Funcom has been very media forward over the past few months with Dune: Awakening. They flew some of games media out to LA in February to tease some of the cinematics and features of the game ahead of Dune: Part 2. Then they showcased some detailed gameplay during GDC, running roughly the same pre-recorded gameplay at PAX East. I was lucky enough to attend both the LA unveiling and the PAX hands-off gameplay showcase, and it left me curious and excited, but also utterly disappointed.
As a quick synopsis, Dune: Awakening is a survival MMO that is built in dizzying detail around Frank Herberts novel series Dune, where players begin their journey as an off-worlder who is sent to the desert planet Arrakis. “The game has four different phases.” Natasha, the Senior PR Manager at Funcom told us. “Survive, expand, protect and control.” She explained. The gameplay that they introduced was of the latest Beta build of the game, and we were warned that everything was unquestionably a work in progress.
From Character Creation to Spice Fixation
Funcom gave us a glimpse of character creation, which took some heavy visual influences from the most recent Dune films. Some of the skin tones of House Harkonnen, and plenty of facial and body sliders to create something unique. Of course, we were told that much more will be added in the lead up towards launch, but if you’re a fan of Conan: Exiles you should already have a modest grasp of the system.
What really piqued my interest about character creation was class selection. You’re taken into a room with the Reverend Mother, where you’re asked a series of questions, such as where you’re born, and who trained you. These questions ultimately lead you to your class selection, and impact how characters in the world interact with you. The questions are steeped deep within Dune lore, and if you’re familiar with the series, you’ll probably get all hot and bothered when you’re told to put your hand in the box.
There are some parts that I’ve covered in greater detail in my previous hands-off coverage, so I don’t deign to overlap, but urge you to read it if you want some impressions of the very early game and the late game that includes the shifting sands. Instead, Funcom took us through early survival gameplay, which revolved primarily around gathering resources such as water, and annihilating enemies through ranged combat and unique skills.
The gathering system was somewhat unique in the sense that you can’t simply click on a resource and hold down the button as your eyes roll back in your head and your bag slowly fills with precious cargo. Dune: Awakening requires a more active approach, where you’ll scan your resources and then follow a jagged line with your Cutteray to earn the resource. The system is meant to keep players engaged, and the higher rarity the resource, the stronger gathering tool and more complex cutting line you’ll need to follow to obtain it.
In a way, this will reward players who specifically want to mine Arrakis and may come in handy in contested areas where you might compete for resources. We didn’t see any indication of high complexity gathering during the showcase, but the implication is that gathering will be its own unique thing.
Funcom also took a page out of Conan: Exiles traversal book with the ability to climb nearly any rockface you come across, with the optional inclusion of a Shigawire to grapple to vertical locations without losing momentum. You can also equip a Passive Suspensor Belt, which will allow you to float to the ground without taking fall damage, which seems to be a necessity as you certainly want to take the high ground when attacking your enemies.
When exploring or traveling during the day, the player characters primarily stayed within the shadows that would move dynamically depending on the time of day or they would face a debilitating debuff that would burn their water supply faster. You can reabsorb water from plants up to a third of your water meter, or further by harvesting blood from your enemies, though you can drink blood directly as well.
Where combat is concerned, we were shown two separate characters with different specializations. One character was a Trooper, while the other was a Mentat. With the trooper primarily focused on ranged weaponry, and the Mentat a mix of abilities like the Hunter Seeker and “battle calculations”, and some melee and ranged combat. Battle Calculations essentially lets the Mentat see through walls, which was handy to plan the attack of your Hunter Seeker.
The Trooper’s combat was very straight forward, utilizing ranged weaponry to dispatch their foes. Dune: Awakening uses a “down but not out” system for both players and NPCs, so dropping an enemy isn’t enough, you’ll need to finish them while they’re down. Equally so, if you die, you can get revived so long as you have enough water, or if someone on your team has some water to spare.
