Why Dune: Awakening Could Be the Next Big Survival Game

The very eagerly anticipated and upcoming title Dune: Awakening, developed and published by Funcom, is an online multiplayer survival role-playing game that you should not miss out on this year. The title set in the universe of one of the most iconic sci-fi franchises in human history is coming closer and closer to the gaming market. To be much more specific the Dune: Awakening release date for Windows PC is going to be the 10th of June 2025, with future versions for PlayStation 5 as well as the Xbox Series X|S to follow it as they are also planned, but at a bit of a later stage.

In this review we want to give you a quick walkthrough of the upcoming Dune: Awakening Steam release and everything important that you should know about the game before the Dune: Awakening release date arrives, since it is almost around the corner now that pre-orders are already opened, it may be a good moment to ask yourself whether the game is for you and if it checks all of the boxes you need ticked. This is why we are here, to help you with that choice! 

Before we go through details such as the pre-orders, different editions as well as the possible future DLC content, we are going to talk about the Dune: Awakening gameplay itself, the most important features and what would the game’s state at launch be, since not everyone could be up-to-date or followed the development closely enough and knows what it is about. The primary goal of this review would be to provide gamers with an easy to follow summary of details and to try and answer the question: Is Dune: Awakening possibly the next big survival title? 

So, pack all your water, resources and spice for this thrilling ride as we explore the sandy dunes that Arrakis has to offer us!

A New Type of Multiplayer Experience with a Stable Combination of Elements and Social Mechanics

Dune: Awakening positions itself as an Open-world Multiplayer Survival game that is set in the popular Sci-Fi universe of Frank Herbert's Dune novels and even though the game has a variety of MMO elements it stands quite far from the traditional MMORPG formula, meaning that there would be no fixed classes, no giant world bosses (apart from the massive desert worms of course) that would require a strictly coordinated group of players in order to be defeated and mechanics of that typical manner. 

At its very core Dune: Awakening is a survival game that just combines the options to play together with hundreds of other players and offers a lot of social features or get as isolated as possible from any interactions with other players. For example, there are going to be various guilds, markets packed with quite a few merchants and an auction house to take advantage of but also the vast reaches of the desert where you could explore and roam freely. Even though it is technically a multiplayer game, the majority of it could be played through on your very own as a nearly single player story campaign at your own pace. 

A Vast World Map for Endless Exploration and Discovery

After you have completed the unique character creation process and the brief tutorial introduction to the game you would make your first steps on the planet of Arrakis, on the main map that is called Hagga Basin. This is primarily the place where you are going to learn a lot about the overall Dune: Awakening gameplay, crafting and survival mechanics such as where you could best build a permanent base and of course also more about the main storyline of the game.

The map is quite big as it reaches around 64 square kilometers and it is exclusively PVE focused, except for a couple of isolated locations such as the social hubs and dedicated PVP areas. In addition to Hagga Basin, where you would most likely spend the vast majority of your time, there are also two separate social hubs namely Arakeen and Harko Village, both of these locations could be reached via the overland map or by flying there with a ornithopter or using a pilot service at the Trading Post in Hagga Basin. 

During your time at these social hubs you would be able to interact and meet up with others, get access to more traders at the game’s auction house, bank and obtain more quests (or contracts as they are called in Dune: Awakening) and finally there is also the Deep Desert. This is a giant PVP focused map that is roughly nine times the size of the Hagga Basin map, so YES it is an absolutely massive place, but it also consists of mostly sand with a very limited number of points of interest. Unlike the social hubs the Deep Desert could only be accessed via flight and the overland map.

Since this is an online game and one that claims to be on a massive scale let's shift our attention for a moment at how the servers would function and how does playing together on these maps happen exactly. After you select the region and game world, you would have to select a server instance as well, which in essence is the Hagga Basin where you would start playing. 

Each Hagga Basin map could host between 40 to 50 players at any given time and there are many different Hagga Basin instances per world. So, if you wish to play together with your friends, do make sure to select the same world and server instance in order to start in the same Hagga Basin map. Players from all the Hagga Basin instances of the same world can meet up at the social hubs and also share the same Deep Desert map. Let's presume for a moment that there would be 25 Hagga Basin instances per world, then all the players from each server instance of those Hagga Basin instances could battle it out in the same Deep Desert map, which is said to have the ability and capacity to support hundreds of players at the same time. 

