Dune: Awakening Early Hours Review for Steam
TL: DR
For players like me, who enjoy the slow rhythm of survival, who find satisfaction in harvesting granite and building something quiet in a hostile place, the world of Dune: Awakening offers something special, not flashy, not fast, but felt. 10/10
Dune: Awakening, developed by Funcom and published in partnership with Legendary Entertainment, is a survival MMO set on the unforgiving desert planet of Arrakis. The game combines elements of open-world survival, base building, resource gathering, and PvP with a dash of some RPG. Add to this the political tension and environmental brutality that the Dune universe is known for, and you’ve got a recipe for something special.
I think it is important to say off the bat that I’m giving Dune: Awakening a solid 10/10.*
That little asterisk is to acknowledge that I am still in the early stages. The game is built for the long haul, with a huge map to unlock, dozens of crafting and survival quests, and a main storyline to explore. In addition, the game emphasizes exploration for the sake of exploration, meaning that I’m estimating at least 70-80 hours of gameplay, not counting tricking out your base or perfecting your suspensor belt technique.
Story
The story of Dune: Awakening is set in an alternate timeline, one of the many Paul can see once he fully steps into the role of MaMaud’Dib/Kwisatz Haderach (a male Bene Gesserit). As a Dune lore lover, I really appreciated this story setup. Paul, like Dr. Strange, can follow current events into thousands of possible futures in order to make the best decision at the moment. The opening cut scene explains the differences between the Dune world and the Dune: Awakening other worlds, setting it up almost as if Paul were telling the player the story of this possible timeline. For me, this meant that I could accept and move on from some of the more egregious deviations from Herbert’s original vision, such aske sand bikes and guns.
Another way to think about this game is as if it were one of the Marvel ’What If?’’ series.
What if…
Lady Jessica gave birth to a daughter instead of a son. What if, by following Bene GeGesserit’slans, she is promoted and taught to be a truth-sayer, which then allows her to detect Dr. Yueh’s betrayal? What if House Atrides survives and takes firm control of Arrakis? What if a War of Assassins is declared between House Atreides and House Harkonnen? What if the Emperor sends the Saurdaukar to Arrakis because the spice must flow, and in doing so, begins an all-out genocide against the Fremen?
And this would be where the player picks up in the story. The Fremen have disappeared from the desert, leaving behind whispers and ruins that the player is sent to investigate
This story choice is fantastic (imo) and entirely too relevant in June 2025. The absence of the Fremen leaves the world feeling haunted, not just by sandworms and storm systems, but by a cultural void where an entire people once resisted colonization and who were wiped out because they were in the way.🍉
As the player roams the dunes, it becomes clear that uncovering the fate of the Fremen is more than just advancing the plot. It is existential archaeology.
The storytelling structure is loose and player-driven, which fits a survival MMO genre but might leave lore-lovers craving more traditional arcs. Instead of heavy scripting, the story unfolds through exploration of the environment, which feels honest to the spirit of the source material.
Gameplay
This is a game of scarcity and slow-burn satisfaction. The gameplay loop is built around harvesting, crafting, exploration, and survival, all layered on top of a setting where every movement could draw the attention of something ancient, massive, and hungry.
Life is hard on Arrakis, it’s a world where every drop of water comes at the cost of blood…literally. From the moment players wake up in the sand, a couple of things are very clear: the map is huge, and the only way to get around is to walk.
The only way to get around is to walk, at first. Players will eventually unlock a sand speeder and eventually an ornithopter, but at least for the first several hours, it’s walking. I’ve seen several complaints about the amount of walking, but honestly, I love it. I try to skip fast travel whenever possible anyway because that is how players discover the hidden gems and Easter eggs in a game.
Saying you need to walk everywhere is all well and good, but the baking heat and shifting sands aren’t just there to look pretty. Players will need to manage their hydration and sun exposure. This might make it seem like it’s safer to bunker down at your base and wait for night to travel, but that is when the Sardaukar patrol. Getting caught in one of their searchlights will call down the empire’s elite and deadly fighting force. This constant push and pull between environmental survival and the need to explore creates an engaging tension.
