At launch, Dune: Awakening seems to have hit almost all the right notes with the fan base. The game recreates the dunes of Arrakis in glorious fashion, much of the gameplay loop is extremely satisfying, and the studio has plans for a wide range of content going forward. While it remains to be seen if Funcom can keep it up, the potential of Dune: Awakening alone is exciting to see. However, there are some aspects that could definitely use a bit of sprucing up if the game really wants to become the ultimate Dune experience.
Dune: Awakening is already a very strong experience, but it is far from the perfect title. Some players have found the crafting and inventory to be cumbersome, and there are a handful of features that could really help speed up the overall gameplay experience considerably. Much like No Man's Sky before it, Funcom has the chance to deliver on almost all of these wishes through a slew of post-launch updates, so hopefully that is exactly what happens over the next several months.
Why Dune: Awakening is the Perfect Starter Game For Survival Noobs
While Dune: Awakening may be extremely difficult at times, the game actually feels like the perfect starter survival game for players to jump into.
Dune: Awakening Has So Much More Potential to Grow
Funcom Needs to Tackle a Wide Assortment of Quality-of-Life Features
As soon as Dune: Awakening hit store shelves, many players started pointing out various quality-of-life features that could really help make things feel a lot smoother. For starters, both the crafting menu and inventory could really use a search function. There is just so much that players need to scroll through to find what they are looking for, but if they were able to type in exactly what they wanted, then it could make the entire system a breeze. Many other titles already have mechanics like this, so hopefully Funcom has plans to add such a feature.
On top of that, the option to better organize player inventories by labeling chests and banning certain items from chests would be useful. Along with that, the game currently lacks the ability to quick;y deposit all blood or water, there are no hot keys to change seats, no ability to take everything without holding "E", no minimap, and more. While the absence of these features does not ruin the experience, adding all of these small things could really help make Dune: Awakening's core gameplay loop faster and more approachable.
Dune: Awakening Could Become the Ultimate Dune Experience If It Keeps the QoL Updates Coming
Luckily, Dune: Awakening has a plethora of post-launch updates and content on the horizon that could deliver just that. The game is classified as a survival MMO, and just like every MMO before it, there will likely be plenty of updates to keep players coming back for more. Of course, those updates will probably include a plethora of new activities, content to dive into, and things to discover. But, along with all of that, they also really need to introduce many of these quality-of-life changes. Doing so would improve things drastically, going a long way toward making Dune: Awakening the ultimate Dune simulator.
This very thing has happened with No Man's Sky over the years, which has made it one of the best space exploration games out there. Although that game definitely launched in a far worse state than Dune: Awakening has, Hello Games has steadily improved it with so much content over the years. Now, it has delivered what fans were promised all those years ago and then some, continually introducing even more features into the mix. So, if Funcom followed in those footsteps, then there is no telling what Dune: Awakening could become.
Dune: Awakening may have only just launched, but players can expect all sorts of content coming their way as the months go by. Hopefully, said content fixes many of the issues players have with the game while also adding even more stuff for them to do.
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Survival, MMO
