After bugging all of my friends and mutuals across multiple social media platforms, I was able to get a key to last weekend’s Dune: Awakening Closed Beta. Developed and published by Funcom, the same people who gave the world Conan Exiles. So they are far from new in the open-world multiplayer survival game genre. Without spoiling the story that I experienced, I’ll reiterate what has been said in the trailers: this is Frank Herbert’s Dune universe if Lady Jessica followed the rules and never gave birth to Paul Atreides. You are a prisoner sent to the planet Arrakis to uncover the mystery of the missing Fremen, the people indigenous to the planet.
Now my whole point is to talk about what I experienced during my 17.9 hours of solo play during the beta. I built three home bases, a sandbike, had a tough sword fight with what felt like a mini boss, drained the blood out of a ton of dead enemies, and dodged big ass worms like a boss.
First off, you do not need to be a lore master of Dune to play this game. But please consider reading/listening to the books and watching the movies simply because they are solid. (I need to go back and read the books)
I have been following this game since PAX East 2024, when we had a behind-closed-doors presentation of the character design and gameplay. Also, we had the chance to see combat and ornithopter flight at Play Days 2024. So, finally being able to have hands-on from the comfort of my home led to me immediately pre-ordering the game.
Basics of Dune: Awakening So Far…
Within the beta, you were able to experience the full beginning of the game as if it were the 1.0 launch. The detailed character creator that you will surely spend an hour working on (wish I could make a heavyweight character). Also, an option of how you would like to be introduced to the basic mechanics of the game. There is a recommended mission-guided option that steadily unlocks the research tab so that you are not completely overwhelmed. I did not take the other option, so I don’t have much to say about that.
This is a Survival Game
First and foremost, this is a survival game. Thankfully, I did not have to worry about eating, but maintaining your hydration levels is critical. The lower your hydration, the lower your stamina and health bar will be. Even though Arrakis is the epitome of a desert, it is far from the Dune film’s version of the planet. There are plenty of patches of vegetation that you can harvest water from, as well as the ability to drain the blood of your felled enemies. The most consistent way to stay hydrated comes from building a machine that converts blood into water at your base. You also have to manage the upkeep of your gear, which slowly degrades with death, use, and time.
Also, the sun is not your friend, and you will overheat if you stay out of the shade for too long. Outside of that, the sandstorms will take you out, but like shade, there are plenty of places to stay covered from the harmful elements of Dune.
XP Can Be Earned For Just About Anything
Now, as daunting as that can seem, especially for people who don’t have a lot of time to play games. Dune: Awakening provides a healthy amount of resources to harvest and reasonable respawn rates for enemies. This, alongside the RPG elements such as the skill tree and XP gains, creates an experience that rewards your time regardless of how much you put into it. XP is given for a wide variety of actions, discovery of new places, harvesting resources, crafting, combat, and missions.
There is a chance to lose your loot, through death or feeding a sandworm. During my time playing, I did not lose any loot because I liberally used spawn beacons. These are items that can be crafted that create a respawn point on the go. So I did not have to travel across Herbert’s creation each time I died to complete corpse runs (there were a lot of them).
Yes, You Can Climb That
You see that mountain, building, crashed ship, yes, you can climb that. Traversal in this game is fun because you can approach situations from many angles. The verticality made fighting and exploring as a solo player less risky. While climbing, your stamina bar drains and alerts you once it drops to a certain percentage. Outside of climbing, which I did a lot of, exploring Arrakis during the beginning of the game is done primarily on foot. Running rock island to rock island while doing your best not to summon hungry worms in between.
After completing a few core missions, I unlocked the ability to craft the parts needed to build a sandbike. You do not just craft whole vehicles; they are parts, and then you use a specific tool to build the complete vehicle.
FIGHT
If you are looking for combat, you do not have to travel far in Arrakis. Outside of the trade hubs, there are a reasonable number of enemy NPC bases and camps spread throughout the map. I encountered sword-wielding shield-equipped warriors, mini-gun toting tanky fighters, and a lot of rifle-equipped enemies.
The enemy AI is not the most advanced I have encountered, but they are not slouches. They will swarm you, and if the enemies have the ability to glide, they will chase you down. Seeing the enemy AI use the same skills available to you is refreshing. When fighting groups of enemies, I did find myself wishing for a lock-on feature, but the combat is enjoyable.
For the dagger/sword melee, there are light and heavy attacks that depend on how long you hold the attack button. When fighting shielded enemies, heavy attacks are needed to break through and end them. Now, mobility is a huge part of the combat if you wish to survive or not take much damage during fights. You rarely encounter one enemy at a time, and their composition is often random. Often, I found myself having to quickly take out the ranged enemy so that I could focus on dodging and parrying the melee fighters.
Keeping a melee weapon and a ranged weapon hotkeyed was necessary for survival. And remember, it is impossible to fight the worms, so as best as you can, just avoid them.
Quests and Missions
The way to unlock access to more of the research tree is to accomplish story missions. Each mission is broken up into multiple steps that will push you to explore different areas within the region. Slowly introducing you to the large world while walking you through the basics. You are rewarded with XP, money, and sometimes resources. Once you get to the first trade hub, you will find a station to find optional missions such as fetch, crafting, or even exploration quests.
Overall Beta Thoughts
I did not get to fly in the dragonfly ship, collect spice, engage in PVP, or take the time to side with Harkonnen or Atreides. But hot damn did I have a good time and make steady progress each time I logged in. Historically, I am horrible at keeping up with MMO-style games because I play so many different genres of games. After my time in the beta, I went and preordered the Deluxe edition because I was pleasantly shocked at how much fun I had on my own in such a large game. If I can seriously enjoy 17 hours in a beta without scratching the surface of all that this game has to offer, it will be easy for me to put in hundreds of hours into this game.
Leave a Reply