Awakening Was Right to Have These Survival Staples Face the Reaper

With the release of Dune: Awakening, survival fans are once again being plunged into a brand-new survival experience. Much like every survival game before it, players must spend hours scavenging resources, fighting back against the harshness of the world, and doing all they can to survive uncertainty. All of this has become a genre staple over the years, with Dune: Awakening not deviating much from that model. However, there are a few mechanics that it has ripped out or changed, which has led to a breath of fresh air for genre fans.

Fans can expect a slew of exciting changes to the survival formula in Dune: Awakening. Eating food is a thing of the past, scavenging for resources is far easier than it has ever been, sleeping is no longer required, and nighttime terrors are nowhere to be found. While none of these changes may necessarily be game-changing, their removal or altering has been fantastic to see. And hopefully, some future survival games will consider taking notes.

Dune Awakening Unwritten Rules Explained

The Unwritten Rules of Dune: Awakening Explained

Before setting out into the unforgiving desert of Arrakis in Dune: Awakening, there are several unwritten rules players should become familiar with.

Dune: Awakening Has Shifted the Survival Genre Slightly

Survival Games Seem to Have Stuck With a Few Genre Staples

Ever since the survival genre became a household name thanks to Minecraft, there have been a few genre staples that have hardly been altered. One of the biggest tends to be the need to eat and sleep to survive. Just like in real life, many survival games have forced players to dedicate much of their time to scrounging for food and other resources or ensuring that they have a safe place to lay their head at night. While this can sometimes feel tedious, it has also helped add to the survival experience significantly,

Along with that, survival games tend to also fill the game with nighttime terrors. As the sun sets, the enemies of the land either get more prevalent or stronger, with games like Minecraft making this mechanic a core part of the experience. If players are brave enough, they can take on the horrors. But if they would rather hide it out, then they can usually skip to daytime through sleep. With Dune: Awakening, all of this is a thing of the past.

Dune: Awakening Has Removed a Couple for the Better

One of the first things players may notice when starting their Dune: Awakening adventures is that they do not have to eat or sleep to survive. There is actually no sleep mechanic in the game, as players must focus on surviving the harsh landscapes of Arrakis instead. Food has been replaced by a water meter, which is not that hard to keep filled. Players just have to scavenge for dew or process the blood of their enemies into water. While the process may sound similar to scavenging for food, the changes lead to a very different experience.

On top of that, nighttime survival is no longer a thing as the game actually incentivizes players to explore more at night than during the day. Instead of nighttime terrors, the scalding sunlight is actually the thing that could kill them, so they must try their hardest to run from shade to shade if they want to survive. If that was not enough, Dune: Awakening also points out exactly where resources are on the map, so players do not have to spend hours looking for the very specific ores that they need for crafting.

All of these changes make Dune: Awakening feel like a breath of fresh air for the survival genre. With post-launch content and updates, there may even be more changes that players would never expect. And if Funcom can do it, then other survival games may just follow suit.