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‘Dune: Awakening’ MMO Injects Massive Scale, Scope & Style Rivalling Hollywood Blockbuster – Preview

The spice must flow, no matter the universe. Be it the pages of Frank Herbert’s novels or Denis Villeneuve’s reel world, the narcotic is central to the Dune experience, fulfilling its role as a fundamental block of commerce and technological development, as well as the driving force behind space travel and cultural growth.

Dune: Awakening Preview

In Dune: Awakening, it continues to maintain a strong presence amid a web of ambition. Norwegian studio Funcom’s upcoming multiplayer online (MMO) title represents a pivot from its usual strategy and adventure undertaking to the new waters of an open world – a first in the beloved sci-fi franchise. Then, there’s the matter of juggling between exploration and survival elements, capped off with a reimagined take on notoriously convoluted lore.

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The narrative liberty touts an interesting premise, set in an alternate universe without Paul Atreides. Unlike the novels and films, the Lisan al Gaib doesn’t exist here as a result of Lady Jessica’s early detection of Dr Yueh’s betrayal. As gleaned from a five-hour preview held in Oslo, Norway, the bold endeavour finds strength in its impressive scale, showcasing the vast, dangerous glory of Arrakis without making survival too much of a juggling act. A slow start, stiff combat, and potential player-versus-player imbalance highlight some chinks in its armour, however. 

Aligning with role-playing game (RPG) tradition, Dune: Awakening features a character creation system that works to fill the gap left behind by the lack of a messiah figure. While not as elaborate as some of its contemporaries, it offers a decent selection of varied hairstyles, tattoo designs, and the like, alongside more specific customisation options including head scar depth, sclera tint, and freckles density.

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The element of player choice continues into the opening sequence, where the caste mechanic is built on three factors: homeworld, socio-economic status, and mentor, each with their own distinctive traits and areas of expertise. Picking Caladan as the birthplace, for instance, unlocks the Honourable dialogue trait and the Atreides Salute emote, while the Trooper specialises in offense and demolition, and starts out with the Shigawire Cable ability. 

For the preview, Chusuk – described as a “rich and verdant agri-world known as the music planet, the centre and civility in the imperium” – was selected from the homeworld options, tied to the Cultured dialogue trait and Musician’s Pose emote. Pyon, the planet’s speak for peasant labour force, sits at the bottom of the societal hierarchy, with close-quarter aggression and the Deflection technique completing the Swordmaster speciality. 

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It’s a nice little nod to Herbert’s beloved sci-fi world, particularly for fans of the novels, but don’t expect this sense of agency to trigger rippling ramifications that will influence the overarching plot. In a separate interview with Geek Culture, producer Nils Ryborg clarified that there won’t be any drastic story changes based on the background; instead, it results in varying character interactions. For example, the trust of an Atreides is easier gained with a Caladan birth origin, whereas a Harkonnen alignment makes it more difficult to win them over. 

Not that all of this matters in the beginning, because Dune: Awakening takes its time to familiarise players with its different systems. Genre veterans should be able to get into the swing of things fairly quickly, with a generous serving of hand holding for newcomers who may be overwhelmed by the more-than-usual hotkeys. After introducing crafting and climbing as a basic mechanic, the tutorial wastes no time in presenting gameplay elements which are specific to the series and have been incorporated in a way that would fit within the established lore. 

First, there’s the Cutteray, used for extracting resources like granite, copper, and metal. Powered by a Power Pack, it requires players to scan for hidden structural weaknesses and trace along the crack(s). Building on a small detail from the source material, Pentashield Barriers can only be passed through with a matching Wristband Key, mirroring the impenetrable shield’s singular weakness of a dissembler tuned to the same code. This commitment to honouring its literary roots is further conveyed through body shield properties – just like in the books, it offers full protection against traditional firearms and projectiles, and can be disabled or weakened through a slow dagger thrust (more on that later).

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The bigger point of interest, though, is the survival aspect. Dune: Awakening features plenty of sand, sun, and Sardaukar hostility, so be prepared to seek shelter, hydrate, and stay on the down low frequently. As any regular of the genre would know, it’s all too easy to underestimate weather effects and the extent of their devastation; here, players will have to contend with thirst and sunstroke. In theory, these can be managed by drinking Dew from Water Plants and moving in the shade, respectively, but naturally, there’s always a catch. 

For starters, the former only spawns in sparse handfuls across the arid expanse of Arrakis, and are rarely found beyond select areas. Then, there’s the issue of Dew poisoning, caused by over-ingestion and depleting health points over time, prompting the need for alternative sources of drinkable liquid like water taps. The lack of a hunger metre, a staple element in similar titles, is a silver lining, dialling back the focus on survival and allowing more time to be poured into other parts of the experience.

As players progress, more thirst-quenching means will be unlocked, including the stillsuit – a full body suit designed to preserve the body’s moisture through filtering the impurities from sweating and urination, as seen in Villeneuve’s films – and the ability to convert blood into water (yes, you read that right). These features are made available a few hours in, but some may find the process of getting there a little tedious. 

