Blogs
on April 20, 2026
Traversing across the sands can attract sandworms that will devour the player, taking all their gear, items, and - if nearby - their vehicles. Dune: Awakening 's sandworms devour and destroy everything, while standard deaths in conventional combat lead to minor losses. It not only helps realize the dangers of Arrakis, but ensures players are mindful of what they are carrying where. The demoist showed us a couple of vehicles players could use, all derived from the Dune franchise obviously, and losing them in such a vast world is no doubt a serious loss, alongside any high-level gear. Players could craft that gear again, but it requires finding the schematic, necessary materials, and so forth. Gaining anything in Dune: Awakening is an investment, and the sandworm can just wipe that all cl
The world itself really captures the desolate, dangerous feeling of being out in the desert, with little touches that add to the immersion. As I was dying of dehydration, for example, my character’s vision slowly changed - dunes in the distance that were once clear got hazy, almost appearing more like a mirage. Though players begin in the Hagga Basin, they’ll eventually be able to travel elsewhere with an ornithopter , like the Harko Village, which serves as a sort of social
This first tip is explained to you early on in the game, but it's easy to miss just how important it is. When traversing Arrakis, if you spend too much time in the sun, it's easy to suffer heat stroke. Before you have a Stillsuit researched, your water is one of your most precious resources, and still is even after you have the Stillsuit equipped.
Frank Herbert's 1965 novel, Dune , was a game-changer for science fiction. Due to its immense popularity and sustained place in the mainstream of science fiction, it's seen many adaptations. From David Lynch's Dune Awakening weapons to the original 1992 video game, Herbert's world has long been a playground for creatives.
Dune Awakening’s biggest change to the world is its story, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see much of it. Staying away from the world of Denis Villeneuve’s films, you play as a generic prisoner who’s sent to the desert. Of course, political intrigue quickly rears its head, but I’m told it becomes the focus later in the game as more characters and narrative arcs are introduced. I can’t comment on how the story will play out, but I wish the player character had a voice. One-sided conversations are always awkward in games like this and Awakening could have bucked this tr
For example, there are various random and world events set to trigger in the game. Our demoist was at a Harkonnen base, and we got to see some Harkonnen soldiers preparing to execute House Atreides POWs. While some MMOs can have lifeless worlds because of the emphasis on a player and their faction, that doesn't appear to be the case here - though that's not to say players won't have a huge impact on the game wo
Having experienced little more than the base level survival aspects, some tweaking during the ongoing closed beta periods will be needed. The majority of the objectives I was tasked with asked me to find specific resources, which were usually plentiful, and then return to my base to use it in crafting. Rinse and repeat. The sort of stuff has been the staple of this genre for years
Where Dune 2 shows its age is in its user-interface, making the game a pain to play until players can memorize the variety of keyboard shortcuts. Furthermore, the game lacks a group-select function, forcing players to command each unit individually. Despite these downsides, Dune 2 remains a fantastically thematic real-time strategy game. There was also a remake in 1998, titled Dune: 2000 , which made several changes.
Even small steps forward, like the ability to build a basic water extraction gun, carry more weight when it took so much effort to get there. The aforementioned ornithopter that can take players to new regions requires a huge amount of work to build, with one of the demo workers mentioning it could take around 40 hours to achieve. The area players begin in can sometimes feel repetitive - it’s difficult for a desert that is large swathes of brown in every direction to feel very diverse - so I do have a few reservations about this hur
Although Frank Herbert's Dune eventually spelled the end for Cryo Interactive, it made a valiant attempt to stay faithful to its source material. Unfortunately, it's let down by rough-edged third-person action that was poor even for its time.
As time goes on, players will be able to unlock new technology in the Water Discipline category, which will allow for better tools like a mechanism to extract water from enemies’ blood and a flask to carry around a drinking supply. However, even with these improvements, finding a consistent supply of water is not easy. This is especially true during the day when the sun is at its most powerful, and even when properly hydrated, the sun can still cause heat exhaustion that damages health and stam