Dune: Awakening Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, GeForce Now, Linux, & PC)

It feels long-awaited that we finally have an online survival MMO for the Dune franchise. Watching the Dune movies and series and even reading the books makes you want to live in Arrakis. Even with its downright deadly threats and dangers looking to kill you. If it’s not sunstroke, it’s dehydration. Or worse, the sandworms will gobble you up for dinner. 

Every single minute in Arrakis is spent calculating your next move. Scratch that, your next step. Whether you accidentally drive over quicksand or wander into enemy territory. There are a thousand ways to die, all thanks to the treacherous life in a sprawling desert full of coveted spice. 

The survival MMO genre has had its downsides, though. And it’ll be very easy for Dune: Awakening to fall victim to it. Tedious grinding, lackluster combat, and pointless side quests, just to name a few. And then, there’s the matter that the title will have to live up to Dune’s glorious name, a six-decade franchise with a staggering fanbase. 

Do tag along on our Dune: Awakening review while we break down all you can expect from the game: the good, the bad, and everything in between.

Sands of Time

Dune: Awakening does have a storyline, set on an alternate timeline. You’re an undercover agent of Bene Gesserit. After crash landing on Arrakis, you set forth on your mission to locate the mysteriously missing Fremen. Paul Atredeis was never born in this timeline. 

However, House Atreides and House Harkonnen are engaged in an ongoing civil war. Once you find the Fremen, it’s your duty to awaken the “Sleeper,” whose identity remains unknown. And that’s all we need to begin our venture onto almighty Arrakis. 

First things first: survival. Arrakis is no place for the weak. The faint of heart might as well give up. And Dune: Awakening has done a fantastic job of capturing this. It’s, frankly, the exciting factor about playing through a Dune game. You want to feel that tension of narrowly escaping death by using every resource at your disposal.

It’s the Thirst that Kills

But said resources aren’t easy to find. Your most craved will be water. Arrakis, being a sprawling desert of hot sand upon miles and miles of derelict land, you’ll need to conserve water to the last drop to survive. And Dune: Awakening wastes no time in making it clear to you that you need to craft a special tool to mine the dew-spiked plants collected in the night. 

Those few drops will only take you so far. Hence, devising a water filtration system that takes human blood, purifies it, and bam, you have more water that can last you longer. But further onward, you craft yet another nifty technology, a suit that can recycle your own piss. And on and on, the struggle for survival continues. 

And the Sun And the Sandstorms

I say struggle, but honestly, it’s so much fun squirming in the tension of possibly dying from dehydration. Spend too long in the sun, and your body water drains so quickly, in literal seconds, unless you can replenish it. If not dehydration, it’s sunstroke that will kill you. 

Fortunately, you can evade the sun, taking shelter in your custom-built base or crouching beneath rocks. Dune: Awakening is kind to add shadowy regions as well, where as long as you move within these, you can possibly outlast the sun’s harsh rays. 

But that’s not all. You also have nasty sandstorms to worry about. They, at the very least, blur your vision and derail your speed. Stay too long in the sandstorms, though, and your health will quickly drain. You must then find shelter, soon, and wait out the sandstorms, if you’re to survive. 

The threat level for the sandstorms is higher, though. They don’t just drain your health, but can destroy your hard-earned resources and equipment, including vehicles. They can sweep away your makeshift base, all succumbing in wear-and-tear of anything caught in its path. And it sets you back on the gathering-and-crafting journey, repairing, replacing, and rebuilding at worst.

The Sandworms, Of Course

But none of these threats come close to the sandworms. Yes, the famed Dune monsters that can sense vibrations of your movement over their territory. And once spooked, they chase you relentlessly, breaching through the sand to swallow you whole, alongside everything in your inventory. 

They aren’t just as scary as they sound on paper. Dune: Awakening has done a fantastic job of capturing just how majestic the sandworms can be, just like the movies. Their hundreds of lengths of whirling through the sand, causing the desert to shift and move in such an immersive way. These colossal monsters don’t just eat you; they eat your vehicle, too, even spice harvesters.

As a result, spending too long in open sand is a no-no, especially on foot. You might have a better chance with a vehicle. But still, the threat is too immense to take any big risks. And yet, risk is the defining feature of survival games. You want to feel on the verge of death, and Dune: Awakening definitely captures that desperation to great effect.

Oh, and the Actual Enemies

Let’s not forget the hostile enemies on Arrakis, also posing a deadly threat to you. And some come wearing impenetrable shields. So, you have to get close to them to pierce them with your Slowblade. Combat offers you no choice but to engage in both ranged and melee kills if you’re to survive the enemies of Dune: Awakening.

Ranged combat actually has pretty decent headshot aim. It feels pretty punchy to take out an enemy from so far away. And when you’re tactfully tucked away behind cover, it’s all the more satisfying. Some enemies with shields can take a bit to penetrate. But they eventually succumb to damage. And then there are the ones who dash at you with knives, wearing their protective shields. Those can be annoying when they are more than two, overwhelming you with their relentless pursuit. 

And the sometimes stiff melee combat doesn’t help. Frankly, Dune: Awakening’s melee combat could be better. It could feel more satisfying than it is, less repetitive and tedious after a while. Still, you unlock a variety of gadgets and unique skills like turrets and poisonous darts that inject more excitement into combat. Hopefully, the variety keeps on coming, both on the player and enemy front. 

Truly Dune

Those familiar with the Dune franchise will definitely step into Dune: Awakening with certain expectations. And for the most part, those expectations will be met. The constant fear of attack, whether from hostile enemies or the environment itself, is impressively captured. However, it can feel a little too easy to fight enemies at times. And resources can be easy to find. 

However, Dune: Awakening does a great job of constantly unlocking new research and technologies to hunt down. You’re often progressing, whether that’s unlocking more complex building structures for your base or tools for exploration and combat. 

The worldbuilding, too, is extraordinary. When presented with a purely desert world, it can be tricky to diversify it. But Dune: Awakening has managed to make its regions interesting to explore. It does so with such gorgeous detail and visuals. And immense verticality, both when scaling massive peaks and descending into bottomless pits. 

With the numerous traversal methods, you truly feel like scavenging every piece of Arrakis. Even with the grappling and anti-gravity ability, it’s a joy to put into practice, and saves you the time of manually climbing. That, and the suspensor belt that saves you the time of manually descending down cliffs. Overall, Dune: Awakening’s world is stunning and immersive. 

Be Your Own Person

And Dune: Awakening gives you the option to create your own character, with a pretty deep customization system. You then proceed to choose a home planet, faction, and more, which affect dialogue, side quests, NPCs, and starting abilities. And these are all organically manifest, leaving you with a sense of curiosity and experimentation.

You can custom build the base of your dreams, too. And the online multiplayer, once it kicks in full effect, will surely draw in some exciting interactions and shared experiences. 

Verdict

There’s plenty that remains to be seen in Dune: Awakening PvP mode. But embarking on Arrakis solo has been so far, so good. Combat may be the game’s weakest point. But honestly, the survival mechanics are so incredibly intense that they make up for it. 

Dune: Awakening’s world is possibly one of the most dangerous places to exist. It’s a pretty unique place, too, definitely out-of-this-world, where the rules are different and brutal. And I’m here for all of it, as I suspect gamers worldwide will be too. 

Does Dune: Awakening do the Dune franchise justice? Absolutely. It may go a bit easy on you, possibly to make it more accessibly gaming-wise, but it sure does mimic the fear and dread that the Dune universe exudes in its source material.