The First 3 Hours: What to expect in your first few hours with Dune: Awakening

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For the first time I can remember, I encountered the sands of Arrakis and the Dune universe through the 1992 computer game Dune II, an RTS game developed by the renowned studio that eventually created the Command & Conquer series. As a dedicated spice enthusiast, having read multiple books about it and played numerous rounds of various Dune board games, the recent films have been quite popular, and with the release of a new action MMORPG called Dune: Awakening, the excitement for Dune has been high these days. This upcoming game promises to offer a fresh take on the lore created by Frank Herbert.

Immediately, Funcom clarifies that “Awakening” diverges from the original book series and occurs in an alternate universe where Paul doesn’t exist. Key events unfold differently here. The open beta, running from May 9 to May 12, preludes the game release on June 10. In your initial exploration of Arrakis during these early hours, this is a glimpse into what you can anticipate. If you wish to experience it yourself, consider signing up for the beta through the game’s official website.

The First Hour

As soon as you’re bound for Arrakis, you’re given the responsibility of crafting your character beforehand. You have a meeting with the Reverend Mother to discuss and decide on aspects such as their origin planet and mentor (essentially, selecting their class). After this session, you’re off to the desert planet. However, things take an unexpected turn when your shuttle is attacked and crashes, leaving you in dire straits. Fortunately, a Fremen named Zantara finds you and saves your life. Once you regain consciousness, your actual journey on the sandy expanse of Arrakis truly begins.

Jumping right in, I’m quickly introduced to some key features of Dune: Awakening – survival and crafting. Hydration becomes crucial on this massive desert world. In no time, I’ve gathered basic resources and fashioned my first outfit, a simple knife, and thirst-quenching plants. By the end of my first hour, I’ve crafted my first dart gun, a mining laser, had my first kill, donned a stillsuit, and braved the scorching sun. Even at this early stage, I’ve encountered the formidable and dangerous sandworms, so it’s essential to avoid spending too much time in the open sands!

In Dune: Awakening, when it comes to confrontations, you’ve got two main approaches: engaging enemies at a distance using the game’s diverse arsenal of firearms, offering a familiar third-person shooter experience with zooming during aim, increased damage from headshots, and mobility while shooting. It performs well and gets the job done. Melee combat is more straightforward, featuring quick or slower, stronger attacks that can penetrate enemy shields. While it does its job adequately, especially in the early stages of the game, it doesn’t bring anything particularly new to the table. A word of caution for stealth enthusiasts: Dune: Awakening lacks an assassination system, so whether you sneak up on enemies and stab them with a knife or charge in swinging, the damage remains the same.

To fully immerse yourself in this game’s new features, you’ll need to explore the intricate mechanics of base-building, a significant aspect even at the initial stages. This system is quite comprehensive, enabling you to customize the layout of your base according to your preferences. The building process bears a striking resemblance to that in Fallout 4, allowing you to construct walls, floors, ceilings, and stairs of different qualities. You can also add various mechanical facilities to these structures, such as water production from blood, resource refining, or additional storage spaces. These facilities are crucial, as they expand your crafting capabilities, enabling you to convert resources and store more items.

As a fan, I find the crafting process in this game surprisingly swift and effortless. Items as essential as ammo and bandages can even be crafted straight from my inventory, provided I have their necessary components. These starting components are often acquired by stripping items off fallen enemies or more frequently, dismantling various objects with my handy laser tool. The disassembly process is straightforward and efficient – locate the object’s vulnerable spots with the laser, then trace over them, and voila! From copper to granite, metal to plant fibers, I find myself scouring the environment for valuable resources, and each crafting session earns me Research points that can be used to discover new recipes.

Hours 2 and 3

After establishing your foundation and grasping the fundamental workings of Awakening, the subsequent hours are going to be dedicated to advancing early story missions from Zantara, enhancing equipment, and exploring extensively. Across the sandy expanse, you’ll encounter rock formations serving as sanctuaries against the colossal sandworms that inhabit the desert, remnants of crashed ships for looting, and hostile bandits eager to end your journey prematurely. As each quest unfolds, navigating the safest path becomes crucial, often veering away from direct routes due to the sandworms as discussed before. Instead, you’ll dart from one rock cluster to another, seeking refuge in the shade during daytime to avoid sunburn, or waiting for nightfall.

Initially, you won’t be able to construct vehicles for traversing the sand, so it’s crucial to prepare well before embarking on your journey. Scouting and raiding enemy camps for resources, particularly their blood, will be beneficial. The blood you collect can later be processed into drinkable water using one of the early machines in your base. As you explore further, you’ll come across other player-built bases. An interesting feature is setting access permissions for your base, allowing you to share its facilities if you wish. In essence, this could make your base a peaceful oasis in the desert.

During this period, the tasks seem more like a tutorial, but gradually, you’ll start piecing together the fragments of knowledge about your role and the storyline of Dune: Awakening. One fascinating element of this narrative is called “Spice Visions.” These instances can be quite surreal, with sections that might remind you of the Scarecrow segments in the Batman: Arkham series. The Spice Melange provides glimpses into current and future events, perfectly embodying the essence of Dune.

Approaching the third hour, the MMO aspect of “Dune: Awakening” will gradually unfold. You might find yourself at a humble market outpost, where you’ll have chances to interact with merchants and check a bounty board for side quests to earn extra money, items, and crafting recipes. Faction quests will also appear, enabling you to enhance your reputation and receive unique rewards. As you advance, you’ll gain access to several abilities or passive techniques specific to your class. These can include devices that manipulate gravity to help with falls, grappling hooks for harder-to-reach areas, or combat skills like the self-exploding Hunter Seekers that home in on enemies. There’s a good selection to choose from to customize your gaming experience. You can assign these skills to one of three quick-access slots tied to button presses, and change them as needed to adapt to different situations.

Should you choose to halt your journey at this point, foregoing any further progress in the narrative or mission board quests, you’d still find a rich, self-contained playground. Before delving into multiplayer or Player vs Player, you could spend your time collecting, crafting, and constructing to your satisfaction, which is quite remarkable for an online game of this kind. This experience stands in stark contrast to the monotonous task of slaying small rodents and creatures that many other MMOs force players to endure. I believe that by doing so, you’ll have a clear understanding as to whether or not Dune: Awakening is a game suited to your tastes and worth the $49.99 / $69.99 asking price.

The game Dune: Awakening appears to be a stunningly beautiful title that skillfully recreates the visuals from Frank Herbert’s epic series. By setting the game in an alternate universe where events unfold differently, the development team demonstrates cleverness as they can steer clear of potential conflicts with established lore (and any complications with the Herbert estate). This should help minimize online criticism for the developers. The content provided in this beta is expected to take roughly 20-25 hours to complete, depending on how thoroughly you focus on finishing the available content. However, it’s important to note that the progress made during the beta will not transfer over to the final game, meaning you’ll have to start from scratch when the full version launches.

The video game titled “Dune: Awakening” will become available for personal computers (PCs) on June 10, 2025. Subsequent launches for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X are planned to follow at a later date.

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2025-05-10 18:21