Dune: Awakening
2025 video game developed by Funcom
The term " game" most commonly refers to the 1992 adventure strategy video game Dune, developed by Cryo Interactive and published by Virgin Games. This game is based on Frank Herbert's 1965 science-fiction novel of the same name and casts the player as Paul Atreides, tasked with driving the House Harkonnen from the desert planet Arrakis while managing spice extraction, military strategy, and ecological terraforming through alliances with the Fremen. It features a unique blend of first-person exploration (adventure layer) and top-down strategic planning (strategy layer), with time passing continuously and affecting both gameplay aspects. The game was one of the first floppy disk titles to be adapted for CD format, incorporating voice acting, footage from the David Lynch film, and improved 3D visuals. It was followed by Dune II in the same year, which helped define the real-time strategy genre.
A more recent entry in the franchise is Dune: Awakening, a multiplayer survival game developed by Funcom and released for Windows on June 10, 2025, with versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S scheduled for release in 2026 . This game is set in the Dune universe and utilizes Unreal Engine 5 to deliver a modern, immersive experience . It is directed by Joel Bylos and Viljar Sommerbakk, with Nils Ryborg as producer and Knut Avenstroup Haugen as composer . While the 1992 game is celebrated for its narrative depth and innovative gameplay, Dune: Awakening aims to deliver a more contemporary, persistent-world experience .
Dune: Awakening's Steam reviews have done a complete 180, climbing the ranks to Very Positive just a day after a player pile-on: โThis game is great with friends, and lets me live out my fantasy of getting eaten by a sandwormโ
Am I old or what? Current state of the game.
A bit disappointed with the output of modern Dune video games.
What Dune video game lets you take part in the world in a realistic way faithful to the books?
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Hey all!
Maybe it's a matter of age but I'm kinda surprised how some people reacts on current state of the game.
Don't get me wrong I understand that people spend their time however they want but it doesn't mean that I understand some the approach. What do I mean?
After release multiple people spent ungodly amount of hours and pushed their chars to DD. When they got there, they grind spice and... got bored because they weren't happy about state of DD. Or simply they hit the end-game.
For me it's normal. I play the game, go through content, hit end-game and that's it, I wait for more content to come.
Right now we have so many games we can play, if Dune doesn't bring me joy because I did everything what I could I simply swap games. Just like I did with Dune.
Bought this game for 50 USD, spent around 100 hours, haven't hit DD and got bored. Does it mean that the game is bad? Fuck no. I literally spent 100 hours in this game and can recommend it to anyone that likes Survival games. They'll get so much fun playing on Arrakis.
After those 100 hours I changed games, played quite a lot of other stuff. And you know what? I got hungry again. Installed Dune two weeks ago, and I'm having a blast.
Was it painful to lose base? Of course. Did I had fun grinding it back? Of course, that's the idea of game. I haven't played it, I lost stuff which means that I can play again. So I rebuilt my base, slowly clearing campaign and quests (haven't even tried Landstrad) and preparing myself for DD. I have a plan what I'll do in DD, hit top tier equipment, maybe try some pvp and... most probably I get bored again and change to some other game.
Is that bad? Fuck no. Because I know for a fact that some content will come to Dune, when it'll land I'll test it, play another tens of hours. And the cycle will repeat.
Damn, I remember old times when we had only one or two games on a discettes/cartridges, played shit ton hours in Mario or Contra, replaying same levels again and again.
Merry Christmas all!
Growing up, I loved playing Dune 2000 and Emperor: Battle for Dune (more so the former than the latter).
After having played Dune: Spice Wars and Dune: Awakening, I'm a bit bummed out that this is all we've gotten. Spice Wars (developed by Shiro Games) was just "okay" as far as Real-Time Strategy games go โ it's a blend of RTS and 4X but it under-delivers on combining both, IMO. Dune: Awakening was fun at first but I just didn't care much about the PvP endgame and I dislike the commitment of needing to login and upkeep like a second job or face loss to your progress/base due to it being a survivalcraft game. The combat in Awakening had some interesting ideas but still feels half-baked for the most part. Overall, it's just not really a top-notch game. There is also a third game called Dune: Imperium but that functions more of a port of a something that also exists as a board game which I don't fully count. Funny enough, I thought it was the best one of the three Dune games I can buy and play on Steam.
I've been wondering to myself, "is this it?"
It's been almost 10 years since Legendary obtained the media rights to Dune, and I recall Funcom (the developers of Dune: Awakening) was licensed out the Dune IP about 6 - 7 years ago.
The Dune series is at the height of its popularity right now, people are going to be anticipating and talking about Part 3 come next year, and I'm disappointed at what modern video games there are of Frank Herbert's rich universe. I mean, the RTS genre (and to an extent MOBAs like DotA and League of Legends) owe themselves to Dune 2: A Building of a Dynasty! That was a legendary game that birthed RTS games (and what spawned after) as we know it today! Dune has always had a prominent place in the history of video games. I believe Dune video games deserve better!
I'm a fan of Warhammer 40K and I'm looking at some of the video games that franchise has been getting or has coming up and I wish Dune got that same level of love in the video game space. Just recently finish playing Space Marines 2 (there's going to be a sequel) and seeing the recent announcement of Dawn of War 4 & Total War: Warhammer 40K, plus the upcoming C-RPG game called Dark Heresy, I have to say, the WH40K fans are going to be eating good for the next few years.
I was thinking to myself how awesome it would be if there was an open world action-adventure game (that's not a survivalcraft) set on Arrakis, a C-RPG game based on Dune done with the quality and production on par to Baldur's Gate 3, or maybe even a Total War: Dune game set during Paul's Jihad. Just me with my wishful thoughts. I do hope Legendary could better look into licensing out the Dune IP to better game developers than Funcom. Just not a fan of how Funcom has handled the IP in the gaming space.
I see there is an RTS but does it feel like Dune or just Warcraft? There are a few games on Steam and I don't know which to pick. I own Imperium in board game form so I don't want that one.
Thanks!