About the Author

• Favorite Game: Fallout 2

• Passion: Resource collecting & base building

• Recent Comparable Title: Enshrouded

The Dune Experience

I've always admired the concept behind Dune—the vast, unforgiving desert, the intricate interplay of power and survival, and the iconic lore that's inspired countless adaptations. I may not be a Dune purist, but I grasp the core ideas and appreciate how Dune Awakening brings them to life.

Gameplay & Mechanics

The game has a solid story with good dialogue options, I do recommend taking the time to listen to the voice overs as they provide great lore and just all around immersion. I will say DA feels like a much better game when you are playing with friends, though I know folks who play solo and still have fun. Myself, I couldn't play this game alone, so I'm happy to be in a group.

The progression system is grind-based but ultimately feels satisfying and happens at a decent speed that you'll be able to unlock a lot of skills and points in your first session. One thing I will note, is that sometimes the game forces you to invest skill points in areas you might not have been targeting; fortunately, there's a 48‑hour free skill reset cooldown that makes it easy to realign your build as desired.

Resource management and base building are central to the experience. While base building isn’t as liberally open as in Enshrouded or Valheim, it remains an enjoyable challenge—with plenty of creative builds scattered throughout the desert to inspire your own designs.

Multiplayer & PvP Dynamics

Servers are roughly 60 players, which with the size of the map and where encounters happen strike a balance between lively locations and quieter moments of isolation. Dune Awakening feels like a better gaming experience when playing with friends. One thing I would like to note is the end game forces you into PvP zones—a design choice that isn’t to everyone’s taste, mine included. That said, the overall death system is forgiving (with the bitter exception of those punishing worm encounters).

Final Thoughts

After 80 hours exploring Arrakis, I can confidently say that Dune Awakening is a solid, fun adventure for fans of survival, resource management, and base-building genres. With a few quality-of-life updates, this game could easily be a 5/5 game for me.

For now, I’m giving it a solid 4 out of 5 Kaliri Paws. (🐾🐾🐾🐾)