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My Home is my Atreides Mansion (…at least for now)

Here’s the thing about me and video game housing – I really love it (but y’all knew that already), and I think I’m fairly good at decorating an already good-looking, pre-built abode with furniture and stuff.

Every once in a while I can even get a bit creative, like when I designed this library on a floating platform made out of coffins in my Warlock’s Everquest II Freeport home:

Now I kinda wish I’d read them all at the time

However, my creativity definitely has its limits. While I was building my first two bases in Dune: Awakening those limits already reared their ugly head, as I had a really hard time imagining how to mold all those different floors, walls, roofs, inclines and whathaveyou into anything other than a functional but ugly cube. I would not have made a good architect, that much is certain.

I knew that I wanted my next and probably permanent main base to look at least somewhat nice though, so I started to look around and see what other players have done to get some inspiration.

Unsurprisingly, YouTube turned out to be the best place for that. What did surprise me was that some folks don’t just show off their great designs, they’ve even included step by step instructions to recreate them.

So that’s what I did to get started. Many thanks to Arathy of Crimson Builds for creating this base and taking the time to make that video!

I still had to get a bit creative though, because, as you can see, the site I’d chosen to build the base at isn’t just flat land – what can I say, I need to have a room with a view – and the game doesn’t support terraforming. You can build in, around and even through concrete rock, but there are limits. Also, when there’s rock or sand inside your base you can’t place any facilities or furniture on top of it.

To circumvent losing too much usable space on the ground floor I’d raised the foundations as much as possible at first – it seemed to be a good idea at the time. I didn’t place all of them right away though, as I needed to procure a lot more resources for the full build first. To protect the buggy and myself in the meantime I quickly erected some walls and a roof, and placed some generators, water cisterns and storage containers to collect and refine the building materials on site.

Once preparations were completed I tore down the roof and walls again and extended the foundations in all directions to complete the intended footprint – at least I tried to. Unfortunately the natural ground declines a bit towards the cliffs, and the game didn’t let me place the last row for lack of support.

Adjacent foundations have to be built at the same height, so I had no other choice than to tear them all down and start over. However, there was lots of stuff lying around by now. Grrrr!

What happened next was basically a game of Tetris. Move all facilities to one side, tear some foundations down, build new ones on a lower level, push everything onto those, destroy the rest…all while trying not to get a sunburn and hoping for the next sandstorm to take its sweet time.

I’ve got the power! Still not enough though…

It all worked out in the end, and once the foundations were in place finishing the build wasn’t much of a problem.

I’ve been using this base for about ten days since then, and I’m really digging it. Also, now I’m much more in my element again, namely taking something that’s already there and refining it to my liking. I add, remove or memodel bits and pieces all the time, and I’ll continue to do so until I’m completely satisfied.

The “generator wing” seen above, for example, was a thorn in my side right from the start. Then I remembered that those things basically don’t have to be touched anymore once they’re up and running, so I built another floor on top of them and covered the gap with some stairs. Now it’s as if that part of the house doesn’t exist, and I’ve gained an elevated relaxation- or conference-area that I didn’t have room for before.

The pillar I’m standing on usually isn’t there of course

I have few points of comparison, but I think the building system is really robust and fairly easy to use. Most of the time things snap together just as I’d like them to right away, and if they don’t I usually only need to rotate them or reposition myself a bit.

Gathering the needed materials takes a while, but with a buggy it’s pretty easy. You can buy more and more different furniture- as well as building-sets over time, too. I just wish those schematics would state the required resources. I was a bit irritated at first when I realized that I needed “plastone” to actually use the Atreides set I’d just spent 80k Solaris on, which I didn’t have nor knew how or where to get at the time.

Another raised floor houses a little biker workshop

Minor gripes aside though, this is one more aspect of the game that I’m overall very happy with.

By the way, if you think this base looks good or even great, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Funcom held a building contest a while ago, and many of the entries, even the ones that didn’t win, are absolutely awesome.

This one is my favourite. I really like designs that have an Asian feel to them.

That being said, I do concur with the chosen winner of the same category (Atreides), because that one is truly mindblowing:

They’re also much bigger than they come across on screenshots.

