Dune: Awakening
Funcom
Rise from survival to greatness and challenge the power of an Imperium in Dune: Awakening, a multiplayer survival game on a massive scale. Survive the sandworm, craft your ornithopter, build a fortress, and ascend to power on an open world Arrakis shared with hundreds of other players!
Dune: Awakening is an open-world, MMO survival game set in the Dune universe with a whole new story. It’s an ambitious game, but it’s not a problem for developer Funcom, who was responsible for the incredible survival game Conan Exiles. The Early Access phase for those who pre-purchased the game has been extremely successful. Despite originally having “Mostly Negative” Steam reviews, it became “Very Positive” within 24 hours once the server issues were resolved.
While there are still some areas that could use some work, Dune: Awakening has a lot to offer players. It’s a visually stunning game. I loved playing and streaming in 4K. Although everything is most desert the game is very vibrant. Considering Funcom’s history with MMO survival games, it’s obvious we can expect great things to come later down the line too.
Dune: Awakening’s story is set in an alternate Dune timeline where Paul Atreides was never born and Arrakis was caught in a civil war between House Atreides and House Harkonnen. Meanwhile, the Fremen have mysteriously vanished. The player assumes control of an undercover agent working for the Bene Gesserit who is sent out to find the Fremen and “awake the Sleeper”. The story so far, feels very Dune. It’s great to see the game is following the source material while still giving us a “What If?” scenario.
While there’s a lot to do in this game, Sandworms are unique and an iconic part of Dune so it’s no surprise they play an important role here too. Sandworms feature as enemies but, they cannot be defeated. If it eats you, all of your gear is lost… this happened to me several times. On top of this, every week sections of the game not protected by a shield will be hit by a Sandstorm which will destroy every unprotected building that players have constructed in the past seven days. The storms also regularly alter the landscape itself, to uncover valuable resources while demolishing player-built outposts.
Pros
Progress not gated behind PvP
Incredible visuals
Amazing sandworms
Unique water mechanisms
Respectful of Dune lore
Survival and craft loops are solid
Cons
Combat needs improving
Minor performance crashing
Respawn rates seem a little slow
Can be punishing for casual players
This is still an MMO survival game so it has the classic features you’d expect to see here. The world of Dune: Awakening is constantly changing and the seemingly desolate world is full of resources to collect and things to see or do. There are microbiomes everywhere and caves filled with hostile creatures just waiting for you to slay them. To defeat them and get their loot though, you’ll need to explore, collect and harvest different resources which you can use to craft armour, weapons and so much more.
On top of this, Dune is a harsh world. You need to manage your water reserves very carefully to avoid falling victim to heat stroke. Spending too much time in the open sun will give you heat stroke and various crippling debuffs that make it almost impossible to survive. Extracting and purifying water to drink also isn’t the easiest task since you’ll need to kill enemies, extract their blood, take it home and convert it into pure water with a blood purifier. And not only enemies, you can kill NPCs to steal their blood so you don’t suffer the consequences of dehydration. Water scarcity is a much bigger deal than you’d expect it to be and it’s brilliant.
There are five skill trees at the moment. They give you the option of three techniques you can mix with your main attacks to create a playstyle that fits you. Of course, at the start of the game, there’s a detailed character customisation system too. While interacting with the warring factions, you can also learn special skills from different NPCs. There are different vehicles you can build to traverse the landscape but, this takes a lot of time and energy.
Like all other MMO survival games, PvP combat does have a role here. Being killed in combat will cause you to lose all your gear which makes challenging other players very risky. However, it’s not great right now. There are PvP zones which is great since you can avoid those if you wish. The downside is that the combat mechanics feel a little funky with guns being useless against shields and the melee lock being a bit fussy.
Dune: Awakening is an MMO survival game but, it doesn’t enforce the MMO aspects. Similar to how Conan Exiles is also an amazing single-player game, the new Dune game is not gated behind PvP which means PvE players can still have a very enjoyable experience. Overall I’m absolutely having a blast playing this and its really refreshing to have a game launch is such a great state with 4K available and being able to play together with friends or solo.
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