EDIT: January 2nd 2026:

Well guys - I passed over 600 hours and I'm going to let that simply show you that this game is worth the money. Look you're gonna go to all the comments and see "mixed" and see people with hundreds of hours complaining. Ask yourself - "Why would someone hate a game and yet put so many hours into it?" You'll hear some complaint about player count - yea sure thats true, but the devs aren't giving up or throwing the towel on this and clearly this game is gonna push forward. Sure it fell off but thats just how hype works. Cool. Is the game good or not - thats what actually matters. I have over 600 hours in this game. I will likely dump another 600+ in teh next 6 months. Hell Its gonna be my 2nd most played game easily by the end of Summer at this rate, and in 2 years it'll beat out team fortress 2 with over 2,000 hours. Think to yourself "Is a game that bad if people are willing to put that many hours into it?" Type shi. Its a good game. It is an intensive game on hardware I will say that - we're finally makin' my 2080ti work for a living, but it does work. Story is immersive, the game wants your attention and will keep you goin', you'll start memorizing places of interest, you'll start to get enveloped into this world. Ignore all this nonsense in the reviews - look at how many hours the majority of those people play. Food for thought.

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Devs have been consistent in patch updates for performance.
This game requires some serious dedication - think Rust. You're going to have different experiences on different servers, and no two servers are going to be the same.
Its a solid game, and I am willing to bet this game is going to have more and more updates.
Remember Sea Of Thieves? Remember how boring it was at first? Imagine this but in Dune.
Its gonna be good. Hell it IS good. I'm having a lot of fun, and if I'm having fun you will too.

This original review was written with 24 hours in-game.

EDIT: 74 hours into the game and this game has done something no other game has done. See when I went to the Eastern Shield Wall, my computer would crash. "Hmm" I thought, "This isn't normal". I spent 3 weeks troubleshooting my computer which ranged from replacing the OS drive, upgrading all RAM to 3200MHz using the same brand which then had to be underclocked to 3000MHz - because apparently AMD and ASUS never thought someone would use all 8 DIMMs and try to run 128GB on a threadripper - crazy amirite? So anyway the system is now stable under stress tests and general benchmarking, its just i'm too scared to load into the game.

UPDATE - ISSUES ARE FIXED. It was my own PC. Game works just fine.



UPDATED REVIEW AS OF OCTOBER 7TH 2025:
Dune awakening has been an absolute timesink. I've forgotten to eat sometimes while out here just grinding away. As someone who has over 1,700 hours in Runescape I can attest that this game will absolutely itch your 'tism when it comes to gathering resources. The game has a very easy walkthrough from the very beginning explaining all the mechanics as you unlock them, and then it finally dumps you into the main storyline where you then have to apply all those skills. This is a very easygoing game in that regard - of course you can go on youtube and lookup metas but honestly until you reach the endgame (which mind you if you play this game PROPERLY you'll sink 300+ hours into the game first) there really is no 'incorrect' way of doing things.

This game is remarkable, the storytelling is something that I wish other games would include, and if you play it the way the game wants you to play it you will sink hundreds of hours into this game. I also have the DLC which is also excellent and full of extra goodies that you GOTTA have.

My advice? Find a quiet community, find a quiet server, and enjoy yourself. Ignore all the big guild bull, ignore all the pvp crying, just enjoy it.

EDIT: December 3rd 2025:
HELP ME I CANNOT STOP HARVESTING SPICE AND KILLING SANDFLIES AND PUTTING ON RAD SUITS TO GO THROUGH THE SAME WRECK TIME AND TIME AGAIN FOR IRRADIATED SLAG I CANNOT STOP PLEASE GOD I HAVEN'T SEEN MY WIFE AND KIDS FOR 6 WEEKS AND I HAVE MOVED MY ENTIRE SETUP TO THE BATHROOM SO I DON'T HAVE ANY EXCUSE TO LEAVE PLEASE GOD I WANT MY LIFE BACK PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE