By admin 
Have to know
What’s it? A survival MMO set within the Dune universe
Anticipate to pay: $49.99/£41.99
Developer: Funcom
Writer: Funcom
Reviewed on: Intel i7 9700K, RTX 4070 Ti, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer? Sure
Steam Deck: Playable
Hyperlink: Official site
I am standing within the desert scooping up massive clumps of essentially the most useful substance within the universe, spice, when a sandworm explodes out of the dunes just a few meters in entrance of me. I knew it was coming—it at all times does—however I did not anticipate it to reach so shortly or so near me. I yell a nasty phrase and leap into the cockpit of my ornithopter as my whole display fills with a gaping mouth the dimensions of a subway tunnel.
I do know I am simply sitting at my desk holding down my house bar, however in my head I am pulling up on the management stick of my ornithopter with all my power as unhealthy phrases proceed to pour out of me. If this worm swallows me I am going to lose every part: my ‘thopter, the spice in my pockets, every part else in my pockets, and even the pockets themselves. I am going to respawn in simply my underwear and need to re-craft my armor, weapons, instruments, and car. Concern is the mind-killer, however a sandworm is the gear-killer.
I acquire simply sufficient altitude to flee, however I legitimately need to take just a few moments for my coronary heart to cease pounding earlier than I can set again down on the sand to proceed my spice amassing. The prospect of shedding every part to a sandworm is only one purpose why even 100 hours in, Dune: Awakening continues to be a thrill.
Funcom’s survival MMO is a variety of issues: a compelling PvE sandbox you’ll be able to play alone, a co-op survival sport you’ll be able to conquer with buddies, and a cutthroat PvP extraction sport that does not even enter the combination till you’ve got performed for about 80 hours. A few of this Funcom pulls off efficiently, some is a bit tough, however the elements of Dune: Awakening that work are nice sufficient to justify enduring the stuff that does not.
Thirst help
The opening hours of Dune: Awakening do what each survival sport ought to: make you’re feeling fragile, weak, and determined. On this alt-history model of Arrakis, the planet is within the midst of a protracted civil conflict between Home Atreides and the Harkonnens—which helps clarify why the desert is totally affected by spaceship wreckage you’ll be able to harvest for crafting.
The one supply of water in these early hours is licking dew from just a few scattered crops, the solar is so scalding you need to creep between the shadows, and at evening Sardaukar ships patrol the skies sending down heavily-armed assassins to waste you in case you’re noticed.
It is a suitably robust introduction to the risks of the desert planet, however you are not powerless for lengthy. Inside just a few hours you will have the instruments to construct your first base and even craft a car to start braving the dunes and sandworms that lurk beneath it.
Dune: Awakening’s survival loop can get fairly grindy. There’s an early stage the place the one worthwhile supply of water is blood, and I discovered myself commonly stopping what I used to be doing simply to make joyless blood runs: finishing fast circuits of the identical handful of NPC caves and camps to suck ’em dry. There was one NPC in a camp about 10 meters from my entrance door, and I will need to have killed and drank that dude just a few dozen occasions alone.
Extra elegant water assortment choices ultimately seem, like instruments that harvest dew from crops and windtraps that seize moisture from the air, although as crafting will get extra advanced it requires stunning quantities of water, that means it is by no means a nasty time to cosplay a desert vampire and acquire just a few further liters of blood. Stockpiling different assets within the mid-to-late sport grows monotonous, too: some solely seem as loot in sure NPC strongholds, and solely in small quantities, which implies repeatedly raiding the identical places.
However there’s additionally the sort of grind I actually take pleasure in. I like hopping in a buggy and driving out for a useful resource run, utilizing a mining laser to extract minerals from boulders within the mountains or crystals within the murky ravines. I am at all times comfortable to fly my ‘thopter out to the dunes to gather a useful resource referred to as flour sand, dodging the offended sandworms that present up each jiffy.
When the survival techniques do not solely depend on killing the identical NPCs again and again, there’s an fulfilling routine that emerges (#desertlife), which incorporates patching up degraded gear and spot welding automobiles to restore their elements. These rituals make me really feel much less like a assassin and extra like somebody attempting to carve out a life on an inhospitable planet.
Whatcha Dune?
Development would not simply result in higher weapons and kit however the feeling that you just’re changing into extra part of the Dune universe, and I get a little bit buzz each time I advance sufficient to craft one thing from the fiction.
Bear in mind in Villeneuve’s first Dune film when Duke Leto will get shot within the again? He is acquired his protect on which protects him fast-moving blades and projectiles, however the dart slowly burrows via Leto’s protect till it incapacitates him. I’ve acquired a gun that does that now, referred to as a drillshot, and it is sick.
At the same time as an off-the-cuff Dune fan it is laborious to not get excited when creating and utilizing such iconic expertise.
The impact even appears to be like the identical because it does within the film, with the hovering dart turning the blue protect purple because it burrows via to search out the weak physique of no matter unfortunate NPC I’ve shot it at. We even have just a few Fremen deathstills (seen in Dune: Half Two) at my guild’s base that we are able to stick our bodies in to transform them into water.
