Dune: The Awakeningthe survival MMO in Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi world, looks huge. Developer Funcom, the team behind Conan Exilesappeared at Gamescom with a large amount of new Game material to browse through. In addition to indicating a release window of early 2025, the footage seemingly shows off every major system you’ll be dealing with in this Sandy survival MMO.
Here are the biggest things we saw during Dune: The Awakening‘s massive gameplay look.
There are numerous sliders available to you when creating your character.
The first thing the new gameplay footage showed was awakenings character creation process. It starts with the look of your protagonist, which you can fine-tune or choose from a number of presets. The preset characters feel like they fit right into the Denis Villeneuve filmsand the developers say that’s intentional. But if you want your hero to be your own, there are plenty of sliders available for you to customize to your heart’s content. These include age, height, and more detailed features like neck length.
Character creation really goes into the bigger dune Lore in the second part, where you’ll have to choose your story. The most important decision will be who your mentor is, as this will determine your starting stats when you finally enter the world. While the mentors were quickly run through, it seems there will be one for every possible playstyle you might want to try, such as the melee-focused Swordmaster who gets up close and personal with his enemies.
The world wants to kill you
After character creation, we see what our first steps on Arrakis will be. Waking up in a cave (pun intended), you’ll have the chance to get used to the game’s movement and basic skills before being sent out into the dangerous desert. Once you venture out into the sun, you’ll be faced with a series of environmental challenges that you’ll have to constantly juggle. Heat, sun exposure, and hydration will all affect how you move and fight in the world.
Navigating the shadows of the desert is a necessity, as the longer you are in the sun, the closer you are to one of the many debuffs the game can place on you. You’ll also need to look for ways to scavenge water from plants and even the blood of your enemies to stay alive. Dune: The Awakening is a survival game at its core, so you should be prepared for the world to turn on you at all times. This includes giant sandworms that can appear while you’re running through the desert. As in established lore, there doesn’t seem to be much to do when these giant beasts show up (at least not at first), so you’ll just have to rush to safety as quickly as possible.
The spice will flow
A status effect that Dune: The Awakening teased has to do with Spice. One can be overexposed to the drug from Arrakis and succumb to a mysterious effect that the developers only teased in the preview. Due to Spice’s connection to the more mystical side of the dune I would theorize that Spice could unlock special powers or narrative secrets, although there would likely be some price to pay for this forbidden knowledge.
With the movement mechanics you can zoom anywhere
One of the coolest parts of the gameplay showcase was seeing all the motion technology awakening has something to offer both in and out of combat. There’s free climbing that lets you scale any surface you see, tools like grappling hooks that let you cross large spaces, and the sling belt that lets you float across chasms.
Dune: The Awakening seems to be an extremely fluid game with a surprising amount of verticality. This also applies to the combat, which lets you zip around arenas to get one step ahead of enemies. Even out in the desert, which you’d expect to be flat as far as the eye can see, you can use movement to climb the ledges scattered around the map.
Fighting is all about adaptation
When fighting enemies (NPCs or other players, since it’s an online game), you have many different ways to approach combat. The different classes focus on melee, firearms, or mystical abilities that give you special insight into your opponents’ capabilities. There are some extensive skill trees, and it looks like you’ll be able to pick skills on the fly to handle any situation.
For example, shields are an important part of combat. Traditional firearms that use bullets are not effective against shields, so you will need to craft arrow weapons or focus on close combat. Some enemies will carry shields, so you will need to constantly be mindful of changing your skills and arsenal of weapons.
Build for yourself or for friends
Once you get the hang of how to survive, you’ll want to stake your claim on the land to build a base of operations. First, you’ll need to craft a special item that allows you to build on a plot of land, which you’ll then have to pay taxes on to the Emperor. Buildings can be visualized using holographic 3D plans and built by either you or an online friend. Your favorite designs can be saved and used wherever you want to build, or you can sell them to other players.
Once you have a base, you can create machines to purify blood into drinking water or build vehicles. Land vehicles speed up the desert crossing and flying vehicles open up even more of Arrakis.
The wide world of dune
Once you have a craft, you’ll gain access to player hubs. These are larger social spaces in the cities of Arrakis. Player hubs allow you to connect with other players to trade or form guilds. These hub areas also have merchants you can buy from and story-focused quests you can complete.
Hubs are also home to the game’s two main factions: the Harkonnen and the Atreides. You can pledge allegiance to either faction to shape the future of Arrakis.
Together with friends, you can go to test stations. These are awakening‘s version of dungeons and offer a challenge that you can overcome with friends. In addition to some of the best loot and resources, each test station also has its own story to uncover as you defeat enemies.
This is the final
The last part of the gameplay showcase was teased awakeningis a tough endgame. It centers around large spice explosions in the deep desert. Since spices are a coveted resource, these explosions will prompt all nearby players to gather, turning the race for the resource into massive, high-stakes battles against players and the environment. If things go wrong for you and you want to put a stop to the fight for spices, you can even summon one of the game’s giant sandworms to set a timer that dictates how long players can stay before they’re eaten. These large-scale events seem to be the highlight of Dune: The Awakening.
You will be able to conquer the deserts of Arrakis if Dune: The Awakening will be released on PC early next year.
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