• Publisher: Funcom
  • Release Date: Jun 10, 2025
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 62 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 45 out of 62
  2. Negative: 0 out of 62
  1. Sep 13, 2025
    Dune Awakening is far from revolutionary, but it raises the quality bar for many other survival MMOs out there thanks to its polished animations, unique spins on combat which sucks but definitely not as much as it could, and of course it's universe and the way it's ever presented to the player. I also enjoyed its progression throughout, with several clearly defined steps teaching different lessons in your journey. Its only big red flag at launch is a really bad endgame content that should get addressed as patches come. [Recommended]
  2. As survival games go, however, I cannot call it "bad". Fair warning: there are weird glitches and choppiness (one bug saw me backdashing every time I exited the inventory screen). And I had to abandon playing on a controller because of the obnoxious virtual cursor in menus. But this wasn't enough to interrupt my bloodsucking. Awakening is dense with lore, and loyal to the childlike "sand is lava" flavours of Dune. I've enjoyed it for the strength of its world, and I admire how straightforwardly Funcom have adapted the memorable features of Herbert's fiction in exactly the most sensible way. If you walked out of the cinema after the Dune movies of recent years only to have your thoughts and dreams peppered with imagery from those films, then this is probably one of the best ways to visit and inhabit that distant desert. Just so long as you acknowledge, going in, that you'll be doing a lot more rock mining, water farming, and unexpected laughing than Timothee ever did.