Dune: Awakening

TLDR 1) The early survival/exploration/crafting/base building experience in Hagga Basin is loads of fun. If you are a fan of the Dune IP, buy the game for these reasons. Thumbs up for the early game. 2) The endgame is unevenly designed and implemented and a generally unfun experience that is disrespectful of the player’s time. 2 thumbs down for the endgame. Having played since shortly after release, I think the first 60-100 hours are an excellent example of how to build a fun and engaging survival/crafting game with outstanding use of the Dune IP. I’ve rarely had so much fun exploring, building with varied construction sets, gathering, and fighting as I have in this game. The progression is well designed and implemented, and there was clearly significant time invested on Hagga Basin to build an immersive and challenging environment. I quite enjoy the music as well and have played the soundtrack for the game actively in the background while building one of many bases that I have constructed since release. If you enjoy this type of game play, you can expect up to 100 hours of play just exploring Hagga and progressing your character there. Kudos to Funcom on the early game. While the devs spent significant time after release redesigning the endgame, this is where the game falters badly and completely loses the magic of the Hagga Basin experience. I do want to acknowledge that the Deep Desert was changed to allow for both PvE and PvP instances, which is a step forward for those (especially solo players) who wanted to advance their characters into tier 6 without getting ganked incessantly. And I have never done much with PvP so I will not opine there. But the new PvE Landsraad system is incredibly grindy, unfun, and generally disrespectful of the player’s time. 1) The new Landsraad missions, while not terribly challenging at higher gear levels, are super grindy and not very interesting. You will have to run many hundreds of them over the course of a year or so to fully advance your character with the missions time-gated at 5 a day. And the rewards for this progression system are too powerful to not complete if you want to remain competitive, e.g. 100 combat rating (the max achievable) doubles your character damage and halves the amount of damage taken. This also appears to have an outsized impact on the PvP experience. 2) While I appreciate the creativity behind the overland dungeons, the number of runs needed to obtain advanced weapons and armor and the augments to go in them is excessive, especially with the number of one-shot mechanics at higher difficulty levels. I personally just do not enjoy the dungeons, and I think the loot drops are poorly tuned. If I wanted to play a game where I had to run the same dungeons over and over, I’d just go run keys in World of Warcraft. The add scaling also significantly favors solo runs, further disincentivizing group play, which is a prevalent theme, especially in light of the solo player version of the game scheduled to release Sept 2026. This is supposed to be a MMO but there are few, if any, systems in place to actually encourage group play, short of grouping being advantageous to clear Deep Desert testing stations that are largely irrelevant in the endgame. 3) The augment system design is poor. It’s not enough to finally get a blueprint to drop for a weapon that you actually need, but you then need to obtain 2-3 different augment blueprints to drop as well to fully utilize the potential of the equipment. Moreover, the actual power gain is highly variable and determined at the time of augment creation. You cannot remove nor actually improve the augment after creation nor after slotting in the equipment, i.e. you’ll have to craft an entirely new weapon/armor piece (after finally getting the relevant BP to drop again) and craft new augments (after getting new BPs to drop) and hope they are better than the originals. I sincerely hope this is a technical issue that Funcom is working through rather than an actual design choice. If it is indeed the later it was a poor decision and extremely disrespectful to the time investment of the player. I hope Funcom will continue to evaluate and iterate on the endgame experience as, overall, I find it generally unfun, not respectful of the time I invest in the game, and generally not well conceived. With the endgame ultimately representing the meat of the Dune Awakening experience, I really cannot recommend the game overall to most players, save those who solely want a simple crafting/exploration/building experience in Hagga Basin.

Great game now with a single player mode. goes from strength to strength. Now great for people with limited time to grind

Игра понравилась, поиграл немного, хорошая атмосфера и все такое. Но буду ждать полноценный одиночный режим, анлайн мне не интересен. Я хочу играть из атмосферы в такие игры. Так что надо дожить до сентября.

Das spiel macht an sich ja spaß aber wenn die Sandwürmer direkt unter einen spawnen ohne das man auch nur annährend eine chance hat sich in sicherheit zu bringen dann killt das jeglich freude am spiel

Это могла быть хорошая игра. Так можно рассказать о многих многопользовательских проектах компании Funcom Система поддержания баз игроков заставляют игроков воспринимать игру как вторую работу, тратя ценное время чтобы просто пылесосить территорию вокруг базы на добычу ресурсов ради ничего. Чтобы постройка с лутом просто стояла. Система pvp и ландсрада продумана не очень хорошо для студии с таким обширным опытом и которая уже натыкалась на одни и те же ошибки в своих куда более старый проектах вроде Secret World. Разработчики стараются наполнять энд гейм контент сюжетом. Но многих игроков, ушедших прошлым летом, потерявшим свои базы и лут уже будет крайне сложно вернуть в игру. А даже если они зайдут - то, скорее всего, окажутся по среди безжизненной пустыни с перегрузом на несколько сотню килограмм, потому что разрабы решили сразу "порадовать" зашедшего игрока лутом и ресурсами, автоматически пополнив инвентарь. Я провел в этой игре неплохое время, хоть и не очень продолжительное. Мне очень нравится, как игра выглядит визуально. В целом, разработчиков из funcom всегда можно было выделить в техническом плане, но их слабое место всегда крылось в геймдизайне в целом. Получил удовольствие, но проекту придется несладко в будущем... На данный момент я бы скорее не рекомендовал игру новым игрокам. Но очень хотел бы поменять полярность обзора со временем. Так что со временем дам игре еще шанс в декабре, когда выйдет Дюна 3...

