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I've spent hundreds of hours in Conan Exiles, and hundreds more in similar survival games like Ark, Don't Starve, Grounded, and Valheim, but playing Dune: Awakening made me realize that the formula I've grown so accustomed to over the years isn't necessary to make a genre gem. Funcom's upcoming adaptation of sci-fi star Frank Herbert's decades-old universe isn't afraid to sprinkle some spice into that reliable recipe, and that's why I love it.
While I only spent around eight hours playing the new Dune game, it was enough time to grow properly acquainted with (and genuinely hooked on) the ways that Fucnom's unique MMO-survival blend stands apart from its predecessors. I went into it ready to grapple with pesky hunger bars, translucent building screens, and vicious beasts. Instead, I found sandworms.
Besides the subterranean monsters shaking the ground I walked on, I was also met with a relentless thirst that called for some seriously creative solutions, and an unforgiving desert planet inhabited by ever-warring cultures. This is no Conan Exiles – this is Dune, through and through, in all of its parched, political glory. This was the lore I grew up with, the lore my father grew up with – 60 years of world-building, reimagined for a video game I can't wait to play more of.
Beginnings are such delicate times
While Dune: Awakening aligns itself well with Herbert's books and, of course, Denis Villeneuve's films, it follows its own alternate timeline in which Paul of House Atreides was never born. Lady Jessica instead birthed the daughter she was meant to birth for the Bene Gesserit, which also means that the Duke never died.
It's an exciting spin on the story many of us already know and love, offering Funcom a degree of creative freedom it wouldn't otherwise have. Everything is familiar enough to dedicated Dune fans while also feeling new – a breath of fresh air for the beloved setting. The choices I had in character creation proved as much, where I gave myself a Harkonnen background marked by deception and nobility: "A place for every man and every man in his place."
I also opted to walk the Bene Gesserit path, because who wouldn't want to have the Voice on their side? I felt all the more comfortable with my decisions after surviving the gom jabbar test and embarking on my sand-swept journey, too. Not everyone on Arrakis can compel others to stop in their tracks and accept their death without so much as a peep, after all, but I was thrilled to find that I could do so with ease – and much more besides.
From water does all life begin
As producer Nils Ryborg tells me, "water is the most important thing on Arrakis." You don't need to worry about food while playing Dune: Awakening, but you sure as hell have to worry about water. Arrakis is a dry planet with unrelenting sandstorms – the game doesn't need a hunger mechanic to feel like a survival experience, because before you know it, you'll find yourself parched in the middle of nowhere with no water in sight.
Upon wrapping up in the character creation menu and leaving the tutorial cave, I immediately learn what it means to be thirsty to the point of death. My cyberpunk-esque white hair and cool, black irises can't save me in the dunes, unfortunately – not from hot worm summer. I desperately drink the dew from scattered plants in caverns for a small bit of hydration, but it wasn't until later on that I truly mastered the art of gathering water.
Once I discover and advance the in-game technology tree, a menu fellow survival stans know well, I unlock the ability to harvest blood from foes and transform it into clean water. By drinking the blood of my enemies, I potentially have a handle on my thirst – but most importantly, it would be by choice. You don't have to take the morally gray route and drink refined blood, but doing so made more sense than gathering dew as a hardened Harkonnen.
Such person-dependent choices are core to Dune: Awakening and how true the game stays to the pre-established universe. They're not the only way Funcom's survival MMO is loyal to its source material, however – one feature in particular not only proves Dune: Awakening's attention to Herbert's lore, but also separates the experience from any other in the survival genre: massive, largely unavoidable sandworms.
I expected them, as any longtime Dune fan would, but I didn't expect them to be as much of a game-changer as they are. Dune: Awakening doesn't boast the enemy variety other fantasy or survival titles do, but the sandworms make up for it and then some. There's sand everywhere (this is Dune, after all), which means that getting around the map is a constant internal battle between your own fear and powering through it to progress.
Once you step onto the sand and off the safety provided by cliffs and caves, the brilliant sound design coupled with the sandworm's whale-like groans make you feel as though you're in Jaws – you're being circled by a monster that can destroy you and everything you've built or gathered in one simple move. You might get a warning vocalization or two, or you might not – but you'd better hope you do if you want to survive.
Fear is the mind-killer
"A game with its own identity"
Sandworms present me with another obstacle. How and where will I set up my base? Base building is one of my favorite survival game features, just as decorating homes is one of my most beloved MMO mechanics. I couldn't just set up shop anywhere, though. I'd risk losing everything to a sandworm's gaping mouth. I knew that I'd have to settle for a base elsewhere, away from the sea of sand encompassing so much of the map.
Thankfully, there are trusty red rock formations and hanging cliffs scattered about Arrakis. I found a spot I liked and tried not to worry too much about wanting to move later on, as the game features a handy copy-and-paste system for builds. Building is so much fun with all of the customization and Funcom's attention to detail in design, I lost literal hours to it. The grid and snap systems were finicky at times, but as an Ark veteran, I can safely say they could be much worse.
I could've spent all day tweaking my base, unlocking better recipes, building more floors and layers, decorating to my heart's content, and coming away with the base of my dreams – which I feel speaks to the quality of Dune: Awakening's more survival-aligned gameplay. I'm looking forward to the day I can build a guild house with my friends now, and perhaps even dominate a portion of the map in PvP if I'm lucky.
When it comes to PvP, it's as unique as everything else on Arrakis. In Dune, killing isn't necessarily power. Taking on enemies is important in PvP, of course, but something else is even more important: spice. He who controls it controls it all, as fans know - and Dune: Awakening offers no exception. From collecting to selling, players can establish a true monopoly over it.
There's more to the PvP than just spice, but spice is a big deal in both PvP and PvE. You can use it, sure, but are you ready to deal with the reliance upon spice that comes with its use? It may help you become more capable momentarily, but you'll end up needing more of it, and going without it will hurt, to put it lightly. I'd find myself enjoying spice melange one minute, only to have none left on me the next. It's the sort of balancing act not found in other survival games – a thought-provoking mechanic unique to Funcom's MMO.
Dune: Awakening is "a game with its own identity," according to Ryborg, and I'm inclined to agree. Between the sandworms and the spice, blood-drinking, and constant danger of Arrakis, there are so many special features that make it a delight for both older Dune fans and general survival genre stans searching for something new alike - and boy, can I not wait to dive back into the sandy depths. Wriggling worms and all.
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