Dune: Awakening is one of my most anticipated games of 2025. Funcom’s new survival game, based on Frank Herbert’s Dune series, is releasing on June 10th, 2025 (Early Access June 5th). I jumped at the opportunity of playing the preview when given the chance.

After connecting to a server, the Bene Gesserit’s Reverand Mother greeted and ushered me into the character creator. Anybody on PC can access this part of the game thanks to the Character Creator & Benchmark Mode Demo that is available on the Dune: Awakening Steam Page. I was able to mold my character’s individual facial features and extremities to my liking. When customizing my character, I like to make it look similar to me. Then I can actually see myself in the world I am exploring.

Once you have your look, you must select your Homeworld, Caste, and a Mentor. Your Homeworld will give you a dialogue trait and a unique emote, and Caste will give you another dialogue trait. Mentor is the most important of these three. It helps you determine your starting ability and which training tree you can start putting points into from the start. For this beta, I chose the Atreides homeworld of Caladan, giving me the Atreides salute unique emote. My character, Pyrin, is from the Na-Familia, or Noble, Caste. I chose Swordsmaster as my mentor, which gave me the starting ability of the Knee Charge. The dialogue traits I earned from my selections were Nobility and Honorable.

The Surface of Arrakis

Next, you are sent to the surface of Arrakis, where your ship is promptly shot down. A mysterious man named Zantara saves you, and you awaken in a cave. This is the start of the tutorial, and you start collecting junk metal to make “improvised” tools and weapons. The crafting menu is easy to navigate, a must for a survival game such as this. Once I had my makeshift knife, I also had to make a resource harvesting tool. Every survival game, especially the sci-fi ones, usually has a unique way of doing this.

In Dune: Awakening, Arrakis is littered with scrap metal, rock, and ores all over the ground. However, for those bigger chunks, we had to craft a Cutteray. With the Cutteray, you don’t just go in like a chainsaw, but more like a scalpel. First, you have to scan the resource with it. Then there is what I would call a minigame. Each scan will reveal a highlighted path somewhere along the resource chunk. Much like a surgeon operating on a patient, you must carefully fire your Cutteray along the path. This makes resource harvesting fun but also tense, depending on the situation.

The Dangers of Arrakis

Funcom has done a great job of making sure you are always on your toes on Arrakis. The Sun itself is one of your worst enemies. Spend too much time in the sun and you start to dehydrate. You have a water bar that you must keep your eye on. Nestled in a nice HUD in the bottom left of your screen are your stamina, health, and body water levels. The higher your water levels, the higher your stamina, and it can even add bonus stamina the more it is filled. You always want to have at least one of the three sections filled. There are many ways to harvest water, including from the blood of your victims. This mechanic I do not want to spoil, as Funcom has truly done something unique in my eyes.

Building for Dummies

The best way to get out of the elements is to construct yourself a shelter. I am usually not the builder in our Survival game groups, so my buildings are the equivalent of the stick figure drawing; simple, but they do the job. For dummies like me, Dune: Awakening seems to have figured out how to make building accessible for everyone. Using a construction tool, I put together my hovel. I did not even have to figure out which side of the wall was the inside. This truly is “Building for Dummies!”

The Fabricator

Once I had my abode all set up, it needed all the bells and whistles. While there are many things your home on Arrakis will need, from generators to water purifiers, nothing fascinated me more than the Fabricator. I could spend hours crafting in this game thanks to this fun utility. Anything you can craft on your person, you can build in the fabricator. Of course, this also unlocks the ability to craft more intricate weapons, gear, and tools. You do not get access to all of these right away. The leveling and research in the game feel very akin to many other survival games, such as Conan: Exiles. Funcom is following the adage, “If it isn’t broken, why try and fix it?”

Community Potential

While I did see many other user-made buildings in my travels, I did not run into any other players during this beta, but that does not mean they were not out there. Arrakis is vast, and even though we were only given access to about 25% of the world, this small fraction of the world is quite large. You still have to always watch your back because you do not know who is lurking.

Luckily, you can set permissions on pretty much everything you build. You can set each item differently, too. If you want your guild to access your home but not your storage chests, you can do that. It is quite a great feature that will allow interesting dynamics of a community. You can also set these permissions for your vehicles.

Traversing Arrakis

On Arrakis, vehicles are very important. When crossing large stretches of desert, you want to make sure you can get away from anything from sandworms to ships at night targeting you and sending down soldiers. Vehicles are also another good way to avoid the sun. Plus, you never want to stay in one place too long.

I cannot wait to check out the other vehicles in the full game, especially the Ornithopter.

Dune: Awakening Final Reaction

There is so much more I can say about Dune: Awakening. I played roughly 20 hours of the game and only scratched the surface. The story is something that will certainly draw you in, with Zantara guiding you along as you explore ancient caves. Without giving too much away, you do get to experience Spice Dreams. Spice is going to play a big part; that much is clear. Would you expect anything less from a Dune game?

Playing late into the final night of access, my time on Arrakis left me wanting more. I cannot wait to dive deeper and have my friends join me on this exciting and daunting adventure. Dune: Awakening is already living up to the hype, and I have a feeling so will the final product. Until then, head on over to the Dune Awakening website or Steam Page to sign up for the beta, which runs from May 9 to May 12, 2025, and pre-order the game today to play at launch!