During PAX East 2024, Rectify Gaming was invited for a behind-closed-doors presentation of the upcoming Survival MMO video game, Dune Awakening. We were given an early look at the game which was roughly around thirty minutes long and gave us a nice glimpse of what to expect in the world of Dune.
Dune Awakening has a lot of character customization giving you the ability to create a really unique character. Some of the options include Nose Size, Nose Tip Size, Nose Angle, and numerous options for your hairstyle. We weren’t given an entire run-down of the character creation, but it does look promising.
This game has a lot of similarities to the Dune films so fans of it can relate to the intro where the player gets tested by Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. What we were shown was a beta version of Dune Awakening and the cinematics already looked very impressive.
One thing to keep in mind about Dune Awakening is that it uses Unreal Engine 5 and with what we saw you can see where it shines. You first start off in a cave walking and climbing your way through to eventually see Arrakis for the first time. The climbing system in Dune Awakening comes from Conan Exiles, but Funcom has made some enhancements on top of that.
While Dune Awakening is an open-world survival game there is a main story that follows the player. You are essentially given the opportunity to do whatever you want whether you are someone who enjoys PvP or PvE.
There is also a skills system like many other games where you can earn Skill Points to improve your character like using the Battlefield Calculation ability. The ability lets you take in a lot of data around them such as players and their movements.
Dune Awakening has a building system and players can create their own base that can actually be invaded by other players if you are in a PvP area. If you enjoy the build of your base you can copy it and bring that idea to a different area of the game. Bases are an all-in-one spot for players to craft items that are essential to the gameplay experience as well and while you are doing all of this you can have a friend help along the way.
Sandworms do exist in Dune Awakening and they do show up, but Funcom shot down the idea of being able to ride them, for now. Other notes about this game are there will be a Social Hub that will hold hundreds of players, private servers are in the works, and this game is nine times the size of Conan Exiles.
Dune Awakening will have controller support and it’s primarily built with that in mind of course it will allow mouse and keyboard gameplay. A release date or platforms have not been revealed to us yet.
Based on what we saw this game looks to be very promising as an MMO and we look forward to hearing more about it.