Oh, and speaking of tension, Shai-hulud is alive and hungry. And if you’re unlucky or just impatient, you might get eaten. Like in the books and films, rhythmic sounds will attract sandworms. The game gives you two options for early game exploration. Either find the shortest distance between two outcroppings and sprint like mad, or inch forward slowly and painfully, pausing every few feet. Though, even the second choice is not a guarantee of safety, as Shai-hulud regularly patrols the sands, and players can get caught even when being careful. Looking over your shoulder is a must.
Now, everything I just said makes it sound like the Dune of the game is as iconically empty of humans as the books and movies. That would be incorrect. In some ways, Dune: Awakening does try to achieve the correct ambiance, endless sand, harsh wind, etc., and it does try to maintain the population with server caps. But the fact is that player bases are literally everywhere. Like everywhere. Bases, bases, bases. Hundred of them. One review described it as walking through an empty mall, and yeah, that captures the feeling.
Intellectually, I get it. Early game objectives require players to build a base, so everyone has to build at least one. But after running a sandy marathon across the desert, I couldn’t find a single location that wasn’t already occupied. The only empty land seems to be on top of the crags, which sounds tempting but is not worth the water for early-game players. Late-game players, with ornithopters, are undoubtedly treating the crag tops like beachfront property, smugly airlifting supplies.
Oh, a thopter. How I can’t wait to glide through the air with the greatest of ease. One thing Dune: Awakening does not shortchange players on is the technology and tools. There are as many tools as grains of sand on Arrakis, at least, that is what it feels like. And the developers seem to have taken a “tool for every job” a little too literally. There is actually a single tool for every task. You, dear player, might think a single multitool could handle at least half a dozen tasks, but no. Players will be dragging the whole tool department with them. Which would be fine if it weren’t for the quick menu.
Players only have eight active slots to store the two dozen necessary tools to comfortably explore/survive on the planet. Everything that is not in a quick slot is in the backpack, where it is basically unusable until it is added to the quick menu. After ten hours, I had to accept that if I want to be prepared for anything, I’m going to be spending a lot of time flipping back and forth between the radial quick menu and the backpack. But to grumble one more time, I’ve probably spent more time reorganizing my inventory than I have surviving sandstorms.
Also, I want to note that I’ve been playing on PC with a controller, which is my preferred way to play almost anything. But when it comes to the menus? The controller was not an intuitive choice. I have to keep reaching for my mouse out of sheer survival instinct.
To be fair, the game does try to help. Some systems auto-fill materials if you have them, and you can save equipment loadouts later on. But especially in the early game, you’re basically drowning in gear without a proper way to manage it. It’s frustrating. But it’s also oddly immersive? Like, yeah, of course, life on Arrakis means having to carry everything you need to survive. That’she spice grind, baby.
Dune: Awakening is a survival MMO, so I need to talk about the survival mechanics. One of the smartest decisions I think Dune Awakening makes is forgoing hunger/eating mechanics in favor of water. And staying hydrated is not just a background statistic. It is the backbone of your survival.
Players will dehydrate slowly as they go about their day doing Dune things, like mining granite, running from sandworms, and letting the sun touch them for a second. Dehydration can sneak up on a player, and it can have enormous effects. Players don’t just keel over and surrender to the desert. First, their stamina will tank, and then the ability to self-revive after taking too much damage will disappear. That’s right. On Dune, water is literally life, and your second life, and your third life, depending on how bad you are at combat. If you’re above a third on your water bar, you get a lovely little safety net. Fall off a cliff, get shanked by a scavenger, or get caught in a Coriolis storm? You’ll pop right back up. But run dry, and that’s it. The desert reclaims you.
Early on, the only real option for water is dew plants. But, in proper Dune style, players will unlock the ability to harvest the dead for water relatively early on. Actually, it is one of the first technologies players get. Harvesting water from your dead enemies is not only efficient in getting your hydration meter up, but it also opens up the world for exploration. Can’t find dew plants? Well, just stab a few scavengers, and you are good to go.
