Dune: Awakeninghas often been described as an MMO that pretends to be a survival game, primarily due to its use of survival elements as more of a set of difficulty modifiers than a core aspect of progression. By and large, Funcom’s latest truly is an MMO first and a survival game second, as it sees players progressing through reputation, exploration, and narrative milestones rather than mastering hunger, thirst, or shelter mechanics. As a result, it has likely drawn in a fairly sizable crowd of MMO enthusiasts ready to play it like one, butDune: Awakeningmight be a bit of a wake-up call for that group of players.
Essentially,Dune: Awakeningis primed and ready to weaponize the expectations of those familiar with traditional MMOs against them, and it does so with its demanding survival elements. It’s ironic, to say the least, thatDune: Awakeningwould be described as an MMO pretending to be a survival game when, in all reality, it could also be described as a survival game pretending to be an MMO. By holding itssurvival mechanicsin balance with its MMO progression,Dune: Awakeningeffectively bridges the gap between the two genres, but that’s precisely why some MMO veterans might find its world to be a bit more hostile than what they’re used to.
Dune: Awakening Feels Hostile to MMO Veterans On Purpose
MMO Muscle Memory Becomes a Liability
Not every MMO is easy, but once players understand how one of them works, they can generally feel at home in the rest. This is because most MMOs follow a similarly structured and relatively safe gameplay loop, where players complete quests to level up, grind dungeons for better gear, and explore, not for survival, but to find new ways to grow stronger. However, while MMO “muscle memory” might work in its own genre, over-reliance on it can become a bit of a liability inDune: Awakening.
It’s fairly typical for an experienced MMO player to speed their way through content due to how similar the majority of the genre’s games are, but anyone attempting to do that inDune: Awakening, even those familiar with MMO structure, can mean death and sometimes even permanent loss of inventory. The game’s survival elements, for one thing, are always in play, demanding that players pay attention to them at all times. Dehydration and Sunstroke, in particular, are always going to be something in the back of the player’s head as they exploreDune: Awakening’s Arrakis, no matter how much they think they’ve prepared for it.
By holding its survival mechanics in balance with its MMO progression,Dune: Awakeningeffectively bridges the gap between the two genres, but that’s precisely why some MMO veterans might find its world to be a bit more hostile than what they’re used to.
Dune: Awakening’s sandwormsand storms are other terrible forces of nature at work in the game’s world that can result in players losing everything on their character if they’re not constantly aware of their surroundings and incoming weather alerts. Any players jumping intoDune: Awakeningtrying to play it like any other MMO may regularly find themselves saying, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” when greeted by reminders to stay hydrated, get indoors, and stay off the open sand.
Dune: Awakening Forces Players to Learn, Not Level
Because of this, players can’t “outlevel"Dune: Awakening’s difficulty as they may be able to in a traditional MMO. Even with some good armor on their back, they’re still just as liable to succumb to the desert as anyone else. In this way,Dune: Awakeningtakes any MMO expectations new players might have and uses those expectations against players to make its version of Arrakis even harsher and more unforgiving than it already is. The only hope players have, then, is to learn how to survive the best they can in the desert, and to remember at all times that, while they may be playing an MMO, they’re also playing afairly challenging survival game.
