00:00Dune Awakening feels familiar, yet overwhelmingly specific. It's a real treat for Dune fans,
00:06I think to myself as I sit down to the 45 minute demo at Gamescom. Even if its survival
00:11crafting meets MMO formula gives me flashes of Minecraft, Lord of the Rings Return to Moria,
00:16and even Lego Fortnite. In Dune Awakening though, the world's hostility functions as a character
00:21trait. Arrakis is an arid desert planet where dehydration, heat stroke, and being swallowed
00:27whole by the insidious sandworms pose near constant risk. Even night time offers no solace,
00:33as searchlights will try and light you up for the kill squads on your tail. In short, Dune Awakening
00:38makes for a curious yet brilliant stage to set a game where survival isn't just difficult,
00:43it's also purposely complicated, as I find out almost immediately. As I step out of my wrecked
00:49ship, I'm immediately told to find shelter and water. Quickly. This proves a lot easier said than
00:55done. A sprawling desert wasteland spreads out before me in all directions, a gaping moor of
01:01sandy wilderness ready to swallow me whole. I mean that figuratively as well as literally,
01:06because no sooner do I start sprinting across the dunes, get it, the ground beneath me starts to
01:11quake. Enter the sandworm. It's a brief introduction and a terrifying one at that. The presence of the
01:17sandworm immediately puts me on edge, and as I make my way to the welcoming shade of a nearby stony
01:22cluster, I vow to avoid it at all costs. After talking with Joel Bylos, Studio CCO,
01:28and Dune Awakening creative designer, it seems I'm experiencing the intended reaction. I've always
01:33described the sandworm as a tension mechanic for players. Every time you step into that sand,
01:38you feel like the Jaws music starts, and we don't want that feeling to really go away. Besides keeping
01:43players on their toes, the sandworm injects a clear sense of the lore, stakes, and potential dangers of
01:49Arrakis. And then there's the other side of this, of course, is because we're bastards,
01:53Bylos laughs. It's like we get you nice and cozy and understanding that you're safe on rock,
01:58and then we're like, now you need to go out here onto the sand and get this thing you need
02:02right now.
02:03You need to go out there and get flowers for hydration too. So the tension should never go away
02:08for the players. Even when they have flying vehicles, they have to land them on the sand to pick that
02:12stuff up, right? On that note, the flying vehicles in Dune Awakening are a godsend. The kindly developer
02:18watching my every move during the demo implements a few cheats so that I can experience flying the
02:23Ornithopter for myself, though I'm told the ability to do so is usually locked behind a higher level,
02:28roughly 10 hours into the game. It speaks to the sheer expanse of Dune Awakening and the system it
02:33boasts, from the basics of crafting, scavenging, and base building, to a quest-driven storyline,
02:38and the journey system intended to flesh out smaller areas of lore akin to the side missions
02:43or step-by-step how-to's. Grappling with each system would take far too long, especially given
02:48how closely each one ties into the lore and world building of the Dune franchise. Still, the taste
02:53I've had so far is a promising one for the Dune superfans everywhere. These clever system integrations
02:59are part of what makes Dune Awakening another survival feather in developer Funcom's hat,
03:03and if there's anything that can do justice to a Dune MMO, I think it's safe in the Conan Exiles
03:08studio's hands. So are you looking forward to Dune Awakening? Let us know in the comments,
03:12and stick with GamesRadar for the best previews and reviews.
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