Please note that initially there would only be official servers at launch, so there would not be an option to create your own or dedicated servers, although the developers have stated before that they may take such a feature into consideration in the future, at least for the PVE focused main map.

Character Progression, Professions, Skilltrees and Passives to Use at Launch

In order to progress your character you would have to explore the world as much as possible and be on the lookout for the best tech you can find around you. Follow-up on the story whenever you feel it fits your stats and skills best. You do not need to specifically play with other players to reach that point but it would definitely make your life much easier and/or fun if you decide on it, but hey, do not feel any rush… it is not a fixed and strict requirement.

Let's continue with the available professions, when first creating your unique character you would be able to pick and choose a profession which determines your starting abilities but no worries you will still have the ability to unlock all of the other professions later in-game, however it can take you some time to learn them all. 

The professions that are going to be available from the very launch of Dune: Awakening are Bene Gesserit, Trooper, Mentat, Swordmaster, and Planetologist. The skills in each of the profession trees are unlocked by using special skill points that you obtain by leveling up. What is truly important to know here is that you can have a maximum of three active skills and another three passives equipped at any given moment in time, but you can switch between them as often as you want to and also have the option to completely reset your skilltrees. 

Lastly there is also a spice-related mechanic that greatly affects your all of your skills, so there is a little bit more depth to everything and it is not easily summarized in this overview. 

Enemies, Resources and Environmental Dangers are All Around you

Survival on Arrakis consists primarily of protecting yourself against all of the environmental threats and of course the various enemies scattered around this desolate world. The serious heat on the planet requires sufficient hydration management and you would definitely need to get more proficient at it as you progress through the adventure, be it by remaining longer in the shadows as you are harvesting water through the use of better gear or converting the blood you obtain from your enemies into water. While on that topic of water management maybe it would be a good idea to also mention that there are no in-game mechanics that require you to manage your hunger or your sleep levels.

In addition to the heat there are also frequent sandstorms that could be deadly, quick sand traps as well as areas with poisonous gas, radiation and of course the ever present threat of the mighty sandworms. You would encounter many of the enemies while exploring different camps and outposts, but there are also the occasional fights with enemies along the way and most importantly beware of the nightly Sardaukar patrols that would send an attack team after anyone that gets caught in their search lights. 

When you die in-game while in PVE mode you would keep all of your equipment, but most likely would take on some durability damage and lose a part of your gained resources such as consumables or currency that you carry, however all of these could be recovered if you manage to return to your death marker location. The only exception is when you die to either the sandworms or the quick sands as these are the only instances when you will drop and lose everything on your body permanently (as it cannot be retrieved any longer). 

There is also no full loot in PvP so in general you keep all of your gear and equipment but lose some durability and all of your resources, consumables and currency. You should have in mind though that there are certain circumstances when a faction that has won the Landsraad (which acts as the political system in Dune: Awakening) could enable a full loot decree for any given week. 

Gear, Weaponry Arsenal and Armor to Protect Yourself while Roaming in the Different Vehicles

When it comes to armor, weapons and other equipment in the Deep Desert you would be able to use a wide variety of melee and ranged weapons, as well as to equip yourself with different armor types. If you are out exploring you might opt for a stillsuit, but have in mind that if you face up to many enemies a heavy armor set might offer a better type of protection. 

You got complete freedom in what to use and in addition to your weapons to select the set of skills you are using, as it would greatly complement your play style and efficiency. Gear is not level locked, meaning that friends who are further in the game could help you get what you need in order to reach them quicker. 

Armor, weapons, tools and vehicles do lose their durability when used too much or they get damaged and while there are options for them to be repaired, this only works to a certain extent and until they fully break. After a while you would simply have to remake what you need and even though this may sound bad at first, once you are a bit more used to the game it is not such a big problem. There are also various skins that allow you to further customize your armor and weapons by changing their appearance or color schemes.  

Now to crafting, as you level up and explore more and more, you are going to gather intel points that could be used to unlock new tech, this could be anything available at the crafting stations, from gear and weapons to consumables and even different types of vehicles. Dune: Awakening does not have a dedicated crafting profession, so everyone can unlock and craft everything. It usually is generally pretty straightforward depending on what resources or components you need, you may have to venture to different zones or points of interest in order to acquire them. Have in mind that some of the better resources could also require you to have better types of gathering tools. 

