Dune: Awakening Review

Arrakis is a world fraught with challenge and tension.

Dune: Awakening kicks off with players learning to survive in a barren landscape filled with deadly threats.

The sun beating down from the skies, the scarcity of water, scavengers and marauders at every turn – and let’s not forget the ravenous Sha-Hulud.

Every adventure, every attempt at leaving the comforts of your typical (albeit much more advanced) first survival beach shack, will test your resolve. It’s a perfect balance of traditional early hours survival game adventure with the thematic tapestry of Dune’s expansive universe of lore.

A suite of creative constructions tools give players freedom to construct amazing structures… I just find squares to be the most efficient, okay?

Dune: Awakening Review

Funcom’s genre-leading base-building is as present as ever, building on the incredible Conan: Exiles with all the tools and options players need to construct everything from humble mesa-topped homes, to expansive compounds and small villages.

Just don’t get too carried away with your first base – Dune: Awakening requirea players to disown it to progress with the main story. It provides a bizarre turn of events during the story, but one you should be prepared for nonetheless.

As is typical with these sorts of games, one’s early hours will be dominated with resource grind and combat – both of which are enjoyable and satisfying in equal measure

Arrakis is home to many creative and deadly threats, threatening that utter failure is just moments away

There’s often a lack of effort put into the various resource-related mechanics in survival games. It’s something players will spend a vast amount of their time doing, so it should be fun.

Well, as fun as mindlessly repeating the same task can be.

Dune: Awakening’s resource gathering uses a mining laser-like device that scans the node and provides the player with a route of sorts, tracking the laser across a blue line, drastically increasing the speed in which the node is harvested.

The game is gorgeous. Above, the view from my simple balcony

This proves to be a simple but effective system, one that makes every node a pleasure to discover.

From there, Dune: Awakening’s combat proves to arguably be the most important cog in this entire machine – yet another thing Funcom delivers without fault.

Dune: Awakening’s combat features a hybrid system of ranged gun fire and melee, with abilities and spice enhancements thrown into the mix. Even as a level 50 player with tech-matched gear and unique weapons, there was always that chance things could go drastically wrong.

Approaching any compound of enemies requires thought and planning, as a mixture of melee and ranged enemies charge at you. One can put an entire clip of your basic gun into a shielded sword-wielding maniac coming right at your face – but it will do nothing.

Players can pledge allegiance to a House, opening up political and conflict PvP options in later stages of the game

Dune: Awakening’s combat is also about rewarding a player’s ability to adapt, to think on their feet.

Luring melee enemies into more protected locations as you attempt to parry their attacks and utilize Slow Blade. Waiting for enemies to reload when faced with multiple targets reduces damage. It’s a constant battle of wits and strategy, outside of simply rewarding the fastest reflexes victory approach so often relied on in shooting games.

There are, of course, many tech advancements that can be utilized in Dune: Awakening to improve efficiency and reduce difficulty dealing with each of the variables of combat encounters. That being said, it remains a rewarding and engaging system from start to finish.

Once the initial hours of survival are out of the way, things in Dune: Awakening change drastically. The familiar tech and survival progression of the genre slowly begin to distance the player from the arduous tasks of the early hours.

A limitless class-based system allows players to seek out trainers and learn and combine skills from any of the available classes

Water becomes readily available once you’re draining the blood and stealing the corpses of your enemies. The sun’s looming threat dwindles as players unlock faster ways to traverse the open sands, and the easy to learn mechanics of the Sha-Hulud soon make them as threatening as a long fall.

Okay, that last bit was exaggerated.

Even understanding how they spawn and how to avoid them, the Sha-Hulud are still terrifying, always one greedy journey away from being caught on the open sands and losing everything.

Taking the place of the early hour survival is a Dune-fitting battle for resources. Regardless of where you construct your central hub of operations, you’ll be required to visit several zones regularly for resources and supplies.

Exploration is thrilling and rewarding, largely down to the insane amount of unique powerful items you can discover

This sees Dune: Awakening’s survival mechanics evolve into a more logistical challenge, tasking players with creating and understanding the fastest routes and locations to procure the more valuable resources on Arrakis.

It’s at this point, right around the time players advance into the Steel aspects of technology, that solo players may start to fall behind.

This particular point feels like driving a Sandbike full speed into the corpse of a Sha-Hulud; it’s such a brick wall moment. Do note it could very well be off-putting for some players, especially those interested in casual or quiet solo play.

Having my primary base located in the central region of Vermillius Gap, we quickly found ourselves having to journey to different corners of the world to procure the resources to advance to the next tiers of technology.

Base management, controlling power, water and flow of materials is creative and fun thanks to varied tech options

Spending several hours utilizing the limited in-game fast travel and planning my Sandbike routes, we’d gather the same resources over and over.

Returning to base endured minimal gains of advancement.

It’s the perfect metaphor for life in such an inhospitable environment, but one that feels dramatically more taxing and mundane than the action-packed, thrill-filled hours of the early game experience.

AS one piece of advice for players, sharing my thoughts on that oddly placed middle part of the game, it’s to push through it.

As more travel options become available, the Groundcar and iconic Ornithopters, the game blossoms into something else entirely.

A unique overworld map acts as the transport conduit between Hagga Basin and other areas of interest

Soaring through the sky’s farming rare resources atop mountain-sized mesas or navigating the treacherous terrain below using the Groundcar’s resource harvesting module creates an abundance of advancement opportunities that make the previous grind all worthwhile.

Sitting on this thought for a few days, but Dune: Awakening features the single-best implementation of vehicles in an online game.

On that note, Dune: Awakening features a hybrid questing system, divided between narrative-driven Journey quests and the more traditional MMO-style quests in Contracts.

The Journey quests offer insight into the world of Dune, its various factions and locations, and incentivize completion by rewarding players with powerful and thematic tech advancements.

Many of these quests are surprisingly accessible, allowing players to immerse themselves in the narrative from the very early hours of the game, requiring little to no grind to get invested in the story.

I recommend at least watching the movies if you’re not overly familiar with the source material and want to get the most from the narrative part of the experience. The story makes many references to factions and events without offering much in the recap department.

We’re admittedly not too keen for PvP in these sorts of games, favoring seclusion in our own secluded corner of the game world.

However, for like-minded players, there’s a lot to keep you occupied and engaged.

For those seeking it out, expect tons of tech to unlock, creative and varied base-building opportunities, and plenty of thematic quests and discoveries to be made.

Years of Funcom’s expertise managing Conan: Exiles have paved the way for Dune: Awakening to be one of the most impressive online survival games ever made.

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