Multiplayer online games, while plentiful, often have to balance the demands of the player base while maintaining their identity. Survival games add an even bigger twist to the genre: working together to fight off the environment and even other players who want to take everything you’ve built up and earned in the game. Dune: Awakening is based on Frank Herbert’s science fiction franchise Dune, which spawned numerous books, comics, films, TV shows, and, of course, video games. But does Dune: Awakening continue to add to the franchise’s glowing reputation?

Dune video games have been around since 1992, when Dune and Dune II were released for PC as adventure strategy and real-time strategy (RTS) games, respectively. The latter game became a watershed in RTS history, and while other Dune games have come and gone, bringing an iconic sci-fi franchise to an online multiplayer world almost seems like a match made for the survival game aficionado. You take the role of an undercover agent in the world of Arrakis against the backdrop of a civil war between House Atreides and House Harkonnen in an alternate universe where Dune protagonist Paul Atreides was never born. You are tasked to find the Firemen and awaken the Sleeper.

Before I set foot into the game, I had to also look at the source material: read the Dune books, watch some movies, and a couple of episodes of the TV shows to get an idea of how well the game holds up to the source material itself. When I first stepped into the world of Dune: Awakening, memories of endless grinding came flooding back. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there weren’t many signs of people getting on what the kids would call the “grindset” in this game. However, they leaned extremely into the survival aspect of the genre: standing out in the sun unprotected means guaranteed death, worms that can devour you in seconds if you don’t come prepared, and random sandstorms that can drop your health to zero in a matter of seconds. To top it off, some areas are irradiated and can kill you faster, so you can’t just sit around—and I mean that literally. You will be moving your base around constantly, and you won’t have much time to do it with, so you might be forced to start back at square one if you want any hopes at surviving (let alone making it) in Arrakis. One saving grace in a never-ending attempt at avoiding death is that the graphics are stellar, but to truly enjoy the aesthetics, you will need a higher-end PC (thankfully, as of this writing, the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions are scheduled to come out in 2026 if you’re willing to wait).

Like all online games, I try to hold out hope that certain issues will be patched, but the combat is still a major work in progress. Keeping your distance from enemies may look like a winning strategy, but melee combat edges out ranged as of this writing. I focused on a stealth build with a Hunter Seeker weapon type because everything is trying to kill me, and I wanted an easy escape route (or, ideally, avoid detection altogether). You can also fight on vehicles or in the air with a Suspensor Belt, which is ideal for ranged combat or if you want the most mobility possible. Some fun things you can do in combat include stunning enemies or even using anti-gravity grenades to suspend them in the air.

Remember when I said that there isn’t as much of a “grindset” in this game? That’s because there are loads of technologies to research, items and equipment to craft, and materials to find without having to repeatedly farm, which is an issue that plagues many online survival MMOs to begin with. Building bases will also cost taxes, basically proving that you can’t escape death and taxes even in a video game. The bigger your base, the bigger your tax bill to the Emperor, and if your base isn’t profitable or you neglect to pay your taxes, the Sardaukar will come to make you pay with your own blood. (Hint: I would rather fight the Arrakis wildlife than the Emperor’s hired goons, if you’re wondering how powerful the Sardaukar are.)

It will take about 80 or so hours to complete the campaign, but the real fun begins when you get into the endgame and PvP. If you want the best stuff in the game, PvP is required, which is frustrating because the combat system in its current state still needs a lot of work. What makes it even more fun is that the Deep Desert gets wiped every week by the Coriolis Storm and creates a new, procedurally generated map. If you want to get the most out of the endgame, find a group of friends (or even bring your own) and start taking stuff over, and hopefully, Funcom patches up the combat.

While the game adheres to the source material to the point of actually living (and dying) out the Dune experience, like many MMOs and survival games, patches are needed to improve the experience, especially with the current combat system. The game is still fun, and bringing your friends into the fold can be a satisfying experience, especially if you’re a fan of the Dune series. As a relative newcomer, I appreciated the unique approach that Funcom took with this game, and I look forward to seeing what new content it will release in the future.

Developer(s): Funcom
Publisher(s): Funcom
Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Words by Jose Alvarez
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE Volume 26 No. 1 Issue