Dune Awakening was offered by Funcom for evaluation. Thanks!
With so many survival video games on the market and it being one among my favourite genres, I’ve performed numerous Rust, Minecraft, Enshrouded, and not too long ago V Rising. With Dune Awakening, I received to playtest by the beginning of this 12 months, and I shortly realized the way it throws you into a posh world constructed on a long time of sci-fi historical past, and it is an unbelievable expertise.
When the sport begins, you are hit with names, occasions, and terminology that will not make a lot sense except you have dipped into the books or films of the Dune franchise, however do not let it discourage you. Nonetheless, you could really feel slightly overwhelmed. There’s an in-game archive to assist, and it’s fairly in-depth, however do not anticipate it to carry your hand.
Initially pitched as a survival MMO, the builders have now clarified it is a multiplayer survival sport on a large scale. The sport is damaged up into servers, so there aren’t a whole lot/hundreds of gamers on one server, and it depends extra on the survival and crafting expertise alongside the storyline. In reality, exterior of commerce posts and social hubs, it is uncommon to stumble upon one other participant. The sport additionally has international chat channels and shut proximity chat to work together with different gamers. You may work together with different gamers and be a part of them or invite them to your guild, however it is not a requirement. I feel that is not unhealthy, particularly for solo gamers, and you are not punished for enjoying alone, a minimum of not till the end-game content material.
The story turns away from the established Dune lore by that includes a world the place Paul Atreides is rarely born. You might be thrust into the function of a Bene Gesserit, an agent tasked with unveiling the Fremen’s destiny and “awakening the Sleeper.” You may navigate the planet Arrakis, the place battle between Home Atreides and Home Harkonnen rages, locked in civil warfare for management of the planet. You’re a prisoner who’s simply been dropped into this hostile surroundings.
The primary 10 to twenty hours are spent gathering analysis sources whereas tackling the challenges the continued day and evening cycle brings. Within the Solar, warmth is your enemy; spending an excessive amount of time within the solar quickly drains your hydration degree, which is your predominant concern relating to survival. At evening, you get convoys that hunt life of their drones, and you have to transfer tactically. Nonetheless, there are challenges whatever the time of day, like Sandworms popping out of nowhere to eat you up. So, you have to be positive about traversal when transferring throughout longer patches within the desert, sticking to rocky floor when you’ll be able to.
There isn’t any starvation system within the sport; as an alternative, it’s a must to preserve your water provide stuffed. This may be performed by gathering dew from sure vegetation, extracting and purifying the blood of fallen foes, and later by sure constructions. Water is used to maintain each you alive and extensively for crafting, so you may at all times must preserve massive quantities of water readily available.
The start a part of the sport is structured into chapters or sections of the map, that are open areas you are meant to discover between these story parts. You employ the gathered information you have gained by exploring these open PvE sections to cross an enormous, expansive desert the place your understanding of the mechanics is examined. It is at all times meant to be this heart-pounding expertise, and can constantly provide thrilling challenges.
One other intelligent factor is how they introduce PvP. PvP cannot simply occur wherever. PvP zones are current within the Deep Desert and primarily provide high-tier rewards, in addition to Spice, a very powerful useful resource on the earth. Dying in PvP may end up in shedding all of your stock; it is high-risk, high-reward. Nonetheless, you’re at all times on the verge of getting raided for Guilds and Bases. Dune Awakening doesn’t go hardcore on this, protects you from griefing, and solely permits participant harm to your base for those who construct it in a PvP Zone.
The overwhelming majority of the map within the Basin space is simply PvE, however there are sections that you will discover which are enabled for PvP. These are sometimes issues like shipwrecks that you will discover lodged in mountainsides or crashed in open deserts. Nonetheless, these within the open desert are a bit extra harmful and momentary than those on mountains, as they’re 100% assured to finally be swallowed by a worm. So, you are not solely combating towards gamers however towards the eventuality of it being fully consumed.
These PvP areas at all times comprise tougher NPCs to face off towards. However on the finish of those mini-dungeons, you may discover rarer gadgets like higher blueprints for weapons or armor and even supplies you should utilize to craft a number of the extra advanced gadgets within the sport. In the event you aren’t ready for this PvP, you should buy a lot of the gadgets you’ll be able to loot in these zones in a number of the service provider NPC shops you may discover situated all through the map.
Character creation in Dune Awakening is essential for shaping your expertise on Arrakis. The character creator is in depth, permitting many customization choices, together with selecting your house planet, caste, and mentor. These alternatives have an effect on your skills, dialogue, potential perks, and entry, supplying you with an opportunity to specific your self and construct out the character you need. You can too categorical your self in your base design decisions and automobiles, which may have minor beauty modifications, akin to their paint scheme.
The crafting and progressing by materials tiers intention to progress you in direction of the ultimate a part of the story, the Deep Desert. Basically, the entire zones you have performed by within the Basin (the vast majority of the map) are in preparation for getting into the Deep Desert.
Finally, alongside the best way, you may be requested to align with one among two main homes, Harkonnen and Home Atreides, which influence your perks, alliances, and unlock the political a part of the endgame expertise. It additionally ties into the lore of the choice timeline, and the homes stay locked in open competitors every week. Then participant exercise throughout the sport feeds into a world rating system, figuring out which faction has management.
Becoming a member of a faction is totally non-obligatory, however it additionally means you’re lacking out on distinctive constructing units and skins to your gear and automobiles.
