Dune: Awakening is one of my most anticipated Survival MMOs that’s been announced! Why? Let me tell ya! The trailer shows a massive sandstorm in the distance while a pair of iconic Ornithopters fly across the screen. You notice a very Jake Gyllenhaal-looking character peering over a cliff, watching a Spice Harvester before it gets engulfed by a massive sandworm, never to be seen again. My heart leapt as I recognized that I was watching a Dune MMO and that it was being developed by Funcom, the creators of my favorite survival game Conan Exiles.

I had played the Ultima Series of games on PC from a very young age; by today’s standards, the graphics would be seen as quite archaic, but at that time it was awesome to explore a huge world, taking my band of heroes on adventures across the land of Sosaria, which helped keep me satiated during my youth. In my early adulthood, while serving in the US Army, a new type of game appeared on my radar—a game style so revolutionary that it threatened to tip the gaming community on its head. That Game was Ultima Online, one of the first mass-multiplayer online games today known as a MMO.

Till this time, most of the adventure games I played were all single-player, but this game promised to change all that and allow me to play not just with my friends but with thousands of other players from all over the world at the same time. You could be whatever you wanted to be—a warrior, mage, carpenter, or even thief—picking the pockets of unwitting players and trying to escape with my ill-gotten loot before they noticed. My blood was pumping, and adrenaline was surging—this was life.

Then I would change into my Ranger character, venturing off into the wilds of the world, collecting treasure and goods, and occasionally making trips into town to sell my wares. I spent many years of my life playing that game. Through the years, more MMOs sprang up. Everquest, Anarchy Online, Eve Online, and even the birth of World of Warcraft, the big behemoth that still stands to this day—I dabbled in all those fantasy and sci-fi worlds, but none ever gave me the feeling that UO did, and sadly, MMOs slowly faded from my life as I transitioned into survival games. But recently there was a stirring on the MMO front with the release of an announcement trailer for a new MMO that has my heart palpitating in anticipation, and that was the Dune: Awakening announcement trailer.

Why does this game make me so excited? Because it brings me back to a sense of true adventure, which I feel I have been longing for for quite awhile. Most other MMOs introduce you to a static world where you complete a set of premade quests to go get this item, kill five of this creature, etcetera. The world does not change, and much of the world is not able to be interacted with. But this new Dune world may just give us the chance to actually explore a savage and deadly world that is constantly changing with the shifting sands. Weekly events will usher in the Coriolis storm. Which will reveal new areas and POIS while hiding others, which will allow for a sense of infinite exploration. Which will allow us to explore and exploit the revealed area before Arrakis reclaims its secrets for itself, leaving not a trace except for the experience in our minds and the profits in our pockets. But you are not the only one looking to turn a profit; there are others, just like you, thirsty for adventure, glory, and profit.

Unlike many other MMOs out there, Dune promises to be a Survival game. Starting off, you are a castaway in the deep desert; all you have is a knife, which you were able to cobble together from scrap metal. You are trying to survive in the world of Arrakis by stealthily creeping into others camps and dispatching them to steal sips of water from their Still-Suits. With the hope that if you can just live long enough, you might become someone of importance, influence, power, and, of course, Spice.

What we know so far is that you are going to be able to build just about anywhere, as we have seen in another one of Funcom’s games, Conan: Exiles, which not only had a robust building system but also a very intricate crafting system, allowing you to make a plethora of items, from powerful weapons and armor to mundane cosmetic items such as bowls and pots. Put it all together, and you can build an impressive and immersive base fit for a king. And I expect no less from the over-the-top architecture of the Dune universe. Since we will have to deal with sandstorms and such, where and how you build is going to be important to protect your base.

What is built can also be destroyed. Now that you have built a small base and gathered items from around Arrakis, you must defend your home. Why head out to the dangerous deserts when you can just take it from others, which is also an option in Dune? It has been announced that there will be not only PVE encounters but PVP as well. Though they haven’t announced what types of ways you will be able to defend your bases just yet, there might be levels of automation such as turrets or a similar Thrall system currently in Conan: Exiles, where you will have NPCs that will be able to deter enterprising thieves from looking for lower-hanging fruit elsewhere.

But why play alone? This is an MMO with thousands of other players and several different factions. Make friends and build a faction of your own. What we do know is that there is going to be a system of politics and political intrigue that the players will be able to get involved in, so maybe we will be able to Grease the wheels of political intrigue and eventually take control over an area for your faction and build an army to protect that which is yours and take that which is not.

Combat is always an eventuality when diplomacy fails, and the world of Dune is no different, and the developers have really gotten my attention with this one. There are going to be many levels and variations of combat in the world; melee and ranged combat are at the forefront. Along with the inclusion of vehicle combat. We are going to be able to control Sand Bikes, Troop carriers, ornithopters, and more. Which is going to make mass combat between factions a reality.

Imagine that one of your scouts has alerted you to a new Spice blowoff in the distance. You put out a call to your faction members to prepare for deployment. Sand bikes, tanks, and Ornithopters make haste to the location, but a rival faction is also bearing down. Each unit in this battle will be a player, manning turrets on tanks and engaging on foot with swords and rifles. The combined arms in these battles instill a sense of awe, just like the epic fleet battles of Eve Online. But these mighty clashes of armies also bring stirrings from the sands themselves, and even the mighty armies can be disseminated by the dreaded and revered Sand Worm.

All the items, weapons, and vehicles will be player-created, so the player-crafting economy is real. With a powerful faction, you will need industrial crafting to make the vehicles you will need to secure and protect your domain. And that will require vast amounts of water, resources, and Spice to fund your operation. And to harvest the spice, you will need to build and protect the Harvesters.

Not a lot has been shared about the skills system in the game as yet, but it has been mentioned that access to and use of Spice will influence how quickly you can learn and how high your skill levels will be able to become.

When you are on top, everyone will want to be you or kill you. Extend too far, and someone might chip off a piece of your empire for themselves. Don’t risk enough, and you might fall prey to another faction even more ambitious than yours.

Dune: Awakening promises to have something for everyone; even people who do not want to venture out much into the dangerous desert can stay in more safe, controlled environments, or they will be able to throw caution to the wind and try their hand at PVP in different designated areas.

But respect Arrakis, for you never know when the Sandworms will strike, but they will, and others just like you will want to build their empires upon the ruins of those who came before.

The game already has rich lore from the Frank Herbert books and the already produced Dune movies that the developers have already said they are going to stay faithful to, and I hope they do. A huge, ever-changing world to allow infinite exploration, personal and full-scale faction combat to participate in, Base building, player-crafted economies, and even spycraft and political intrigue. And best of all, no Microtransactions have been announced.

This game is a very ambitious title, and I have so many expectations for it that I hope I am not disappointed with what is delivered.

What I’m most excited about for Dune is to experience a sense of adventure again, to build a thriving faction, to hide in the shadows and dip my hand into the world of political intrigue, and to crush those who stand in my way. The Spice must flow.

Are you as excited for Dune Awakenings as I am? Do you have faith that Funcom will deliver a true Arrakis game experience? Let me know in the comments below.