Dune: Awakening piqued gamers’ curiosities when it was announced as an open-world survival MMO. I attended a demonstration-only preview event for Dune: Awakening at PAX East 2024, and I came away intrigued, though I ended up wanting a more hands-on experience.
Make the Experience Your Own
The opening of the demonstration started with the player character appearing in a prison, speaking to a mysterious individual. It immediately moved into character customization. There was a good variety of races, skin tones, and other aesthetics from which to choose. I particularly enjoyed seeing a vitiligo option, which is good for representation. You are then given multiple dialog choices for three aspects of your past: your mentor, your homeworld, and your caste. Mentor determines your starting abilities, homeworld affects how characters view you, and caste has an impact on your dialog choices. The Pain Box makes an appearance after you finalize your choices, but the footage moved ahead so as not to spoil any story beats. A shame, as I was looking forward to a tense scene.
The setting shifted to the desert planet Arrakis, and it was there we were given a good look at the title’s gameplay. Unreal 5 is utilized to create beautiful environments and visuals. A tutorial area allows gamers to get familiar with the game’s mechanics, starting with inventory crafting, which appeared not too convoluted to understand, and a free-climbing system. One of the main selling points of Dune: Awakening is that it’s closer to the book series than the films, so you’ll see more plant life and denizens on Arrakis; it isn’t a barren world.
Introduction to the World
As the footage skipped ahead again, players are taught an important lesson about Arrakis: don’t stand on the open sand too long, or the sandworms will get you. It was also emphasized that the worms cannot be killed: you either avoid them by getting to rocky sanctuary or get eaten up alive. But it isn’t just sandworms you have to worry about, as the player character can get sunstroke from being out in the desert too long. Moving into shadow will assuage the damage the sun does to your water levels, though you will need to drink water to replenish your bar. Interestingly, you can inject too much water, as well, so it makes for an interesting dynamic to navigate. If it is balanced well in the finished product, it will make for a good strategy instead of being an annoying attribute to constantly monitor. Players can salvage materials using a cutter device: the more focused they are on cutting objects, the rarer materials they will receive.
We also got a look at how a single-player Trooper character approached attacking an NPC base. You can craft pistols out of gathered materials, and weapons in the Dune universe fire a bit slower due to everything being spring-loaded. Combat seemed a bit basic, but we were viewing a beta build, so I’ll cut it some slack. Another build using a Mentat character was a bit more interesting, as you could use an ability called Battle Calculations to see through walls, and call on a Hunter Seeker drone to dispatch foes for you. The Hunter Seeker had some disadvantages, too, as it couldn’t track enemies that weren’t moving, which will make for strategic PvP battles.
Player Bases are a key part of Dune: Awakening. Gamers can siphon blood from downed enemies and bring it back to base, purifying it into water. Of course, if you are desperate to top up your water levels, you can drink blood from baddies right away, but it debuffs your health meter. Players can also build bases with their friends, with one person acting as an architect and the other actually building the architecture with materials. You can copy any base in the game and use the schematics to replicate it elsewhere within the world. Vehicles can also be crafted at bases.
World Events and Closing Impressions
As the presentation drew to a close, we were given a glimpse at the game’s World Events. The example we saw was a spaceship being downed on the planet. Players have to strategize, whether in PvE or PvP, how they will collect resources from the ship and weigh whether to ambush other enemies or players, or just take the goods and run. World Events will also differ depending on the time of day.
Other aspects of Dune: Awakening were discussed during the presentation’s Q and A. Spice will be a versatile resource in the game, acting as a currency, ability point, or even an addiction that you must feed. A political system will be a main component of the finished product. There will be no couch co-op, as players must join a server to access multiplayer. Fast travel will not be an option because the developers want gamers to have fun riding vehicles across Arrakis. PvP can be opted out of if one so desires. And after launch, the ability to ride sandworms will be added.
All in all, Dune: Awakening certainly sounds like an ambitious MMO. Every aspect of it appears impressive, and there is certainly a lot of content for gamers to enjoy. Since it is a game-as-a-service title, though, its longevity will depend on how big and engaged its player base is with the amount of content the developers provide. In addition, it is difficult to gauge how fun the game is to play, since the public still has not gotten a chance to try it out for themselves (only a closed beta is available for people to experience). Hopefully, all the hype will be worth it as we await an official release date.
