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Overview info
Platform reviewed: PC
Out there on: PC
Launch date: June 10, 2025
Early on, whereas sprinting between rocky islands in Dune: Awakening’s desolate sandy seas, I started to surprise why it is taken so lengthy for Frank Herbert’s fascinating world to be translated right into a survival MMO PC game of this scale.
Benefiting from the mythic beasts, warring factions, and an unforgiving setting, Funcom’s newest providing reimagines the core materials, offering gamers the chance to step past the prevailing lore and carve out their very own place amongst the celebrities. With a lot to see and die because of, I nonetheless really feel like I’m solely scratching the floor of this monstrously sized expedition into the desert. However, regardless of the sizable journey forward, one factor is for positive – I’m completely having fun with the grind.
Dune: Awakening doesn’t happen within the Dune world from Herbert’s cult e-book, Denis Villeneuve’s cinematic duology, or David Lynch’s 1984 house opera. As a substitute, it’s set in an alternate timeline the place Girl Jessica has a daughter as a substitute of a son, and Duke Leto Atreides survives the assault on Arrakis, resulting in an all-out struggle with the opposing Harkonnen dynasty. With out Paul Atreides and his Lisan al Gaib standing, the Fremen are lacking in motion. Naturally, with all this drama, Arrakis has change into a battleground over crucial useful resource within the galaxy – Spice.
Gamers enter this battle as a prisoner, whose job is to search out the Fremen folks and awaken ‘the sleeper’. However earlier than you dive into the various processes wanted to uncover them, you first have to make some choices about your character, specifically what they seem like and the way they match into the political panorama.
You’ll first get the possibility to tweak the bodily type of your character. There’s a good number of selections, from hairstyles to stature and tattoos, too. Naturally, I opted for a pre-distressed look, selecting out murky blue eye make-up and a few messy lipstick. Visible identification chosen, you’ll then choose some persona constructing blocks: your homeworld, social caste, and mentor.
Every choice will give you different beginning skills and emotes. As somebody who’s all the time needed to make use of the Voice, I opted for a Bene Gesserit mentor and primarily based myself within the frosty peaks of IX as a Bondsman. Sadly, it’s primarily your Mentor that components into gameplay, with the opposite choices appearing extra as role-playing taste. Regardless, I used to be able to really feel the sand on my digital toes and take a look at my survival mettle.
Worry is the grind killer
You aren’t simply dropped into Dune: Awakening and not using a clue, and are run by a pint-sized tutorial sequence first. Right here, you study the fundamentals of fight and survival, which quantities to scavenging morsels of water drops from vegetation and swiping at enemies with a glorified field cutter, earlier than witnessing a sandworm gobble up the stays of your ship.
Rising into the open sand, your workload is cut up between sustaining your hydration and shelter whereas branching out into the encompassing areas of the map seeking story missions. A lot of my first hour was spent cowering within the shade, fearing for my life as I adopted my aims to earn some scrappy solar safety and a ranged weapon. Instantly, I wasn’t so afraid, and I started assaulting enemy camps with my newfound confidence.
As you run between pockets of shade, scavenging for assets and finishing aims, you’ll naturally begin to earn Ability Factors and Intel Factors that gasoline your abilities, analysis, and crafting skills. Quickly, as a substitute of scrounging round for a morsel of water and clipping enemies with a pea shooter, you’ll be consuming the blood of your enemies and hammering targets with the improved arsenal at your fingertips. Dune: Awakening has all of the hallmarks of a basic survival MMO. Nonetheless, it’s the intelligent grapple between feeling courageous and weak that saved me past the climactic opening.
Greatest bit
To finish quests and stand up the ranks, you’ll ultimately have to cross giant parts of the desert. And, regardless of the isolation you would possibly really feel within the arid panorama, you’re by no means really alone. In Dune: Awakening, Sandworms, in any other case often called the Shai-Hulud, are extra terrifying than raiders or dehydration. In case you’re unfortunate, or just not listening to your vibration meter, they will fleece you of all of your treasured gadgets and go away you within the mud, actually, with nothing however your underwear. No matter how terrifying a prospect, the addition of those iconic creatures solely makes the world of Dune: Awakening extra immersive and entertaining to discover.
It’s not all desert roses, although, and sadly, as I sought out extra enemies, I bumped into points with the rudimentary fight. You may block and parry, in addition to ship fast, gradual, and ranged assaults, which is okay, if not somewhat underwhelming. Your restricted toolbelt, early on, isn’t complemented by the restricted enemy variation, and lots of the baddies you face look a lot the identical, and albeit, don’t appear too good both.
