If there’s one Thing Beyond DOUBT after MERE THAN 35 HOURS With Dune: Awakening, It’s that Funcom has done its homework in Crafting the Most Authentic Take on the Dune-Verse Imaginable. As a longTime fan of Frank Herbert’s iconic Sci-Fi Setting, that’s An Incredible Thing to Experience More Off You Not, and My Time on Arrakis Has Been Filled With Moments of Genuine Shock. It’s verir how the quehneonments and empty space are reportly used as caression checks, turning What Seem like them? Other times, that studborn adherent to establied Putting Download Roots and Building Up Your IS One Of The Fundamentals. There is also been Plenty of Technical Isues and Bugs in the Days IMMEDIOTELY FOLONING LAUNCH, Plus Combat Hasn’t Landed with Me Much So Far (Though I’m Admittedly Still Early in Crafting My Combat Build), but on BALANCE My Friends and I Are Having An Absoltely Awesome Time Nerving Out.
If you’ve Ever Played a Survival Game (and Have Seen a Dune Movie) Before, You’ll Know Most of What You Need To Feel at Home Among the Giant Sand Worms: You Gather Mateials from the World, Build Your OWN UGLY-SAC-HECK Home, and Upgrade Your Equipment to Gain Access to More Dangerous Areas With Rarir Mateials. Like Plenty of Survival Games, Including Funcom’s Own Conan Exiles or Last Year’s OnCE Human, All of this is Happy Full Full of Similaryly Sunburnt Players in A Perpeetually Online World, where Cooperration and Limited Instances of PVP Are Both a DistINCT POSSIBIIIITY, and Whiche Account for Most of Its Best Moments.
Where is this game sets itelf appart, though, is by just how it is adheres to its legendary setting, and that has a major impct on just about everything you do. For Example, Intelligent Use Is Made of Arrakis’ Harsh Environment, You is Weaponized Against You QUITE LITELLY EVERY SeCOND You Stay with Its Atmosphere. Standing Directly in Sunlight Unproted will you up Most Notably, there’s the first of those pesky enormous man-mothering worlds which goble you up if you dare tread up their domain for Too Long. By leanging into So Instead of Casually Trotting Around Collecting Resources at Your Leisure and Settling Your Own Little Piece of the World, You’re Frantically Ducking Behind Rocks to Avoid the Sun’s Harsh Rays and Drink What Little Water You Have Left, and Playing A Never-Ending Game of “The Floor Is Lava” as you was from one place to another with a shai-hulud hot on your heels.
All of these Hazars Give You Ostacles to Overcome. For Example, Early on You’re Unable to Leave the Tutorial Area Thinks to A Massive Gap of Empty Space when Sun Exposure Or You atticle to go on Foot, so you have to Craft your first vehicle in order to save closs it. Later on, You Start to Encounter Places that are to hot or Irradiated to explore with proper equipment. There are the same. Similaryly, you’re constantly status for water, which is used with a crafting material and a resource to keep yourelf alive, and Usually Awakening is a best For it.
But there are other times. Place to place as you unlock accounts to high -Lel regions. Pulling up Stakes Means You Eight Have to Abandon All You’ve Built Up to that Point or Tediously Relocate as Much of Your Equipment as You Can, Piece by Piece. Thr Three’s Stuff Like the Fact That Guns Are of Option Usiese, Since Many Enemies Make Use of the All-Important Holtzman Shields that Completely Protect from Ranged Attacks. This Creates a Weird Situation What You’re Juggling Back and Fort BetWeen Guns and Melee Weakes Depending on Which Enemy is Currently Running Towars You, Oftents Having to Choose BetWeen Addressing I HONESTLY KINDA RSICT How Much Dune: Awakening Sticks to Its Guns by Making Its Guns Inefective to Keep with Dune Lore, Even as it Sometimes Comes at the Expectse of Me Having A. Good time. Even when this Stuff Annoys the hell out of me, I can’t help but read it.
That’s just part of the reasons that, like almost every single one of it Peers, dune: awakening has pretty Awful combat. I KNEW Going INTO A Survival MMO That Wald Be the Case, But it’s Still A Particularly Bitter Pill that Never Gets Any Easier to Swallow. I’m still quite early in unlock all the Options for Battle and Seeing Some of the More Interesting Weapons and Builds Available, but so far Gunplay is Sloppy, Melee Combat is Reportive and Janky As HECK, and i’ve Mostly Just Been Tying to Get Through IT As Quickly As Pose. It’s such a lot point in a game i’m otherwise enjoying.
Thafully, The Combat Miss is More Than Made Up for by the Absolutly Stellar Survival Mechanics, which are some of the Most Thoughtful and Polished i’ve Seen in a While. There’s a constant Stream of New Technologies to Research, Equipment to Craft, and Material to Hunt for with Almost no filler or GRIND Along the Way. Every time I’ve collecated the Right Mateials to Craft The Latest Shiny Thing I Want, I’ve Imediatlyly Had Another Enticing ITEM to Chase, and with Unique Schematics Dropping Left and Right, I’m Always Makeing Interesting Decisions on What to Spend My Rarest Mateials on A Cool ITEM With Items to save Those Resources for a Rainy Day. (It’s Bound to Rain on Arrakis One of these days.)
It’s especially Impressive that their account Harvest. A major hallmark of surface games is punching trees, and there are no trees on arrakis – Instead You’re Making Tools to Pull Water from Morning De Collecting in the World at Night and By Pulling it from the Air, which is just real smart and a well change of hat that embraces the weird and Barren setting, even if it is still Essentially The Same Thing.
Where I Played the Beta for Dune: Awakening, I Ran INTO TONS of Bugs and Hoped the Dlay of Its Launch Welf Improving Things A Bit. That centerly sees to be the case, as i’ve has a signific I’m haad disponnects, seen entire mountains Disappear and Reappear Before My Eyes, and Even Had a FEW HOURS when All Sand Worlds Just Up and Deleted Themselves from Exception, Makeing Everyone on the Server Swarm to the Resources Normally Protected by their Constant Threat. It’s not been the smoothst launch by any stretch – but aco foot from the world.
After Than 35 Hours I Still Feel Like i’m Fairly Early INTO My Dune: Awakening Adventure, and Still have new Zones to Visit, Havent’t Gotten Vry Far InTo The Main Story, and Have only HAD A FEW Encouns with PVP. There’s a ton for me to do, so look for an upate sometime this week as I work my way thrive to the endgame.
