Funcom dropped a huge 5-minute gameplay trailer for its new Dune Awakening MMORPG, complete with info on the upcoming open beta.
Dune: Awakening is shaping up to be one of the more interesting MMOs on the horizon. Set in Frank Herbert's landmark sci-fi universe, the game takes place during an alternate timeline without Paul Atreide's bloody intergalactic jihad. Instead, players will take on the role of a survivor who's free to forge their own path on the deadly desert planet of Arrakis.
The gameplay footage showed everything from guild interactions, player discovery and exploration in cities across Arrakis, as well as frenetic combat complete with sniper rifles, rockets, and vehicles, and even how the ornithopter traverses the verticality of the skies of Arrakis. The open beta is set for early 2025, and Awakening is also coming to PlayStation and Xbox, but no date has been announced for those platforms just yet.
Check below for more info on Dune: Awakening:
This is your Dune. A Dune where Paul Atreides was never born. Where Lady Jessica obeyed the Bene Gesserit and gave birth to a girl, and Duke Leto survived the assault on Arrakeen.
As a War of Assassins between Atreides and Harkonnen rages across the planet, new factions form, old ways fade, and the Fremen... are missing. Your journey begins here, in the desert. Find the Fremen. Wake the Sleeper.
This is your Arrakis. The most dangerous planet in the universe, where the machinations of guilds and powerful houses devour the unprepared as easily as the ancient sandworms that prowl the open deserts. Face your fear, and you may find immeasurable opportunity. The path is yours to choose.
Survive, scavenge, and build a home to protect yourself from enemies and the elements. Seek fortune and spice through combat, exploration, trade, and crafting. In a world shared by hundreds of other players, will you rise to lead a Great House and control the flow of spice itself?
What path will you choose?
SURVIVE
- Find the Fremen. Wake the Sleeper. Embark on an epic journey to uncover the mysteries of your past and the disappearance of the Fremen.
- Tell your own story. The absence of Paul has created a power vacuum on Arrakis, but you are not alone in stepping into it.
- Practice water discipline and follow the teachings of the Fremen to survive the desert. Direct sunlight dehydrates you quicker, so stay in the shade, maintain your stillsuit, and extract water from the bodies of slain enemies.
- Craft the tools for survival: a cutterray for harvesting, a stillsuit and literjon for hydration, and a stilltent for emergency shelter.
- Beware the sandworms. Rhythmic vibrations from footsteps, vehicles, and Holtzman tech will bring the colossal sandworms that prowl the open sand.
- Build a base and develop it from shelter, to outpost, to mighty fortress using the powerful building system. Save blueprints to sell or use later, and build easily with friends thanks to the hologram feature.
- Infiltrate bandit and slaver camps by utilizing advanced weaponry and tech. Reach high ground with the shigawire claw, deploy your hunter-seeker, descend with the suspensor belt, and repel direct fire with the Holzman shield.
EXPAND
- Spice is power. Consume it to unshackle your mind, see the unseen, and enhance your abilities beyond human limits - but do not let addiction overcome you.
- Develop and specialize your character by following the path of the Swordmaster, Trooper, Mentat, Planetologist, and Bene Gesserit, mixing and matching unique and powerful abilities.
- Craft and maintain a range of vehicles, including ornithopters and groundcars, to explore far and wide. Outfit them with modules designed for specialized purposes like exploration, resource gathering, and combat.
- Explore the vast and epic landscape of Arrakis, piloting your ornithopter from the arches that span the shadowy depths of the Hagga Rift to the highest peak of the Hand of Khidr.
- Discover Arrakeen and Harko Village, bustling hub cities where you can meet other players, pick up contracts, and trade on the exchange.
- Band together to venture into the ancient Imperial Testing Stations, where secrets and powerful loot awaits.
- Make your fortune on the Exchange. Buy and sell anything, including crafted gear, raw resources like water and spice, and building blueprints.
CONTROL
- Join a guild and rise to power as a major player on Arrakis. Employ subterfuge and wage war to surpass rival guilds.
- Witness the very landscape shift as Coriolis Storms regularly sweep across the Deep Desert, wiping the map clean and revealing new riches and points of interest beneath the sand. Be the first to scout and seize control of key locations.
- Clash with other guilds when a spice blow occurs. Seize victory for the biggest cut of spice.
- Fight in epic battles that combine tanks, ornithopters, and a wide arsenal of weaponry and tech.
- Pledge your guild's loyalty to the Atreides or Harkonnen and manipulate the decisions of the Landsraad, global policy and taxation mandates that affect all players.