It is gross to have corpses gently being liquified into ingesting water, but additionally fairly darn cool. Hunter-seeker drones, ornithopters, Holtzman shields, chrysknives: whilst an off-the-cuff Dune fan it is laborious to not get excited when creating and utilizing such iconic expertise.
The world is genuinely spectacular for its unimaginable verticality—in each instructions. There are towering cliffs and spires between the dunes, and a ravine that stretches throughout a whole area that is so deep I assumed at first it should simply be a bottomless void that you just’re meant to keep away from falling into. Nope. There is a backside to it, but it surely’s thus far down you’ll be able to’t even see it.
Getting across the map is a blast, too, as a result of you’ll be able to climb something, at the least so long as your stamina holds out. Throw in a grappling hook and suspensors you’ll be able to yoink your self upwards after which proceed rocketing skyward, or glide lots of of meters down with out taking fall harm.
Different conveniences, like having the ability to retailer sandbikes and ornithopters inside a particular device in your stock, are fairly foolish: like your horse in Elden Ring, you’ll be able to summon your bike or ‘thopter everytime you want it and pocket it when you do not. But it surely’s all a part of a journey system that reveals Funcom wished its world to be a playground, not a chore, to traverse.
Sport over, man!
Essentially the most controversial a part of Dune: Awakening (if the sheer variety of Reddit posts are to be believed) is the endgame. First is the Landsraad, a obscure try at a political framework that is half resource-collection and crafting chores, half PvP, and weirdly, half bingo card. It is realized with a 5×5 grid of duties that refresh every week, which if accomplished by gamers of 1 faction locks out the gamers of the opposite and lets the winner vote on the enactment of a brand new weekly server setting, like entry to distinctive distributors or diminished crafting prices.
To win the weekly Landsraad, one faction should make a bingo by finishing a line of 5 duties (up, down, or diagonally), so there’s some technique concerned in not simply attempting to finish your personal row however block your opponents.
Scorching take: I dig it. One afternoon as some Landsraad duties appeared, my guild chief and I scurried round to fulfil them. One job was to ship gems that are solely present in buried caches, so we every mounted scanners on our ‘thopters and barrelled out over the desert to dig them up whereas dodging sandworms and patches of quicksand. We later mass produced a bunch of knives for one more job and raced out to kill members of an NPC faction for one more.
Dashing round to finish these milestones is grindy however enjoyable, and it feels fairly satisfying to see a job accomplished understanding you contributed—to not point out that you just earn rewards like cash or gear for pitching in.
The issue with the Landsraad is that if I hadn’t logged in that day, and even throughout these specific few hours, I might have missed all that enjoyable. Even on the medium inhabitants server I play on, the Landsraad bingo board was accomplished barely two days into the brand new week. I like that simply a few gamers working collectively can have an effect on the endgame in a comparatively quick period of time, but it surely’s much less nice that the winner of the political bingo match might be decided in such a brief period of time.
As gamers attain the endgame and begin stockpiling obscene quantities of supplies of their bases, I’ve a tough time imagining how this method will proceed to be a satisfying one—particularly for extra informal gamers who primarily get time with the sport within the evenings or on weekends.
Ornery ‘thopters
The best tier assets, that are wanted to craft endgame automobiles and weapons, can solely be discovered within the deep desert, a majority PvP zone many occasions bigger than the PvE map. That is additionally the place you will discover uncommon blueprints for the very best gear and industrial quantities of spice. Even a fast raid on an NPC base within the deep desert will shortly fill your pockets with extremely helpful loot, and after my first go to, all I wished to do was return. The issue? There is a bunch extra sandworms attempting to eat you and a ton of different gamers seeking to gank you.
I have never carried out a ton of PvP in Dune: Awakening, and although I’ve misplaced all however a single struggle I nonetheless largely take pleasure in it. In contrast with the brain-dead NPCs, it is thrilling to see gamers utilizing their expertise and weapons unpredictably, even once they’re utilizing them to damage my day.
Take the man I callously sniped whereas he was exploring a shipwreck within the deep desert: I felt unhealthy for downing him as a result of he had no concept I used to be even there, so I let him self-revive. He then proceeded to completely wreck me with some stuns, a grenade, after which some well-delivered knife blows. (He didn’t return the favor and permit me to self-revive.)
That is Arrakis, in any case. I do not anticipate to at all times make it out in a single piece.
The remainder of PvP within the endgame zone is usually carried out with choppers and rockets—which looks like an odd design selection in a sport the place we spend almost 100 hours increase expertise that don’t have anything to do with airborne fight. It may be brutal: I have been chased midway throughout the map whereas being ruthlessly pummeled by missiles from different ‘thopters, however I do not actually hate it. I like the chance of creating excursions into the PvP zone, similar as how I like tempting destiny with sandworms. That is Arrakis, in any case. I do not anticipate to at all times make it out in a single piece.
I’ve loved almost all of my time in Dune: Awakening. I like many of the survival grind, there’s tons of Dune tech that feels actually cool to craft and use even in case you aren’t up on 4,000 years’ price of Duncan Idaho lore, and I largely dig the endgame techniques, regardless that they seem to be a bit oddly designed.
The perfect praise I can bestow is that even after 100 hours, after I see a sandworm breach or I hear one other participant’s ‘thopter approaching, Dune: Awakening nonetheless makes my coronary heart pound.