If you’re going to make a game about Dune, it better be good. With a passionate fanbase and Denis Villeneuve’s films bringing Arrakis back into the spotlight, expectations are high. A year and a half after its PC debut, Dune: Awakening is now available on consoles with a long list of player-driven updates and, most importantly, a full single-player mode. So, was Arrakis worth the wait?
Where is Chalamet?
If you’re looking to dive into Dune: Awakening to find Timothée Chalamet, you are out of luck. The story takes place in an alternate reality where Paul Atreides was never born and Lady Jessica gave birth to a daughter instead. The coup against Duke Leto fails, and the Harkonnens don’t wipe out House Atreides. The conflict between the two houses rages on, and you, as an original character referred to as the Sleeper, are thrown right into the middle of it.
After creating your character, you are subjected to the same Gom Jabbar test made famous by Paul Atreides in the books and movies. Here you are given a mission with the rather vague instructions to “Find the Fremen. Wake the Sleeper.” You are then thrown into the world of Arrakis, where things immediately don’t go according to plan. Luckily, you meet Zantara, who helps you survive and acts as your narrative guide through the opening hours.
Less punishing
After a year and a half of updates, Funcom has made a pretty big shift by introducing a single-player mode alongside its updated multiplayer survival sandbox. The original vision for Dune: Awakening divided players. Some enjoyed the relentless nature of Arrakis and how Funcom translated it into a survival game, while others struggled to return, finding the experience too unforgiving if you weren’t willing to invest a lot of time. Finding your carefully constructed base in disrepair after not logging in for a few weeks wasn’t exactly the best motivation to jump back in.
Numerous quality-of-life updates have since made some of the game’s harsher systems more forgiving, while PvE options have reduced the need to engage with PvP. The addition of single-player takes things even further. You can now experience the story entirely on your own and adjust a wide range of settings to tailor the survival experience to your needs. Those who were previously put off by the multiplayer aspect finally have another way to experience Arrakis.
Fetch me some sand
I personally am one of those players who was put off by the multiplayer survival aspect, even though I’m very enthusiastic about the extra slice of Dune lore on offer. With the single-player mode, I hoped to fully immerse myself in Spice and hop onto Shai-Hulud like a badass in no time.
Instead, it quickly becomes clear that this world wasn’t originally designed as a single-player experience. Its vast emptiness becomes much more apparent when there aren’t any other players around. It also doesn’t help that getting to the next piece of the story requires you to do about a trillion different things just to survive and progress. Although I was invested at first, eventually I simply didn’t care about building yet another machine to extract yet another resource that required me to go out and gather yet another set of raw materials.
That’s obviously part of the survival genre, but when playing Dune: Awakening primarily for its story, the constant gathering and crafting started feeling more like obstacles standing between me and the parts I actually wanted to experience.
Console light port
Bringing Dune: Awakening to consoles opens the game up to an entirely new player base. That sounds particularly promising for its multiplayer side, but sadly the different platforms don’t all collide just yet. PS5 players currently can’t join their PC or Xbox friends, so keep that in mind if you’re planning to explore Arrakis together.
Another thing I found dreadful was navigating the menus. They still feel like they were designed with a keyboard and mouse in mind. I can’t tell you how many times I “misclicked” and crafted yet another Fremen hat I didn’t need because I couldn’t figure out what was actually selected.
Combat was already cited as one of the weaker aspects of the original release and, despite all the updates, I don’t feel those problems have been fully solved. Raiding a camp was cumbersome, to say the least, and the console controls didn’t help. Some enemies can be shot, while others require you to get up close and stab them. Switching between weapons and accessories using the radial menu feels so clunky that it messed me up more than once. Eventually, I found myself avoiding combat whenever possible. Even knowing there could be some good loot waiting for me wasn’t enough to make me bother after a while.
Conclusion
Dune: Awakening leans heavily into the lore and does a great job offering that side of fan service. The actual gaming experience, however, left me wanting more. The new single-player mode makes Arrakis accessible to a completely different audience, but it also exposes just how much of the game was built around its multiplayer survival roots. If you love Dune and don’t mind spending long hours gathering, crafting and surviving in a rather empty world, Dune: Awakening might be your thing. For now, I’ll personally stick to the books and movies.