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If there is one genre that pulls out new gimmicks faster than we can actually learn them, it has to be the survival-crafting one. Yet, I don’t say this as something bad. It is always great to see new games of this type innovating despite the competition. Now, the one to join the race is Dune: Awakening, and after some hands-on time with it, I must say it aims to be one of the greatest. With a terrific gameplay loop, excellent and intuitive mechanics, and, most importantly, solid lore for veterans of the franchise, Dune: Awakening is a sweet spice-induced dream many might want to experience.
Your Life as a Prisoner
Right off the bat, Dune: Awakening tries to do something bold: it erases what we know about Dune. Veterans out there might be skeptical about this, but they shouldn’t. As someone who likes this well-established universe, I loved the approach Awakening takes in the series. It goes for an alternate timeline where many things didn’t happen. There’s no Paul, no Fremen, Leto is still around, and many other things. Everything sounds weird, but the new setting works perfectly for our characters. We are all prisoners sent to an unforgiving world where only our wits and hours of gathering materials will help us survive.
As soon as you begin, you can start creating your character, in what is an excellent character creator. All faces, tattoos, hairstyles, beards, and other options looked great. However, what I loved were the faction and origin options you can pick. In most survival-crafting games, or rather, the few that offer options such as these, they don’t matter. Yet, here they do. Some of the origins in factions you pick affect your initial skills and even open up new dialogue choices. Some are there for a bit of flair, but others give you a head start.
Take the Bene Gesserit, for instance, which is what I picked. They get a skill that helps them dash at high speeds, which is extremely useful before unlocking vehicles. Other factions, however, are tailored toward combat, building, or something else. Overall, I loved how unique each character felt, which you can actually see when roaming around Arrakis. I had some unpleasant moments when some players tried to annoy me with sandbikes, and I just used my Flash-like skill and left them behind.
When it comes to dialogue choices, I saw a few appear here and there, but they didn’t have a significant impact. I might have to try a different character when the game fully launches to see how impactful the decisions are, but I loved the fact that these options added to the roleplay aspect of the game, which not a lot of survival-crafters tend to offer.
My Time at Arrakis
And now, what you were all waiting for: desert survival. As you may or may not know, Dune: Awakening is an open-world survival-crafting game that leans toward the MMO side. First, I was blown away by the planet’s scale. We didn’t have access to all the zones, but the few I experienced were enough to leave my jaw on the sand. Furthermore, it was great to see how smoothly the game ran in terms of connectivity. I played with a friend, and we both noticed there wasn’t any delay between our actions or laggy shenanigans. When it comes to performance, I can’t really judge this build, as it isn’t the final one, but with a few tweaks, I always stayed at 60 FPS when dashing through my sandbike and watching a sandworm appear behind me.
For the survival part, Dune: Awakening has a solid gameplay loop that is quite easy to grasp and puts immersion front and center. For veterans, it might be the same as in other games of the genre. You find a rock, break it, grab the resources, and then return to process it into something. Yet, the small differences make everything feel highly unique.
For instance, instead of pulling out a mining pick, you have a cutter. Once you analyze a harvestable node, you’ll get a line you need to cut to get the materials. It is a small change, yet a very welcome one. Instead of being bored when harvesting, I felt I was diving into a tiny mini-game every time, and I dug that (no pun intended).
The building part is equally great. You can preview everything you place and even create a blueprint of sorts before constructing your base. Also, Dune: Awakening leans more into the automated crafting part instead of a more hands-on one. By this, I mean you leave materials inside your machines and wait for them to process whatever you’re making. I always prefer this system over the ones that ask you to click “Craft” dozens of times.
Last but not least, Dune: Awakening has the best onboarding process in any game of this type. First, you get the tutorial woven perfectly with the story. You start with the usual quests that teach you how to craft a bandage, and that questline leads you to create your first vehicle and then sends you to a new area. All of these things happen cohesively with the narrative, and I appreciate that greatly.
A Shadow a Day Keeps Death Away
I’ve already mentioned how immersive Dune: Awakening is, but it gets even better once you delve into the actual survival mechanics. As you can imagine, desert survival is the big selling point. You only have a thirst bar, as well as HP and stamina bars. Yet, the first one is the most important.
Dehydration is the thing that killed almost everyone during the preview, and it was terrific. Not the killing part, but the actual system. First, you need to be careful to avoid sunstroke. It was mind-blowing to see how well this mechanic was designed. In an online environment, it is wild to see how flawlessly the shadows work to give you some respite from the planet’s heat. As you can imagine, you always need to seek shelter or stand in the shade to reduce your heat levels. But what happens if you need water?
To get everyone’s favorite liquid in Arrakis, you can either drink dew from plants, extract blood from enemies, or drink your Still Suit’s water, which processes as you walk around. I was sold as soon as I saw the many ways to mitigate this mechanic. Again, it is a new addition and might be small for many, but it was huge for me.
Variety is the Spice of Arrakis
Another key aspect of Dune: Awakening lies in its variety. Instead of just having the loop of going to an enemy camp, killing everyone, and looting, it prioritizes exploration. Let’s say you want to build a sandbike. You’ll have to travel to a specific place and find the exact pieces that you won’t get anywhere else. Do you want to upgrade your weapons or get a better Still Suit? You must head to a different area that houses the necessary components. Even if it sounds like other games have done this before, Dune: Awakening nails that sci-fi explorer aspect.
There are even smaller locations that house rewards, such as scavenger camps, caves, and other hidden locales. Also, the map seemed to reset quickly, so I would always do a few loot runs, return to my base to process materials, and then go back to those locations to do it again. Oddly enough, I never felt bored by doing so. There’s always a sandworm to dodge, a storm ready to ruin your day, or one or two scavengers that might shoot you from afar.
On top of that, you can gather many contracts from hubs. There weren’t any big ones in the preview, but it was nice that these optional quests led you to new places. I’ve always hated how lonely survival-crafting games are, which is why Dune: Awakening is so refreshing in a lonely genre. Nothing is more immersive than parking your sandbike outside a trade hub, buying a cup of water, and grabbing a job before venturing into the sands again. I’m only talking about the preview areas; the main game will surely feel even better and grander.
An Unmatched Sci-Fi Survival
When it comes to previews, Dune: Awakening had one of the most generous ones. I spent dozens of hours scavenging materials to build my perfect base, craft better weapons, and upgrade my sandbike. All just to reach a new cave, launch a survey probe, or complete a quest. And you know what? Just like my character, I can’t seem to quench my thirst. Dune: Awakening always left me wanting more, and even when I knew I had to stop playing to do things away from my PC, I couldn’t. These treacherous dunes had their way of reeling me back in.
Regarding first impressions, Dune: Awakening has left me with a solid one. Many of its systems feel familiar, but their small changes feel monumental. Yet, the level of immersion it achieves will draw many people in. Whether you’re a fan of this beloved universe or not, we have a candidate for the best survival-crafting game of the year. Some might feel it’s too soon to say that, but it’s rare to see a game of this high quality in this genre nowadays. For now, all we can do is wait. But if you were already excited for Dune: Awakening, the wait will be worth it.