Indeed, the slow start can be off-putting and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. The early gameplay loop in Dune: Awakening revolves around mining or resource gathering for research and crafting purposes, often dipping into back-to-back territory. Gating the story behind the rinse-and-repeat cycle isn’t all that new either, but the prolonged lull disrupts story immersion and makes it easy to cultivate a sense of disconnect from the world. In particular, those who aren’t a fan of building mechanics are subjected to the short end of the stick in the opening hours, as the interstellar outing strong-arms them into constructing various apparatus required for crafting new tech or upgrading existing ones after a player base is erected. While there are customisation options for certain structures, such as roofs, walls, or doors, menu navigation is slightly unintuitive and can come across as messy. The prerequisite of completing building-related objectives, coupled with the lack of room to breathe in between, may also cause non-enthusiasts to lose the motivation to continue with the game. 

The monotony is alleviated by a surprisingly accessible survival experience – in terms of physiological demands, at least. Despite the water scarcity and scorching heat, Dune: Awakening proves to be more beginner-friendly than expected with a slow-depleting health bar, a relatively quick-charging stamina gauge, and a generous grace period for replenishing before damage is taken, thus reducing the burden of micro-management. Even for someone known to have terrible self-preservation instincts among friends, there were only two deaths recorded during the hands-on session, both triggered by external factors. 

The first comes as no surprise, and it concerns none other than the petrifying presence that are the giant sandworms of Arrakis. Funcom’s latest features a detection soundwave detection system that indicates a sandworm’s rough whereabouts, with red, spiking parabolic waves serving as a warning of its approach. Staying still (and oftentimes, praying) or shuffling slowly generally does the trick, though not all the time, and it’s a rite of passage that promises an adrenaline rush, especially with the anxiety-inducing, fast-paced music playing in the background. 

As far as dying goes, succumbing to a sandworm or a sandstorm is the worst way to depart in Dune: Awakening. Both circumstances will result in players losing their backpack permanently, translating to hard-earned resources and crafting efforts down the drain; in contrast, normal deaths, such as being defeated by enemies, allows them to retrieve it at their felled spot. After biting the dust, they can select either a home base or craftable respawn beacon as a resurrection point. 

If anything, the sandworm’s sheer size offers a good sense of the scale of Arrakis. Witnessing its ascent from beneath the sandy, well, dunes proved to be equal parts breathtaking and frightening, with the zoomed out camera highlighting the futility of escaping across a vast expanse when it darts straight for the player. Funcom touts a map that’s nine times bigger than Conan Exiles, and the sweeping breadth is emphasised through the lack of fast travel and other traversal means other than walking/sprinting and climbing at the start. Past a certain point in the story, access to an ornithopter and various ground vehicles will be available, and the difference is like day and night. 

The preview didn’t include an ornithopter sequence, but the developers on-site executed a bypass to allow for a brief stint in the skies, with the choice to fly solo or pick another player up. Armed with fairly basic and straightforward controls, it ensures players can hit the ground running and waste little time hopping from one destination to another. While hardly the most satisfying experience, it’s a far cry from scaling heights – there’s a stiff quality to climbing, both mechanical and animation-wise, even as it gets the job done. The movement is further restricted by the stamina gauge, which necessitates rest stops along the way, as running out of steam and slipping comes with fall damage. An easy workaround is to learn and equip the Shigawire Cable ability, which shoots a barb that attaches to a surface, similar to the workings of a grappling hook. 

On the note of skillsets, Dune: Awakening seeks to cultivate flexibility. It boasts a skill tree system tied to five archetypes that are modelled after factions from the novels: Trooper, Swordmaster, Planetologist, Bene Gesserit, and Mentat, each equipped with their own unique active and passive abilities. Active abilities can be swapped out at any point in time, allowing for the mixing and matching of different loadouts to be used against enemies. 

Combat is pretty standard fare, rooted in melee and firearm action, as well as dodging and parrying mechanics. But there’s a twist: as mentioned earlier, body shields in the game render traditional projectiles and guns ineffective, so it’s important to wean off the reliance on them. Slow dagger thrusts are the only counter to shielded opponents (in the opening hours, at least), and despite the ingenuity of linking it to Dune lore, the execution doesn’t exactly stick the landing. 

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It’s a simple affair, and there’s nothing wrong with going back to the basics – except shooting lacks oomph, and movements feel stilted in play. Additionally, the enemy isn’t the brightest with barely-there repositioning awareness, barring the Sardaukar forces who make their rounds at night and prove capable of knocking players out with one hit. If things get sticky on the battlefield, players can consume spice to unleash Prescient, exposing the health points, ammo count, and weak points of enemies, alongside faster ability cooldowns and increased damage. 

The larger concern is finding the optimal way to tailor combat for the MMO mould. Dune: Awakening is a multiplayer experience first, which calls for a level playing field. However, there seems to be a power imbalance between the archetypes, with Bene Gesserit-dominant play styles packing more crowd control (CC) abilities than others and gaining an inherent advantage. According to Funcom, such mechanics will be toned down for player-versus-player battles, and only time can tell how far its effectiveness extends to. For now, the open-world sandbox of Arrakis awaits new visitors with verve. 

Dune: Awakening comes to PC in early 2025, with a later release slated for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.