The Only Review of Dune Awakening You Need to Read (or Watch)
This All Encompassing Review Covers the First 100 Hours of the Journey Across Arrakis
As a DUNE superfan, I'm floored by how fantastic it is. It enables the DUNE fantasy in many ways, and is a fun, addicting survival game. Will be coming back to play all the DLC for SURE. NameBrand.
Dune Awakening has been a fever dream for me. I've not been more pleased with a 'book to game' adaptation than this, which isn't saying much, but boy. They did a real bang-up job tying back just about every world building detail and gameplay system, no matter how small or weird, right back to the novels. Even though the games' story is a parallel timeline to the books (without Paul Atreides), the devs put a lot of care towards creating a book accurate Arrakis and I greatly appreciate it.
I mention this very first because I believe my enjoyment of Frank Herbert's universe makes me incredibly biased. I have loved every second of playtime in this game, as it has allowed myself to become even more immersed in this sci-fi universe that I love. Objectively, it is not a perfect game, but it has served the purpose I purchased it for, with all the precision I could have ever hoped for. Perhaps more, when all the DLC has been released.
Though, even Dune fans may not find the gameplay systems in Dune Awakening appealing. Surviving on the planet is tough. The game systems take a bit to get used to, and can feel quite unfair. You must log in continuously to keep your base powered, or it will be destroyed. You must endure the might of the sand worm, which can wipe your inventory clean without a word. Other players may wipe the floor with you in designated PVP areas. You might die of thirst, a storm, or from an overwhelming number of foes. Maybe, as you sit there playing, you die of boredom due to the mining and collecting resource grind. In any case, Welcome to Arrakis.
I say all that as though it's a negative sentiment, but overcoming the difficulty is a rewarding part of the journey. You'll get better resources, vehicles, machines, and items that all help you ease your questing across the Hagga Basin. The progression is extremely fulfilling, as you become a real desert threat with para-natural abilities. It feels as though you could very well be a great main-character level fighter found within the pages of Herbert's books.
Building your character is one of the most generous systems I have ever seen in a game like this. Class skills, passives, and techniques are not restrictive and can be mixed and matched with other class options freely. Selectable skills and techniques can be swapped at any time, and you can refund every point spent on skills once every 48 hours for free, so you can try other builds to your heart's content. After playing so many games with more restrictive systems, I thought this implementation was an awesome change of pace. It has continuously allowed me to find and enjoy many types of play styles over the course of my time experimenting with it.
The heat and water mechanics at first glance may seem difficult to manage, but as you progress in the game and become as the Fremen, maintaining these becomes second nature. Later into the game, not only are you not worrying about managing those, but you'll have an overabundance of water and many resources, which can keep you going for days and even weeks on end.
The other survival elements are built well. Making a base is very intuitive, and they give you plenty of options and decorations to really make something unique for you, or for you and your friends, which is easily done with its exhaustive permission settings. No need to really worry about organizing your inventory's either, as all your bases machines can pull from any of your chests. This is already a welcome change for the genre, but they take it a step further and allow you to set up entire networks of machines and chests via the UI, with no resource cost.
You eventually do earn yourself vehicles in this game, and they make your journeys quicker and simpler in between destinations. They're pretty fun to drive as you explore the landscape and uncover the map. The ornithopter is definitely a high point in the game, where you can truly fly around the map with ease. At any point (even while not in a vehicle), you can pass the time listening to the in-game radio which as a wide collection of in-universe entertainment, even including audio-dramas. It's very cool.
The combat is quite enjoyable and moving fluidly between ranged and melee combat is very satisfying, and can at times be quite challenging. The melee combat in particular has an addicting flow to it, and I always look forward to that deep THUD after a successful breach of the enemies Holtzman shield. I always look forward to clearing out the game's version of "dungeons" to exercise my combat skills.
The stories you encounter across the Hagga Basin were all excellently written, and captivated me to find and finish just about every single one of them. The main quest in particular is very interesting and even has you interacting with high-profile characters from the novels. Funcom has done such a good job weaving these stories that I will be returning to play all the free story expansions as they are released.
My biggest gripe isn't even that much of a gripe -- I wish the several enemy factions in the game had more of a distinctive identity. I felt they could have all posed a unique signature challenge to me as the player to accomplish this. As they are now, they mostly vary in difficulty, with a sprinkling of differentiating (excellently written) lore and armor.
I played this game entirely solo and had a phenomenal time doing so. I could see how this game would be simpler with a group of friends (or even a guild of random players) all contributing to a base, sharing resources. It is an MMO, after all, and some later game machines show it in their resource costs. But my ultimate objective was to live out the Dune fantasy. So I treated this game like the RPG it is, and had voice & text chat off, and have had a wonderful time playing.
Dune Awakening's got quite the handful of negative user reviews. Most I've read should be in support tickets, or on the game's discord; not reviews. Stuff like "I lost my gear because of X bug" and "I don't agree with the direction of end game Y". Weirdly, notice the trend of how buried in many of these negative reviews, players share their positive thoughts on the game up until their very specific frustration... As for me, I've never lost anything due to a glitch, and I haven't been bothered by how the end-game is being managed. You'll be fine, too.
The (very) optional end-game is the "Deep Desert". Some people consider this the meat and potatoes of the games offerings, practically the reason you'd play it, but I disagree, as you may have been able to put together from my earlier statements.
Truthfully, the value of end-game content will vary from person to person. The correct and properly weighted perspective is to realize that there is an exceptional Dune centric Survival RPG to play for at least 100 hours (with more after all the DLC is released). In that time, you will build out your character and live the Dune fantasy of being a desert Fremen nomad on Arrakis. When your main quest is over, if you still want to continue playing Dune Awakening, there's a whole 'game-mode' dedicated to making the game, more or less, endless, where you will get out of that experience, whatever time you put into it.
Ultimately, I highly recommend Dune Awakening, and especially so to Dune fans. There's so much to enjoy here if you know the universe upon which you tread, and I feel this niche of players will get the most value out of it. If you don't know Dune, but perhaps have enjoyed Valheim, or Death Stranding (weird combination, I know), I'm almost positive you'll enjoy this game as well due to some of the shared DNA between those titles.
I'm happy with the devs roadmap, and I can't wait to sink my teeth into whatever crazy story they have cooked up in future story expansions. I may not play as much in between new chapters... But I'll always remember how much I've loved my journey across Arrakis.
Paid Subscribers, stay tuned! In a few days I’ll be posting an exclusive behind the scenes styled Case Study article, which goes in depth behind my creative process, includes some extra videos of me out in the desert, and more!
For everyone else, I’ll catch you in the next one!
