The new survival MMO Dune: Awakening held its major beta test over the past weekend. This also revealed where the game still has weaknesses.
How did the beta of Dune: Awakening go? The survival MMO opened its doors for up to 35,000 players simultaneously from May 9 to 12, showcasing what players can expect. It included the first 20 to 25 hours of the game and enough content to get a first impression of Dune: Awakening.
At the same time as the open beta, ten Twitch streamers were allowed to compete against each other in two teams. In this duel, the players were meant to see how good the PvP in the game is, but the streamer Shroud had to take so much that the developers even addressed the issues live.
A YouTuber also checked out Dune: Awakening over the weekend and concludes: The combat system is the major weakness.
Here you can watch the trailer for Dune: Awakening:
Many problems with the combat system
What problems does the combat system have? Content creator Eroktic conducted an analysis of the combat system of the new survival MMO. In his video, he addresses the problems of the system.
In Dune: Awakening, almost all characters have personal shields. These absorb damage from ranged attacks but can be broken through with melee weapons. They can also collapse in ranged combat, but this requires a lot of damage in a short time.
However, the shield mechanic leads to long battles that feel unnatural, Eroktic finds in his video. He also explains that players can survive much longer even when the shields are down:
Even when the shields were down, the time to kill was way too high. Summit […] shot him in the head 13, 14, 15, 18 times […] before he went K.O. and by the way, when you go K.O., you can be revived.
Here you can watch the entire video from Eroktic:
How does melee combat look? Shields in Dune: Awakening can be destroyed easier in melee combat. Here, a charged attack is enough to break the shield. However, the YouTuber was also not convinced by the melee combat.
The stunlock that was seen during the event occurs simply by repeatedly pressing the left mouse button. Nothing more is needed to outplay an opponent in melee combat.
As positive examples of how to implement melee combat in games, he shows gameplay from Mad Max from 2015, where the melee mechanics are well executed, as well as gameplay from the new Soulframe.
In conclusion about the entire combat system in the game, the YouTuber says: “[…] no matter what they do, PvP is not unfixable. It would be easier to [completely redo the combat system] […] and by the way, the PvP was their main selling point […]”
The combat system of Dune: Awakening is one of the major issues for the developers. In addition to content creators, regular players have also provided feedback for the developers. One player found a total of twenty points that the developers should address: Player names 20 adjustments after 40 hours in beta that would immediately improve Dune: Awakening
