The Sands of Arrakis are not for the faint of heart.
That message is repeatedly told in the Dune novels and films. Everywhere you turn, something is trying to kill you or use you as a pawn to further some agenda. During a recent beta for Dune: Awakening, where I was able to play Funcom’s upcoming MMO for nine hours, that message was solidified. I went up against in-depth survival mechanics as I explored the deserts of Arrakis, forcing me out of my comfort zone if I didn’t want to wind up worm food. That tense gameplay makes Dune: Awakening an MMO to watch for when the summer sun rolls around come June 10.
Exploring Arrakis
Dune: Awakening takes place in a “What if?” universe. In this timeline, Paul is never born, which causes a butterfly effect that leads to various new outcomes, such as House Atreides surviving the battle that took them off the board, a War of Assassins taking over the planet, and much more.
Before being completely engulfed in the chaos of Dune: Awakening, I found myself face to face with the Reverend Mother as she explained that I was being transported to Arrakis (against my wishes). This scene serves as both a prologue to the world and the character creation menu. As she was talking to me, options began to open up, which allowed me to select various things about myself like what kind of fighter I was, how I was brought up, and more. Similar to the Baldur’s Gate 3 character creation process works, the options I picked would affect how my character interacts with the world around him.
Once that was over and the opening act was completed, I was free to walk around Arrakis. What completely surprised me was how much of a survival game Dune: Awakening is. There’s a lot to keep track of. One of the main ones? The sun. That makes perfect sense, as the sun would be one of the deadliest things on a barren planet.
To combat this, I was forced to do a few things. The first was to avoid as much sunlight as possible. The other was to research and craft clothes that limit the sun’s harmful effects.
Once I finished that, I was given a list of tasks to do and items to get to ensure I’d survive as long as possible. This included usual things players in the survival genre have come to expect, such as weapons, chests, and a home base. The last is especially important (and not because I love base building); sandstorms are a common occurrence in-game. Even though players will usually be notified well in advance when one is coming, if they happen to be caught inside one, it’s almost a guaranteed death sentence unless they find some shelter fast.
One thing survival games are known for is some type of food and hunger system. For example, Minecraft has a hunger bar. When it reaches zero, players begin to lose health and can die. How Dune: Awakening handles this is unique and true to the world. Instead of keeping track of food, I was tasked with maintaining my hydration levels.
Water can be obtained in a few different ways. I was able to get it from various plants I found in the desert, but the catch was that it would only fill my hydration meter by about 25%. I was forced to do something more sinister if I wanted to max out my hydration meter: harvesting the blood from my fallen enemies and taking it to a machine to convert it into water I could drink. This machine was the only way I could get my hydration meter past the first bar. Doing that was essential because it meant that I could explore more of the land without fear of dying from thirst.
Even though the combat here isn’t groundbreaking, it’s still fun nonetheless as a third-person shooter with lots of extra tools sprinkled in to shake things up. For my demo, I chose to play as a Mentant. These characters hail from a group of extremely smart assassins. Some of their core abilities allowed me to place a mounted Machine Gun on any surface and deploy a Shield Wall that would give me cover. Since the combat plays out in real-time, with bullets and blades coming my way, it often forced me to think on the fly about how I wanted to use my abilities and spend points on the skill tree.
How Dune: Awakening deals with multiclassing feels very on-brand with the game’s theme. As I was going through a trading post, I ran into an old soldier, and he immediately offered to train me. That allowed me to spend my skill points in a new class. To unlock this, I was tasked with killing some folks who had wronged him, and if I refused, I simply wouldn’t be able to venture into a new build. Oftentimes, this was the case with Dune: Awakening: I wanted something valuable, it would often cost something in return.
The MMO’s approach to its map is notable here, too. I quickly noticed how little plots of land were sprinkled all around the map. Oftentimes, these spots could contain a little bit of everything you’ll need, such as hostile NPC camps filled with loot, mining areas, and even mini-dungeons. This makes exploring worthwhile, as I never knew what was on these plots until I arrived. More often than not, they held valuable resources that I could use to craft better items.
Most of the time, these plots of land were close to one another, and the quickest path was to cross the open sand. Doing this wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed because every footstep I made risked waking up the giant worm beneath me. Even though there was a meter that told me how much noise I was making, it didn’t help my anxiety levels. Like clockwork, the worm almost always appeared, and outrunning it was next to impossible. On the flip side, I was able to see the giant worm swallow me whole, and that in itself was something I enjoyed watching. Outrunning the worm almost became a minigame all on its own. This was especially true once I learned how to make vehicles. Even though it made traveling a lot faster, it would still wake up the worm if I spent too much time going for a joy ride.
All while this is happening, I was fed a story of what’s happening in the world around me. I was eventually presented with an option to work with both House Atreides and House Harkonnen. I wasn’t necessarily locked into one House or the other. Like Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I was playing both sides. This created a really engaging roleplay experience; now I was a double agent in this War of Assassins, coming out on top no matter the outcome. Something that is worth pointing out is that players will eventually get to a point where they’re forced to fully pledge themselves to one House or the other.
The time I played with Dune: Awakening made me more invested in the game’s final release. It has a lot going for it, but all of the chaos blends into something that feels special. The survival elements kept me on my toes and forced me to think more strategically every time I ventured out into the sandy abyss. I can’t wait to see what else is out there among the dunes.
Dune: Awakening launches on June 10 for PC.
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