By far the most precious resource in the Dune: Awakening game is of course Spice and this is mainly due to the dangers that are associated with its harvesting process. There are only limited opportunities to do so on the PVE map since the primary focus for Spice harvesting lies in the Deep Desert where larger harvesting operations may require a whole group of players and proper coordination between them, not only because of the massive worms that lurk below the sands but also due to the constant threat of PVP ambushes and looting.

Building your very Own Base or Collective Fortress is an Exciting Process

In order to build you would need to claim a piece of land by placing a console there. You do however have a limit of how many you can place and how much you are allowed to expand your base and in order to protect your base from the elements you would have to keep your shield generators powered at all times. Hagga Basin is by far the only place where you are able to build a permanent home base as the Dune: Awakening online PVP Deep Desert map gets wiped on a weekly basis and it gets rearranged to keep things fresh and new. 

There are multiple building sets including various pieces for construction and decorations available to you. You are able to build by placing holograms that can either be filled immediately or at a later stage, making it possible to first plan the outline of your base easily. You can have friends help you by building placeables together as well as crafting stations that can be moved after placing them.

While you can prevent building decay by powering your base's shields there is another form of base maintenance to be aware of and that is taxes. Depending on the size of your claimed land the Emperor would expect a regular tax payment in order to allow you to maintain such a large base in the game. 

When it comes to Vehicles there will be various types of ground and air vehicles like the sandbike buggy ornithopter or sand crawler that are needed if you want to harvest large amounts of spice in the Deep Desert and all vehicles would require fuel to be operated. Depending on the type of vehicle, various modules could be equipped on them such as scanners, mines, lasers, rocket launchers and so on. Some Vehicles also offer one or more passenger seats and other more specialized abilities and just as with gear you will be able to customize the skin of your vehicles as well. 

Points of Interest, Trading Posts and the Hidden Secrets they could Hold

In addition to unlocking new crafting recipes in the tech tree with Intel points you will also be able to find unique schematics in select locations such as a secret cave or the end chest in the game's dungeon-like points of interest. These schematics usually have limited uses and many can only be crafted once before you need to find them again, they could be quite rare, especially schematics from the Deep Desert. These could however be much more valuable to trade with other players. 

Imperial testing stations as well as larger shipwrecks are dungeon-like points of interest where you can typically find specific resources and also acquire unique schematics as we just mentioned. While these locations often provide a nice change of scenery, they are not always automatically instanced, so you may at times find them empty. Some of them are relatively small and not particularly challenging so there would not be any massive bosses around as in a typical Dungeon, the main goal here is to rerun these places over and over for specific types of loot and schematics. When it comes to the larger shipwrecks those are also one of the few locations in the Hagga Basin map that are PVP zones so keep that in mind when exploring. 

In addition to all this, there are Trading Posts spread around Hagga Basin where you will find NPC traders for basic goods and contracts. Each Trading Post also offers a piloted shuttle service to the social hubs and other Trading Posts you have discovered in the network. Speaking of contracts these various tasks are the equivalent of in-game quests in Dune: Awakening and you will not only get them at major hubs but also from traders as well as from items you find in the open world. As you progress with your journey you will not only complete tasks and discover locations but also enter personal story instances that are essential for the narrative arc of the game. 

Last But not Least the Game Features Guild Houses as well as Both PVE and PVP Gameplay Modes

There's the option to befriend other players and form co-op party groups of up to four players and you have the option to create or join guilds. The Guild size limit has been confirmed to be 32 players, which is probably smaller than what most expected but in order to join a guild you also need to be aligned with the same house. For example a player who joined the Harkonnen faction won't be able to join an Atreides Guild and vice versa. 

In Dune: Awakening there is also an in-game permission system that regulates access to bases, vehicles, storage and gear so you can create a hub for your guild and provide access to other players when building smaller outposts or you could keep everything strictly for yourself. 

While some might look forward to the Dune: Awakening online PVP battles in the Deep Desert others might dread it so what exactly could a played do after the endgame? Once you did all the exploration around the Hagga Basin, completed all the possible quests and contracts, unlocked and crafted everything there is - then the next probable step is to go on an adventure into the vast reaches of the Deep Desert. There are many more unique resources, different schematics and tons of Spice to be gathered. 

