Dune: Awakening Hands-On Preview - Beginnings Are Such Delicate Times

While Dune: Awakening might happen in an alternate timeline , it features all the core iconic "classes" that exist in the canon, designed around specific archetypes established in the novels and modeled aesthetically around those seen in the screen adaptations to some extent. Each of the five classes includes its own skill tree with distinct featured abilities. Dune: Awakening's featured classes are Swordmaster, Mentat, Bene Gesserit, Trooper, and Planetologist, and eventually, you'll want to incorporate skills from each class to have available in different situati


While Lynch’s film is distinct for how it explores the Dune universe, there’s only so much desert players will want to explore. Whelan said his team thrived on developing the city locations that break out the rolling dunes of Arrakis. "[Developing cities] was significantly easier than making sand interesting, other than just changing the colour of the sand. The faction identity was brilliant to work on, because, like I said, they're uniq


Critically, Dune 2000 received mixed reviews. While it was praised for its faithful adaptation of the original and had some engaging real-time strategy elements, it was also criticized for its dated graphics and lack of innovation. GameSpot noted that the game was "simple and boring," with balance issues and limited strategic depth . Despite its shortcomings, Dune 2000 remains a nostalgic title for fans of the series and real-time strategy enthusiasts, and there have even been attempts to remaster this remake for modern platfo


Dune: Spice Wars is the first 4X RTS Dune game, developed by Shiro Games and published by Funcom. Players once again aim to dominate the desert planet Arrakis through diplomacy, military conquest, or economic supremacy. The game features seven playable factions: House Atreides, Harkonnen, Corrino, Ecaz, Vernius, the Smugglers, and the Fremen. Strategic elements include managing familiar resources like spice and water, deploying agents for espionage, and participating in the Landsraad council to influence galactic politics. The game also incorporates environmental hazards like sandworms, an essential element in any Dune g


"Working on movie licenses is problematic. I've worked with movie licenses in the past, and it's always hard to get information from the production team," Whelan told me. However, he said that Legendary has been "very good at keeping a connection with us. Feeding us information, giving us concepts, giving us production designs, all the way through to talking to the cinematographer, Greg Fraser. He’s a fantastic guy, really easy to talk to once I got past my fear of who he is, a double Oscar winn


The game will force you to transfer your base to the next zone, which means you'll need to dismantle it anyway. Don't expend a lot of resources on this initial base. Just build a nice, tidy 4x4 cube and call it a


However, the Dune world isn’t just the modern films. There’s the saga of books Funcom has primarly worked from, previous Dune Awakening Online Guide strategy games, and the movie directed by the late David Lynch. With so much lore, it’s been a challenge for Funcom to ensure no mistakes make their way into the game. Helpfully, "Joel [Bylos, Dune: Awakening’s Creative Director] knows everything," Whelan says. "He knows the books inside and out, so you cannot get things past him because he sits right behind me, so he will catch thin


Alternatively titled Dune 2: Battle for Arrakis, this Dune classic is easily one of the most beloved in the franchise. It was one of the first games to include features such as a mouse-driven system for base building and unit control, which was innovative at the time. This design laid the foundation for future RTS games. Dune II also introduced a world map for mission selection and a technology tree for building dependencies, which both contributed to dynamic and engaging gameplay. Its influence is present in iconic strategy games like Warcraft and Age of Empi


**Dune: Awakening ** brings together survival and MMO elements with the beloved IP as a framework, taking players to Arrakis where they’ll fight against sandworms, hot sun, other players, and a myriad of other threats to become a successful desert dweller. The title comes from Funcom, which previously produced another massive online experience with Conan Exiles . Though the game doesn’t have a finalized release date yet besides a 2025 window, it’s already entered a playable beta for players lucky enough to snag a s


Thankfully, Dune: Awakening has enough to attract even survival game sceptics. "I think so. I hope so," Whelan said when I asked if the third-person shooting and multiplayer aspects are enough to entice fans of those gen


Following the main quest will also help you quickly get a sandbike , which makes getting around the desert much, much faster. One of the biggest chokepoints for quick progression in Dune: Awakening is just how long it takes to walk from each point of interest, or to the trading p