Summary
Funcom’sDune: Awakeningis officially here, and players are finally spending their first few dozen hours just trying to get a foothold in the unforgiving desert of Arrakis. With its unique blend of originalDune-themed survival elements and the well-oiled formula of a successful MMO,Dune: Awakeningtruly does feel like an experience worthy of the name tied to Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi universe. Perhaps more than anything else, though,Dune: Awakeningoffers players an incredibly immersive and accurate depiction of the world ofDune, and if there’s anything it needed to get right, it’s that.
As not just a survival game but also an MMO, there are likely certain expectations that come withDune: Awakeningin terms of it being anonline multiplayer game. Most MMOs, as the genre’s name suggests, are designed to feel densely populated, whether by NPCs standing by with quests or countless other players all attempting to clear out the same enemy outpost or filling the chat with relentless antics and pleas for help. However, even on its most heavily populated servers,Dune: Awakeningstill feels quiet, but that’s all a part of what makes it such an immersive experience.
Dune: Awakening Lets the Silence Do the Talking
Immersion Through Isolation
While it’s important thatDune: Awakeningnails the survival and MMO elements that define these two genres, as an extension of an established and beloved IP, what matters even more is that it represents that IP as faithfully as possible. For something likeDune, this ultimately boils down toDune: Awakening’s portrayal of Arrakis, despite the fact that the game takes place in an alternate universe wherePaul Atreideswas never born. In light of that daunting task ahead of it,Dune: Awakeningmust make players feel like they’re on their own in the expansive, harsh desert, and it does so by limiting the player’s interactions with NPCs and other players.
Even on its most heavily populated servers,Dune: Awakeningstill feels quiet, but that’s all a part of what makes it such an immersive experience.
There are certainly plenty of NPCs populatingDune: Awakening’s unforgiving world, but they are more or less butter scraped over too much bread. Friendly NPCs reside primarily in tradeposts and main hub areas, but these occupy a very small portion of square footage inDune: Awakening’s Arrakis. For the most part, as players are making their way through the game’s story and its crafting tiers, they’ll be on their own in the deserts — unless, of course, they happen to join up with other players. Even that is a bit of a luxury inDune: Awakening, however.
Atmosphere Over Conversation
In other words, this means that dialogue is also very limited inDune: Awakening, at least, after its early hours. Where most RPGs rely on exposition and dialogue to communicate tone or build connection,Dune: Awakeningstrips much of that away in favor of atmosphere. The silence between events, whether it be the quiet when walking across open dunes, the faint hum of distant machinery, or the low rumble that hints at one ofDune: Awakening’s massive sandwormsmoving beneath the surface, all take precedence as the game’s main storyteller.
This is what allowsDune: Awakeningto feel like such a tense and harrowing experience, and therefore more like an authenticDunevideo game. There is little comfort to be found on Arrakis, and the stillness of the world only brings that reality closer. Even ifDune: Awakeningdidn’t have any dialogue at all, it might still feel just as dangerous, just as informative, and just as immersive. It’s just proof that sometimes less is more, and silence can be more valuable than solaris in agame likeDune: Awakening.
