Dune: Awakening

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.

Simply put: NOT FUN. Single player requires joining a server (just because). Had to trawl through the region list to find server in a very different part of the world which has a "Standard" server to join (because none are in my region and none of it is automated or intelligent enough to find one by itself). Not interested in MMO, just want a good single player story campaign, wasted 30 minutes trying to figure out if I had started the wrong executable. I just want to download a game and play it, not spend time trying to work out if the game has falsely advertised a single player mode. There were no helpers along the way to explain that single player mode requires a server or why (really not an obvious move there devs - seems shifty to me, there are only a few reasons why you would want to join server for single player mode and all of them are great for the dev, but really not great for the user.) I'm not going to applaud it, it should be vehemently discouraged. 2 hours gameplay, trying to figure out the basic building mechanics (how to simply rotate an object so that its facing the right way) and I'm being constantly threatened with dehydrating to death. If you can't make the controls VERY VERY VERY obvious, then don't constantly threaten me with death when I know what to but can't figure out how to get your interface to do it, and a timely tutorial for basic construction controls seems non-existent (not sure why as fighting was quite well covered). I can handle death by Arrakis due to my own errors, it's a harsh planet, but to be given death due to the shortcomings of the UI is a MAJOR turnoff. This has become a whining chore of a game to play due to idiotic dev decisioning after just 2 hours. Major red flag. I'm taking it as indicative of how much dev interface decisioning will ruin what should have been an awesome story to come (which I've now chosen to never experience). Reloads just to work out controls utterly disruputing the immersiveness and flow of the gameplay. It turns a natural learning experience into a forced debug session (that's work in my book, not play.) I'm not taking the risk at playing further as I haven't the patience for half-arsed experiences. Feels like it was rushed out to meet deadline TBH. If it ever improves and makes a good user experience it'll probably be an old game which I'm no longer interested in by then. Money not well spent, even at 40% off. I'm out. I'd never heard of "Funcom" before, but lesson now learned. If you bought this game, my condolences to you, I don't think Steam do returns.

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

Dune: Awakening réussit plutôt brillamment son pari : nous envoyer sur Arrakis avec trois fois rien, aucune idée de ce qu’on fait, et surtout une espérance de vie légèrement inférieure à celle d’un moustique dans un barbecue. L’ambiance est excellente. Le désert est immense, magnifique et surtout parfaitement adapté pour vous rappeler que l’eau est une ressource précieuse et que marcher 20 minutes dans le sable n’est absolument pas une activité de loisir. Entre les tempêtes, les vers des sables et les différentes joyeusetés locales, Arrakis sait recevoir. La progression est agréable, la construction permet de s’installer tranquillement et l’exploration donne régulièrement envie d’aller voir « juste un peu plus loin ». Évidemment, « juste un peu plus loin » finit généralement par devenir une expédition de trois heures avec retour en mode cimetière. Mais alors… le multijoueur. Sur le papier, c’est une bonne idée : rencontrer d’autres joueurs, collaborer, commercer, explorer ensemble… Dans la pratique, cela peut parfois ressembler à une réunion de copropriété organisée par des mercenaires sous caféine. Tu veux construire tranquillement ? Quelqu’un vient probablement mettre son nez dedans. Tu veux explorer ? Un autre joueur a décidé que la zone lui appartenait. Tu veux faire du PvP ? Très bien, mais prévois une assurance habitation, une assurance vie et probablement un avocat. Le plus frustrant reste cette sensation de ne pas toujours pouvoir jouer tranquillement à son rythme. Le côté communautaire peut être génial, mais il peut également transformer une simple promenade dans le désert en avis de décès administratif. Malgré ces petits défauts, Dune: Awakening reste une très bonne expérience. L'univers est bien exploité, l'ambiance fonctionne parfaitement et la progression donne vraiment envie de continuer. ⭐ Un excellent jeu de survie dans lequel le plus grand danger n’est pas forcément le ver des sables… mais parfois le type qui vient vous tuer pendant que vous essayez simplement de récolter du minerai.

**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 don´t see how this should be a singleplayer game. You have to connect to servers. Once there is a downtime, you can no longer play. There are others players in your " Singleplayer game". Yes, I read about the game before and I watched several videos. But somehow I would have expected a selection bezween local singleplayer and multiplayer. Beside this, at lease within the first 1,5 hours, the game feels like old Call of Dutys with levels build like a pipe and everything is preselected and you are forced to play as the developers want it. You want to build and just survive in the desert and find your space?# Forget it, the developers want you to constantly kill everything, so you have to do so. Enemies respawn faster that you can kill them. Ths is simply due to the fact, that the wohle game is only build for multiplayer. You fight your way along one of the pipe tunnels and once you reach the end, the enemies at the start are already back. In addition, this is one of the first "singleplayer games" with latency problems... This game is not bad, but the singleplayer flag is just a lie.

Why do they list it single-player game in the feature list? My first experience was to be forced to select a server so no solo option then secondly out of the tutorial you get a nice view of boxes everywhere the eye can see. Other than that, the game looks great and the vibes were good. I struggle with the features list saying single-player and then buying a released game and have to wait till september. So just for that fact I can't recommend it. Nothing on the upper part of the store page indicates any of this well.

I had a good run with Dune: Awakening, through both the good and the bad. There isn't much to say that hasn't already been said—it has its limitations, but it was fun for what it was. I took a break a few months ago and decided to come back when new content dropped and other were annouced. Unfortunately, I went on holiday and logged back in to find my base powered down. Losing a few vehicles wasn't the main issue, but I had all my resources stored in the large cargo container for the transport ornithopter. It was destroyed, taking 100+ hours worth of grind and farmed materials with it. I know managing power was ultimately on me, but losing that much progress is an immediate exit point for me. I don't see myself recovering from that setback or returning anytime soon. It was a good game for what it was, but that's where my journey ends. the lost does leave a after taste i must say