Arrakis, dune, desert planet. It’s a lovely place, filled with Fremen, sandworms, spice, and war. It’s the home to some of the best sci-fi films and novels ever created, and soon you’ll have the chance to touch down on it in Dune Awakening. During Gamescom 2024 developer Funcom showed off a little of how it’ll play – and narrowed down when you’ll get to play it.
Dune Awakening is a hybrid of different game styles – a melange, if you will. Mixing together survival with being an MMORPG, it lets you and tons of other players basically take over Arrakis. That is, if you can stay alive long enough to do so. Now we know roughly when the Dune Awakening release date will be, and have more information about what you’ll be doing on that distant desert planet.
If you’ve ever played a survival sim then you’ll be instantly at home. You’ll have to learn how to use desert power to enhance your chances of surviving, which is something extremely hard to do on a world that has little surface water. There are also tons of colossal sandworms to contend with, who can snap you up in a moment. It’s a hostile planet filled with enemies and other players who want what’s yours, which is exactly how it should be.
The new trailer showed off a few details of how the multiplayer works, with other players popping by using vehicles – which presumably will be very risky to use when there are vibration-sensitive sandworms out there. Bikes and even tanks will be available, and of course there are ornithopters which you can customize in order to make your ride your own.
There’s plenty more to chew on in the video, including base building, combat, and the clash of Fremen armies against spice harvesters – all the things you’d want in a Dune survival sim. If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on it, Dune Awakening will launch in early 2025. You can add it to your Steam wishlist if you need to stay up-to-date with it.
Should you need something to keep you going in the meantime, our guides to the best survival games and the best open-world games will keep you busy until then.
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