Dune is by far one of the most influential science fiction novels, with a legacy now reaching back over six decades that has found its way into the film, television, and video game media. Developer Funcom is now poised to hop on that bandwagon with its upcoming survival-crafting MMO Dune: Awakening , which will take players to a reimagined Arrakis when it launches on June 10, 2025, with a headstart beginning on June 5. While there is certainly no shortage of survival MMOs out there, Dune: Awakening already looks to offer a compelling blend of resource management , political intrigue, and exploration, all set against the backdrop of a universe where Paul Atreides was never born.
Game Rant was recently able to play a beta for Dune: Awakening that was meant to represent the first 20–25 hours of the game, but we ended up spending around 30 or so just pacing ourselves in its immersive world. The full game will feature over 100 hours of gameplay, but based on the 30 that we already spent in Dune: Awakening , it's shaping up to be a fulfilling and daunting survival MMO experience.
Rather than taking place in the Dune universe the most fanatic players have become familiar with, Dune: Awakening is set in an alternate timeline where Paul Atreides was never born, Arrakis is caught in a civil war between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, and the Fremen have mysteriously vanished. The player takes on the role of a nameless prisoner sent to Arrakis by the Bene Gesserit to investigate the disappearance of the Fremen and „awake the Sleeper.“
As soon as Dune: Awakening starts, players enter the dark hall of the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam , who beckons them with a simple, „Show yourself, child,“ and the character creator opens. There are a wide variety of different characteristics for players to adjust here — like Voice, Height, Face Type, Age, and the most intricate details of the character's build, hair, eyes, and much more. It's not the most extensive character creator ever made, but it's robust enough to offer some deep personalization for a survival-crafting MMO. If the options are too overwhelming, there are also countless presets for players to choose from.
Once their character model is complete, players enter their name and the Reverend Mother initiates a character-building conversation with them. Here, she asks questions like „Where were you born?“ and a list of even more customization options presents itself. Throughout the conversation, players will choose their homeworld, caste, and mentor, with each choice granting them a specific trait, bonus, or skill. The player's choice of homeworld gives them a unique dialogue trait and emote, their chosen caste gives them yet another dialogue trait, and their mentor affects their training and starting ability.
Upon finalizing the player character, a cutscene plays out where the Reverend Mother gives the player their task during the iconic Gom Jabbar test . It's certainly an immersive way for Dune: Awakening to begin, especially for fans of the franchise. On top of that, the character creation portion of this whole sequence is already plenty deep for a survival MMO, so players can be sure they're setting off on their journey into Arrakis as the character they want to be.
From there, a cutscene plays, after which players are led through a linear level designed as a tutorial of sorts about Dune: Awakening 's most basic mechanics. Generic survival-crafting mechanics , like how to craft basic weapons and items, are gone over during this portion of the game, but there are a few things unique to Dune: Awakening that are covered here too.
For example, players can freely climb walls as long as they have the stamina necessary to do so, similarly to Zelda: Breath of the Wild 's climbing mechanics . Dune: Awakening 's dehydration mechanic is also introduced here, which requires players to stay hydrated at all times using Dew Flowers on the ground or other methods. Otherwise, their stamina, health, and movement are negatively impacted. A mechanic called Sunstroke also factors into dehydration, which encourages players to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun by staying in the shadows. Should Sunstroke occur, the dehydration rate will increase until players find somewhere to cool off.
The Hydration bar is split into thirds, indicating which positive or negative effects players are influenced by. Keeping the Hydration Level above one-third gives a bonus to the player's maximum stamina, which is further increased by keeping it over two-thirds. The catch is that Dew Flowers can only fill it to a maximum of one-third, so they can't be relied on long-term. Once things open up, players will get the chance to extract blood from defeated enemies in Dune: Awakening , which they can either drink to increase their Hydration Level or put into a Blood Purifier for even better Hydration.
One other important element introduced during Dune: Awakening 's tutorial is the Cutteray, which is the player's primary mining tool. Using the Cutteray's Analysis Mode, players scan a resource to detect hidden structural weaknesses within it. Once a weakness has been detected, it appears as a jagged line across the node, and the Cutteray is then used to trace the line until the resource breaks and the materials are automatically added to the player's inventory. The Cutteray can also cut open certain locked doors, making it a very useful tool, but the best thing about it is that it isn't just a „point and shoot“ harvesting tool.
Dune: Awakening 's combat is also gone over during this sequence, beginning with melee combat. Integrated into the game's melee combat is the ability to stagger enemies by slashing at them multiple times, leaving them open to future attacks. Enemy attacks can also be blocked, with a perfectly timed block executing a parry attack that staggers the opponent. Should players be staggered by an enemy, however, they can quickly dash out of it by inputting the correct key.
Dune: Awakening also features shielded enemies that are a bit of a nuisance to deal with, especially for those who prefer a ranged playstyle. Shielded enemies take almost zero damage from attacks, but executing a Slow Blade attack (essentially a charged attack) can not only deactivate their shields but also often kill them in the process.
There are other non-combat mechanics introduced here as well, like Pentashield Barriers of a particular color, which can only be passed through if players manage to find a nearby Wristband Key of a matching color. This certainly has some puzzle potential to it, and there were a few times during our preview that we encountered situations like that, but it seemed to lean more on the gimmicky side of things this early in the game. There are some areas in Dune: Awakening that feel like mazes due to Pentashield Barriers, requiring players to take certain routes before they can take others, so there's potential there for the system to get even more interesting later on in the game.
All of this, of course, is happening alongside a developing story that we won't go over here to avoid spoilers for those interested. However, it's worth noting that players do encounter a figure by the name of Zantara who acts as a guide for the duration of their journey. In Dune: Awakening 's earliest moments , he chimes in with frequent advice, with those calls becoming less frequent the further players progress through the game. Once the initial tutorial concludes, players are brought to Dune: Awakening 's open world and its first major zone: Hagga Basin South.
