Dune: Awakening - Review Thread

Draugoth

Gold Member
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Game Information


Game Title: Dune: Awakening

Platforms:

  • PC (Jun 10, 2025)
  • PlayStation 5 (Jun 10, 2025)
  • Xbox Series X/S (Jun 10, 2025)
Trailer:

Developer: Funcom


Critic Reviews

DualShockers - Miller Reynolds - 9 / 10

Quote not yet available
GAMES.CH - Christian Rotfeld - German - 75%

Quote not yet available
Game Rant - Josh Cotts - 8 / 10

Dune: Awakening thrives in atmosphere, worldbuilding, and survival depth, even if its combat and grind somewhat drag behind its setting and systems.
WayTooManyGames - Leonardo Faria - 7 / 10

There's a lot of potential in here, and if you were a fan of Conan: Exiles' grindy loop, you'll have a blast with Dune: Awakening, considering it's a tad bit more forgiving than its predecessor. Oddly enough, however, the more you're a fan of the Dune books, the more off-putting Awakening will become, considering its bizarre fanfic-y premise and ideas that just go against everything the books (and even the most recent movies) have been saying for the past half-decade. As a result, Dune: Awakening, whilst easily the best Dune game since the strategy titles from the early 90s, is more appealing to those just seeking for a new survival MMO, and not exactly die-hard fans of the seminal sci-fi franchise.
 
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And as with every Funcom game, this will get patched for years and will improve and expand
Not sure if i would be happy to pay full price for what is basically a beta.

At least early access on steam they tell you it's early access and the price is usually lower.
 
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Not sure if i would be happy to pay full price for what is basically a beta.
But this isnt a beta? Its a full game packed with content and pretty polished, especially for a funcom and survival game. There are some bugs and jank yeah, but nothing too major
 
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I got the game for just $29.99 so I bought the Standard Edition.

It looks beautiful at 4K resolution and Ultra settings, which is something that surprised me the most. Games like these (MMO / survival type) usually have awful graphics, but the world / texture quality / lightning look absolutely gorgeous.

Animations and character models are not the best, however.

As far as the gameplay goes, I'm still very early in the game (I'm building the sand-bike). The gameplay loop can get boring at times because it's a slow, survival based loop, but it is fun overall. I can see huge potential in it - especially how they designed the endgame.

The only frustration for me so far is the very limited inventory size.
 
I got the game for just $29.99 so I bought the Standard Edition.

It looks beautiful at 4K resolution and Ultra settings, which is something that surprised me the most. Games like these (MMO / survival type) usually have awful graphics, but the world / texture quality / lightning look absolutely gorgeous.

Animations and character models are not the best, however.

As far as the gameplay goes, I'm still very early in the game (I'm building the sand-bike). The gameplay loop can get boring at times because it's a slow, survival based loop, but it is fun overall. I can see huge potential in it - especially how they designed the endgame.

The only frustration for me so far is the very limited inventory size.

You got it for 30? I couldnt find a cheaper key for this game
 
Two hours playing and I can't stop, its a blast. Haven't seen a single player yet

Melee combat though is not great but luckily you get fire weapons quick
 
Not sure if i would be happy to pay full price for what is basically a beta.

At least early access on steam they tell you it's early access and the price is usually lower.
it's not a beta. there's a ton of content and things to do, and systems are fleshed out. it's not an EA GaaS that runs out of content after 20h
 
Man this game is a blast. Please go and play it
Is there a lot of crafting and base buolding or i can just play as an open world action rpg with sidequest, mainquest etc.

The combat looks terrible, what is actually good on the game if i'm not really a dune fan at all?
 
Is the suspiciously positive word of mouth exaggerating about this game? Are players who say they're loving it the sort who take a degree of jank and sloppiness for granted and enjoy this kind of thing despite its rough edges, or is it a genuinely high quality release that is well thought out and with a good degree of polish? Because we've been here before, many times. I remember stuff like Warframe was "amazing" in its early years, when really it was a flimsy shell of a game until the dev spent years building it out. Yet fans exaggerated about its greatness throughout its early years.

I love a a good action survival game, but I'm not prepared to take a punt on something brand new unless it has a good standard of content and polish. Ark Survival Evolved has legions of passionate fans, and that game is fucking dire.
 
Is there a lot of crafting and base buolding or i can just play as an open world action rpg with sidequest, mainquest etc.

The combat looks terrible, what is actually good on the game if i'm not really a dune fan at all?

At its core its a survival game so yes, you need to grind, craft and build
 
Is the suspiciously positive word of mouth exaggerating about this game? Are players who say they're loving it the sort who take a degree of jank and sloppiness for granted and enjoy this kind of thing despite its rough edges, or is it a genuinely high quality release that is well thought out and with a good degree of polish? Because we've been here before, many times. I remember stuff like Warframe was "amazing" in its early years, when really it was a flimsy shell of a game until the dev spent years building it out. Yet fans exaggerated about its greatness throughout its early years.

