Dune Awakening is on the horizon, lastly bringing the Arrakean survival fantasy to life, however why has it taken so lengthy? Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi odyssey presents the right surroundings for a survival recreation. All the pieces about Arrakis is demise upon demise, wrapped in demise with a facet serving to of, effectively, demise.
Dune has historically been synonymous with technique video games, its give attention to useful resource administration and taking part in politics making for a number of the most revolutionary video games to come back out of the ’90s. The closest we bought to a full-fledged 3D survival journey on Arrakis was 2001’s ‘Frank Herbert’s Dune,’ which anybody sufficiently old to have sadly performed it’s going to let you know was fairly terrible.
After twenty years and a few canned Dune tasks, 4X RTS Dune Spice Wars (printed, coincidentally, by Funcom) entered early entry, and it appeared that the videogame wing of the collection would ceaselessly be tied to the style. Months later, nonetheless, Dune Awakening was revealed – a survival MMO on my Desert? My Arrakis? My Dune? Sacrilege.
However, as I stated, Dune is the right setting for a survival recreation. Between the burning warmth, shortage of water, and people teeny tiny sandworms burrowing concerning the place, amongst different threats, it’s wild to assume that it’s taken so lengthy for this type of expertise to materialize. Moderately than guzzling down the water of life within the hopes of understanding why (and possibly dying within the course of), I put the query to Dune Awakening producer Nils Ryborg.
“It’s humorous, proper?” Ryborg begins. “[Survival] matches very naturally whenever you have a look at it. Dune is so centered on politics, so I perceive the pure intuition to go someplace political the place technique video games would go.”
Earlier than being greenlit by Legendary Footage to make Dune Awakening, Funcom had been pouring its developmental vitality into one other survival expertise in Conan Exiles – one thing that Ryborg hints had an affect on the studio’s course.
“We’ve labored with survival video games so it’s a style we’re very snug with and we take pleasure in working inside, so once we bought the chance to work with the IP, we noticed the pure match and located it very thrilling. It’s a unique mind-set about it – you don’t see some issues since you’re not taking a look at them with the appropriate eyes. There’s a saying concerning the individual with a hammer who sees each downside as a nail. For folks growing survival video games it’s like, ‘yeah, clearly, it is a survival recreation,’ however whenever you’re eager about one thing utterly completely different it’s very simple to overlook.”
With the Dune technique mildew smashed, all we will do is wait to see if Funcom can nail the execution. My new Dune Awakening preview for the positioning provides you with a greater really feel for the place the sport’s at present at, and I’m quietly assured that it’s going to be a thumping good time – supplied it doesn’t summon Shai-Hulud.
In different Dune Awakening information, peep the 1,000s-strong closed playtest Funcom’s been not-so-sneakily conducting. With the Dune Awakening launch date nonetheless unconfirmed, steam in the direction of an enormous launch reveal and even open beta may lastly be gathering.
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