As soon as things open up and players are finally introduced to Dune: Awakening 's open world, the game completely changes. Immediately, it was easy to get a sense of just how unforgiving the world is, even with Zantara's hand guiding us through it all. While some of this was due to being out in the open now with no idea of what to do next, much of it was on account of the fact that Dune 's dreaded sandworms had now entered the arena, which alone is enough to make the unending desert a terrifying thing to set foot on.
Nevertheless, we pressed on, collecting any materials we came across until we unlocked the Research menu — a staple of survival-crafting games . In the Research menu, players can spend Intel points to unlock designs for Dune: Awakening 's hefty library of craftable clothing, items, and other equipment, as well as see the location of the components necessary to craft those items. Using the Intel we had already gathered, we researched designs for a Makeshift armor set, crafted it, and equipped it for our continued adventure.
Zantara then instructed us to make an Improvised Maula Pistol, which we could combine with crafted Light Darts and use against any enemies we encountered. Since we chose to let Zantara guide us rather than wander off, we didn't encounter any enemies right away. However, as we got further in the game, the Maula Pistol became a close friend, as Dune: Awakening 's enemies are always alert, making it difficult to sneak up on them for a melee advantage.
From there, Https://Observatorioedu.Com/ Zantara walked us through the basics of surviving out in Dune: Awakening 's open world, from building shelter to raiding Scavenger Camps. In fact, this is largely the survival-crafting gameplay loop for Dune: Awakening — raiding Scavenger Camps and then using the materials to progressively build a better base and craft better weapons and armor. Some Scavenger Camps are small, with only one or a few enemies, while others are much larger, requiring a bit more firepower and finesse. The larger camps also come with better rewards though, so it's worth it in the end.
Of course, the true threats of Dune: Awakening 's open world are sandworms and coriolis storms. If players are defeated in any other way in the game, they have the option to either self-revive or intentionally succumb to the desert. If they do perish in those circumstances, they can retrieve all of their belongings in typical survival-crafting MMO fashion. Should they be swallowed by a sandworm or die in the middle of a coriolis storm, on the other hand, they will lose all of their belongings permanently.
Traversing Dune: Awakening 's desert alongside rock formations and human habitations is safe, but once players head out into the open desert, they'll be greeted by a daunting Sandworm Threat meter, which shows the noise they're making while walking on the sand. Should the meter turn red at any point, it means that a sandworm is near. That sandworm will then emerge from the ground and roar, which is really just a sign that players only have moments left to reach a safe zone before the sandworm begins to hunt them down.
Coriolis storms will also occur with very little warning, upon which players need to find shelter in a rock formation, their base, or infrastructure of some kind in order to avoid succumbing to it. Players will receive a warning that a storm is approaching, but that leaves them with maybe around one minute to find somewhere safe. Fortunately, by the time they experience their first one out in the wild, they should have their own base constructed.
More than anything, Dune: Awakening 's open world is already incredibly immersive. The sound of a sandworm moving across the landscape is chill-inducing; the ambiance of the expansive desert makes it feel almost too real at times; and the sheer size of everything brings the world of Dune , which has largely only been read about and seen on this level, into an interactive experience unlike anything else.
During our time with the beta, we got to visit three of Dune: Awakening 's zones, but there will be a whopping twenty-one in the full game. Each zone follows a similar loop and is essentially structured the same. There are multiple side quests and activities to complete and locations to explore in each zone, with Shipwrecks that even function as PvP zones with some of the game's best loot. Dune: Awakening 's story also gradually guides players from one zone to the next, and the pacing feels right on par for where the game is at currently.
There are also plenty of skills to unlock in Dune: Awakening that give players new combat abilities and also affect things like their stamina, health, and Hydration Level. These can be really helpful in the long run, though they're not necessarily the core of Dune: Awakening 's gameplay .
While players will spend several hours just running through the desert from one location to the next, they'll eventually get the opportunity to build a Sandbike, which can be constructed piece by piece and customized to suit the needs of the owner. It can even be built to have its own inventory, which can be very helpful to hoarders. Initially, the Sandbike makes it a bit easier to avoid sandworms, but that changes the further players get into the game. Eventually, they'll be required to be much smarter about the routes they take. Even so, there's nothing quite like zooming through Dune: Awakening 's Arrakis on your very own Sandbike.
As a reminder, this is all done while still managing Hydration, which can be a bit demanding at times. Thankfully, Dune: Awakening allows for the crafting of a Stillsuit to retain more water, although those sets offer less defense than some of the other armor sets. Needless to say, however, there's more than enough to craft, plenty to do, and a lot of desert to explore in Dune: Awakening , so players who are in it for the long haul will be most rewarded for their efforts.
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After spending around 30 hours with it, it's clear that Dune: Awakening is shaping up to be one of the more ambitious survival MMOs in recent memory, not because it reinvents the genre, but because it layers familiar mechanics onto a world that feels alive, dangerous, and deeply rooted in the Dune mythos. There's still a lot we didn't get to see in the beta, especially regarding faction dynamics and long-term political systems, but even in its first 30 hours, Dune: Awakening manages to feel dense, punishing, and even meditative at times.
Some systems still feel like they're finding their footing, and parts of the early experience may need a bit more tuning before launch. Even so, there's something captivating about slowly establishing yourself in a place that seems determined to erase you. The grind is real, the dangers are constant, and the sandworms are always listening. If the rest of the game delivers on the same level as the preview, Dune: Awakening could end up feeling less like a survival game and more like a long-term test of will.