On one event, whereas taking out a duo of scavengers, the firing stopped abruptly mid-fight. As I sheepishly wandered across the nook, I observed that the second scavenger was standing frozen, as in the event that they’d forgotten I used to be there. As you push into harder districts on the map, there are complicating components like shields, and your opponents have extra various fight abilities, although that does little to make the fight extra engaging, and as of proper now, it appears like combating nonetheless wants some fine-tuning.
Fortunately, when the fight excursions begin to get outdated, you’ll be able to deal with story missions referred to as the Trials of AQL, which arrive as alternate challenges that take a look at your dexterity whereas explaining the historical past of the Fremen. Hidden amongst the craggy horizons, the trials felt like a rigorously constructed extension of the lore, rewarding your consideration with gear important to survival long run. It’s clear Funcom cares in regards to the materials that the studio is adapting, and the concerned and considerate Trials really feel like proof of that.
Hope clouds observational abilities
Whereas exploration will take up the lion’s share of your time, base constructing is one other essential side to your survival in Dune: Awakening. Say a sandstorm warning pops up in your display screen, and it is advisable to shortly assemble a dwelling. All you must do is craft a helpful 3D printing gun and choose a secure spot to put your cowl.
Right here, exterior partitions and flooring all snap collectively properly, whereas the within of your private home requires a bit extra finicky work to get issues to suit good. In case you do run into issues, the system itself is sort of forgiving, and it’s simple sufficient to change your flooring plan to suit extra home equipment if issues get somewhat tight. You may technically construct a shelter nearly anyplace you’d like, and with the pace at which gadgets respawn, plopping down your possessions in open sand is an apparent no-go.
This brings me to the true antagonist of Dune: Awakening. Past the periodic sandstorms, trigger-happy enemies, or unwavering thirst, are the extra terrifying and possession-destroying sand worms or Shai-Hulud. Hidden underground within the open sands, the worms are interested in your actions, which you’ll observe by way of a pleasant vibrations bar that seems on the heart of your display screen.
Merely put, the extra you progress in open sand, the extra seemingly it’s you’ll entice a sandworm. As soon as the bar turns purple, it means your luck has run out and it is advisable to dash away to increased floor or threat dropping every part you’ve labored so laborious for. Brief distances begin to really feel giant, and I felt real pangs of worry as I tiptoed between the stone monuments that broke up this seemingly infinite world.
Dune: Awakening appears to be like stable in movement, however it isn’t all the time visually seamless, and there are many irritating bugs and bouts of texture pop-in that get in the way in which of the enjoyable. Nonetheless, Dune’s desert panorama greater than makes up for these small squabbles, and it is simple to get swept up within the rigorously constructed particulars Funcom has embedded on Arrakis.
Visible accents just like the billow of a water seal as you narrow by it, or the sand particle texture in your home windows, assist to construct the fantasy and commit your exploits to reminiscence. But contemplating how giant Dune: Awakening is, I’m positive there’s much more to uncover on my journey to final energy, and I’m excited to maintain digging and uncover extra of those particulars.
Ought to I purchase Dune: Awakening?
Purchase it if…
Do not buy it if…
Accessibility
You may entry the settings from the pause menu whereas in-game, or on the backside left of the principle menu earlier than you be part of a server. From the accessibility menu, you’ll be able to toggle on and off digital camera shakes, controller rumble, and movement blur.
From this menu, you may also toggle on and off subtitles, select the font measurement, in addition to choose an choice to have earlier subtitles on display screen for an extended time frame. You may also tweak the gamma setting from this menu, too. Dune: Awakening permits you to rebind all of your keys from the devoted Keybinds menu.
The place audio is worried, you should use a slider within the Audio submenu to tweak particular person streams of sound (Grasp Quantity, Music Quantity in-game, Sound Results Quantity, Cutscenes Quantity, Dialogue Quantity, and Radio Quantity).
How I reviewed Dune: Awakening
I performed Dune: Awakening on Steam, utilizing an Acer Predator XB271HU gaming monitor, a Logitech MX Master 3S mouse, and a Logitech G915 TKL gaming keyboard.
I used my exterior Inventive Pebble V2 computer speakers and Audio Technica ATH-MX50X headphones plugged right into a Scarlett 2i2 interface for sound. My gaming PC is powered by an RTX 3080 and an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X.
First reviewed June 2025