Dune is actually one of my favorite literature franchises of all time, and I couldn’t have been happier with the fact the damn thing has finally become mainstream and socially acceptable after having been considered the utmost nerdiest crap for the past sixty years. I am eternally grateful to Dennis Villeneuve and his amazing movies for changing the franchise’s perspective amongst the general populace. With mainstream popularity, come memes, merchandising, and, of course, licensed games. Funcom is the one responsible for Dune games in the foreseeable future, with one of their first outings having just been released. Let’s take a look at their ambitious Dune: Awakening project.

Welcome to Arrakis, a harsh, desert planet with more foliage than Palm Springs.

Following the success (at least financially-speaking) of their previous MMO, Conan: Exiles, Dune: Awakening follows the same premise by being a survival-oriented adventure title set in a multiplayer world. You play as a custom character, your own Dune Deviantart OC, attempting to survive the (shockingly tame) climate of the iconic planet of Arrakis, in a really odd and confusion alternate reality, one completely detached from the books or movies.

The initial cutscene actually features Paul Atreides telling you a story about an alternate universe in which he had never been born. Lady Jessica had actually given birth to a girl, Duke Leto had survived the attack orchestrated by the Harkonnens in Arrakis, the Fremen had been basically hunted down to near-extinction, and Arrakis is now a stage for a war between the two main factions. It’s a lot more populated, as war scraps are actually considered to be valuable resources, leading to the influx of scavengers populating the deserted country. It’s actually less harsh than other versions of Arrakis due to how shockingly populated the planet feels.

Bro didn’t even scream. My character is a better Lisan Al Gaib than Paul, apparently.

This is actually really off-putting if you are a fan of proper Dune lore. Oddly enough, the more you like Dune, the more you will complain about Dune: Awakening‘s setting. You can freely use guns against other foes, you can build lavish bases on the surface of Arrakis, the planet is oddly vegetated, loot is everywhere… I understand that it was a necessary decision to make the game a bit more appealing from a gameplay standpoint, but in lore-related terms, this place feels less like Arrakis and more like Tatooine from Star Wars. With the sole difference that you can see a giant worm wreaking havoc on open areas every now and then.

The gameplay loop revolves around survival, as in, looting for essential materials and ensuring your base is sustainable for the hardships featured in Arrakis. You can loot for medkit materials, as well as water, in the many MANY bushes and flowers scattered around the map. Metal scraps and ore can be found in war debris, and water can be obtained by killing scavengers and draining their fluids. The more you upgrade your base, the higher the maintenance costs will be, but the more important your character will become in a sietch (the way the game calls its servers, as sietches per se aren’t featured).

Making a lavish base on the surface of Arrakis feels off-putting if you’re into Dune lore.

After completing a handful of quests, you can actually travel to the capital city with your own ornithopter and meet up with either the Atreides or the Harkonnens, and accept missions from them. Keep growing in stature until your base becomes an outpost of such relevance you might even dictate rules in the Arrakeen parliament, at the cost of paying tribute to the Emperor himself. Sadly, he’s not Christopher Walken. That sounds like a good idea on paper, but given how this is a Funcom MMO, there is a lot of grinding and meandering involved; I have clearly not reached the endgame so far, and considering how slow-paced this gameplay loop is, I doubt I will anytime soon.

Looting and crafting are still the core concepts in this game, even if there’s combat and exploration. At first, Arrakis doesn’t even feel dangerous or harsh to explore – it just feels annoying. Walk on the shade to avoid a heatstroke, and consume the occasional flower dew to satiate your thirst. Grind a bit and you’ll eventually get a better Fremen suit, that stops you from losing body water quickly. But you also need to look out for fuel to maintain your base’s shield operational, money to pay tribute to the Empire… it’s a lot of menial, busy work. Nowhere near as irritating as the grinding in Conan: Exiles, but still a bit cumbersome at times.

It feels like a cutscene from the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Exploring the desert is the bigger highlight, as you actually need to properly plan your path. You can’t just walk around open desert areas willy-nilly, as you may end up attracting a gigantic worm, which can kill you and strip you of all of your belongings. At the same time, you need to properly take care of the sun boiling you alive. You may, alternatively, venture out at night, when things are cooler, and the main risk to your safety is the occasional Sardaukar patrol, which can be easily ignored with some stealth.

It was one of the few times I felt like I was doing something akin to a Dune character. Exploring the gorgeous Arrakis landscapes whilst avoiding to be seen felt like I was being a stealthy, desert ninja just like the Fremen in the Villeneuve movies. It also helps that, whilst characters themselves look janky and poorly animated, the Arrakis landscapes are amazing to look at, with some impressive lighting effects, courtesy of Unreal Engine 5. It makes up for the weird character animations, which feel like they are being rendered at a different refresh rate than the rest of the game. Something quite common in MMOs, but I don’t think I’ll ever 100% get used to them.

Some really creative levels whenever you’re playing a spice-related mission.

Regarding the post-indroductory area, this is when things become a bit dicey for me. Meeting folks in Arrakeen and hanging out at bars barely felt Dune-ish at all, considering the initial appeal of acting like a pseudo-Fremen in a survival-like enviroment. I feel like the game should have started in Arrakeen in order for that to feel less off-putting, as you’ll eventually meet up with a load of people in flashy, neon-drenched clothes and their custom-made hovercrafts meant to resemble Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder from Star Wars.

My other concern lies on whether or not servers are going to withstand the influx of players, considering there’s a very strict limit of 40 people per server. Whenever you enter a mission, you are kicked out of said server for a single-player environment, but that then forces you to wait in line for a spot in order to be respawned into the multiplayer world after your mission is over. There are excessive amounts of waiting lines, bureaucratic anti-cheat checkups, huge data updates, and having to wait for the game’s shaders to be loaded. It almost turns the sole acting of botting Dune: Awakening up into busy work, like having to go through traffic just to get to your job.

You might suffer a heat stroke during the day. Consider exploring at night.

There’s a lot of potential in here, and if you were a fan of Conan: Exiles‘ grindy loop, you’ll have a blast with Dune: Awakening, considering it’s a tad bit more forgiving than its predecessor. Oddly enough, however, the more you’re a fan of the Dune books, the more off-putting Awakening will become, considering its bizarre fanfic-y premise and ideas that just go against everything the books (and even the most recent movies) have been saying for the past half-decade. As a result, Dune: Awakening, whilst easily the best Dune game since the strategy titles from the early 90s, is more appealing to those just seeking for a new survival MMO, and not exactly die-hard fans of the seminal sci-fi franchise.

Dune: Awakening is available now on PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Dune: Awakening was provided by the publisher.