Hot on the heels of yesterday's gameplay reveal, we've learned more about Funcom's upcoming MMO, Dune: Awakening, which remains shrouded in mystery. Crucially, we knew the story would take place in an alternate universe set a few years before the events of the Frank Herbert books or Dennis Villeneuve films and would ignore one of the most critical aspects of its universe, religion, for undisclosed spoiler reasons. Now you've got our attention!
Speaking to Eurogamer, creative director Joel Bylos had some pretty exciting things to say about the game, explaining where Awakening fits into the larger Duniverse. His statement already has the community speculating what the ramifications of such a move might mean, as religion is intrinsically tied to the story itself:
"Things are slightly different in our universe. Many events are still the same, so it's not like we've gone all 'thousands of years ago, a rock slid in the wrong place and changed everything'. It's just a few years back. But the significant thing - it's really close to spoiler territory, which I can't really go through - but let's just say that for the large part, we sort of sidestep religion."
Are you up enough on Dune lore to understand the implications of such a situation? What does this mean for Paul Atreides or Duncan Idaho, for that matter? Try to leave religion out of it in the comments section below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 12
“In this adaptation of Jaws, we’re gonna be sidestepping the shark business”
I know they mean they want to avoid following the plot of the book, but religion is a vital element of Dune. Without religious commentary and subtext, it’s not Dune. I hope they don’t fully remove it.
Warning bells are ringing. Taking religion out of Dune is like taking religion out of the Golden Compass. You've missed the point of the book.
@LifeGirl The moment I saw this game had Fortnite-style base building I knew it wasn't going to be a good Dune game. But it has shooting and a big worm, so it's all fine, right? Right?
So the Bene Gesserit don't exist in their version of the universe?
"Hey, we're making the game without one of the core components of the franchise"
PASS
It has the Dune name and there's some sand in it as well. Close enough - 8/10.
I wish we could just have an RTS like emperor or a single player rpg like the visual novel.
How do we have all this technology but Dune games are worse than the ones 20 years ago? 😑
This formula has already been successfully hit. There is no need to re-invent the wheel.
That’s hilarious. Capitalism at its finest.
I wonder if this has anything to do with Tencent publishing the game. Doesn't China have some restrictions on religious subtext?
In another interview the game director said their will be no Fremens or sand walking. Yeah, Dune without Dune content, what a great perspective.
This sounds like Palworld being boxed and sold as Pokemon, it kinda seems like it could be related to Dune, but really it's just a cocktail napkin interpretation of the cliff's notes of Dune. NOPE!
So basically this has nothing to say and hasn’t digested anything from the series other than “it’s cool”.
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