Set on the legendary desert world of Arrakis, Dune: Awakening is Funcom’s new open‑world survival MMO with roots that dig deep into its genre and the IP it’s based on. As a Bene Gesserit agent dropped into an alternate timeline where Paul Atreides never existed, players are tasked with finding the missing Fremen and navigating a hostile environment shaped by brutal sandstorms, deadly sandworms, and the struggle for control over spice. In Dune: Awakening‘s persistent online world, survival boils down to players mastering the game’s harsh desert mechanics, crafting equipment and bases, forming alliances with factions, and competing in large‑scale PvE and PvP conflicts as part of an evolving narrative.
As an extension of a firmly established IP, Dune: Awakening has more elements it needs to nail that a traditional survival game simply wouldn’t. While it is indeed important that it offers a solid survival MMO experience, any shortcomings when it comes to how it presents the world of Dune are likely to be even more noticeable, especially considering the dedicated following the IP has built over the last six decades. As it turns out, that is the very thing that Dune: Awakening excels at the most, in addition to delivering a worthwhile survival MMO experience that may not bend the rules but doesn’t outright break them either.