Grind till your eyeballs bleed, then if solo, grind till they bleed some more for months on end just to do content. Solo players that want their time respected - stay far far away

**Approximately 5,200 hours played — Not recommended ❌** I’m a huge Dune fan, and this game has an excellent foundation. The atmosphere, base building, vehicles, progression, and early Deep Desert experience kept me engaged for thousands of hours. Unfortunately, the true endgame feels empty & Boring. Once you complete the main progression, there is very little meaningful content left. Most of what remains are repetitive missions that feel like chores, mainly tied to contributing to the Landsraad. Even that system lacks impact when players can create alternate characters on both factions and benefit regardless of the outcome. The PvE and PvP Deep Desert split also removed much of the tension that made the game exciting. Arrakis should feel harsh and unforgiving, but the current experience is far too safe and predictable compared to the early Deep Desert. There is also no clear PvP endgame or long-term roadmap. The developers have stated that this is not primarily a PvP or dogfighting game, but without meaningful risk or equipment loss, there is little incentive to keep farming resources, crafting vehicles, or grinding high-tier Testing Stations for Grade 5 gear. My House had already stockpiled massive amounts of resources before Chapter 3, and we still have almost nothing worthwhile to spend them on. The specialization trees feel excessive for both gathering and PvE combat, especially when there is little reason to push beyond level 40 labs. Without meaningful PvP, whether aerial or ground-based.. there’s simply no purpose for that level of progression. The economy has also been heavily impacted by bugs, exploits, glitches, and Solari duplication. When currency and resources can be duplicated, legitimate farming, crafting, and trading lose their value. Thus earning the name #BugAwakening #DupeAwakening. A long-term game needs meaningful faction conflict, effective resource sinks, high-stakes activities, House objectives, and fun repeatable endgame content. Right now, this game has a strong early and midgame, but very little reason to continue once you reach the top. I genuinely enjoyed my time with it and still believe it has enormous potential. However, until the developers provide a clear endgame direction, restore meaningful risk, and stabilize the economy, I cannot recommend it.

I’m a huge Dune fan, so this was one of my most anticipated games in years. When it launched, I put hundreds of hours into it and genuinely enjoyed my time in the game The early game is great. Exploring the world, building your base, upgrading your equipment, getting better vehicles, and progressing through the different systems feels rewarding. For a long time, I always had something to work toward. My problem with the game is what happens once you reach the endgame. At some point, the progression just stops. You have the gear, the resources, the vehicles, and then you realize there isn't much left to do. The game starts feeling repetitive very quickly. Every time I logged in, I found myself doing the same things over and over without any real goal. A lot of people, including me, expected PvP to carry the endgame, but it never really did. The fights weren't interesting enough to keep me invested long-term, and after a while they felt more like a grind than actual fun. The game also has a habit of wasting your time. Losing hours or even days of progress doesn't create excitement—it creates frustration. In a survival game some risk is expected, but there has to be a balance. The frustrating part is that I don't hate the game. Quite the opposite. I enjoyed it enough to spend hundreds of hours playing it. That's why it's disappointing. The foundation is good, the atmosphere is excellent, and it feels like Dune. But eventually you reach a point where you ask yourself why you're logging in, and the game doesn't really have an answer. If you're a Dune fan, you'll probably get your money's worth. I certainly did. Just don't expect a strong endgame or endless content. After a certain point, Game becomes a beautiful desert with very little left to discover. As a PvP player, I absolutely cannot recommend this game. The biggest issue is that the developers have done the exact opposite of what they originally marketed. Many players bought into the vision they presented, only to watch the game move in a completely different direction after launch. They consistently ignore feedback from the PvP community and focus almost exclusively on PvE-oriented updates. Instead of expanding endgame PvP, faction warfare, territory control, or meaningful player conflict, they continue making changes that reduce risk and player interaction. For example, they slowed down ornithopter rockets, turned half of the Deep Desert—the game's main endgame area—into a PvE zone, and eventually split the servers into PvE and PvP environments. Decisions like these completely changed the identity of the game and removed much of the tension and excitement that originally attracted many PvP players. After these updates, the player population dropped significantly, and honestly, it's not hard to understand why. The game currently holds around a 70% positive review score, but I strongly disagree with that rating. In my opinion, it's inflated by people who simply love the Dune universe or players who primarily enjoy PvE content. If you're looking for a PvP-focused MMO with meaningful risk, competition, and long-term endgame goals, this is not the game that was promised. That's the most disappointing part. The potential was there, but instead of building on it, the developers chose a completely different path.