Fresh details unveiled at PAX East and GDC 2024 shed light on the game’s innovative approach to crafting your own legend within the Dune universe. From intricate character designs to nuanced abilities and backgrounds, Dune: Awakening invites players to shape their destiny amidst Arrakis’s political intrigue and mystical allure. Let’s delve into the latest revelations and explore how character creation will define the Dune gaming experience.
Big Choices – The Character Editor
Prior to stepping foot on the sands of Arrakis, you’ll encounter the highly detailed character editor, offering extensive customization options. Whether opting for preset designs or crafting your own, you’ll navigate through an array of sliders, boxes, and drop-down menus.
While many reviewers lauded the significant freedom provided, a few noted certain limitations. For instance, the color palette appears to be confined to a ‘Dune Selection’ rather than encompassing the full RGB spectrum. While some may find the selection of 22 hairstyles insufficient, the development team aims to introduce additional customization options before the game’s launch.
Thanks to GameWatcher.com we have a very good overview for the available options in the character editor:
Body – Body type, Height, Arm Thickness, Neck Length, Skin Tone, Vitiligo
Face – Face Type, Head Shape
Eyes – Iris Size, Pupil Size, Eye Size, Eye Squint, Eye Angle, Eye Height, Eye Width, Sclera Tint, Eyebrow Style, Eyebrow Color
Nose – Nose Size, Nose Tip Size, Nose Protrusion, Nose Angle, Nose Height, Nose Bridge Height, Nose Bridge Width
Mouth – Mouth Size, Mouth Angle, Mouth Height, Mouth Width
Hair – Hairstyle, Hair Color
Facial Hair – Beard Style, Beard Color
Makeup – Eye Makeup Style, Eyeliner Color, Eyeliner Strength, Eyeshadow Color, Eyeshadow Strength, Lipstick Style. Lipstick Color, Lipstick Strength, Lipgloss
Tattoo – Face Tattoo Style, Body Tattoo Style, Tattoo Age
Gigantic Worms – Only in the Deep Desert
It seems the developers of Dune: Awakening decided to spare players the awkwardness of adjusting genitalia sizes in the character editor. PCGamer asked Funcom why this particular feature from Conan Exiles is absent in their new game and here is their reply:
Scott Junior, Executive Producer, Dune: Awakening
“So, Dune’s not as… sexy? As Conan Exiles. That’s not one of the main, I would say… pillars of the IP. So we want to focus more on the Dune things than what we were doing in Conan Exiles.”
Planets & Castes – The Character Origins
Once your appearance is settled, it’s time to delve into your cultural and social origins. Funcom aims to immerse players in the rich lore of the Dune universe by providing the option to define their characters’ backgrounds. These choices may imbue you with basic traits that influence your exploration and leveling up. Previews have highlighted diverse NPC dialogue options and unique emotes tailored to your character.
To begin, you’ll select your birthplace from the following planets:
- Kaitain (capital of the Corrino Empire)
- Giedi Prime (home world of House Harkonnen)
- Chusuk (seat of House Metulli, the “Music Planet”, known for quality of its musical instruments)
- Caladan (home world of House Atreides)
Although you may be born in the homeworld of House Atreides or Harkonnen, you can declare loyalty to the opposing faction.
Next up in the character editor are castes to choose from:
- Pyon
- Na-Familia
- Bondsmen
Mentor Menagerie – The Starting Classes
Dune: Awakening offers starting classes that represent different character archetypes you can choose to follow. However, due to the game’s sandbox design, you have the freedom to mix and match these classes as you wish. To learn new playstyles, you must seek out mentors within the game world.
There are four starting classes in the game, each with a unique training focus and set of starting abilities:
- Mentat (Recon & Strategy) – Scan nearby characters and objects for information
- Trooper (Offense & Simulation) – Use the Shigawire grapping hook for advanced traversal and combat tactics
- Swordmaster (Aggression & Close Quarters) – Use a specific stance to deflect incoming shots
- Bene Gesserit Acolyte (Physical Mastery & Manipulation) – Use the Voice to compel distant enemies to come closer to you
Shigawire sounds very enjoyable as it not only lifts you to your targeted point but also allows for mid-air actions like dropping a grenade on an enemy or boosting yourself higher.
To ensure inclusivity, Funcom cleverly navigates the lore by allowing males to receive teachings from the Bene Gesserit within the game, even though they may not formally belong to the order.
Active, Passive & Builds – More on Skills and Progression
From the preview articles, we learned that there are active and passive abilities, with the latter sounding like buffs in the game. If you look closer at the skill menu in the screenshot above, we can assume that the larger icons in the skill tree are active abilities, and the smaller icons are passive ones. In this example, a Mentat character with the starting ability, “Battlefield Calculation,” as explained above.
Next to the tooltip, we see three icons, with the one in the middle selected. We can be quite sure that this is the icon for the Mentat in the game, with two of the three other character classes beside it. Pressing Z on the keyboard seems to toggle between the skill trees, underlining the fact that you can mix abilities to your liking.
Embrace the thrill of strategic decision-making with access to four different skill trees for your character. However, remember that you must carefully adjust your build, as you can only ‘equip’ three active and three passive abilities at once. This limitation adds a layer of challenge and engagement to your gameplay.
When unlocking new abilities, you have to be careful because, at the moment, it is impossible to respec your character in Dune: Awakening. I think this decision was made for a beta test environment and will change until launch. The game might have suitable abilities for PVE while others are more interesting for PVP players. If you lived your life peacefully as a crafter and architect in the game but suddenly decided to join a guild and go to war, it may be frustrating not to be able to adjust your unlocked skills to your new interests.
In the previews, an intriguing detail emerged about player progression: there are no restrictions on using high-level weapons regardless of your character’s level. This means your seasoned guildmate can gear you up for an epic journey into the deep desert. Funcom emphasizes this to foster PVP teamwork and cooperation in the game, making the prospect of wielding powerful weapons even cooler.
Link: Lv1Gaming.com – What You Need To Know About Dune: Awakening
Link: PCGamer.com – Why Funcom didn’t give Dune: Awakening an ‘endowment slider’ like Conan Exiles
Link: YouTube.com – Force Gaming – I’ve Seen The Dune MMO! (Exclusive Preview)
