opinion: Vali doesn”t like survival or MMOs. But he can”t get around Dune: Awakening. Dune and Survival go together too well for him to ignore the upcoming Funcom game.
I love Dune. To be fair, I owe this entirely to Denis Villeneuve”s plank of a blockbuster movie set in 2021 . Previously, I could not get excited about either David Lynch”s film adaptation or Frank Herbert”s series of novels. For me, the (obvious) problems with both versions of the sci-fi epic outweigh their problems.
As an absolute strategy noob, I haven”t ventured into the impressive range of game adaptations that Dune has had since 1992. In early 2022, however, my ears perked up. Funcom announced that after Spice Wars they were working on another Dune game, this time in a different genre: Survival.
Whoever read my preview of Teyson”s Terminator/Survival project knows what I can do with this genre. Spoilers: Not that much at all. At gamescom 2022 Funcom has now revealed the name, a first trailer and another important detail about the new Dune game: Dune: Awakening will not only be a survival game, but also a survival MMO.
Double bad news for me, I don”t like playing either one. Still, I can”t get around Dune: Awakening. Because the genre just fits the template too well for me to ignore the game.
What kind of game will Dune Awakening be?
Let me first summarize the bare facts about Dune: Awakening and explain what kind of game Funcom is currently working on anyway:
- Dune: Awakening will be a survival MMO with an open world.
- The game is scheduled for release on PC, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
- Currently there is no release date, also no rough time frame is communicated.
- The setting of Dune: Awakening is of course the desert planet Arrakis, where I primarily fight for my survival, but also against other players and even the giant sandworms.
- As usual for the survival genre, I build my shelter into a powerful base. Vehicles and planes (such as the Ornithopter) are also to be at my disposal, with which I not only chug through Arrakis, but also fight battles against other players.
- Water and spice are two resources that are essential for survival. So I have to keep my distillery suit running while I trade or strengthen my senses with the drug/spice/fuel.
- Loners might have a hard time on Arrakis. That”s why factions I”m allowed to join and alongside which I (hopefully) take over the dominance of the desert planet play an important role. How exactly this will work is currently unknown
- Developer Funcom knows a thing or two about both the survival genre and adapting movie licenses. After all, one of their most prominent games to date is Conan Exiles.
This is what the first trailer shows: Gamescom 2022 also saw the sharing of a first cinematic trailer for Dune: Awakening, after only a couple of concept art before. The new preview of the game shows a mysterious figure (perhaps even Paul Atreides himself) in a distillery suit of the Fremen, whose eyes glow bright blue from Spice consumption.
And of course, the obligatory appearance of a sandworm is not to be missed, who feasts on a harvesting tool of the Harkonnen and maybe-Paul Atreides swings himself onto the back of the huge monster. The whole event is accompanied by a voice-over of the teachings of the Bene Gesserit, that fear kills the mind and so on. You know the quote.
The biggest treat in my opinion: Awakening draws for its title on the incredibly well done title design of Denis Villeuve”s feature film. The four brackets forming the four letters of the word Dune are the epitome of “sexy” in my eyes. Best just take a look at the trailer for yourself:
Why I”m looking forward to it despite the genre
As I mentioned before, I”m really not a fan of the survival genre. Video games need to relax me and I really rarely can with survival titles. I already manage to eat properly and keep my flat clean in real life rather badly than well. Trying to do it in front of the screen feels almost hypocritical, but above all like work.
Of course, this doesn”t mean that I can only do something with absolutely decelerated games like Journey, A Short Hike, Animal Crossing and the like – even if these titles have their very own appeal. Sometimes I get down best with games like Doom, Bayonetta, Resident Evil or Mortal Kombat. And those don”t exactly scream relaxed.
In the case of Dune: Awakening, it”s complicated by the fact that it”s not just a survival game, but a survival MMO right off the bat. As someone who tends to avoid multiplayer titles, that”s not such good news. However, Funcom would really be wasting a lot of potential if they didn”t make a massively multiplayer online thing out of the latest Dune adaptation.
After all, the Dune story is set in the intricate intrigue of numerous opposing houses and factions vying with each other for control of Arrakis and the Spice River. Should Dune: Awakening become as refined and complex as, for example, Eve Online, there is the potential for the community itself to tell the most exciting stories about the struggle between Atreides, Harkonnen, Fremen and Co.
I probably don”t need to explain at length that survival – alongside strategy – fits Dune like a glove. The desert planet Arrakis is tailor-made for a representative of this genre and, to be honest, I was almost surprised that no one had come up with the idea before Funcom.
For the release of Dune: Awakening, which is currently still written in the stars, I will have to jump over my shadow and venture into not one, but two genres of which I am really not a fan. I”ll have to get rid of my fear of it by then, because as you know, fear kills the mind. No, thanks. I”m gonna need that.
Editor”s verdict
I should have expected Dune Awakening to be not just a survival game, but a survival MMO. Anything else would have made little sense away from the strategy genre. I might have let a melee game with stealth elements and a focus on stabbings pass. If I could still make decisions with far-reaching consequences for the further course of the story, a coherent overall concept might actually emerge.
But if I”m honest, a Dune survival MMO is simply the more logical consequence. Besides, I definitely don”t wish for the time back when a shooter was squeezed out of pretty much every licence. Be it Transformers, Terminator or even Harry Potter. Whether I will ultimately warm to Dune Awakening remains to be seen, of course. After all, Funcom has already shown a knack for the genre with Conan Exiles. And as a fairly young fan of the Dune epic, I”m allowed to jump over my own shadow. Maybe it”s finally time for me to start downloading Spice Wars …
