Dune: Awakening won't feature sandworm-riding at launch - and no penis-sliders either
04.03.2024 - 20:53
/ eurogamer.net
/ Joel Bylos
Sandworms play a major part in Dune: Awakening, the big survival MMO coming some time soon from Funcom, the developers behind Conan: Exiles — but the game won't feature the novel's famous sandworm-riding come launch. And, presumably much more importantly for Conan fans, there'll be no penis sliders either.
There will be sand-walking, though, and there's no ruling out of sandworm-riding down the line. We spoke with Dune: Awakening's creative director Joel Bylos at some length in our preview, and he explained the decision like this:
«We actually looked into it. It's just a very strong technical cost, and also a very — it needs a purpose. And we haven't got what the movie has, which is like, 'Go through the southern sandstorms, get to the southern part [of Arrakis]'. So yeah, we don't have that yet.»
Dune Awakening Survive Arrakis Trailer 4K Here's a Dune: Awakening trailer.
It's worth contextualising that a bit. Dune: Awakening will have sandworms, for one, with them acting as a major mechanic in the game's cycle of venturing out into the deep desert, gathering spice and returning to a safe haven behind the shield wall. Different worms of different sizes will appear in different areas — the deeper desert has the larger, ring-mouthed worms for instance, with smaller and more traditionally-jawed ones in other areas.
It will also only have two factions at launch — the Harkonnens and the Atreides — and given its lack of central focus on religion, with the sandworm-riding Fremen described as «the core of the religion» by Bylos, that makes more sense. You also very much won't be playing as a real messianic, «chosen one» figure, Bylos explained, which also adds up — but he didn't totally rule sandworm-riding out. Along with him stressing the worm-riding not being available «at launch», he also mentioned «there's a third faction that I'd like to get in,» but similarly, «that probably won't come 'til post-launch.»
In the meantime, sandworms will still play a significant part, and also impact respawning mechanics in the game, as Bylos explained when discussing approachability with us. Dune: Awakening will differ from the somewhat brutal, player-on-player violence of Conan: Exile. «You don't lose a lot of items unless you get eaten by a Sandworm. If you get eaten by a Sandworm, then you wake up naked — but if another person kills you, you drop, like, some resources and maybe some bullets that you're carrying. We're quite cognisant of trying to make it approachable to players.»
«Tonally, it's different from Conan in that I think Conan has a certain level of sexuality to it. There's a level of like, very raw humanity to it. Dune is much more philosophical, it's science fiction, right? So really, it's a lot more