Fresh off debuting the first Dune: Awakening gameplay video at Opening Night Live, Funcom showed off even more gameplay, with a new nearly 27-minute look at the upcoming survival MMO.
Dune: Awakening will launch on PC early next year and make its way onto Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 later. The gameplay videos at Gamescom is taken from a beta build, so things may change. After being a bit cagey until they released their main narrative detail that this is an alternate universe where Paul Atreides was never born, the development team has been slowly sharing more and more.
In the beginning of the game, you'll start offworld on a large ship in the Reverend Mother’s presence. This is where you will create your character by selecting a body type and then customizing a whole series of features on the physical body, your character's age, adornments, even sclera color if you want to go in looking like you’re familiar with spice. After that, you get to answer questions about your character's history and beliefs to influence their journey.
The gameplay video takes us through early game content, introducing some of the survival aspects, early crafting like making yourself a scrap knife you will use often. Later, you’ll get to discover and earn components to craft better and rarer items. If you've been interested in how Funcom blends the MMO aspect, survival, crafting, and combat in Dune: Awakening, you get a taste of all of those here.
As far as social features, there is a hub where you can interact with other players, trade with them, work with each other, and create guilds. You can also swear allegiance to one of the major factions, and once your allegiance is secured, you can also begin to start taking part in the political side on Arrakis. Story characters will also be a part of the overall experience.
Group up with others, take on challenges, and explore together. As you explore the deserts together, you'll encounter Imperial testing stations, which are your dungeon experiences. There's more to discover here too.
Endgame content, as the video introduces, is a spice hunt. Giant spice blows will suddenly appear, and when they do, the race is on to get there and harvest as much spice as you can. They won't go uncontested, and you'll have to fend off enemy guilds with the same goal as you. Of course, you can also cut things short and turn the tide by luring a giant sandworm and making off with your haul.
