Awakening – This is how the new survival MMO starts on Steam

You read that right: In the survival MMO Dune: Awakening you don’t start as a Fremen on Arakis. You can read here exactly what your first steps in the game should look like and who you can really be.

Dune: Awakening showed the first gameplay at the cinema release of Dune Part 2 and gave insights into the development of the game. There was now more information about the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in the USA, including about the character editor and how you start in the game.

We took a closer look at it for you. Here’s the gameplay trailer again for you:

A character editor with a Hogwarts Legacy feel

Before you can start your journey in Dune: Awakening, you must create your character. Contrary to rumors, you don’t just play a Fremen, i.e. someone from the people who live on Arakis. The Fremen are currently not selectable – more on them later.

Instead, you choose from a number of peoples native to the wider Dune Empire. For example, you can start as a bald Harkonne. In the films and books, they include Baron Wladimir and his nephew Feyd-Rautha – both important characters in the recently released sci-fi epic Dune 2.

All races come with male and female body types. Depending on what you decide, you can adjust the preset characters with sliders below. The system is reminiscent of the one from Hogwarts Legacy: Although the editor is more detailed, the slider only lets you choose between preset options. So Dune: Awakening doesn’t quite come close to the possible level of detail from Dragon’s Dogma 2.

There is a lot to individualize with settings for size, arm thickness, neck length and even vitiligo.

If you are satisfied with your appearance, a strict older lady – probably a woman from the Bene Gesserit – will ask you three questions:

With these choices you can give your character a personality and learn some things about the Dune universe. This all influences your possible dialogue options. The last question also determines what skills you start the tutorial with:

For example, you can be a Mentat, a person who functions as a human supercomputer and consumes spice to do so. Alternatively, you may have trained as a Bene Gesserit Trooper, Swordmaster, or Acolyte.

Mentats can use the drone-like Hunter-Seekers to take down enemies with just a single hit. Bene Gesserit acolytes are likely to have mastered abilities such as the voice that you see Paul and his mother use in the films to force people to take action.

A start like in Breath of the Wild?

Once you have answered all the questions and seen a cutscene, you can finally go to Arakis. However, your spaceship crashes there first. The starting point is reminiscent of the tutorial from Breath of the Wild: You have to go through a cave in tattered clothes.

Here you will find your first pieces of equipment and learn to craft. You will also be taught the most important elements of survival on Arakis: avoid the sun and look for water.

After leaving the cave, a tutorial mentor takes you with him in his ornithopter and shows you further functions. Ultimately, you set off alone into the vast desert, where you hopefully won’t have to fight for survival solo for long: Dune: Awakening can be done alone, but relies heavily on co-op.

Other signs of life from Dune: Awakening are good. However, there is still neither a release date nor a targeted period for it. MeinMMO asked the development team themselves what the situation was.