Climb Dune: Awakening's Factions Ranks To Become "The Next Baron Harkonnen"

Dune: Awakening puts a major focus on surviving on the extremely hostile desert planet Arrakis from the Dune movies and books, but that's not the only thing you'll have to survive. In addition to fighting other players, you'll also have the opportunity engage in the kinds of political machinations that are central to the classic sci-fi story.

In developer Funcom's first Dune: Awakening Direct video, creative director Joel Bylos explains some of how you'll deal with the different factions at war for control of Arrakis, and it's incredibly valuable "spice." Those factions include the movies' protagonists, the Atreides, and antagonists, the Harkonnens, but other parties are trying to influence the flow of spice and the control of power on Arrakis, as well.

"You start the game kind of lost in the desert, and then by the end of the game, maybe you're the next Baron Harkonnen," Bylos said. "As you make your way through the game, you progress and you sort of meet these factions in the world. The Atreides and the Harkonnen are at war, there's a War of Assassins going on, as it's called. And as a player, you decide which side you want to help, which side you want to join, then you start to partake in missions for those factions. And eventually you work your way up through the ranks of the factions, and maybe you take on a position of power as well. So the politics are designed to actually encourage players to develop their own politics around the sandbox system."

During a recent Dune: Awakening preview event, Bylos gave a little more context for the politics system. In addition to fighting for control of Arrakis on the ground, both factions are trying to win favor in the Landsraad, the council of Great Houses in Dune that serves as a powerful governing body, by currying favor and winning the votes of the other houses, he said.

A Great House delegate might ask for a large haul of spice, with whichever faction delivers it winning that vote.

"I expect there to be quite a bit of intrigue among the [player-made] guilds within the factions as well, because you get scored based on various things there," he said. "We want to give people competitive objectives to fight over, so that's kind of the goal."

You don't have to get mixed up in the warfare or the political maneuvering directly if you don't want to, though. In the video, the developer explained that Funcom's sandbox approach to Dune: Awakening offers different avenues to contribute to the greater goals of your faction or the player guilds you might join.

"You can play however you want," Bylos said. "The idea is to be a sandbox and allow people to approach how they want. One of the rules, or one of the pillars of the game is expression and customization. And that's not just about visuals, it's customizing how you want to play the game. So it's really thinking about like, Well, I really like to craft and just set up my little crafting setup and sell things on the Exchange [Dune: Awakening's in-game auction house] to other players. So you can do that, you can basically Live your life as a crafter, you can also be an architect, as we talked about, you can be a pilot, a scout, you're not really heavily involved in the fighting, but you go out and you craft maps that you sell to other players, as well, of the world."

Dune: Awakening is slated to release on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, but currently has no set release date. You can sign up for the Dune: Awakening closed beta on its website.