Dune Awakening

For my fellow geeks, come to Arrakis. Dune Awakening is a new survival MMO by Funcom. The same company that brought us Conan Exiles. Like most survival games, Dune Awakening can be a little rough at the start but you’ll overcome those challenges pretty quick. The game world is beautiful and I can just sit and watch the rocks change color as the suns rise and set. Early on you are introduced to the importance of water while living on a desert planet but you don’t need to stress over it as you learn early on how to easily harvest it 

The game is mostly PvE but there are some PvP areas. At the moment the rarer items needed for end game are in the PvP areas but on Monday it was announced some changes are coming to add those resources to a PvE area that will still be a challenge. Good risk vs reward management.

Can you solo Dune Awakening? Sort of. While you can play the game by yourself there is no dedicated solo mode. It behooves you to work with other players to overcome some of the challenges. If you want to play on an empty server you will need to pay for server hosting and just not share your server with anyone. The game does not have the ability to have your own world on your own PC as Conan Exiles does.

There are five different classes in game you can choose from when you start. During game play you will unlock each of the classes so don’t worry about which to start with.

• Trooper

• Mentat

• Planetologist

• Bene Gesserit

• Swordmaster

I began with Trooper and wished I had started with Swordmaster as you can unlock Trooper in the first area.

The game offers the option of having a guilds for players. Each guild will need to align with one of the two houses of Arrakis. As a player you’ll need to be careful about pledging to a particular house if you are in a guild. Why? Because if you pledge to the house that your guild is not pledged to you will be auto kicked from the guild. Not by your friends, but by the game itself. The bad part? Once kicked you cannot rejoin the guild. Again, this is done by the game itself.

My best bit of advice is this: At some point you are going to be tempted to run across the sand from Point A to Point B. DO NO DO IT! Stick to the rocky areas as much as you can or you risk awakening the Sand Worm. Keep the film Tremors in mind and you’ll be okay.

I’m really enjoying the game and hope you give it a chance. Arrakis awaits.