I love a a good action survival game, but I'm not prepared to take a punt on something brand new unless it has a good standard of content and polish. Ark Survival Evolved has legions of passionate fans, and that game is fucking dire.
If you are familiar with survival games you know it comes with jank. I'd say this is probably one of the most polished and complete survival game out there, but ofc its not without bugs or jank.
 
If you are familiar with survival games you know it comes with jank. I'd say this is probably one of the most polished and complete survival game out there, but ofc its not without bugs or jank.

Well, I played Subnautica and Grounded, and I'm playing Enshrouded. These three superb titles didn't feel janky to me.
 
Is the suspiciously positive word of mouth exaggerating about this game? Are players who say they're loving it the sort who take a degree of jank and sloppiness for granted and enjoy this kind of thing despite its rough edges, or is it a genuinely high quality release that is well thought out and with a good degree of polish? Because we've been here before, many times. I remember stuff like Warframe was "amazing" in its early years, when really it was a flimsy shell of a game until the dev spent years building it out. Yet fans exaggerated about its greatness throughout its early years.

I love a a good action survival game, but I'm not prepared to take a punt on something brand new unless it has a good standard of content and polish. Ark Survival Evolved has legions of passionate fans, and that game is fucking dire.

For the type of game it is, it's extremely polished. I haven't found a single bug yet or anything weird. Its really well done

And one thing I like so far is that the game has interior missions, similar to The Division, where you go to some "dungeon" and you have to kill enemies inside and such.

It's honestly a great experience and I not finding it annoying like other survivals. In the beginning you might have issues with water and having to drink often but the games gives you a lot of tools to overcome this problem

GymWolf GymWolf

The melee combat is not good that is true, at least not until you unlock skills. The thing is that you can completely ignore it and use only guns. And to be honest the gunplay is very well done, I can tell that this is the part where the devs have put all the attention. I am enjoying a lot shooting enemies and the progression system is really solid

There is crafting yes and you have to participate in this area to create stuff but its simple and easy to follow, after you create the stuff needed you can ignore base building and explore
 
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For the type of game it is, it's extremely polished. I haven't found a single bug yet or anything weird. Its really well done

And one thing I like so far is that the game has interior missions, similar to The Division, where you go to some "dungeon" and you have to kill enemies inside and such.

Hmm, sounds good. I'll have to keep an eye on it, I'll watch some videos and see how it gets on.
 
For the type of game it is, it's extremely polished. I haven't found a single bug yet or anything weird. Its really well done

And one thing I like so far is that the game has interior missions, similar to The Division, where you go to some "dungeon" and you have to kill enemies inside and such.

It's honestly a great experience and I not finding it annoying like other survivals. In the beginning you might have issues with water and having to drink often but the games gives you a lot of tools to overcome this problem

GymWolf GymWolf

The melee combat is not good that is true, at least not until you unlock skills. The thing is that you can completely ignore it and use only guns. And to be honest the gunplay is very well done, I can tell that this is the part where the devs have put all the attention. I am enjoying a lot shooting enemies and the progression system is really solid

There is crafting yes and you have to participate in this area to create stuff but its simple and easy to follow, after you create the stuff needed you can ignore base building and explore
I'm always intrigued by good progression systems but the shooting look kinda dire on the gameplay i saw, better than the melee but that is a pretty low baseline...

Maybe it feel better live.
 
You can build some sick stuff :)


*When interior designers and architects play Dune Awakening*

Bro went cooking. What the fuck is that LOL! I can't even dream building something like this. My "base" is currently a 6x4 single-walled-single-roofed square box LMAO. If I jump my head hits the ceiling.
 
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I feel like I'm insane because I genuinely think this looks like absolute garbage, yet everyone I've seen on YouTube seems to be praising it.
Survival\building game are a strange genre, they almost always look like absolute crap from the outside but a shitload of people enjoy them :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
 
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*When interior designers and architects play Dune Awakening*

Bro went cooking. What the fuck is that LOL! I can't even dream building something like this. My "base" is currently a 6x4 single-walled-single-roofed square box LMAO. If I jump my head hits the ceiling.
Yeah same lol. I have no creativity nor patience to build something like this, but there are some crazy people out there
 
Probably my game of the year right now if I'm being honest. A total dark horse.

Not sure if i would be happy to pay full price for what is basically a beta.

