on the premium track of course) and lootboxes, instead of getting a full layered armor set from the pass, now you get the opportunity to maybe get some pieces of the armor set from the lootboxes, and if you want to complete it you need to buy additional ones from the store.
The cell system is also completely gutted, erasing all existing builds, removing plus variations of cells, making all cells single use and making you build your way up to activating a perk instead of just slotting in a cell for it and getting a weaker lower level version of the perk and being able to slot in extra cells/a plus version of the cell for a stronger higher level version, now you can activate a max of 2 or 3 perks per build, ruining all build creativity and variety.
I was excited when I heard Dauntless was finally getting a big rework after 2 years of getting no updates, but if this is the direction they planned on going, they should have just let it die.
Instead of spending $15 on a single weapon from the store, buy Monster Hunter or God Eater or Wild Hearts or Toukiden or any other monster hunting game that respects your time and money.

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