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With incredible heat surrounding the Dune franchise following last weekend’s release of the critically acclaimed Dune: second part, Conan Exiles developer Funcom delivered a big update for their long-awaited MMO, Dune: Awakening, during a live Dune Direct today. Last week, Funcom and Warner Bros. I was invited to the studio lot of Warner Bros. in Burbank, California for an early Dune Direct and Dune: second part projection While I went into this event in the Dune franchise lukewarm, I came away enamored with the film and excited by the promises the game made.
Dune: Awakening is an MMO that uses the survival genre as its starting point. Players set out on the harsh and inhospitable environment of Arrakis in an alternate timeline separate from the films. While finding shelter, crafting resources, and perhaps most importantly, water are your top priorities initially, as you move into the later stages of the experience, the political aspects of the Dune series come to the fore.
The accumulation of political power is one possible end, but not the only one. Funcom hopes to create a sandbox experience where players can choose their own path, even if the title was designed with the political intrigue of the series as the main basis of the endgame parts. For example, one player might want to become an explorer who draws the world and then sells those maps to other players, while another might want to become a game architect who uses the in-game marketplace to sell blueprints. ‘buildings to others. players
“We took what we started in Conan Exiles, our other survival game, brought it over, then started adding to it,” creative director Joel Bylos told Dune Direct. “Now we’ve created a system for cooperative building, where you can place holograms and other players can fill them, so you work with your friends to build bases. You can also save your bases, like an architectural plan. , which you can then sell to other players on the Exchange, or give to your friends if you do something cool.”
Dune: Awakening features what they call “Combined Weapons,” which gives players the option to use melee, ranged, and abilities. While conventional mediums like sniper rifles and swords may seem in line with what many MMOs and action titles offer, you can also attend Grand Schools and learn special skills like the Voice of the Bene Gesserit Brotherhood, which will allow you to force your enemies to obey. your orders
And of course, it wouldn’t be Dune without the iconic sandworms. These mammoth beasts serve as a tension mechanic in Dune: Awakening. You can’t hurt them or defeat them, but what you can do is wait for them. “We wanted you to be very concerned every time you walk on the sand, so you really have to think about what you’re doing,” Bylos said in the video. “All you can do is avoid sandworms. So you get a Thumper and place it to distract a sandworm, maybe use it to lure a sandworm to some friends of yours.”
Perhaps one of the most innovative ways Dune: Awakening takes advantage of the desert setting of Arrakis is through its Shifting Sands mechanic. Within the large PvP area, every week, the Coriolis Storm sweeps through and changes the entire landscape. This also means that players will have to be strategic about where they build their bases, but they can also use bases that aren’t long for this world to their advantage.
“There are good places to build and bad places to build,” Bylos said during a group question-and-answer session. “They have something called the Shield Wall, and outside the Shield Wall is the Deep Desert. The Deep Desert is where the Coriolis storms produced their strongest effect and they’re just going to destroy everything, and I mean everything. Inside the Shield Wall is a safe. place you can build it, it lessens the strength of the storms. What I hope will happen is that we put very valuable things in the deep desert and […] what I hope is that players will use the blueprint system to take a copy of their buildings, take them out with them, logistics bases set up in the deep desert with the knowledge that these things will be wiped out every week. And then they have their house, they keep it decorated and nice, but they’re constantly going out and competing with other people for the big hits of spices in the deep desert and competing for harvesting operations.”
All of the footage shown during the Dune Direct looks promising, consisting of high-fidelity graphics and engaging gameplay set within the Dune universe. However, while the game has been running in closed beta for some time now, the team currently does not have a window for when the game will be released. If you want to participate in the upcoming closed betas, you can head over to the official Dune: Awakening website.
Source: gameinformer.com