At least early access on steam they tell you it's early access and the price is usually lower.
This isn't some early access jank. I've got 30 hours in Dune Awakening, and it's legitimately one of the best survival crafting games I've ever played. They could patch nothing and it'd still be an amazing game atop the genre. The game also has an MMO component, complete with dungeons, PVP zones, quests, and a decent enough loot game that I've barely scratched the surface of.

Dune Awakening does Dune justice and has built its entire gameplay loop around the world of Arakis. Travelling from my base in the far north down to the middle of the map to mine iron takes some planning. Firstly, I need to collect a large amount of resources, so I'm taking my buggy so I can haul it all home. I need to disassemble its outer shell so I can access and repair its engine and power supply, as they've worn down from my mining trips. I also need to repair its tracks as they've taken damage from climbing over all the rocks. Next, I need to refuel it, and take enough extra fuel to get me home. Then, I need to plan my water. It can be hard to come by on long trips, so I make sure I take a full litrejon and a high quality stillsuit. I take a dew collector with me, just in case I get caught out for longer than I expect and need to collect water on the go. Then I drive. I have to plan my moment-to-moment traversal across the rocks to minimise the damage to the buggy. Then, after a long trek, I reach the open desert. I need to move from rock formation to rock formation, and drive around the drum sand, to avoid triggering the worms. I move around, mining Iron as I go. Then, I get out and use the sand compactor to collect flower sand. I have to do this in short bursts to prevent the worms from eating me alive (if a worm eats you, you lose everything - your equipped gear, your inventory, all of it.). With my inventories full, I do the entire journey in reverse. Close to home, I take out a small bandit camp, and use my MK4 blood extractor to fill my blood bags from their dead bodies (I'll refine the blood at my base to produce clean water). During this expedition, I'm enjoying an incredible soundtrack, incredible vistas, and the world of Arrakis that feels alive like virtually no other game in this genre. This is around an hour of gameplay. It's been this good for the past 30 hours, and shows no signs of stopping.

If you're huge Dune fan like myself, do not sleep on this game. It's actually kind of incredible.
 
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Probably my game of the year right now if I'm being honest. A total dark horse.


This isn't some early access jank. I've got 30 hours in Dune Awakening, and it's legitimately one of the best survival crafting games I've ever played. They could patch nothing and it'd still be an amazing game atop the genre. The game also has an MMO component, complete with dungeons, PVP zones, quests, and a decent enough loot game that I've barely scratched the surface of.

Dune Awakening does Dune justice and has built its entire gameplay loop around the world of Arakis. Travelling from my base in the far north down to the middle of the map to mine iron takes some planning. Firstly, I need to collect a large amount of resources, so I'm taking my buggy so I can haul it all home. I need to disassemble its outer shell so I can access and repair its engine and power supply, as they've worn down from my mining trips. I also need to repair its tracks as they've taken damage from climbing over all the rocks. Next, I need to refuel it, and take enough extra fuel to get me home. Then, I need to plan my water. It can be hard to come by on long trips, so I make sure I take a full litrejon and a high quality stillsuit. I take a dew collector with me, just in case I get caught out for longer than I expect and need to collect water on the go. Then I drive. I have to plan my moment-to-moment traversal across the rocks to minimise the damage to the buggy. Then, after a long trek, I reach the open desert. I need to move from rock formation to rock formation, and drive around the drum sand, to avoid triggering the worms. I move around, mining Iron as I go. Then, I get out and use the sand compactor to collect flower sand. I have to do this in short bursts to prevent the worms from eating me alive (if a worm eats you, you lose everything - your equipped gear, your inventory, all of it.). With my inventories full, I do the entire journey in reverse. Close to home, I take out a small bandit camp, and use my MK4 blood extractor to fill my blood bags from their dead bodies (I'll refine the blood at my base to produce clean water). During this expedition, I'm enjoying an incredible soundtrack, incredible vistas, and the world of Arrakis that feels alive like virtually no other game in this genre. This is around an hour of gameplay. It's been this good for the past 30 hours, and shows no signs of stopping.

If you're huge Dune fan like myself, do not sleep on this game. It's actually kind of incredible.
I asked in here because i was tricked by cohh saying that it feels more like an open world action rpg than a survival\building game (that i hate) but after reading around it seems like the dude was on drugs or something when he said that :lollipop_grinning_sweat:


I'm not really a dune fan at all, i haven't even seen the new movies, i liked the old one and i like the desert stuff with the worms and the killer voice or whatever it is but it end there.

If i have to build a base\house my interest plummet completely, i hate that shit with a passion.
 
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... If i have to build a base\house my interest plummet completely, i hate that shit with a passion.
Fair enough. Steer clear of this one - base building is central to survival, and it sounds like that's really not your bag. This is 100% a survival/crafting game with an MMO component.

Does the game have controller support. My pc is connected to my tv.
Yes it does.
 
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