As a somewhat lapsed FFXIV player, I’d been looking for my next MMO fix. I’m very picky, though. I’m an introvert, so the MMO needs to be enjoyable as a solo player. But I also like the feeling of community, so the MMO needs to be populated with players that I can spend my time people-watching. I have a lizard brain that loves watching numbers go up, so the MMO needs to be grindy in a pleasurable way. I’ve never been too fussed about combat, but bonus points if the combat is actually fun. Dune: Awakening doesn’t quite check all these boxes, but there’s enough here to at least keep me coming back for more.
The Story Actually Matters
Dune: Awakening takes place in an alternate timeline. One where Paul Atreides was never born and the Fremen were allegedly wiped out. Your player character hails from a fallen House and your directive is simple: find the Fremen. To that end, there are several Trials you must complete over the course of the story. Each one brings you a little closer to the truth, and to Funcom’s credit, the story here is actually quite engaging.
Even as someone who’s never particularly cared about the story in an MMO (FFXIV being the sole exception), I found myself pleasantly surprised by what Dune: Awakening had to offer. The voice acting is shockingly good, and as a rather recent Dune convert (thanks Timothy and Zendaya), it didn’t take long for me to get immersed in its sandy wastelands, hoping to find some hint of the Lisan al Gaib even though the game told me right from the start such a being didn’t exist in this timeline.
The point is, the story’s good. The Trials are largely puzzle-based affairs that never get boring, and if you’re just here for the plot, I think you’ll be pleased with what’s on offer here.
As for the MMO portion of the game, well that’s entirely different story altogether. For the most part, I enjoyed my time in Dune: Awakening. My character started off as a Swordmaster, though I eventually ventured into Bene Gesserit territory to really bring my Jedi-inspired build together. Combat is a rather basic affair, and you’ll spend most of your time shooting darts or knifing/swording people in the face. With my build, I was able to dash forward with flying knee thumps and use my mind powers to fling people around, but for the most part, it’s all rather samey.
Combat is easily the weakest aspect of Dune: Awakening. It’s easy and repetitive, and it doesn’t help that enemy variety is woefully lacking, too. There are dudes with guns, dudes with knives, sometimes they look a little bit different, but really, they’re all more or less the same.
Personally, I didn’t mind the repetitive combat because that’s not really what I’m here for, but it certainly did start to feel dry after a certain point.
A Literal Dune Sandbox
What I did enjoy, however, was the base-building and the pure immersion that came with exploring this literal Dune sandbox. I’m a huge sucker for survival games with base-building elements, and that’s exactly what Dune: Awakening excels at. The survival aspects aren’t quite as intense here; you just have to keep an eye on a hydration meter and make sure you’ve got access to different sources of liquids to keep yourself hydrated. And no, you can’t just keep drinking flower dew or you’ll make yourself sick.
Early on in the game, one of my main sources of liquids was blood. Literally. The blood of my enemies was what sustained me, and I’m here for it. Dune: Awakening comes with a very comprehensive tutorial section that walks you through the basics of survival, and when I finally got the opportunity to craft an injection gun that would let me siphon my enemies’ blood into a blood bag and drink it straight, I was thrilled.
You can, of course, build a machine back at your base to purify the blood and that’ll be more efficient for keeping your hydration up. In fact, it’s recommended that you do that. But look, you get to drink raw blood straight from your enemies’ dead bodies. At the risk of sounding like an unhinged psychopath, how cool is that?
The base-building elements are decent, too. Customization options feel a little limited right now, but that could very well change down the road. Plus, what’s on offer at launch isn’t terrible. Your first few bases (and yes, you will have many bases) will likely just look like industrial, utilitarian cubes. Give it a few tries, and you’ll eventually start building more interesting-looking structures, carved straight into the side of a rock face.
I love how easy it is to hunker down and build a base. Dune: Awakening makes sure that the resources you need to set up a basic shelter are always in abundance, and tearing down structures also refunds the materials used, which opens up a lot of room for experimentation and creativity. For folks who love the Dune universe, I genuinely think you’ll find a lot to love here. There’s something inherently satisfying about carving out your own space in the unforgiving desert and making it your own.
The Endgame
Because this is an MMO, there has to be some sort of endgame grind. Unfortunately, Dune: Awakening falls short in that department. Much of the endgame content takes place in the Deep Desert region. This is where you’ll tackle your PvE grind like Spice runs, as well as PvP skirmishes if you’re into that.
In terms of the PvE content, Dune: Awakening is serviceable. The Spice grind can get repetitive, and I did find that this is where the difficulty started to ramp up quite a bit, especially for a solo player like myself. It’s not impossible, though do be warned that you’ll likely need to spend some extra time farming up better gear before you’re ready for the challenges ahead.
The PvP grind, on the other hand, feels completely pointless. Here’s the thing: all the classes in Dune: Awakening are so strong that trying to fight other players can feel like a futile effort. Every class comes with the ability to sustain themselves or run away. PvP fights often boil down to protracted skirmishes between two players, which then end when one player decides they’re bored, and they bolt.
The meta, then, revolves around players getting into their Ornithopter and crushing their on-foot opponent. This is massively unfun for either player, and PvP feels a bit silly as a result.
Dune: Awakening certainly falls short when it comes to the endgame, but it more than makes up for it with the hundreds of hours you’ll get out of it before then, as long as you’re taking your time to see the sights. The weirdest thing is that I’m not sure this even needed to be an MMO. I would’ve been perfectly happy with a Dune survival game that’s all about base-building. Throw in some multiplayer elements, sure, but I certainly don’t need that massive shared world experience to have a good time.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on PC.
