I’m a massive fan of Dune, be it Frank Herbert’s original books, Denis Villeneuve’s more recent films, or even David Lynch’s underrated 1984 adaptation; I’m always looking for an excuse to return to the desert planet of Arrakis.
Anyone who has delved into this world before will be aware of the expansive lore, long list of characters, various creatures and harsh elements, and developer Funcom’s latest outing, Dune: Awakening, feels like just what the doctor ordered for existing fans.
Much like their previous survival experience in Conan Exiles, for example, Dune: Awakening has its flaws, mainly due to bland combat and repetitive mission structure, but the inclusion of a single-player story and dense open world makes this a fun experience worth checking out, either solo or online.
It is also worth noting that Dune: Awakening has been available to PC players in early access for quite some time, but we will only be taking this official console release into account for the purposes of this review.
A New Prophet
How can you top the story of Dune? Well, short answer: you can’t. Instead, Dune: Awakening opts for an alternate timeline where protagonist Paul Atreides is never born. In turn, Lady Jessica has a daughter instead, as advised by the sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit, and Duke Leto is never assassinated, still warring against House Harkonnen over the desert planet of Arrakis. Strangely enough, the Fremen, the natives of Arrakis, are also nowhere to be found.
You are sent down to Arrakis as a secret agent to figure out exactly what happened to the Fremen, and it even gives you the opportunity to side with House Atreides or House Harkonnen throughout the story, each with their own advantages and consequences.
This new single-player story is interesting enough, and while its early hours exist mainly to get you in touch with survival, crafting, exploration and combat, it does present some interesting and unique cutscenes, characters, and even certain missions, which take you into the deeper lore of Arrakis and your role as a main player in this developing war.
I can’t deny that some slower-paced sections feel more concerned with getting you to collect resources and craft items of importance, which can feel more like padding, even in the game’s earlier hours when you’re coming to grips with the various mechanics and systems.
The Desert Sands
Like Conan: Exiles, Dune: Awakening is very much a survival experience at its core, built around harvesting, crafting, all while managing things like stamina , sun exposure and dehydration. You’ll also get the chance to create your own home or base of operations, which you’ll use as a hub to create and craft new items.
Unfortunately, combat in Dune: Awakening is a mixed bag. It’s functional, and you’re able to craft several ranged and melee weapons, but gunplay ultimately feels bland and repetitive. Melee combat feels a little more exciting in the sense that enemies have those iconic blue Holtzman shields that must be disabled with heavy attacks, while being able to dodge and parry incoming attacks. That being said, you only ever end up relying on these mechanics as a last resort to break enemy shields, which is a bit of a shame.
Being more of a survival experience as opposed to an action game, you also feel incredibly underpowered when cornered by multiple enemies. Some enemies will attack on sight, while other enemies with melee weapons charge without hesitation, throwing you off balance as you try to pick off enemies shooting at you from a distance.
The magic of Dune: Awakening, however, comes in the form of its smaller, more spontaneous moments that are wrapped up into the game’s mechanics and systems. For example, crossing large bodies of sand will alert the Sandworms, indicated by a small bar in the centre of the screen that vibrates as they come close. Stay in that area for too long, and they arise, darting for you when it’s too late to escape.
Beyond this, the scathing sun makes you dehydrated, so you must always be on the lookout for shade, or at the very least, have a spare Stillsuit handy, which collects water as you play. At night, however, looking up at the night sky to see patrol units cover the desert, with large ships at a standstill in the distance, is a sight to behold amongst the thousands of stars that litter the sky. You’re even able to climb almost any surface, at the cost of stamina, which helps with traversal.
In between it all, you’ll also have to manage your Dew Limit by drinking from plants and turning blood samples into drinkable water back at your home base. Making a home is essential, and the base-building systems, while convoluted and busy at times, are generally functional and easy to use once you get the hang of it all.
You’ll also be able to ride buggies and bike across the desert sands, and even pilot Ornithopters to help you get around, the latter of which look awesome and incredibly authentic. While the story mainly serves as a means to an end, each passing hour only feels so satisfying because it’s a joy to live and breathe within this world while simply trying to stay alive.
Dying drops all of your current items where they are, and you must return to that place to reclaim them, while being eaten by a Sandworm causes you to lose your current items entirely. Thankfully, resources like metals and plants are rather plentiful, allowing you to craft things like weapons, ammunition, clothing, healing items and even a cutter, which allows you to scan, cut and break down larger resources for collection.
Fun With Friends
Dune: Awakening’s multiplayer offerings have been around for a while now on PC, but the full release now brings this experience to consoles. You can jump in with up to four players on public or private servers, and the experience essentially feels the same, all without the guided nature of the single-player story. Here, you’ll still be able to hunt, gather, craft and build a home base, with areas hosting up to 60 other players, along with both PvP and PvE sections.
It’s a fun time, to say the least, but I’m also really annoyed at the fact that your custom-created character can’t be shared between single-player and multiplayer modes. Instead, you’ll need to craft a new character entirely, which I have an issue with, simply because I had enjoyed the time I had spent building my single-player character up until that point.
Pair this with the need to upgrade your character over time with five branching skill trees, the likes of which cover Combat, Crafting, Gathering, Exploration, and Sabotage, adding new abilities and perks to your character as you progress, makes starting again feel like a bit of a grind. The endgame content also reinforces this issue, with the introduction of tougher bosses that scale with your own level, in addition to the need to hunt for higher-level gear, which can feel a little repetitive.
Look the Part
Dune: Awakening offers a 60 FPS Performance Mode and a 30 FPS Quality Mode, in addition to PSSR upscaling on the PlayStation 5 Pro. The frame rate is generally stable, but I would still opt for the 60 FPS Performance Mode, simply because it helps the gameplay feel that much more responsive.
You do benefit from some impressive draw distances and nicer textures in the Quality Mode, but these moments feel fewer and farther between. Unreal Engine 5 can have its moments, producing strange clipping animations or stuttering in chaotic sections, but I also found these moments to be quite rare.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Dune: Awakening is a fun experience that feels incredibly authentic at its core, even if it suffers from bland gunplay and repetitive endgame content.
Either way, its survival mechanics do raise the stakes, and the addition of a single-player story does help keep the experience rather guided and lean where it counts.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Fun survival and crafting mechanics; Arrakis looks great; Story is serviceable
Lowlights: Gunplay is bland; Endgame content feels too repetitive
Developer: Funcom, NUKKLEAR
Publisher: Funcom
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on PlayStation 5 with a code provided by the publisher.
Featured header image also provided by the publisher.
