Dune: Awakening tasks players with surviving Arrakis & building an empire

What begins as a solo journey of survival will evolve into a socio-political war of spice and intrigue as players venture deeper into Dune: Awakening.

Image via Funcom
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Earlier this January, Funcom finally hosted one of the first hands-on looks at its latest ambitious project, Dune: Awakening. Much like Conan Exiles, Awakening is a multiplayer survival game set in a popular universe, this time that of Frank Herbert’s Dune sci-fi series. However, as Funcom itself said, the studio wouldn’t have its identity if it didn’t try new things. As such, don’t expect Dune: Awakening to be a simple survival endeavor on Arrakis. Survival, as I played, will most certainly be part of it, and the journey is looking ambitious and promising, but the real spice will be in the activity that takes place once you’ve survived and are in a place of power.

A universe without the Kwisatz Haderach

Dune: Awakening has been worked on closely with Legendary Pictures and the Herbert Estate. No strangers to dealing with the restrictions of an IP, Funcom nonetheless worked with both entities closely in using the Dune universe for its own game. As such, here is the twist that forms Dune’s foundation: This game represents a possible path that was seen within the powerful psionic mind of Paul Atreides. It was a path not his own and impossibly so, because it was a path in which Paul was not born. Lady Jessica instead followed the will of the psionic Bene Gesserit sisterhood and bears a daughter for Duke Leto Atreides.

In a universe where Paul is never born, never goes to Arrakis, and never realizes his fate as the powerful Kwisatz Haderach and leader of the Fremen people, things are quite different. The Atreides and Harkonnen battle over the rights to harvest spice from Dune. The Fremen are seemingly wiped out or chased away, and the control of the planet hangs in the balance. In this alternate universe, the player takes on the role of a key player in the Bene Gesserit plan. They have the chance to choose their fate and change that of Arrakis. To that end, the player character is sent away on a ship that crashes on Arrakis and they begin their journey to survive the planet and rise to power.

Survival in the harshest lands

Survivors spy a sandworm in the distance in Dune: Awakening
Source: Funcom

According to Funcom, Dune: Awakening will be broken up into multiple major and expanding spheres of gameplay. Survival, combat, and crafting alone are the first part, and what we played in the preview. After an extensive and satisfying character creator, you choose your background, including what planet you were born on, what caste you were, and what you want as your class specialty. Blademasters specialize in melee combat, Bene Gesserits in mental abilities that weaken foes, Mentats in technology and mild psionic abilities, and Soldiers in firearms and ordinance. You’ll become strong in one class, but you can also learn the skill trees other classes later.

Regardless, in this stage, players learn to craft weapons, clothes, ammo, and other provisions. You’ll learn to build bases and how to navigate Arrakis and its dangers. Raiders are usually hiding in any rocky formation with base camps heaped in scrap and pilfered belongings, hiding from the sun which can harm you if you stay in its direct rays. Clearing these camps doesn’t just give you more materials to build your base. Harvesting the blood of your enemies and taking it to a machine to separate the water from it helps to keep you alive. You can also drink the blood raw, but, suitably, you’ll get sick. But it may be necessary in a desperate pinch. The point is that’s a choice you make.

The character creator in Dune: Awakening, on a page where we get to adjust tattoos.
Source: Funcom

Wandering fast between rocky crags was also important because, as you may have guessed, there are giant sandworms. Wandering on clear sand away from rock formations will almost certainly get a worm’s attention if you don’t skedaddle to safety. A tremor gauge tells you when one is dangerously close. Moreover, if you get eaten, you don’t just die and have to respawn. No, you risk losing all of your gear including your equipped weapons and clothes. This was a bit too devastating in my opinion, so I hope they lessen that penalty. I didn’t stay long enough to have to rebuild my gear and I kind of dreaded the thought. Thankfully, paying attention to the map also made it pretty easy to dodge the worms in the preview, so maybe that was Funcom’s way of saying I deserved to have my gear converted to worm poop.

Thankfully, you won’t have to trek it on foot forever. It won’t be long before you reach settlements, take your first mercenary contracts, which include jobs from the Atreides and/or Harkonnen, and then get to build vehicles to get you around an expanded territory. Yes, the Ornithopter is available, and we did get to fly it around a bit. It’s not just damn cool, it’ll also keep you out of danger of becoming worm chow, as long as you park it somewhere safe when you’re not using it (vehicles may also potentially become worm chow).

Knife fighting an enemy with a shield in Dune: Awakening
Source: Funcom

There will also be dungeons in this game, not to mention missions that demand you go down into the deepest depths of them. The example of a dungeon we saw early on was an underground biological laboratory that was attempting to create plants that could survive on Arrakis. They failed, and a bunch of maddened scavengers were left behind. That said, they had stuff we needed for crafting, so we cut and shot our way through them.

Combat in Dune: Awakening operates on rules consistent with the universe. There are shields, and they can be used to block all sorts of gunfire. The only way to get past one is when an enemy is firing their own weapon, bringing their shield down, or getting in close and stabbing them with a slow blade, but they’ll dodge you if you try to do it without stunning them. Finesse is required if you want to win in close quarters. All of the same rules apply to you with shields, including the “getting stabbed” part. You could also use your class skills to win. Bene Gesserits can force a foe to stand still obediently or lose sight of them while Blademasters specialize in the close-range kill and Soldiers have special means of killing foes with firearms. As a Mentat, I could put out an auto turret, create an energy bunker, or make my headshots even more deadly. Each class has its perks and extensive skill trees to explore.

Expanding to wider spheres

Ornithopters and other vehicles traveling around a settlement in Dune: Awakening
Source: Funcom

What we played above was just one part of the equation for Dune: Awakening: developing the means to survive on your own. What comes next is surviving with others, broadening your sphere to ally with groups and clans to build and achieve power that couldn’t be obtained solo. You’ll take part in allying with factions and carving your part in Arrakis. You’ll develop the means to do things like harvest spice, develop commercial and technological power, and engage in the basis of organizational gameplay.

The endgame of Dune: Awakening, once you have the power, is to figure out what you need to keep it. You’ll have to outmaneuver other groups that want to harvest the spice and have the power on Arrakis, same as you. Whether it means battling with other factions, or just making sure you get out with enough spice on your harvester and carrier Ornithopter before a sandworm shows up, Funcom wants the endgame to be a tug of war of socio-economic power and survival.

Bend like the sands

A Harkonnen hall in Dune: Awakening.
Source: Funcom

What Funcom has described is nothing if not ambitious, but what we played showed potential. It seems very clear that the developer is applying lessons it’s learned over the years of maintaining Conan Exiles and games like it. However, I’m interested to see how quick that early section of the game is. Survival is part of Dune: Awakening, but just one piece of the puzzle, and it looks like Funcom has an incredibly complex puzzle in front of it. Will the early learning and low-level survival game be compelling enough to get us to that next sphere? Will those expanded spheres beyond the ground game be worth the journey? It remains to be seen, but Arrakis is looking like a bold new horizon, and this fertile timeline full of possibilities Funcom has crafted seems well worth watching as it develops.


These impressions are based on a presentation and early build of the game offered by the publisher. Dune: Awakening is expected to launch on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC sometime in 2025.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.

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