Dune: Awakening is a game clearly created by a passionate team, knowledgable about the world of Dune; its aesthetics, its lore and its many, many political complications. While its an alternative universe tale, set in a world where series protagonist Paul Atreides was never born, this subversion is born of a clear understanding of the franchise’s world, as well as a faith in the earned knowledge of players.
As someone deeply unfamiliar with Dune on the whole, including Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel and its various screen adaptions, the experience of playing Dune: Awakening was therefore superbly overwhelming – but I sure did learn a lot in the journey.
Dune: Awakening – quick links
Everything I knew about Dune prior to playing Dune: Awakening
For a bit of context, there will occasionally be times as a game reviewer that you are presented with an opportunity to review a title you might be unfamiliar with. I was curious about Dune: Awakening as I’d heard great things from PC players prior to its console launch, and I had been keen to check out Dune at some point. So, why not dive in?
My knowledge of the franchise was limited to this: a short 25-minute dive into David Lynch’s Dune (1984) before the costuming of Kenneth McMillan’s Baron Harkonnen disgusted me enough to turn it off; and chats with a fan friend, who would occasionally mention the term Lisan al-Gaib as a joke I never understood.
I’m not ignorant of the newer film series. I know Timothée Chalamet plays Paul Atreides, heir to the House Atreides throne and either the saviour or destroyer of the world (or maybe both?). Zendaya is there too, as someone called Chani, and Austin Butler is in the second film as someone who’s completely shaved bald and therefore very aerodynamic.
I know the world economy depends on spice, and spice makes your eyes blue. It might be some sort of drug, but maybe they also sprinkle it on food? I also know Dune is filled with biblical analogies, and maybe Paul Atreides is a stand-in for a prophet or Jesus. Plus there are evil worms in the desert, and they eat people.
This was the knowledge base I was working with coming into Dune: Awakening. So being immediately assailed over the head by phrases like ‘Bene Gesserit’ and ‘Muad-Dib’ and ‘Kwisatz Haderach’ in the opening cutscene, dictated by a Paul Atreides who did not exist, was fairly confounding.
I’m not sure that Dune: Awakening does such a good job of backtracking or explaining these words, but I did learn enough to get a better sense of what I was in for and to encourage a deeper foray into Dune in future.
Through my time with Dune: Awakening, here’s everything new I learned about Dune.
There’s lots of sand in Dune – and it’s dangerous
There is lots of sand in Dune, a series named after sand dunes (I assume). From its opening, you’re thrust into a world of sand and tasked with surviving within it.
You trample sand underfoot as you exit your cave and journey through the vast world ahead, also filled with sand. In my first steps, I started to imagine what it would be like to be surrounded by so much sand. Sand in your shoes. Sand in your clothes. Sand in your hair. Surely nobody in Dune is having a good time here.
As well as being everywhere, it quickly turned out the sand was dangerous.
If you stay in one spot for too long in this desert world, you’re liable to be eaten by giant worms that live under the sand. I knew about these worms but I didn’t realise they were big boys. Huge, in fact. If you have any hope of survival, you’ll need to learn to outrun them or find outcroppings that don’t lead directly into the earth, where the worms live.
Everyone is thirsty and the sun is evil
While exploring more of Dune: Awakening, I quickly learned two more important tips for survival.
First of all, everyone in the world of Dune is thirsty, presumably because of all the sand. There’s so much sand, and not much water, so everyone is thirsty.
To solve this particular challenge, you’ll need to drink flowers. As you roam, you’ll come across a variety of flowers that contain some sort of moisture, and you can drink them to fill your thirst metre. The longer you travel, the more your thirst metre depletes, so it’s important to pay attention and drink flowers wherever possible.
In lieu of flowers, you can also eventually unlock the ability to drink blood, distilled through some sort of machine. That sounds nasty, and I preferred the flowers in my travels.
The second tip I discovered the hard way: the sun is evil, and it will hurt you.
In this desert landscape, the light of the sun reflects off the sand intensely, and you risk being burned if you stay out in the open for too long. Weaved clothing can help you survive, as can finding shade or shadows.
But it’s immensely complicated to live in this world, with so much of the gameplay happening in wide open areas where you’re threatened by the sun, worms and every other hostile part of the world.
Once again, I believe it would not be nice to live in the world of Dune.
There are cool witches in Dune
On a more positive note, I did really love finding out there are witches in Dune.
As it turned out, the Bene Gesserit – a name info-dumped in that intense opening cutscene – are a group of psychic witches and soothsayers who are supremely cool. They’ve got a whole ‘sisterhood’ thing going for them, and they appear to be major power players in the politics of Dune‘s world, sharing their wisdom and insight to change the course of history.
They also have a box. There is pain in the box, or maybe not. I know the box is important to Dune lore, and now I know there are witches in charge of it, but I don’t know what the box actually is. It appears in the opening of Dune: Awakening, with a camera cutaway before the true nature of the device is revealed and your quest begins.
I don’t think I would put my hand in this box, but I tend to avoid most things that make me stressed.
I think it’s finally time to watch Dune
In this journey through Dune: Awakening, where unique survival and building mechanics hauled me headlong into a world of sand, worms, witches and strange boxes, I learned much about Dune and its flavour.
I learned enough to spark a curiosity for more, and to finally listen to my friends. I want to know more about the Bene Gesserit in particular, but also why Paul Atreides is such a lynchpin for this tale, and why his absence in Awakening changes its world so much. I want to know what’s up with the sun and the worms, and what exactly a Fremen is.
Is it a man? Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
What Dune: Awakening did most of all in its opening and first hours was inspire a desire to learn more, and to become more a part of this world. Given all the good things I hear about Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024) and the imminent arrival of the major, blockbuster concluding chapter in the trilogy on 16 December, I’m well-positioned to open my mind and dive right in.
A PC code for Dune: Awakening was provided by the publisher.
