Skip to main content

New Dune: Awakening gameplay trailer showcases the dangerous world of Arrakis

Characters look out at a vast desert in Dune: Awakening.
Funcom
Summer Gaming Marathon Feature Image
This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

Dune: Awakening, the upcoming survival MMO, received a new gameplay breakdown at Gamescom Opening Night Live. Developed by Funcom, Dune: Awakening features a vast sandbox for players to fight, build, trade, and more.

During the new gameplay trailer, we saw how players can interact with each other — players can customize their appearance, socialize with other players, build homes, and even sell their building blueprints to others, building a unique player economy.

Recommended Videos

Of course, spice is the main currency in Dune: Awakening, and hundreds of players will be fighting in Arrakis for the chance to gather it all. You’ll begin the game as a nameless prisoner, who you can fully customize to your liking, before setting out on a quest to rise in the social ranks of the sand planet Arrakis.

The trailer, which can be seen below, showed off everything you love about the Dune universe from giant sandworms to the Ornithopter. We see players being ravaged by sunstroke and heat exhaustion, having to stick to the shade to survive the desert heat. Just like the characters in the series, you’ll have choose between making alliances with other players and groups or betraying others to stay alive in a world trying to kill you.

Dune: Awakening – Exclusive Gameplay Reveal

Your weapons and loadout will dictate how you approach scenarios, and the trailer showcases different approaches to combat. Climb a cliffside to get a better vantage point with a sniper or get up close and personal with a sword.

Dune: Awakening launches in early 2025 for PC. PlayStation and Xbox release dates have not been announced at this time.

Jesse Vitelli
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jesse is a freelance journalist who can often be found playing the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. In his…
Dune: Awakening: release date, trailers, gameplay, and more
Players running from a massive sandworm in Dune: Awakening.

The Dune franchise once had a major position as one of the best PC games. As time went on, however, we hit a drought of Dune titles that lasted decades similar to Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Ninja Gaiden 4. With the release of the new films bringing the IP back into the spotlight, we not only got an announcement of a new RTS Dune game, Dune: Spice Wars, but a second one as well that took the entire industry by surprise. While Spice Wars looks to be a return to one of the best strategy games ever made, this new title takes the series in a different direction.

Dune: Awakening was first revealed at Gamescom 2022 with just a glimpse at what the game would be. Even though much of the game is still buried, waiting to be revealed, what we do know can at least give enough of a picture to spark some interest. Dune: Awakening looks to be appealing to a much different audience than Spice Wars and break into the running for best survival games. So whether you're a fan of the books, films, or just unique sci-fi games in general, here's everything we know about the upcoming PC game, Dune: Awakening.

Read more
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom takes the right cues from Tears of the Kingdom
Zelda holds a rock in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

The only constant in the Legend of Zelda series is change. From its perspective to its art style, Nintendo takes some surprising risks when it comes to one of its most valuable franchises. That often pays off. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for instance, was a bold open-world reinvention of the classic adventure formula that put an emphasis on flexible gameplay and emergent moments born from creative thinking. That design didn’t just influence its direct sequel, the excellent The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It’s very much present in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom too.

I’ve been curious about how the first Zelda game to actually star Zelda would work ever since it was revealed. It looked like a return to top-down form, but its item-copying hook suggested that it might be more creatively open-ended than any traditional Zelda game. After playing 90 minutes of it, I can see exactly how Nintendo is fusing old and new to once again reinvent its tried-and-true formula. Echoes of Wisdom plays like a miniature Tears of the Kingdom, at least in terms of how it lets players tackle problems in multiple ways. That makes for a unique puzzle adventure hybrid that I’m already eager to return to.
Summoning echoes
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom begins with mysterious rifts opening up around Hyrule. Princess Zelda is blamed for their appearance and imprisoned. My demo begins in captivity, where she meets a little sidekick named Tri. The Navi-like partner gives Zelda the Tri Rod, an item capable of copying items and letting her freely summon them. I get to test it out right away, cloning an object in my cell and using it as a platform to reach a high-up exit. A stealth sequence ensues that introduces the basics of that echo play.

Read more
Don’t skip Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s great new mode during its beta
A player holds a dead player as a body shield in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

The beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 begins tomorrow, and it features eight different modes for players to check out. While I'm guessing most will want to play iconic modes like Team Deathmatch (TDM) or Domination, I recommend you give Kill Order a shot.

Kill Order is a mode new in Black Ops 6 that finds a way to twist the core TDM formula to make it less chaotic. I spoke to developers at Treyarch about its creation and learned that Kill Order works as well as it does because it was built around the aspects of Call of Duty that players like best.
A high-value mode
At its core, Kill Order is TDM with a twist. The basics will be familiar as two teams of six compete to get the most kills, earn points, and win a match. To help focus the action, one player on each team is named the "High Value Target." This "HVT," as the game and developers call it, is powered up with extra armor, directional indicators for other players on the minimap, and the ability to earn more score with each enemy kill. They're not a juggernaut or anything, but in a one-on-one between an HVT and an enemy player, the HVT is more likely to win.

Read more