So, yeah, the base building in Dune: Awakening is really something else. If you fancy that kind of stuff this alone is reason enough to play the game I’d say.

Maybe, one day, I’ll even design something completely of my own.

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Every day on Arrakis is an adventure

Hoo boy. It’s been a long time indeed since a game has kept me engaged the way Dune: Awakening has and still does.

The fact that I’ve played more than 80 hours over less than three weeks isn’t even what’s the most remarkable about it – this is not the first time I’m bingeing on a game that I enjoy, after all. No, what’s really extraordinary is that each and every one of those hours felt exciting and full of discovery and adventure. I’m not exaggerating.

If all survival games are like this I totally understand now why they are so popular.

What exactly have you guys been doing here again…?

But what makes the game feel so different from basically anything else I’ve played? Well, there are quite a few contributing factors.

First of all, there is actual danger. Heat, storms, radiation, fricking high rock formations and deep chasms, quicksand, overall pretty tough enemies and, of course, sandworms. On Arrakis absolutely everything is trying to kill you.

Now, except for when being swallowed by a worm the penalty for dying usually isn’t all that harsh. You drop any Solari you had on you, and if you didn’t place a respawn beacon nearby you may find yourself quite a ways away from where you were. You can still go back and reclaim your cash though, so all you’ll lose is some time. And water. And probably some durability on your vehicle of choice.

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me

Dying’s not the end of the world, is what I’m saying, but you’d still prefer it didn’t happen. Which is why I always try to be cautious and alert, and I’ve died only three times total thus far as a result.

For me this really hits kind of a sweet spot. Death penalties suck ass in games where you inevitably die very often, possibly even without you having any chance to prevent it – think an MMORPG dungeon group wiping repeatedly because others aren’t doing their jobs.

However, when dying is of absolutely no consequence there can be no sense of danger. So penalizing death, but not too severely, and giving me the agency to prevent it from ever happening (at least theoretically) is the optimal way to do it in my opinion, as it causes just the right amount of tension.

I cranked up the brightness by a lot already, believe it or not

As I said earlier, human beings and gigantic worms aren’t the only dangerous things on Arrakis. The area pictured on the two screenshots above is called Hagga Rift, and I’ve never seen, much less traversed, a more jagged and fascinating, yet also disorienting and treacherous landscape in a game before.

As you can imagine getting around on foot or bike isn’t an easy feat here, and I got very confused during my first forays into the area. That it gets really dark the closer to the canyon’s bottom you get doesn’t help one bit.

Even when I slowly started to know my way around the environment kept throwing curveballs at me. Like when I fell through a hole in the floor while looting a shipwreck (did I mention that it’s fricking dark down there?), only that said hole didn’t lead to where I thought it would – as it turned out I’d already been on the ship’s lowest deck, and I now found myself in a free fall all the way down into the canyon. Bless the Maker and His water for suspensor belts!

Plants!! I never thought I’d see the day…

There are many little examples like this that perfectly showcase a world that has been deliberately and meticulously crafted, brick by brick. If there was any kind of procedural generation at work here it certainly doesn’t feel like it.

Each of the various areas, despite technically all falling into the “desert biome” category for obvious reasons, has a very distinct style, and poses its own challenges when traversing it. Just the other day I ventured into another hitherto undiscovered region, and this one looks and feels completely different yet again (shown above). Reminds me a bit of Arizona, to be honest.

It’s not just the landscape either, the enemies and their bases also have their very own aesthetics. Like this lair that, if you ask me, kinda screams “death cult”…

No, I’m not staying, but thanks for asking

The imperial testing stations I’ve talked about before are also varied enough to not become a bore. They come in all kinds of sizes, too, and I’m actually a bit relieved that most of them aren’t quite as sprawling as No. 10.

This is actually kinda cozy

To summarize, whatever it is I set out to do in this game, I never know what’s actually going to happen, how long it’s going to take, or whether I’ll make it back home alive at all – at least that’s what it feels like while I’m out there. In the end I always do make it back of course, and that’s just the greatest and most satisfying sensation.

We want it just like it was. A brand new dune buggy. Otherwise we’ll get mad!

