New Cash Grab Dune Video Game Set for a Painful Failure
Riding the hype train is a tricky business that often leaves you at the wrong station.
Summary:
- Amid Dune: Part Two’s success, there’s another upcoming project set in the same universe.
- Dune: Awakening is an “open-world MMO survival” video game that takes place on Arrakis.
- The first look at the game didn’t exactly inspire hope in Dune fans who claim it will flop upon release.
The Dune franchise is peaking before our very eyes. Based on Frank Herbert’s celebrated novel of the same name, Denis Villeneuve’s movie series is going strong: following the overwhelming success of the first movie, the recent Part Two is dominating the box office and harvests positive reviews in bunches from critics and viewers alike.
Does that mean that any new Dune project will succeed, though? Definitely not.
Dune: Awakening Doesn’t Look Too Good
Having been in development for a couple of years now, Dune: Awakening is an upcoming video game set on Arrakis following the success of Dune: Part One. Many fans would have killed for a Dune video game both years ago and today, but there are quite a few catches that don’t allow us to be optimistic about this project.
First, Dune: Awakening is an “open-world MMO survival game”; this phrase alone is enough to make many gamers’ stomachs churn. Second, it doesn’t have much of a plot, as survival games lack in that department, whereas Dune is largely about the story. Third, it was clearly designed to follow the hype-train from Denis Villeneuve’s movies, and such projects don’t tend to turn out well. Fourth, it looks kind of funny.
Fans Largely Unfazed by Dune: Awakening
Don’t get us wrong: there are quite a few fans who are eagerly awaiting the new video game’s release. While for many, the “open-world MMO survival” genre has long been exhausted, there are still true connoisseurs out there who’d love to ride around the deserted world of Arrakis with their friends after work.
But others aren’t exactly thrilled with this project.
Apart from the genre, one of the main fan concerns about Dune: Awakening is the game’s visual appearance. Many claim it looks like it could be made over a dozen years ago — or simply “like *ss” — and feels empty. Others are frustrated with another movie-based video game as such projects fail all too often, and don’t hold beliefs that Dune: Awakening will be any different from, say, Defiance.