The First 3 Hours: What to expect in your first few hours with Dune: Awakening

The first time I recall experiencing the sands of Arrakis and the universe of Dune was with the computer game Dune II in 1992, an RTS game by the legendary studio that would go on to create the Command & Conquer series. As a longtime fan of the spice, having read many of the books and played more than a few rounds of the various Dune board games, thanks to the release of the new films, Dune has been all the rage the past few years, and now, a brand-new action MMORPG Dune: Awakening is releasing that looks to put a new twist on the established lore created by Frank Herbert.

Right away, developers Funcom let you know that Awakening isn’t canon with the book series and instead takes place in an alternate universe where Paul was never born, and other pivotal events don’t play out in quite the same way. With an open beta taking place this weekend (May 9 - 12) before the game’s launch on June 10, this is what you can expect from your first few hours exploring Arrakis. If you want to try it out yourself, you can register for the beta on the game's website.

The First Hour

Before you even step foot on Arrakis, you are tasked with creating your character. You sit down with the Reverend Mother to flesh out the details of your avatar, choosing the planet they call home and their mentor (i.e., what class your character will be) before being sent to the desert planet. Things quickly go awry, with your shuttle getting shot down and being rescued by Zantara, a Fremen, and once you come to, your time on the desert planet truly begins.

Right away, you are introduced to a few of the core aspects of what Dune: Awakening offers—survival and crafting. Keeping yourself hydrated will be important on a giant desert planet. In no time, you will have scrounged together simple resources and made yourself your first outfit, a simple knife, and plants that can help quench your thirst. By the time you finish your first hour in the game, you will have made your first little dart gun, a mining laser, made your first kill, decked yourself out in a stillsuit, and stepped out into the beating sun. Even at this early stage, you can run into the fearsome and deadly sandworms, so be sure to limit your time in the open sands!

When it comes to combat, you have the option to take enemies on either from a distance with the game’s various guns, which feels like a typical over-the-shoulder shooter, where you zoom in slightly when you aim, headshots do more damage, and you can move around as you shoot. Feels good enough and does the job fine. Melee feels a bit more barebones, with options for a quick attack or a slower, stronger attack that can pierce an enemy’s shields. Much like the shooting, it does the job fine enough, but at least in the early game, it doesn’t do anything revolutionary. One thing to be aware of, for anyone who enjoys being a sneaky character: Dune: Awakening doesn’t have any an assassination system, so sneaking up and attacking an enemy with a knife does the same amount of damage as if you charged them head-on and started swinging.

This new exposure to the elements requires you to dive into the other big mechanics of this game—the base-building. Even at this early stage of the game, it is quite an extensive system, allowing you to tailor the layout of your facility. The whole process feels incredibly reminiscent of the building system in Fallout 4, allowing you to put up walls, floors, ceilings, and stairs of varying qualities, while outfitting them with various mechanical facilities. And it’s important to have these facilities, as they further expand what you can craft, converting gathered blood into precious water, refining resources, or just giving you extra storage.

Crafting feels quick and painless, with the simplest items like ammo and bandages being able to get crafted right from your inventory, so long as you have their components. Many of these beginner components are obtained by either pulling off dead bodies or, more commonly, from various sources that you can break down using your laser. The process to break these down is straightforward and fast—use your laser to find the weakness in the object, and then trace over the weakness with the laser, and done! From copper to granite, metal to plant fibers, you will be running around stocking your backpack with goodies, and the more you craft, the more Research points you earn that can be spent to learn new recipes.

Hours 2 and 3

With your base built and a general handle on Awakening’s mechanics, your next couple of hours will be spent progressing the early story quests from Zantara, crafting better gear, and running around… a lot. Spread out on the sands will be outcroppings of rock, refuges from the giant sandworms that roam throughout the desert sands, crashed ships to plunder, and bandits that want you dead. With each quest, you will have to find the safest route there, which is rarely the straightest path, thanks to the worms, as mentioned earlier. Instead, you will be running from rock cluster to rock cluster, sticking to the shade during the day—or else you risk getting overheated by the sun—or waiting until nightfall.

You won’t have access to building vehicles yet (sorry, no early ornithopters) to help you traverse the sands, so your preparation before setting out for your objective will matter. Hitting the occasional enemy campsites to farm them for their resources, but more importantly, their blood, will put you in a solid spot. One of the early machines you learn to build in your base can turn the blood you gather into water you can take with you. The further you begin to spread out, the more you will start seeing other bases that other players have built. One of the neat things you can do is set permissions on your base for who can take advantage of the facilities inside. This means if you are feeling generous, then you can make a nice little haven in the sand.

The quests during this time still feel tutorial-esque, but you will begin to put together the snippets of information you learn about what your purpose is and what the story of Dune: Awakening is. One of the cooler aspects of this story is what are known as “Spice Visions.” These scenes can get a bit trippy, which may or may not include sections that feel like the Scarecrow segments in the Batman: Arkham games, as the Spice Melange gives you insight into events around you—and those that have yet to happen—which is very on-brand for Dune.

As the clock ticks down to the third hour, the MMO nature of Dune: Awakening will start showing itself a bit more. You may find yourself at the first small market outpost, where you can interact with some vendors and a bounty board where you can accept some side missions to earn additional money, items, and craft recipes. Faction quests will be introduced, allowing you to begin to improve your standing and earn special rewards. You will have leveled up a few times, granting you access to some of your class-specific Abilities or passive Techniques. These can range from gravity-manipulating devices to help you survive falls from high places, grappling hooks to reach more difficult areas, or new combat skills like the enemy-seeking Hunter Seekers that explode on impact. There is a nice variety to pick from to tailor the experience to your liking. You then equip the skills into one of three quick-use slots that are tied to button presses. These can be swapped out on the fly from your menu to suit the situation you are in.

If you stopped right here, deciding not to progress anymore in the story or any of the mission board quests, you would still have a solid sandbox to play around in. Even without yet dabbling in multiplayer or PVP, you could simply spend your time gathering, crafting, and building to your heart's content, and that’s pretty impressive for an online game like this. It’s far more engaging than killing small rats and other critters that other MMOs make you sit through. I think you will also have a good grasp on whether or not Dune: Awakening is a game for you and worth the $49.99 / $69.99 price tag.

Dune: Awakening looks to be a gorgeous game that expertly captures the visuals of Frank Herbert’s epic. Taking the approach that this game takes place in an alternate universe where events will play out differently is smart of the team, letting them avoid stepping on the toes or navigating around established lore (and potential conflicts with the Herbert estate), which will hopefully avoid grief for the developer online. The content offered in this beta should take you between 20 and 25 hours to get through, depending on how focused you are on just completing the content you are. But, just as a warning, be aware that the progress you make in the beta won’t carry over to the full game, and you will be starting over.

Dune: Awakening is releasing on PCs on June 10, 2025, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X releases coming later.