I'm Worried Dune: Awakening Is Going To Make Me The Villain

A recent gameplay reveal for Dune: Awakening showed off several elements of exploring Arrakis that have me worried I’ll be playing as a villain. This isn’t necessarily off-brand for the Dune series. After all, protagonist Paul Atreides becomes a villain by the end of the first book. Still, it’s one thing to read about a flawed protagonist and his tragic fall from grace, it’s another to build a game around doing the same villainous actions.

Now, being a villain in general isn’t necessarily a bad thing in video games. It can be fun to do an evil run of an RPG like Baldur’s Gate 3 and make cartoonishly bad decisions. However, Dune tackles some serious real-life issues that feel very relevant to today’s political landscape. Elements from the gameplay reveal seem to suggest that players will be working both with and as colonizers on Arrakis. I’m a bit worried that Dune: Awakening isn’t just going to have me be the villain but that it doesn’t recognize that’s what it’s doing.

Dune: Awakening Trailers Show Players Working With The Harkonnens

Players Appear To Bow To A Harkonnen Officer

One of the clearest indications we will be taking on the role of the villain in Dune: Awakening comes from clips showing the player working with, and even bowing to Harkonnens. While the world of Dune is rarely so simple as saying one faction is the clear good guys, the Harkonnens are very clearly one of the worst groups. They are power-hungry and violent, and they aren’t afraid to kill their allies or own family members to get ahead.

Since Dune: Awakening takes place after the fall of House Atreides, it makes sense that the Harkonnens would have a large presence on Arrakis. Still, there are other ways that characters get by in Dune besides working with them. Gurney Halleck, for example, works with smugglers. Paul and Jessica ally themselves with the Fremen, an option that seems absent from the gameplay reveal.

If I’m able to work with the Harkonnens as a double agent, or if there are less morally dubious options, I won’t mind there being optional missions for them. However, working with the Harkonnens seemingly being a more readily available option than the Fremen is just one indication that Dune: Awakening might not present many options for doing the right thing. After all, a major part of the gameplay seems like it would put players in direct conflict with Arrakis’ natives.

Dune: Awakening Involves Building Bases On Fremen Land

Building On Fremen Land Seems Counterintuitive To Dune's Anti-Colonial Message

While it isn’t clear if working with the Harkonnens in Dune: Awakening is required, it does seem like building bases in the desert is a major part of the game. While I’m willing to suspend my disbelief for the sake of gameplay and ignore how unlikely that safely building such structures would be on Arrakis, I’m still not so enthusiastic about actually doing it. Being an outsider building bases on Arrakis feels very counter-intuitive to the major anti-colonial message the Dune series communicates.

Arrakis should belong to the Fremen. The only reason other factions are even interested in the planet is to exploit it for its Spice. In Dune, this is a clear condemnation of how colonial powers exploit native populations for their own interests in a region’s natural resources. Unfortunately, it seems like Dune: Awakening will be forcing players to become one of these colonial forces by establishing their own bases on Fremen land. Worse still, one clip from the trailer and a major shift in the game’s narrative suggests that players may take this even further.

The Gom Jabbar Test Might Make Players Into The New Paul Atreides

The Gom Jabbar Could Indicate That Players Will Become The Lisan Al Gaib

When I first heard that Dune: Awakening wouldn’t include Paul Atreides, that made sense to me. By removing Paul, the main thrust of Dune’s narrative is taken away. This allows for an Arrakis that likely won’t see any major political upheaval for an indefinite amount of time, keeping the setting of the game more consistent. However, I’m now a bit concerned that this isn’t why Dune: Awakening took out Paul.

In the gameplay reveal for Dune: Awakening, a player can be seen taking the Gom Jabbar Humanity Test. This is the test that both Paul Atreides and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen undertook to assess if they were capable of becoming the Kwisatz Haderach, a sort of Messiah figure for the Bene Gesserit. This could suggest that players will be filling in for Paul as the new Kwisatz Haderach, something I am not looking forward to.

Paul uses his abilities as the Kwisatz Haderach to convince the Fremen he is the Lisan al Gaib, a Messianic figure of their own. This idea was planted in Fremen culture by the Bene Gesserit specifically so that they could control the Fremen with their own operative. Though Paul doesn’t end up doing this as a tool of the Bene Gesserit, he does still manipulate the Fremen’s beliefs to use them as his own personal army.

Paul Atreides is not an aspirational figure or power fantasy, but he is a cautionary tale. Dune’s author, Frank Herbert, made this pretty explicit in Dune Messiah when Paul openly compares himself to Adolf Hitler. The idea of potentially filling in for Paul as someone who exploits the Fremen’s religion to win their allegiance doesn’t excite me; it makes me feel dirty. I hope the Gom Jabbar is included in some other capacity, but I’m concerned it is meant as a way to empower the player in a similar manner to Paul.

The MMO Setup Makes A Good Ending For Dune: Awakening Unlikely

MMOs Typically Don't Allow Players To Shape The World In Major Ways

Were Dune: Awakening a narrative-driven game, I would be more confident that some of my concerns would be meaningfully addressed. Traditional RPGs can present players with a variety of choices, which would perhaps have allowed for a route where I wouldn’t have to work with Harkonnens or colonize Arrakis. Even if it was more action-oriented, Dune: Awakening could have done what Spec Ops: The Line did and challenged players by having them examine their morally dubious actions. However, I worry that an MMO is ill-suited to properly address these topics.

Players can’t really work toward making Arrakis a better place, because it would have too big of an impact on the status quo of the world. Dune: Awakening will likely keep Arrakis in a constant state of open conflict with no hope for permanent solutions. While this isn’t a problem on its own, it does make me worry that there is no way to be invested in the game while also actively participating in the kind of harmful actions Herbert’s novels were meant to warn against.

I really enjoy Dune, but it has never been the type of fantasy world I wished I could be a part of. It isn’t like the lively and fun Star Wars galaxy or the beautiful Middle-earth where good always triumphs in the end. It’s much more similar to Westeros. It’s a fascinating place to read about, and the setting can be used to effectively communicate political themes.

Were Dune: Awakening simply a survival game, I would likely have fewer reservations about it. The idea of trying to survive the harsh environments on Arrakis sounds like a fun challenge for a video game. However, if the way I’m forced to do that is by building settlements on Fremen land and working with colonizing forces like the Harkonnens instead of Arrakis’ native people, the game will feel like a betrayal of the warnings Herbert’s novels tried to instill in me.