I played Dune: Awakening and in just two minutes I angered a sandworm, nearly died of thirst, and was killed by scavengers

Dune: Awakening feels familiar, yet overwhelmingly specific. It's a real treat for Dune fans, I think to myself as I sit down to the 45-minute demo at Gamescom, even if its survival crafting-meets-MMO formula gives me flashes of Minecraft, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, and even Lego Fortnite. 

In Dune: Awakening, though, the world's hostility functions as a character trait. Arrakis is an arid desert planet where dehydration, heatstroke, and being swallowed whole by the insidious sandworms pose near constant risk. Even night time offers no solace, as searchlights will try and light you up for the kill squads on your tail. In short, Dune: Awakening makes for a curious yet brilliant stage to set a game where survival isn't just difficult, it's also purposely complicated – as I find out almost immediately.

Off to never never land

As I step out of my wrecked ship, I'm warned to quickly find shelter and water. This proves a lot easier said than done: a sprawling desert wasteland spreads out before me in all directions, a gaping maw of sandy wilderness ready to swallow me whole. I mean that figuratively as well as literally, because no sooner do I start sprinting across the dunes (geddit) the ground beneath me starts to quake. Enter the sandworm.

It's a brief introduction, and a terrifying one at that. The presence of the sandworm immediately puts me on edge, and as I nervously make my way to the welcoming shade of a nearby stony cluster, I vow to avoid it at all costs.

After talking with Joel Bylos, studio CCO and Dune: Awakening creative designer, it seems I'm experiencing the intended reaction. "I've always described the sandworm as a tension mechanic for players. Every time you step onto that sand you feel like the Jaws music starts, and we don't want that feeling to really go away." 

Besides keeping players on their toes, the sandworm injects a clear sense of the lore, stakes, and potential dangers of Arrakis. "And then the other side of this, of course, is because we're bastards," Bylos laughs. "It's like, we get you nice and cozy and understanding that you're safe on rock, and then we're like, now you need to go out here onto the sand to get this thing you need right now. You need to go out there to get flowers [for hydration] too, so the tension should never go away for players. Even when they have flying vehicles, they have to land them on the sand to pick up that stuff, right?"

On that note, the flying vehicles in Dune: Awakening are a godsend. The kindly developer watching my every move during the demo implements a few cheats so that I can experience flying an Ornithopter for myself, though I'm told the ability to do so is usually locked behind a high level roughly 10 hours into the game. It speaks to the sheer expanse of Dune: Awakening and the systems it boasts, from the basics of crafting, scavenging, and base building, to a quest-driven storyline and the journey system intended to flesh out smaller areas of lore akin to side missions or step-by-step how-to's.

Grappling with each system would take far too long, especially given how closely each one ties into the lore and worldbuilding of the Dune franchise. Still, the taste I've had so far is a promising one for Dune superfans everywhere. These clever system integrations are part of what makes Dune: Awakening another survival feather in developer Funcom's hat, and if there's anyone that can do justice to a Dune MMO, I think it's safe in the Conan Exiles studio's hands.

GamesRadar+ is in Cologne playing the most anticipated new games of 2024, and speaking to the developers bringing them to life. For more of our hands-on previews and exclusive interviews, visit the Gamescom 2024 coverage hub.