Today we’re focusing on a real desert heat – the beta version of Dune: Awakening. Fans have long been waiting for something truly large-scale and atmospheric in the Frank Herbert universe. But what did we actually get? Is this a real step forward for the genre, or are we once again greeted by a beautiful wrapper, behind which lies endless grinding and dull crafting? Let’s dive into the details and see what the game is capable of right now.

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The first thing that catches your eye in the merciless expanses of Arrakis is not the deadly worms or the scorching sun, but simple moisture traps. These simple fabric structures that hang at the entrances to caves are like an oasis in hell, creating a tiny but saving microclimate. In Dune: Awakening, they are just containers: you poke them with a dagger – get some water and, perhaps, get a good beating from the NPC guarding them. Now imagine if we could install such traps? Explore every hollow, hide from the sun, like real Fremen, building shelters not for the sake of the interface, but out of necessity to survive. Imagine how differently the desert would feel – not just as a biome, but as a living, hostile organism, sucking the last drops of moisture from the body and soul.

But, alas, for now, Dune: Awakening is not about that. Or maybe I missed something in the weekend beta test. At the moment, this is a typical MMO with survival elements. In your hands is a magic construction stick, in front of you are template blocks from which you mold your little fief. The buildings are strictly on a ruler: cube on cube, generator on printer. The atmosphere is on the residual principle. Instead of organically growing into the landscape, like the same moisture traps, the base turns into something between a Lego set and an abandoned factory. By the middle of the test, the starting area resembled a cemetery – players moved on through missions, and behind them were cubes that no one needed. Funcom even encourages you to clean up after yourself. Deja vu, right?

As for resource extraction – get ready for endless clicking. Copper ore, fibers, resources – all the classics. In addition, they brought in a mini-game for collecting, supposedly to make the process “conscious”. In fact, it’s just a new package for the good old routine. Yes, attention is distracted, but this does not change the essence: the prey remains the prey. And while you grind mechanically under the scorching sun, inside you want more and more a real desert. Alive. Dangerous. Real.

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Dune: Awakening Gameplay – From Heatstroke to Giant Worms

Honestly, despite all the rough edges, Dune: Awakening still managed to fish out a couple of really exciting features from the Dune universe – not just for show, but ones that hook you from the first minutes.

Heatstroke is an unexpectedly cool mechanic. Here, heat is not just a word, but a real enemy. You can’t just run anywhere: you have to literally hide in the moving shadows, escaping from the scorching sun. Like in a stealth game, only instead of guards, there’s a space stove trying to incinerate you. For me, this turned out to be many times more interesting than another shootout with the “Scavengers” – local ragamuffins with stones and sticks. They are easy to fool: parry, shoot from around the corner – and you’re done. But you can’t shoot back from the sun!

And, of course, worms. Those same ones. Shai-Hulud are not just in words, but literally on the screen – huge, threatening, hearing the slightest rustle. I barely had time to enter the game, as I was already rushing from rock to rock, freezing every time the sand under my feet began to vibrate, and a characteristic vortex swirled in the distance. It was not just tense – it was amazing. And this is only the beginning: imagine that in the future it will be possible not only to run away from these monsters, but to use them in battle, sending them at enemies in PvP battles for control of spices. Add to this your own guild, ornithopters, equipment, and you get not just a survival game, but a whole sandy thriller on a grand scale.

Why Dune: Awakening Doesn’t Feel Like Dune

As much as the rare finds in Dune: Awakening are pleasing, each unusual mechanic is immediately followed by something painfully familiar – as if you’ve turned on a typical survival game again. I spent a little over three and a half hours in the game, and you know what they just told me to do? “Build an improved generator.” Seriously? We’re on Arrakis, the heart of the Dune universe, and they’re asking me to build generators again? This entire epic, philosophical setting seems to fade into the background for the sake of banal crafting. It knocks you out of the atmosphere and starts to tire you.

And here’s an example that particularly touched me. In Dune, the idea of ​​extracting moisture from bodies is an almost sacred act, a symbol of the cruelty of the world and its deep philosophy. Here, it’s turned into a routine: kill the “Scavenger”, collect the liquid, move on. Without context, without weight, without tragedy. It’s not even creepy – it’s just profitable. You can feel like a vampire.

