A long-held personal rule against playing survival crafting games has been broken by Funcom's MMO survival RPG, Dune: Awakening, now available on PlayStation 5. The reviewer, previously fatigued by the genre's repetitive "treadmill" nature, has invested over a dozen hours into the game and plans to continue playing.
Dune: Awakening, which was initially released on PC last year, received a significant update that brought it to PS5 and Xbox. This update introduced new gameplay options, story content, quality-of-life improvements, a full single-player mode, and the option to opt out of player-versus-player combat. While the game was briefly sampled at its PC launch, it was the recent console release that led to a deeper engagement with the world of Arrakis.
The game reportedly runs well on PS5, with controls feeling natural and intuitive for an action-adventure experience rather than a typical PC survival crafter. Inventory management, base building, combat, and exploration using vehicles all function smoothly with a controller, eliminating the need for a mouse.
While the new single-player mode offers a complete experience, transitioning to multiplayer requires creating a new character. However, the ability to skip the tutorial and opening sequences when starting subsequent characters is a welcome feature for players looking to jump into multiplayer sessions more quickly.
Player interaction significantly enhances the Dune: Awakening experience. Building a base with another player and gathering resources, including the unique harvesting mechanic involving scanning and laser cutting, is described as engaging rather than tedious. Combat, while not on par with dedicated shooters, is characterized as responsive and dangerous, avoiding the clunkiness often found in survival games and the passive feel of combat in many MMOs. These online sessions have been remarkably stable, with minimal lag.
Despite a casual familiarity with the Dune universe, primarily from reading the first book in middle school and planning to watch the recent films, the game successfully captures the oppressive and ancient atmosphere of Arrakis. The sense of scale and the player's smallness within the vast world are palpable.
Dune: Awakening also allows for moments of levity. The game features a large desert worm that players must avoid to prevent losing all their carried possessions. In one instance, a player intentionally attracted the worm to test its behavior, leading to a humorous, albeit losing, encounter.
Currently, the reviewer is enjoying their solo and multiplayer experiences in Dune: Awakening, finding satisfaction in discovering a survival crafting game that deviates from the genre's typical pitfalls. The long-term viability or potential endgame issues remain unknown but are of little concern compared to the present enjoyment derived from surviving on the digital sands of Arrakis.