At some point in recent years, I realized I didn’t enjoy survival crafting games, aka tree punchers. At first, the thrill of exploring a new world and building a little fort in the woods was fun, but quickly—usually within the first few hours—I’d realize the treadmill I was on, and I would stop playing. Rarely did the moment-to-moment gameplay win me over and keep me slogging through the grind. So I’m very surprised that I’ve spent well over a dozen hours playing MMO survival RPG Dune: Awakening on PS5 and intend to play a lot more.
Released last year on PC, Dune: Awakening recently leaped to PS5 and Xbox as part of a large update that also added a ton of gameplay options to the third-person sci-fi survival game, as well as new story content, plenty of quality-of-life improvements, a full single-player mode, and the ability to completely avoid PvP if you so desire. I played a little bit of the game back at launch on PC, but it wasn’t until the last week that I finally sat down and got lost in the sands of Arrakis.
The first thing I was happy to discover is that Dune: Awakening runs great on PS5 and feels perfectly at home on a controller. Inventory management, base building, combat, and exploration (both on foot and via vehicle) feel good. I never missed having a mouse in my hand. If anything, playing Dune with a PS5 gamepad on my big TV made it feel more like an action-adventure game than some Steam-only survival-crafter, which likely helped me not bounce off it as hard.
I created a character and played through the opening hours of Dune: Awakening via its new single-player mode, which worked flawlessly and delivered an experience that didn’t feel like a stripped-down MMO survival game. But eventually, as I was completing quests and leveling up my lone soldier, trying to survive the harsh deserts of Arrakis by harvesting blood and dew water, my brother hopped on and wanted to play together. To do this, I had to create a new character, as single-player characters can’t hop to multiplayer servers. A bit annoying, but thankfully after you’ve gone through the tutorial and opening section of the game, you can just skip it when creating a new character. This is a wonderful feature.
Together, my brother and I built up a ramshackle little hut in the desert and began harvesting materials and killing random bandits for resources. (And blood.) And this is where I think Dune: Awakening wins me over compared to so many other survival crafting games.
Harvesting stuff is fun. You scan rocks and other objects and then use a laser to cut across a highlighted spot. The thing pops apart, and you automatically get the resources. It’s not annoying, time-consuming, or tedious.
Meanwhile, combat is actually pretty good, too. No, Dune: Awakening can’t compete with the best third-person shooters or action games out there, but combat feels snappy, dangerous, and responsive. Ducking in and out of cover during firefights or using my knife to pop an enemy’s holo-shield never made me feel like I was just watching an animation play out, which the combat in a lot of MMOs does. Nor does it feel clunky or janky, like in a lot of survival games. Instead. I actually enjoy fighting enemies in Dune: Awakening, to the point that I sometimes seek out combat just to hunt down some bandits while killing time.
Playing with someone definitely made Dune: Awakening even more enjoyable. And like the game’s performance on console, I was impressed by how rock-solid my online sessions have been, with almost no lag or weird issues. It just works, and that’s nice in 2026.
I’m not a Dune sicko at all. I’ve not seen any of the new movies, though I plan on watching all three later this year. I’ve only read the first book, and that was back when I was in middle school. Yet I’ve always appreciated the universe and tone of Dune, and I think the game mostly nails those vibes. The planet of Arrakis feels deadly and ancient. The massive ships hovering above feel impossible and oppressive. And there’s a real sense that, especially early on, you are a small part of something much, much larger. Something you don’t really understand. I expect Dune lovers will have a great time picking up on all the references and Easter eggs that I imagine are stuffed in Dune: Awakening; personally, I’m just having a blast surviving in this world.
That’s not to say you can’t also have some silly fun in Dune: Awakening’s digital Arrakis.
At the tail end of one late-night Dune session, my brother and I wanted to screw around with the large desert worm that stalks the sands of Dune: Awakening. You have to be careful when crossing open sand, or you can be gobbled up by this big bastard and lose everything you’re carrying forever. But after a couple of nights of dodging the worm and barely escaping with our lives, curiosity got the better of us. We both wanted to poke at the beast.
So my brother removed all his gear and clothing and ran out into the sandy dunes outside our base to attract the worm. At that point, Dune: Awakening became an episode of Jackass, and after toying around with the worm, my brother’s luck ran out, and he was consumed by the big creature in a moment I wish I had captured a screenshot of, but I was laughing too hard to do so.
So yeah, I’m having a great time with Dune: Awakening. I have no idea if the endgame is good or bad. I don’t know if there’s some negative meta change that people are mad about. I don’t really care, to be honest. I’m having a good time both solo and with my brother in Dune: Awakening. I can’t believe it. I found a survival crafting game in 2026 that I don’t hate. Wild stuff.
