Before Dune: Awakening was released, few doubted Funcom’s ability to recreate the harsh and mysterious desert planet from Frank Herbert’s classic. After all, they had already shown remarkable survival-building skills in Conan Exiles. Now, after spending over 100 hours living on Arrakis, I can confidently say that this survival MMO not only did its homework, but also built a truly immersive Dune world that stays faithful to the original while feeling alive in its own right.
Everything begins with you, empty-handed and close to dying of dehydration. You must search for water under the blazing sun, find shelter before sandstorms hit, and beware of the giant sandworms that can burst out from the ground at any moment. This isn’t a game that lets you leisurely build a dream base—it forces you to live every second on a battlefield where the sand itself feels like molten lava.
My friend Mike, who once went hiking in the Nevada desert, once said the worst part wasn’t the heat, but the despair of knowing the next bottle of water was five kilometers away when you could barely take another step. Dune: Awakening magnifies that helplessness tenfold—every time you survive on the brink of death, it feels like a hard-fought victory.
One of the game’s most ingenious designs is how it turns Arrakis’ hostile environment into part of the gameplay itself. For example, in the beginner areas, you can’t just cross open terrain because the sunlight and sandworms will kill you instantly. You must first craft your first vehicle to travel safely. As you explore deeper, environmental challenges become more severe—some regions are irradiated by intense heat and can only be entered with specialized gear.
Story-wise, Dune: Awakening takes place in an alternate timeline—Paul Atreides was never born. This gives the developers creative freedom without being tied down by the original plot. The setup retains the essence of the Dune universe, offering fresh appeal for long-time fans while keeping new players from feeling overwhelmed by the lore. However, each story chapter is separated by long stretches—often over ten hours—of resource gathering and leveling, which makes it hard to stay fully engaged with the narrative.
The game does have some obvious shortcomings. You constantly have to relocate your base. Once you unlock higher-level regions, your old settlement becomes useless. You either abandon everything or painstakingly move your equipment piece by piece. It’s like decorating a cozy little home, only for the landlord to tell you you must move immediately—and carry the fridge and mattress yourself.
The combat system is the biggest disappointment. While it faithfully respects the source material (enemies using Holtzman shields are completely immune to ranged weapons), that very accuracy renders your firearms nearly pointless. You’ll often find yourself awkwardly switching between shooting and melee, breaking the flow of combat.
Even if you specialize in melee combat, it doesn’t feel particularly satisfying. Charging into a group of enemies and slashing wildly is effective but repetitive—every fight feels copy-pasted. Occasionally, you can use Bene Gesserit “mind control” powers or anti-gravity grenades, but these moments can’t hide how clunky and monotonous combat feels overall.
However, compared to its lackluster combat, Dune: Awakening’s survival and crafting systems shine brilliantly. The crafting process is smooth and rewarding, with little grind or pointless repetition. Every time you create a new item, the game immediately presents another enticing goal. Rare blueprints drop frequently, forcing you to decide whether to spend your limited resources on flashy equipment or reliable daily tools.
It’s reminiscent of a traveler in the American Southwest who once said, “Do you use your last sip of water to make coffee, or to fill the radiator?” That tension of choice under scarcity is one of the game’s most addictive qualities.
Once you enter the PvP-dominated “Deep Desert,” the fun begins to fade. The region is periodically destroyed and reborn by “Coriolis Storms”—an impressive concept in theory—but in practice, the maps are vast and repetitive, killing the urge to explore.
The PvP experience itself is chaotic. Everyone flies around in ornithopters bombing each other, while ground combat is rare. If your flyer gets shot down, you’ll spend hours gathering materials to build a new one—only to be blown up again moments later.
Even when you win, the rewards are disappointing. You can only loot basic materials from enemy backpacks—the valuable items remain locked to their character. This no-risk, no-reward design leaves PvP feeling tensionless and unrewarding.
On top of that, there are plenty of technical issues: disconnections, flickering terrain, and even entire sandworm populations vanishing. It’s more stable than the beta, but still far from smooth.
All in all, Dune: Awakening excels at portraying “survival in the desert.” The journey from a half-dead wanderer to a desert warlord is satisfying every step of the way. For those like me who grew up reading Dune, the game’s respect for and expansion of the universe is deeply moving.
Though the combat system is mediocre, endgame content still rough, and technical issues persist, there’s something magical in that moment when you extract your first drop of water from the air. Amid the endless dunes, all frustrations feel like grains of sand. It’s imperfect, but absolutely worth playing. Like a lost traveler finally finding a well, the satisfaction it gives makes you want to walk the desert all over again.
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