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Dune: Awakening Hands-On Preview
2026.03.02 17:12
Dune Awakening contains a lot of the natural ebb and flow of the survival space, and Funcom still needs to tweak the core loop a bit if they want to nab more non-genre fans . As someone who has explored Dune since childhood and has been there since the dawn of the survival genre, Awakening can be tough to recommend at times. Some sessions, it felt like I was going through the motions of a standard desert survival romp, playing a completely different game. Then, a sandworm would pop up and remind me that I was on Arra
Combat is exciting when you're going toe-to-toe with someone who has a personal shield , which you need to push through with a wind-up heavy melee attack. Depending on your build, you have myriad options available: pepper them with ranged attacks to throw them off, run/rush with the aforementioned movement abilities, or throw down in an epic knife fight, parrying and dodging at the right times. NPCs don't always put up a fight, but I'm interested in fully exploring the game's PVP element (an optional zone) in the final build. There's a lot of potential here in this combat foundat
Funcom should lean more into the setting of Dune , full stop. When the game is flavorful, Awakening is at its absolute best, and it goes without saying that **Dune: Awakening ** is a massively ambitious game. How Funcom intends to support it long term, and how effectively it will manage its playerbase and emergent story, is yet to be seen. As of right now, with some tweaks pre-launch, Awakening could be a standout diamond in the rough for Dune f
One good rhythm to get into in dune awakening Guide: Awakening is to travel and explore during the night, returning to your sub-fief during the day to craft, refine materials, and research skills and schematics. Or, you can spend the days inside settlements and trade posts to stay out of the sun.
At the start of Dune: Awakening , you'll have access to one particular kind of training. You select this at character creation. When you do so, you'll gain access to an intricate skill tree. However, there are multiple types of trainings avaialble to you throughout the world of Arrakis, and you can unlock and learn skills from all of t
Traversing Dune: Awakening 's desert alongside rock formations and human habitations is safe, but once players head out into the open desert, they'll be greeted by a daunting Sandworm Threat meter, which shows the noise they're making while walking on the sand. Should the meter turn red at any point, it means that a sandworm is near. That sandworm will then emerge from the ground and roar, which is really just a sign that players only have moments left to reach a safe zone before the sandworm begins to hunt them d
At the beginning of the game, the Mother Reverend will ask where you were born and who your mentor is, which are important decisions that will shape your entire experience in Arrakis , so take your time choos
Even in the starting zone, the sandworms can be deadly. The best way to avoid them is to stay off of the large dunes as much as possible - there's a vibration meter at the bottom of your screen which informs you if the worms are close or
From there, a cutscene plays, after which players are led through a linear level designed as a tutorial of sorts about Dune: Awakening 's most basic mechanics. Generic survival-crafting mechanics , like how to craft basic weapons and items, are gone over during this portion of the game, but there are a few things unique to Dune: Awakening that are covered here
Right here, I can see some folks getting excited or tapping out of the concept of Dune: Awakening . Even playing it in the moment, I felt myself on both sides of the spectrum of tedium and fun at various points . You can't really make a game about a historically harsh fictional planet without testing the player a bit. How testy you prefer your games to be will dictate how much joy you get out of Dune: Awakeni
Dune is by far one of the most influential science fiction novels, with a legacy now reaching back over six decades that has found its way into the film, television, and video game media. Developer Funcom is now poised to hop on that bandwagon with its upcoming survival-crafting MMO Dune: Awakening , which will take players to a reimagined Arrakis when it launches on June 10, 2025, with a headstart beginning on June 5. While there is certainly no shortage of survival MMOs out there, Dune: Awakening already looks to offer a compelling blend of resource management , political intrigue, and exploration, all set against the backdrop of a universe where Paul Atreides was never b
These are important for different reasons. One, water carriers, perhaps obviously, allow you to carry more water with you as you traverse the desert . This is great for staying alive, and sometimes imperative depending on the length of your journey. Suspensors are great for traversal as well, and allow you to negate fall damage when climbing up and down large cli