My big (worm) problem with Dune Awakening

So hyped by all the Dune buzz, I jumped in and bought Dune Awakening. (You can find the UX test there : Video) I love the universe, and the survival-crafting loop seemed enticing.

After about six hours, I finally got my sand bike and set off for a mission. But before I could reach my destination, boom, I got eaten by a worm. Classic Dune moment, right?

Not knowing the full consequences, I went to talk to the NPC who cheerfully informed me I’d get my bike back. Joy!

Well… joy was short-lived.

My inventory? Completely wiped.

No armor, no weapons, no crafting tools.

Even worse: I respawned far from my base.

All I had left was frustration.

You could say: “That’s just part of the game.” And yes, it is. But how that mechanic is implemented makes a big difference.

Dune Awakening Combat @Funcom

1. Total inventory loss, but what do you learn?

Losing gear can be meaningful, if there’s something to learn from it. Think of Souls games my favorite genre: you die, you learn enemy patterns, you adapt, you improve.

Here? You just learn: don’t get eaten. That’s it. Because there is no pattern, and really when the alert is displayed, in my case, there is not much you can do anyway.

Losing everything, including basic crafting tools and weapons, doesn’t teach, it resets. That’s not challenge, that’s discouragement. It doesn’t respect the player’s time or progression. Sure I will be extra careful of sand worms but it feels a bit overkill.

2. Respawn system – poorly explained, poorly designed

You can choose your respawn points. There’s even a mobile respawn unit.

But to respawn at your base, you have to manually activate it.

Why isn’t that explained? Why isn’t it enabled by default?

This is a core UX flaw: hiding essential systems.

Survival games don’t need to be cruel to be immersive.

They need to be clear.

There may be a reason behind it, maybe if you have several bases? But you could still chose which one you want to use. If that is for immersion purpose and make us realize the vastness of the desert, there must be a better way of doing it.

Dune Awakening Bike @Funcom

3. The bike situation – adding insult to injury

After being eaten, the game gives you your bike back (the first time, at least).

Nice touch.

Except… no fuel.

And with my inventory wiped, I had no way to power it. Maybe I missed something, but I had no tools left to interact with the world. Could not buy any as my money was gone, could not craft as the tools were gone and you can only do so at your base.

Worse: I didn’t log in for two days. When I came back? My bike was gone.

Turns out, if you don’t park it in a safe place, it vanishes after a while. Yes, there are ways to store it safely. But I had to look it up. That’s the definition of bad UX: critical mechanics the game doesn’t surface.

All of this points to one thing:

QoL and UX are not afterthoughts. They’re central to the player experience.

I’m not against harsh mechanics. But they should be harsh and fair, not harsh and vague.

After all, we’re pretending to be on Arrakis.

We’re not actually on Arrakis.

Can it be fixed easily? Yes.

• Enable base respawn by default.

• Add tooltips for core mechanics (fuel, storage, item loss).

• Don’t wipe everything, keep a basic fallback kit.

Was I the wrong audience? Maybe. Did I maybe miss some info, most likely. Because I refuse to think that I am in the right here and indeed those points were not properly explained.

Perhaps Dune Awakening is aimed at hardcore survival fans who love figuring things out the hard way.

But even they benefit from better UX.

Because challenge and clarity are not opposites.

If you took the time to design these systems, why not explain them? Fear of overloading the player?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the game. I’ll keep playing. I was not discouraged, and maybe it served its puprose to make me fear the worms.

But don’t be surprised if I’m back here, ranting again.

Are you building a survival or open-world game? Need a second set of eyes on your systems?

I help indie and AA developers improve their game UX.

Let’s make your game tough, but fair. [Contact me here.]