Dune: Awakening is a new survival MMO that will be released on Steam. During the PC Gaming Show 2023, there was an interview with new information about the combat system, weapons, and game content.
What kind of game is this? In the new Dune MMO, you start in the middle of a barren desert and must fight for your survival. You need water to avoid dying of thirst and can collect resources to build your own base. In the desert, you meet thousands of other players with whom you can form friendships or engage in combat.
The focus is on the drug “Spice.” You can consume it to become stronger, but also sell it to gain wealth. The Creative Director Joel Bylos explained in an interview that Dune: Awakening essentially runs through 4 phases:
- Survive – You should try not to die
- Protect – You stockpile Spice reserves that you protect from enemies
- Expand – You create a clan, increase your influence, and rise to become a house
- Control – You influence the economy and create your own economic cycles in your base. In the end, you can even become the “Lord of Arrakis.”
What has been revealed? The latest interview mainly discussed the combat in the game. There will not only be melee and ranged combat, but vehicles will also play an important role. The battles are described as action-packed and “second-precise.” There is also an exciting twist with the sandworms.
With all these features, the aim is to stand out from classic MMOs.
A variety of weapons, tactics, and the danger of sandworms
What weapons are there? In Dune: Awakening, there will be no fixed classes. Instead, you will have the choice of various weapons and abilities:
- For melee combat, there are knives, swords, and rapiers.
- For ranged combat, there are cell guns, scatter guns, and blasters.
- You can use both ground and air vehicles. You can equip them with various weapons – including rocket launchers and miniguns.
- There will be “Mental Abilities,” although it is still unclear how these will affect combat.
Weapons can be found or crafted. Through attachments and modifications, you can customize them to your liking.
You also have access to “Ultimate Shields,” which can deflect ranged attacks. However, the pulsing aura attracts sandworms. So if you rely on this shield for too long, you will be attacked by something much more dangerous than another player.
How does combat work? The Creative Director Joel Bylos described the combat system as follows (via PC Games):
In the end of the game, you might lead a guild, have a fleet of ornithopters flying in formation, sand bikes driving through the desert, tanks kicking up a dust cloud as you drive towards a Spice bloom in the distance to harvest it with your guild. In the distance, you see another guild approaching you. And at the moment you collide, you hear the rumble of a sandworm.
This is the combat in Dune: Awakening.
Further in the interview, it says: “The battles in our game are much more second-precise and intense than, for example, in an MMO.”
Skill is supposed to play a big role. Those who enter a fight for the first time or are not well prepared should have a hard time, and everything should seem chaotic. Over time, you are supposed to get better and gain more control over combat. However, it should never be easy.
It is currently unclear what penalties accompany death. In Conan Exiles, also a survival game from Funcom, you lose all your temporary buffs and your entire inventory. This then lies where your dead body is and can be picked up by anyone.
Dune: Awakening will be released on Steam
What else was revealed in the interview? The developers referred back to the 5 pillars of the game:
- Survival
- Politics
- Infinite Exploration
- Combat
- Expression
Especially the search for water and the drug Spice are in the foreground. The most dangerous opponents are the other players and the sandworms that can be summoned not only by shields but also through movement in the desert sand.
The developers also revealed that Dune: Awakening will be released on Steam. However, there is still no exact release date.
For more details about the game, you can find them here: Dune: Awakening – Release, Beta, Gameplay and more about the new survival MMO
