Dune: Awakening PS5 评测——沙漠之王

Fear is the mind-killer, says Paul Atreides. Staring into the vast open desert wondering where the entire evening just went is my runner-up.

Dune: Awakening started life as a multiplayer survival game on PC, and it’s now made the spice-fueled leap to consoles with a year’s worth of content updates and a new single-player mode that recommends experiencing its story solo over its original multiplayer pitch.

As a newer fan of Dune bereft of free time, jumping into Arrakis on my own terms sounded perfect, but I didn’t quite expect to sink so much time sharing the open-world with other players as I did.

To clarify, I’ve greatly enjoyed my playthrough of Dune: Awakening (read our original PC review). It’s a game you can easily get lost in, spending hours gathering scrap metal and granite stone, building your own base on your lonesome to withstand the inhospitable conditions and raiding derelict testing stations and scavenger camps for precious water and loot. All the while fearing the impending wrath of the gigantic sandworms (Shai-Hulud) as you traverse the open sands.

It’s also clear why many players, and eventually the developers, have hugely marketed the game’s appeal for the solo-player with Update 1.5 and its coinciding move to consoles; the core gameplay loop of resource gathering and mob clearing is almost zen-like and doesn’t require interaction with other players to proceed. Funcom is making it clear that anyone who prefers exploring Arrakis and experiencing the story entirely on their lonesome can do so.

On the other hand, I feel like experiencing the vastness of Arrakis with other players is a big part of why Dune: Awakening stands out from the pack (other than its fantastic depiction of the Dune setting), and this latest update is actually the perfect occasion to join the online community. Coming across other players’ creatively designed bases out in the desert, organically joining a convoy as they go about their business on sandbikes and ornithopters, and helping other desperate survivors survive their gauntlets into forgotten imperial testing stations against bosses and hostile bandits offered the most memorable moments as I learned the ropes of this harsh world (even if it’s not exactly lore accurate why so many of us are running around the desert).

To put it upfront: you can definitely play Dune: Awakening as a single-player story. If you’re time poor or just hate any number of online interactions with other gamers, this update is perfect for you. But if you even want just to have the passive feeling of a shared world with other players in the background, playing on the multiplayer servers is still well worth it, especially as it was the original intended experience from launch.

So, what’s actually brand new with the console release?

Most of the changes, naturally, accompany the new dedicated single-player mode, which lets you fully customise world and gameplay settings to suit your liking rather than put up with the default ruleset on multiplayer servers. This includes XP multipliers, item durability, base decay, enemy damage, survival mechanics, crafting speed, and more, and it’s a great quality-of-life feature that will no doubt entice many players to choose the single-player route if the grinding aspect of Dune: Awakening is what’s keeping you away. Interestingly, core gameplay mechanics such as the Exchange and Landsraad are now entirely simulated with NPCs rather than other players, and the ever-dangerous Coriolis storm doesn’t wipe the Deep Desert map of your hard-built bases (but can still kill unprepared players caught in its winds). A small bummer with single player mode is you can’t transfer solo characters to multiplayer servers later, but I hope in the future Funcom can provide the option to import characters both ways for more flexibility.

The biggest change for the online experience is the continued separation of the game’s core Player versus Environment (PvE) multiplayer loop and the Player versus Player (PVP) modes. Apparently, the push for the single player mode is due to most players preferring the former over the latter, and with update 1.5 comes changes to the endgame Landsraad to be centered around repeatable missions for resource turn-ins and rewards rather than PvP battling. PvP is also now entirely optional and relegated to a specific instance of the Deep Desert; on the one hand, this answers a lot of the community’s preference (according to the developer themselves, 80 – 90% of players only play PvE), but as a new player, it’s a bit of a bummer to hear one half of the game is now far less focused on than at launch. The PvP instance of the Deep Desert map does offer 2.5x the yield for mining and harvesting resources, which is a nice incentive to still dabble in heated competition with real players, but I’m hoping this change doesn’t mean PvP becomes forgotten entirely by the time I get to it.

The rest of the game has also received some incremental upgrades and tweaks to improve gameplay rewards for new console players and returning veterans, namely story missions being given new cosmetic and gameplay rewards (armour, weapon and swatch variants) and improvements to the animation systems for melee combat and gunfights. As a newer player who chose the Swordmaster class specialisation, I can’t say the early game combat encounters make the strongest first impression (enemy NPC reactions to hits look stiff), but later game encounters with more abilities and techniques unlocked make for sweaty and scrappy desert duels. It’s definitely typical shared world-style genre combat with a side of jank, but it’s surprisingly fun and on-theme with the Dune aesthetic (slow blade penetrates the shield, etc).

Speaking of aesthetics, Funcom has done a great job in recreating the iconic setting of Arrakis and its many characters, factions and creatures using the latest Dune films’ visual design, and the alternate timeline twist is a clever premise to allow players to create their own unique story. You play as a pawn of the Bene Gesserit sent to Arrakis to find the Fremen and solve the mystery of the Sleeper, and after some decent customisation of your own character (including appearance, background, and class) you land on the desert planet in dramatic circumstances, left to make the best of the situation with the help of a mysterious man called Zantara who effectively acts as your guide throughout an extended tutorial that walks you through the basics.

The story in shared world multiplayer games typically have never grabbed me owing to their less cinematic presentation, but the presently released story chapters (Book One) of Dune: Awakening are well written as both an extension of Dune and on its own merits. The main quest narrative, level progression and writing remains consistently engaging as you unravel the mystery of the missing Fremen and the Sleeper, and it definitely scratched my itch for more lore after recently reveling in the movies and books. It’s not to the level of genre stalwarts like Star Wars: The Old Republic and some elements like the environmental storytelling is not as well acted or engaging, but overall it’s a fun and faithful alternate reality depiction of the universe (the codex is a nice touch too). I just wish the dialogue system was a bit more varied as there looked to be some promise in the different backgrounds, faction choices (Atreides vs Harkonnen) and unique dialogue with certain NPC quest-givers before falling into the typical rhythms of the genre (static figures who are essentially just exposition dumps).

The PlayStation 5 release of Dune: Awakening is, thankfully, a drama-free console port on the technical front. The game is well optimised for both the base console and PlayStation 5 Pro with two graphical modes (Graphics or Performance) allowing you to opt for clean dynamic 4K resolution and image quality at 30fps or a slightly less visually impressive image at a super smooth 60fps. Playing on the Pro, the game’s art style and detail shine bright on the big OLED display, but there are a few textures that are oddly low-res compared to the rest of the game that I hope get cleaned up in future hotfixes. The controller UI and gamepad support introduced with the console release also feels quite well executed, and I was able to kick back on the couch without feeling like swapping between abilities or navigating menus was an ardous task (like some PC to console ports unfortunately haven’t executed as well as here).

Performance-wise, drops were rare unless in highly populated areas, though I did experience some rubber-banding and laggy movement during busier hours. Overall, it’s an impressive move to consoles that only needs cross-play (said to be coming in a future update) to round out the package and get up-to-par with the original PC version’s offering.

The Final Verdict

The console port of Dune: Awakening is a fantastic relaunch for the shared world multiplayer game that highlights the strong core survival PvE gameplay formula that Funcom have successfully tailored for entirely new audiences. The new dedicated single-player mode, quality-of-life improvements and fresh quest rewards and cosmetics make update 1.5 the best time to jump in.

Game Details

Primary Format – Games – PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S, Microsoft Windows
Game Genre – Open-world survival game
Rating – MA 15+
Game Developer – Funcom
Game Publisher – Funcom