After the release of Dune: Part Two in theaters, fans definitely wanted more from the franchise, and that’s where Dune: Awakening comes in – an upcoming survival MMO game developed by Funcom.
The game was first announced at Gamescon 2022. At the time, fans had not seen any teaser apart from its concept art until a new trailer finally dropped a few days ago.
Dune: Awakening Reveals Vital Information About The Gameplay
On its official Twitter page, Dune: Awakening revealed crucial aspects of the game that fans should know before purchasing a copy. It’s important that franchises do not hide information like this to avoid confusion among players.
“We agree that religion is an integral part of the Dune universe. This is why in Dune: Awakening, you will meet and interact with people of different religions along your journey. However, as opposed to the story presented in the books, the player is not a messiah and will not play a major role in any of them. Leading people on a holy war is not why you arrive on Arrakis.”
The company’s transparency was greatly appreciated by fans, with most of them expressing gratitude for sharing a very critical detail about the game. Some fans might find this upsetting, but the majority seem to love it. Check out some of their reactions below:
This is the kind of transparency we need in gaming. "This is what our game is." Straight to the point, no bs.
— Gio (@ABTirolski) March 6, 2024
Yesssss great! Honestly it gets tiring in RPGs when you’re always the chosen one or the destined change for the setting, I wanna feel like a foot soldier in a larger conflict, with their own goals and motivations, for my house or a house I’m sworn to 🥺
— Danos 🖖🏻🇬🇧 (@TheMightyDanos) March 6, 2024
Whoever is on the marketing team is doing a great job. The transparency and openness with the community has sold me on the game. Hoping to see it continued past launch!
— Semper (@53mper) March 6, 2024
Regardless I'm already sold on the game pic.twitter.com/BhQ8oALYBm
— Eddie (@OHMYDIAZ) March 6, 2024
That’s honestly a relief I don’t want the main characters of MMOs to be main characters because there’s going to be tons of main characters running around then
— Balmora (@BalmoraBard) March 6, 2024
In an interview with Digital Trends, Funcom creative director Joel Bylos shared what gamers will expect once they enter Arrakis:
“Arrakis is a test, is what the Fremen say, and the player comes into the very heart of that test immediately in Dune: Awakening. You’re going to be really, really worried every time you walk on the sand. You always need to be thinking about what you’re doing.”
It seems quite a tough mission to solve as players will commence their journey on Arrakis alone in the desert, scavenging for food, water, and other supplies.
Why Dune: Awakening Is Not Like Other Survival Games
Survival games are often scary, and many avid gamers try to avoid immersing themselves in this genre due to its demanding nature. However, game developer Funcom said that Dune: Awakening aims to combat this fear (via PC Gamer):
“There are assumptions that have just been there since the start of the survival genre, because the first [survival game] did them, and everybody else sort of copied that, so we’re rethinking some of those paradigms.”
Funcom’s Joel Bylos explained that they have been rethinking ways how to make the upcoming survival game live up to the goal:
“And so I would say that we want to create these very strong survival tensions, but we also don’t want to punish players in a ridiculously harsh way. So we’re kind of trying to find a nice balance with that.”
All of these innovative concepts for the upcoming game will hopefully excite fans even more, and with the hype around the Dune franchise, it’s more likely going to make those sales climb up. So far, there is no announced release date for the game.