There wasn’t anything here that was out of the ordinary with the Trooper’s gameplay, and it felt as though anyone with third-person shooter experience could pick it up and play. “We have first focused on ranged combat because it’s something we don’t really have that much experience with, and we wanted to get the right feeling for ranged combat.” Natasha said.
Where ranged combat exceled, melee combat was lackluster with little to no feedback or impact of your strikes at all. The focus on ranged combat in this stage of development makes sense as Natasha pointed out that Funcom has spent a lot of time working on successful implementations of melee combat, so they are confident it can be added later.
Finally, it was time to check out some Spice harvesting. To start the extraction, the developers built a transport Ornithopter using the crafting system. The blueprint was laid out 3-dimensionally and the player was able to add pieces of the Ornithopter as long as he had enough materials to complete the parts. Given the right permissions, multiple players could build these blueprints together. This is also a major feature of base-building, as you can build out your blueprint of how you want your base to look, even if you don’t have the materials yet, and other players can fill it in later. That means players that love to build can do that as much as they like without stopping to replenish resources.
Our two-person team then took a Spice Extractor and Ornithopter out to a very small Spice patch in the desert. Dune is well known for the dangers of Spice extraction, with enormous worms being a constant threat. As the Ornithopter dropped off the mobile Extractor and it began harvesting, everyone pretty much expected the worm sign to signal a speedy retreat. Even though we were told that “the worm always comes” that wasn’t the case this time. Instead, the players were faced with a different challenge. A sandstorm.
Shortly after arriving on the scene, and with spice extraction underway, a warning of a sandstorm blared on screen and a choice had to be made. Would they take a chance and extract a little longer, or retreat now, back to the safety of civilization? They waited just a few more moments before the Ornithopter picked up the Extractor and raced back towards the safety of their shields. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough, and the sandstorm caught up to them and they died.
“You can’t outrun the sandstorm” Natasha told us. That means when you see the warning of a sandstorm, you should get out as soon as you can, because the chances that you’ll outrun it are slim. We were also told that deaths aren’t considered equal. On normal deaths, like from a sandstorm or from NPCs, you’ll lose some item durability, and drop some materials. If you die from a sandworm, however, you’ll lose everything you have on you, including any of the vehicles that the worm swallows. “We want the worms to be scary, right?” Natasha said. “We don’t want you to say, ‘Oh, yeah it’s a worm I’m probably gonna die’. “
Instead they want you to fear the worms above all else, and the extreme loss of items should do just that. Luckily, there is no permadeath in Dune: Awakening. At least, not at the moment. One last thing I found interesting from the demo was their approach to crafting. In the deep desert, players will be able to uncover rare and unique schematics. In some cases these schematics will be so rare that few players may ever find them, and it will give those crafters the ability to corner the market on a particular product, at least for a short while.
These schematics will also be limited use, meaning that, even if you find a rare schematic, you don’t have a monopoly on it forever. The emphasis on crafting, and high rarity schematics is definitely an exciting proposition, especially for those that love to craft.
The Harsh Reality of Dune: Awakening's Presentation
Dune: Awakening’s presentation had me excited to finally land on Arrakis, but it also left me disappointed. This is my second event with Funcom where Dune: Awakening showcased some fantastical, exciting gameplay. Both times, the events were entirely hands-off despite being in a Beta build. It’s great that they have built out many of these features, and spent time meticulously working towards perfecting them, but it loses a lot of impact when we’re watching pre-recorded videos, rather than experiencing the game itself hands-on.
I can’t fathom why Funcom has played their cards so close to the vest at this stage of development, especially as closed testing is ongoing. They have worked hard to grow the hype of D:A over the past few months, but without assessing the build first-hand, it feels like Dune: Awakening is as far away as it has ever been. Luckily, we have plenty more game shows and opportunities for Funcom to get Dune: Awakening into our collective hands for testing, and I can only hope they won’t waste the hype they’ve generated, while we wait for that to happen.
