Awakening is different from any of them

earthpressnews

With Dune: Awakening, a new Survival game will be released in 2025, which wants to redefine the genre. At least that’s what Meinmmo editor and survival expert Benedict Grothaus says. Funcom, the makers of the Dune game, invited him to a preview event and fully convinced with what is shown.

Even if I often rave about other genres here, survival games are my hobbyhorse. In Conan Exiles, Valheim and the new Enshrouded, even in the tough Rust and many other titles, I have certainly taken over 1,000 hours.

This year, 2025, a game that I have been waiting for for a long time will be released with Dune: Awakening. Already at Gamescom last year the new game from Funcom was absolutely enthusiastic. Dune: Awakening is exactly what I want to have after Conan Exiles.

Already at the end of 2022, at first glance at Dune: Awakening, it was quite clear to us at Meinmmo: The game will be more like an MMORPG and could redefine the genre. Now I have been allowed to play an early version for 6 hours and I am sure that it is.

A small disclaimer: The version we gambled is an earlier state of development, with some mistakes and lack of content that should come at a later date. There were some technical hardware difficulties, but the general fun of the game did none of it.

Trailer for Dune shows gameplay – from Survivor to Spice Hunter

More videos

Autoplay

MMO or survival? Both!

What is Dune: Awakening? In essence, this is still a survival game. This is the foundation on which everything else is built up. I play a guy in a hot desert full of giant worms and bandits and somehow have to survive.

What Dune: Awakening is now lifting is the setting in the well-known Dune world, and on the other hand the MMO aspects. Because the game is not a sandbox in which I have to set and pursue goals myself.

The survival game has a clear endgame and is full of NPCs with which I can interact that give me quests and even teach me new skills. The various factions of Arrakis, the planet on which we play, and the war for the coveted Spice are the core of the plot.

The fact that awakening is different from any Survival game that I have played so far is already evident in the character creation-which is deliberately without infamous penis slider. Instead of just building a cool dude with tens of options, I create a real character with history and origin.

A survival MMO with classes, skills and RPG

I look for what I look like, which planet I come from and what origin I have. The home determines, for example, what properties I bring. My old stand before the events indicates whether I belong to the nobility or the rabble.

The selection is not purely cosmetic. The various options ensure unique dialogue options in conversation with NPCs as a RPG factor in the game. Ready that I can choose one of four classes:

  • Mental, a kind of agent and sniper with an understanding of tech
  • Schwertmeister, who is … a master of swords
  • Bene gesserit, quasi the magicians of Dune
  • Or Trooper, the standard soldier with shooting iron, grenades and Co.

    • The classes all have their own skills, passive and active. In the later course of the game, all other classes can be unlocked, but that takes. But if you want to become the KWisatz Haderach, you have to work for it.

    How much dune is in awakening? The whole game builds on the lore of the books and films. You will hit a number of well -known names and creatures. Only the world is different than in the films, because Paul Atreides was never born here.

    In general, however, the developers are based on what is possible, logical and given in Dune. Signs, for example, do not simply become weaker, but stop attacks completely – unless they will blade with special shot or slow blades. The developer philosophy is: “Do not adapt your ideas, but adapt your ideas to Dune.”

    The famous Spice also applies and gives you special skills. The only real survival resource is water, but you need Spice for fighting and trade. And if you don’t pay attention, you become dependent.

    The character creation.
    The mentate’s skill tree.
    Harko is … rough.
    Steer? Well, if it has to be …
    Of course, ornithopters should not be missing!
    Team play in a dungeon.
    How should a worm be faster than this?!
    Niuuuuu!
    Well, maybe nothing really can’t run away a Shai Hulud …

    We could only play for 6 hours, but everyone wanted more

    Funcom roughly admitted to us when alluding 6 hours, in which we gambled on assigned devices in a large room. Actually a big LAN party with dozens of journalists-and many nerds.

    I was able to achieve a lot during this time:

  • My basis is and is reasonably developed. I was able to found a guild with other German players and we mastered some dungeons and quests.
  • I have several armor in the inventory, including one for the fight and a “stillsuit” that ensures that I don’t dry out in the desert so quickly.
  • The first vehicle is already finished, a sand bike with which I could heat through the desert.
  • Overall, I was able to reach level 15 and in the end I was eaten again imposing by a sandworm (which the inventory is irretrievably deleted).

    • The enthusiasm for Dune: Awakening packed me and most of my companions: On the second day, a tour of Funcom’s studio was on and pretty much everyone from the group asked whether we couldn’t play for a few hours instead.

    The tour was still worth it. We were able to learn a lot about awakening, his condition and the future – and maybe you can even hear my voice somewhere in the end. Completely.

    PvP as an endgame – but it’s not as bad as you think

    The only big question mark that still remains after the allusion is the end of the game. None of us have come that far, that should take a few dozen or a hundred hours.

    However, we got an ornithopter on request to be able to look around at the end game content at least. But there wasn’t much to discover because this area was still unfinished. In general, however, the end game should take place as follows:

  • Players with interest in PvP and risk go to the “deep desert” and farm spice to strengthen the power of their guild. Spice is also available in smaller quantities in the PVE zones.
  • If you don’t feel like direct PvP, you can work as a cartographer or sell your skills in the open market – and thus earn Spice.
  • With Spice you then influence the Landsraad, the politicians and factions of the game. Here the intrigue and the actual endgame play out with power games and the like. In addition, the NPCs want to have taxes from you …

    • I cannot yet assess how well this will run. But Funcom has already proven that they master both survival games and MMORPGs. Conan Exiles finally saved the studio and with Anarchy online you operate one of the oldest still running MMORPGs.

    And only to have mentioned it: The Secret World had the best quests in the entire MMO genre and unfortunately disappeared into irrelevance much too early. So Funcom obviously knows what they’re doing.

    In any case, I am looking forward to Dune: Awakening. I doubt that it will be a huge hit – it is too much in the niche. But it will give me and tons of other fans many nice hours. It is already extremely popular, although it is not there yet: The new survival-mmo dune: Awakening has thousands of players on Steam, it has not yet been released

    mmod-game