Eventually, players can build up blood processors and purification tanks, but for now, I am getting by just fine with a quick poke and slurp.
It’s not just thirst players are managing. Sun exposure is its own beast. The heatstroke bar fills up fast if you’re not in the shade, and once it does, your hydration melts away like ice on, well, Arrakis. Traveling at night is often easier, but it comes with its own dangers, like those aforementioned Sardaukar patrols who’d really prefer you dead.
Every outing becomes a risk-reward calculus. Do I sprint across the sand to reach that chunk of wreckage, or do I stick to the shade and take the long way around? Do I spend time hunting dew plants, or just look for someone with a pulse? It’s grim. It’s intense. It rules.
Add to that the roaming Coriolis storms, which sweep through the map and will absolutely destroy your gear, and you’ve got a survival loop that’s unforgiving but fair. The first time I watched my footprints get wiped away behind me as the wind kicked up, I got chills. This is what it feels like to be alone on Arrakis, hunted by the weather, watched by the desert, and always one bad decision away from a dry death.
This review is already ridiculously long, but I can’t end it before I’ve touched on player Classes and Skill Trees. For a survival MMO, I was pleasantly surprised with how much Dune: Awakening adopted RPG elements. Players will pick a character class that has a specialized skill tree. I went with the Trooper class because I was leaning into an RPG-style playthrough with a personal headcanon/backstory. But thankfully, Dune: Awakening does not punish players with commitment.
Players are not locked into a single class, and Bene Gesserit, Mentat, and Swordmaster trainers can be found around Arrakis, meaning that you can eventually blend roles to create something wholly unique. For now, I’m interested in seeing how far specialization can take me, and I’m sticking to a Trooper-only build.
Progression happens relatively easily. Players earn XP doing all the things they probably want to be doing anyway, such as harvesting, combat, and exploration. I reached level 11 almost without realizing it because of how the game throws XP at you. As you level, you gain skill points that are applied to your class skill trees. Again, I’veeen playing with specialization in mind and spending all my points on the Trooper Suspension tree. I feel comfortable and confident doing this because the game lets players redistribute skill points every 48 hours, so if my current play style doesn’t pan out, I can pivot.
Oh, you might be wondering, what about combat?! Uhm…it’s whatever. It’s fine.
The final question that needs to be addressed is, “How far can you get into Dune: Awakening if you don’t have friends and don’t like people?”
” Honestly, pretty darn far! I don’t play MMOs often, mostly because I don’t have anyone to play with (also, I’m incredibly awkward and terrified of people getting mad at me in a PvP setting). Even though this game is a MMO, it also doesn’t punish the socially inept, and solo players can get a solid 50-60 hours per playthrough before PvP and guilds become the law of the land.
I haven’t even touched on Outposts, Zantara, Guilds, Merchants, and actually playing with friends, but let’s face it, this review is already too long, and you’re probably skimming it at this point. Just know that I’ve only scratched the surface here with what Dune: Awakening has to offer.
Overall
10/10
I don’t know if this is an example of the right time, right place, right person, but in its current state Dune: Awakening offered me a fantastic experience, one that I wholeheartedly embraced.
What elevated Dune: Awakening, for me, was the game’s use of absence. The Fremen are gone, but the sand remembers. The game leaves players to wander through the ghosts of resistance and repression. Much of the player’s job is not to conquer but to notice. I couldn’t help but see Arrakis, as it exists in the game, as not just a setting but a record of something deeper. War, genocide and the silence they leave behind are not just on the bodies of the dead but on the landscape.
Dune: Awakening is available for PC via Steam. For more information, visit the official website.
Related: Reviews by Michelle Jones
I'm a completionist gamer who just needs to find that one last object and clear that final dungeon. I love all video games, from open world sandboxes on a console to a mindless match three on my phone. In addition to gaming and writing, I am a graduate student working on a thesis about the ancient Icelandic Sagas. Feel free to ask me anything about Vikings.
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