The sport would not rush you. Whether or not chopping stone, refining steel, or dodging sandworms, the pacing is relaxed sufficient to go all-in on one space. The fight mechanics have flexibility, and you are not caught in a single class. You start with a single ability tree, however as you degree and discover, you’ll be able to combine and match skills from others. That permits you to tailor your play fashion and take a look at totally different builds from ranged, melee, swordmaster, poison arrows, and extra. Perhaps you desire a stealthy poison setup with some crowd management thrown in.
Melee is a giant focus in Dune Awakening, however the melee fight feels clunky. Parrying feels delayed, animations are stiff, and enemies usually behave oddly throughout shut fight encounters. I attempted to provide melee extra time, however for some enemies with shields the place you’re pressured to kill them along with your knife or sword by deep bleeding, more often than not, it doesn’t appear to work. With the sport highlighting duel battles, melee fight feels extra like a chore relatively than thrilling.
Ranged fight, however, is smoother by comparability and feels extra dependable. Typically, you’re pressured into melee as a result of enemies have shields that may solely be damaged with melee assaults, which brings down a number of the pleasure of fight. There’s a ranged weapon to bypass these limitations you may get, however that is a couple of hours into the sport.
It is a survival sport at its core, however it’s not a kind of punishing, brutal experiences the place dying means you lose all the pieces. In the event you go down, the sport offers you a second wind, an opportunity to revive your self. You are able to do it a number of instances so long as a sure meter would not run out. It takes the sting off the harshness.
Sources are additionally pretty beneficiant and divided into six tiers, with the rarity enhancing as you progress in direction of the Deep Desert. Supplies respawn shortly; you may discover sufficient necessities for those who preserve transferring. That helps make constructing and crafting really feel much less grindy, a minimum of within the early sport. Simply do not forget that, like many survival video games, the gameplay loop can really feel repetitive after some time.
In the event you take pleasure in structured routines and the satisfaction of upgrading and progressing, which may not hassle you, however it might begin to put on skinny for those who’re searching for continuous selection. Arrakis is huge, together with the sand, rocks, ruins, and the occasional scavenger camp. It nails the Dune aesthetic, however that comes with a worth. The world can really feel empty; most buildings you see will likely be participant bases, which will not be enterable.
Within the early hours, anticipate to stroll lots. Finally, you’ll be able to analysis and unlock a Sandbike, and that is when exploration opens up extra. Till then, trekking throughout the desert to show in quests or seize sources can really feel like a chore. I had numerous enjoyable constructing my base. I like how one can preview what you’ll be doing earlier than you lay out your construction, giving an concept of what’s occurring earlier than you commit the sources. The sport presents the possibility to go forward and cancel sure builds proper in the course of the preview.
Base constructing in Dune Awakening is nice, and I had numerous enjoyable constructing a extra open base to retailer automobiles and placing in tons of mining tech, storage, and crafting gadgets, akin to fabricators. These permit you to craft new gear and construct greater and higher automobiles, akin to Ornithopters and Buggys.
Dune Awakening – Steam Deck Efficiency (by Oliver Stogden)
Dune Awakening does have good controller assist, little question in anticipation of its console launch in 2026. It additionally has an enormous quantity of flexibility in its graphical settings, even a “laptop computer” mode that massively lowers visible high quality to enhance efficiency. I like to recommend utilizing it if you wish to play on the Steam Deck.
Sadly, even with this mode, the Steam Deck struggles to play Dune Awakening. Regardless of Valve awarding this sport a “Playable” score, I strongly disagree; the sport shouldn’t be playable on the Steam Deck.
As you attain later into the sport, with big participant bases containing large pentashielded hangers for storing their automobiles, anticipate drops in FPS properly under 20, leading to a poor enjoying expertise.
In the event you’re desirous to hop on and perform a little base administration and organizing, or for those who’re enjoying within the early sport, you may get by on the Steam Deck, however for those who’re in a guild base in late-game or simply have a big solo base, and particularly for those who’re doing any type of PvP, it would be best to keep away on the Steam Deck.
Accessibility
Dune Awakening has some accessibility choices, akin to disabling digital camera shaking and permitting buttons akin to sprinting to be both held or toggled. You can too alter the font dimension to be barely bigger or smaller. Movement blur and gamma will be modified.
The sport does have voiced dialogue, all of which is subtitled. It additionally options in-game voice chat, however there isn’t any speech-to-text function for these laborious of listening to.
Verdict
Dune Awakening is a extremely inspirational Survival MMO. It does nice with its constructing and crafting mechanics. Even for Solo Gamers, the sport presents buying and selling mechanics to assist them select to purchase their sources and proceed their quest or discover the Deep Desert. And I like this lots for gamers who aren’t in it for a hardcore survival expertise however like a problem for high-tier sources.
Quest progress is not at all times shared throughout the social gathering. For instance, if you have to seize an merchandise from a analysis facility, every member should gather it themselves. Nonetheless, solely interplay is required for duties like constructing and utilizing a fabricator. So, one particular person can construct it, and everybody else can work together with it to finish the hunt. This method is designed to encourage teamwork whereas protecting some targets particular person. Even with some let downs with melee fight, the great closely outweighs the unhealthy in nearly each different facet.
As for efficiency, I bumped into a good few technical points, together with some bugs that required a sport restart. I’d get these significantly annoying stutters in some components of the map. There have been additionally some bizarre visible artifacts at instances, however usually, the visuals are improbable, and the Dune universe has been well built-in into all features of the gameplay.
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