But perhaps the biggest slap in the face is that you don’t play as Freeman. There’s no trace of that proud, stern culture where every gesture is dictated by the struggle for life. Instead, you’re cast as an outsider – an envoy of the Bene Gesserit who’s come to the desert to look for the remnants of a people who were supposedly wiped off the face of Arrakis by order of the Emperor and his Sardaukars. That is, you’re not part of this universe, you’re an observer. And you’d like to be its heart.

Leveling system and skill selection in Dune: Awakening

From the very beginning, Dune: Awakening invites you to plunge into a dark and intriguing world, where the first serious decision is not just a choice of appearance, but actually the setting of your future: where you were born, who was your mentor, who you became. These are not just details – they are the basis of your class, set of skills and play style.

Have you completed the school of combat with the Atreides masters? Welcome to the world of close combat – with everything that goes with it: powerful blows, spectacular finishing moves, knee strikes that fold enemies in half. Do you have combat experience? Then you like the grappling hook and aim for destruction – shoot accurately and move quickly. Or maybe you studied with the Bene Gesserit themselves? In this case, you have mastered hypnosis and can control someone else’s will, forcing NPCs to do what you need.

Here are examples of starting paths that you can choose:

• Atreides Swordsman’s Apprentice — melee bonuses and powerful melee attacks;
• War Veteran — access to a firearms arsenal and a grappling hook;
• Bene Gesserit Follower — hypnosis and the ability to temporarily control others.

Sounds cool, right? And the first missions really do make you feel the power of your choice. But here’s the problem — for some reason, all of this doesn’t feel like an organic part of the world, but like a set of modules roughly inserted into the body of the desert. As if someone tried to shove classic survival elements into the Dune setting and didn’t fully understand how it should work. Maybe that’s the idea? Like Paul Muad’Dib, we start out as outsiders, groping our way through an alien world, peering into disparate fragments of Fremen dreams… I want to believe that later we’ll be given the opportunity to actually become part of their culture. Maybe we’ll get a Freeman-inspired skill tree after all?

For now, it seems that Funcom, despite the large-scale universe, has decided to play by the familiar rules of the genre. They’re making a game more about “fun” and standard mechanics than about Dune itself in its philosophical and cultural sense. The sandy gait episode alone is worth something: in the book, this technique is a vital survival skill. You literally learn to blend in with the landscape, move to the beat of the wind and sand to avoid the wrath of Shai-Hulud. Can you imagine how atmospheric it would be to go through this path yourself? But no. The developers admitted that they tested the mechanics, but refused – they say it looked ridiculous and the character walked too slowly. Seriously?

It feels like Dune: Awakening hasn’t yet decided who it wants to be – a real adaptation of the spirit of Dune or just another sandbox in a popular wrapper.

Dune: Awakening – a failure of adaptation or a foundation for greatness?

I want to believe that over time, players will find sophisticated ways to outsmart the sandworms themselves – or the developers from Funcom will remember more ambitious ideas. For example, they will give the ability to ride worms or build those very moisture traps manually, turning each depression into a real oasis. I really hope so. Because, despite the fact that Dune: Awakening sparked my interest in Dune (before that I only knew about it superficially), so far the game is rather frustrating. It seems to be diligently reducing to nothing all the potential of a unique world, drowning it in cliched survival mechanics. As if someone took the sands of Arrakis and simply covered them with templates.

Dune: Awakening System Requirements

How to play Dune: Awakening for free on Steam via VpeSports

The sands of Arrakis are calling. There is no room for weakness here – just you and a ruthless desert full of ancient secrets and deadly challenges. Dune: Awakening does not play by your rules – it dictates its own. Every shadow can save your life, every sound – lead to death. You are not a hero according to the script. You are a drop in the ocean of sand from which a legend can be born.

We made sure that your immersion began without unnecessary headaches. Just a couple of clicks – and you are already in the game. No need to scour the forums or look for instructions. Just log in to your profile, and Dune: Awakening will open its gates. Oh, and by the way – you can play through a free Steam account, which we issue after approving your review.

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The desert does not forgive. But for those who understand its language, it gives much more than just survival.