Dune Awakening's Beta was a mixed bag: weak combat, amazing base building

Dune Awakening recently held a Weekend Beta, giving players more access to the game than ever before. A few of us took to the planet of Arrakis to figure out how we feel about this game that’s on the way. In some ways, it reminded me of Conan Exiles: Solid base building and exploring, with mediocre-at-best combat. The game is still in development, and coming in June 2025, but how is it really right now?

Though I’m not a die-hard Survival MMO fan, I found myself enjoying Dune Awakening a lot more than I thought I would. The idea of constantly having to drink water, being careful where I’m walking, things like that, weren’t as bad as I thought they’d be. I explored the first two zones, and crafted my first vehicle, and here’s how it all felt.

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Dune Awakening teaches the gameplay loop in a way that makes sense

Dune Awakening gives players an interesting choice, after you go through Character Creation, and decide on a baseline build. You can start with a “locked” plan, or “unlocked.” Locked means the game introduces concepts to you at a nice, measured pace, so you can get started in a way that makes sense.

I appreciate that this "Locked" approach teaches you the game at a decent pace. (Image via Funcom)

Otherwise, you can just jump into the game and start grinding through content at your own pace. I love this, but I definitely preferred Locked. I wanted to figure out a good way to research my way through content, and take my time. There’s no rush, after all, so I wanted to learn the game.

This was an incredibly good idea. Ultimately, your class doesn’t really matter, either. You can still use ranged weapons as a Swordmaster, and vice versa. Trainers can help you learn other skill trees, if you want them.

In addition, the game put me in the place to learn about other skill trees, like Planetology. As you head to Griffin Trading Post, there’s someone along the path that, if you interact with them, gives you a side quest that ultimately teaches you the skill tree. This is yet one more reason that I think this Locked approach was a great idea.

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Dune Awakening’s combat was mediocre at best

Combat was okay, I suppose. There are going to be places where it feels overwhelming and frustrating to survive, but it was far from the worst combat in an MMO (Image via Funcom)

While the exploration of Dune Awakening was solid, I’m going to be honest, but the combat was mediocre and basic. I liked the skills though — having a gap-closer that killed most Scavengers in one hit? That felt great. The shooting wasn’t bad, but it all felt a little basic. In that way, it’s pretty similar to Conan Exiles.

Not the worst combat I’ve experienced in an MMO, but it could still use a little love, in my estimation. I also think they should introduce repairing equipment a little earlier than they do, because I stumbled upon a very powerful gun a few hours in, that also had almost no durability left on it. That’s an important thing to know, so you can keep using it.

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Dune Awakening will teach many players the hard way to “walk without rhythm” to avoid Sandworms

At first, the Sandworms were the most frustrating thing I think I’d ever seen in an MMO. Walking across open sand is inevitable, but you really have to be careful. You don’t want to spend too much time running, because you’ll attract the attention of Sandworms. Even in the starting area, you can be eaten by a sandworm.

In retrospect, one button could have gotten me out of this situation (Image via Funcom)

You’re safe when you’re around rocky ground, but anytime you’re on open sand, you’ll see a meter on your screen. If it turns red and starts wildly vibrating, a Sandworm is near — probably too near. It’s devastating to get eaten, though.

You lose everything you had on you. Whether it’s rare gear, money, resources, it’s all gone. It teaches a valuable lesson, though: Take the time to keep as much stuff in your base as possible. I found it was pretty easy to recover and start farming resources over, but it was frustrating. It really slows down your progress. However, I think it’s going to happen to almost everyone, sooner or later.

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The base building is a real highlight of Dune Awakening

My favorite part of the game was definitely the base building. Though I wish it would have introduced some kind of interior lighting earlier, it’s a pretty flexible system. We had access to the basic CHOAM building materials and that was just fine. I built high above the sand so I didn’t have to worry about sandworms, and built a decent little domicile for myself.

With time, patience, and resources, you can make some pretty fantastic bases (Image via Funcom)

The only real downside for me was figuring out how to get my bike from way high up, all the way to the ground without smashing into the sand. When the game goes live, perhaps I’ll set up some stairs or something, that will let me drive down safer. I highly recommend building as close to Scavengers and resources as possible.

This lets you farm useful things in Dune Awakening without leaving home — or at least, going too far. It was easy, and satisfying, to set up a base of operations.You do need fuel cells, but those are also found easily, typically at Scavenger locations or crashed vehicles. I just appreciated how simple it was to put something together I was happy with.

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Final thoughts

From learning Planetology, to picking up useful Uniques, there was plenty to see and do on Arrakis (Image via Funcom)

There’s still time before Dune Awakening officially launches, but so far, I’ve enjoyed what I played. The combat didn’t blow me away, but the rest of the game felt fun and rewarding. I learned quite a few things as I traveled between the two regions, picking up several powerful Unique items, crafting, gathering, and obliterating Scavengers.

It felt good to get more powerful, to learn more skills, and improve my equipment/position on the map. Overall, I enjoyed Dune Awakening more than I thought I might. The actual moment-to-moment combat wasn’t as good as I’d like, but it served its function well enough. I didn’t die because combat didn’t work. It works, but that’s about as far as that goes.