‘Dune: Awakening’ takes fans to Arrakis and forces them to survive a wasteland

ADVANCING IN ARRAKIS

In the demo, Funcom showed how plants can be found in caves and crevices, but other material such as metal is a bit more problematic. They solve this by strewing Arrakis with debris from the War of Assassins. Players can scavenge the vessel parts or they can use their mining laser to cut out important parts. Of course, players can mine rocks for minerals, too.

Elsewhere in the demo, Bylos showed a protagonist with a full-on Stillsuit that lets them recycle water more efficiently allowing players to better survive the harsh climes. They also crafted a suspensor belt that minimizes fall damage by letting the float down. The suspensor also allow players to keep momentum so that when they fire a grappling hook and fly upward, they do it smoothly and moving higher than normal.

The team showed off the combat in “Dune: Awakening” and this takes into account shields and the fact that weapons such as the Maula Pistols don’t use explosives. It also showed off that, yes, Funcom can make ranged combat feel fun. Firing bullets will impact enemies in ways that make sense. It’s better to get headshots but if you need to slow them down, hitting them in the legs are good and enemies react accordingly.

Funcom also showed out a Mentats-influenced character. They appear more stealth friendly and can surmise traits and positions of their foes. They also have a hunter-seeker, a small drone that lets the Mentat assassinate foes. They can be seen as long as they’re moving.

CRAFTING AND, AHEM, WATER CONSERVATION

Not wanting to waste good water, players can exsanguinate their foes. Players essentially act like a vampire and steal their enemies fluids. They can drink them immediately but has penalties. It’s best to bring the bodily remains to the base where they can be purified and turned into safe drinking water.

With base building, Funcom takes what they learned from “Conan: Exiles” and improve on it. Players can claim land but they’ll have pay taxes to the Imperium. From there, they use a hologram system that shows how a base will look like before players devote resources to walls and other objects. Players can even build with friends.

What’s notable is that players can copy a blueprint of their base and rebuild it in another part of the world. They don’t have to do everything from scratch. This is important when players are thinking about taking on the more dangerous parts of “Dune: Awakening” such as the Deep Desert. That’s where PvP is enabled and where players will need to quickly build defenses. It’s better to build the structure in a safe spot and bring it to more dangerous maps.

So why would anyone want to go out in the danger zones? Bylos said there are rare and valuable schematics in the world. If players find one, they can be one of the only people on the server who can craft that valuable item.

One of the more impressive items to build is a vehicle and that comes into play in World Events. In “Dune: Awakening,” players will see ships destroyed near them and those have valuable goodies. They’ll have to race to the crash site and scavenge quickly before a fight ensues over the resources. In PvE areas, they don’t have to worry about that, but in a PvP zone, it could lead to a bloodbath.

On top of rivals, players also have to worry about weather. Funcom’s Arrakis has a weather system and it impacts the map destroying vehicles and potentially killing players. They’ll also have to deal with sandworms. Players can’t fight them. They are forces of nature that players have to escape it by going to rocky ground or distracting it with a thumper.

Lastly, Funcom said players will have social hubs in the game. It is an massively multiplayer online game after all. This is where players can find guilds, traders and factions. They can even organize a party to harvest spice, which is a difficulty and risky endeavor in and of itself. Those are plenty of distractions, but those who are just interested in the story will be happy to learn that “Dune: Awakening” does have narrative that players can follow. There is a goal after being shipwrecked in a wasteland.

“Dune: Awakening” will release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and Series S.