There is a small stretch of PVE when entering the Deep Desert where you can build a base as a retreat for your harvesting and exploration efforts, however the map gets wiped once a week which means nothing is permanent there and you should navigate in a timely enough manner. These regular wipes also change the map by moving the locations for the different Points of interest and resource pools, so solo players or small groups can survive by selling and trading rare finds or regularly survey the map of the Deep Desert first for a living. 

One should also keep in mind that traversing the map can take a significant amount of time so there is no quick way around it, As for those who play in larger groups and like a challenge or just want to play PVP are surely going to find what they are seeking. 

Each week guilds of the opposing factions compete for the Landsraad by fulfilling various tasks that could be delivering resources or crafted items and vehicles, the faction that wins gets to vote on the weekly server-based bonuses and stipulations. These could be anything from reduced crafting cost to unfavorable decrees such as the enabling of full loot in PvP in the Deep Desert. Doing tasks for the Landsraad  comes down to mostly grinding resources, crafting and other basic tasks.

The exclusive resources and the schematics from the Deep Desert can of course be traded with other players or use the game’s auction house. If you are a builder you might simply enjoy to spend your time grinding resources, unlocking new placeables and getting creative but keep in mind that there is no creative mode and all builds have to be done and maintained on the official online servers.

Dune: Awakening Launch, Pre-Orders and Editions Full of Goodies

This leads us to the game launch in June 2025, there are not going to be any subscription types and the future DLCs would be completely optional purchases, there would be no other form of in-game monetization. The Dune: Awakening game could be expanded through free updates, bringing new content features and enhancements, add new maps and maybe even whole planets to explore within the system, so we are quite curious to see what could happen in that regard. 

Currently you have the option to download the game's Character Creator and Benchmark mode that would allow you to try out the character customization, save it for the Dune: Awakening launch date and also test out the performance of your system at various settings to see if you meet the system requirements; you would also unlock a unique knife skin for the Dune: Awakening launch if you use either of the two. 

Following is what would be available at launch, but for now there have not yet been any specific updates regarding the timeline for the console releases, or if crossplay and crossprogression are going to be supported.

By Pre-ordering any of the three available Dune: Awakening editions – Standard, Deluxe, or Ultimate – you are going to receive two unique BONUS rewards when the game becomes available in the summer:

• - Terrarium of Muad’Dib – This detailed in-base decoration houses our favorite desert mouse as he goes about his life. 
• - Sunset Dye Global Swatch – A unique color pattern that can be applied to weapons, vehicles, and armor.

The Dune: Awakening Season Pass coming with the Deluxe and Ultimate Editions includes four DLCs with one being available immediately at launch, which consists primarily of placeable structures while the other three future DLCs are set to release within the first year of launch. 

The Dune: Awakening Deluxe Edition contains: 

• - Season Pass: Includes 4 DLCs. The first of these will contain placeables inspired by the wildlife of Arrakis, including Shai-Hulud himself. The 3 next DLCs are going to be released later. 
• - Sardaukar Bator Armor: The menacing armor worn by the Sardaukar, the elite military force that players find themselves hunted by in the game. 
• - Pre-order only: 5-day head start,
• - Terrarium of Muad’Dib 
• - Sunset Dye Global Swatch
• - One copy of the base game

The Dune: Awakening Ultimate Edition contains: 

• - Season Pass: Includes 4 DLCs. The first of these will contain placeables inspired by the wildlife of Arrakis, including Shai-Hulud himself. The 3 next DLCs are going to be released later.
• - Sardaukar Bator Armor: The menacing armor worn by the Sardaukar, the elite military force that players find themselves hunted by in the game. 
• - Dusk Rider Sandbike Swatch: A unique color pattern for your sandbike 
• - Blue Dasher Ornithopter Swatch: A unique color pattern for your ornithopter 
• - Caladan Palace Building Set: Building pieces and placeables from the 2021 film 
• - Dune 2021 Film Stillsuit: The stillsuit worn by Paul Atreides’ in the film 
• - Digital Artbook: A 50-page artbook full of artworks from the game’s development 
• - Digital Soundtrack: 90 minutes of music from the game  
• - Pre-order only: 5-day head start, Terrarium of Muad’Dib, and Sunset Dye Global Swatch
• - One copy of the base game

With so much unpacked the Dune: Awakening Steam release cannot come faster, we are really eager to discover what secrets it holds and how we would manage to survive on the ruthless world of Arrakis! We hope you enjoyed the overview for the title and will stay tuned for more interesting articles regarding anything important that is happening in the world of gaming!