I haven’t even mentioned yet that I’ve crafted this cool ride by now, have I? Well, there it is.

Having a buggy really changes the game quite significantly. For one, its cutteray sucks so much more material out of resource nodes than the handheld version that it’s not even funny. Naturally it can also carry a crapton of stuff to go along with that, which is not only great for gathering, but also for moving shit around between bases – or for moving bases altogether.

Leaving my Borg Cube behind for good…more about my new base next time

At this stage of the game these features aren’t just nice to have though, they pretty much become a necessity. Building things like better refineries, bigger water cisterns and so on requires more and more resources, and as a consequence your base keeps growing not only in size, but also in terms of how much stuff you have crammed into it.

Which is another thing that Dune: Awakening does very well in my opinion: progression.

It all feels very natural to me, and it’s paced just right. Moving through the resource tiers happens more or less on autopilot thus far, and I feel neither forced to rush anything, nor held back in any way. It’s also very satisfying to progress to the next tier because of little details like, for instance, the bigger ore refinery not only allowing you to process new types of materials, but also being more efficient when refining the “old” tiers.

These things keep getting bigger and bigger though

I really like how the skill trees open up more and more over time, too. Many abilities and passives have three ranks, but when you first gain access to a new class you can only spend points on the first rank of each. Working for the advanced trainers (most of which are found in either Arakeen or Harko Village) unlocks the second and third ranks as well as the special Spice-skills over the course of several quests.

Since basically everything you do in the game rewards XP you keep levelling up all the time (I’m currently at level 129), and as each ding grants one additional skill point they tend to pile up. Thus, whenever I’ve increased the rank of a skill tree or unlocked a new one, I’ve always had just about the right amount of available skill points to pick or level up the ones that seemed useful to me.

One thing that’s severely lacking, though, is having skill loadouts or something like that. It’s really tedious to swap around skills one by one, and since we can choose only three at a time (until you’ve reached a certain point in the main story it’s actually only two) not switching at all isn’t an option. Please, Funcom, do it! Give it a cooldown of a minute or two, I don’t care, but we really need this.

And that shall be enough for today. I’ll leave you with this little teaser of my new home though, the construction of which also turned out to be more exciting that I thought it would be…

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The desert giveth, Shai-Hulud taketh away

This is what it looks like when you’ve aggroed a sandworm in Dune: Awakening. It’ll submerge one more time after this first breach, but if you stay on open sand any longer after that it will come for you.

That’s not a sight you wanna get to see, believe you me.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!

How did this happen? Well, when I realized that I didn’t have nearly enough screenshots of Imperial Testing Station No. 10 for my post about the adventure I had in there I decided to pay Station No. 2 another visit and take some more there. And, to be quite honest, I’d become a bit too comfy and carefree by then, so instead of hugging the rocky areas as much as possible I took a pretty long route across open sand. I thought that I’d be okay as long as I stayed clear of drum sand.

I was mistaken. When the aggro meter turned red while I was still a couple hundred meters away from safety I knew I was in trouble. Luckily I had a booster equipped to the sandbike (the alternatives being a cargo crate or passenger seat), and I saved that for the moment you see on the picture above so as to not overheat it too early.

How close of a call was it? Well…

When the red squiggly line seen below me looks like this, GTFO!

The moment I hit the screenshot key I thought I was done for. But lo and behold, one second later the worm stopped its chase and disappeared below the sand for good. Phew (once again)!

However, just a day later I wasn’t so lucky.

At that point various contracts were asking me to venture further north, and to do so one has to traverse the first instances of quicksand. While moving on drum sand “only” increases worm aggro, quicksand is (as far as I know) a death trap for players and vehicles alike. And it’s fricking everywhere.

Drum sand due south, lots and lots of quicksand up north

While it is marked clearly on the map, and also looks a bit different from normal sand in the game world itself, I didn’t want to risk my bike regardless, so I decided to walk.

Outside of drum sand I’d never had aggroed a worm while on foot until then, so I thought this to be the safest option.

Once more I was mistaken. When the worm came I used everything I had at my disposal to escape, but even with Bindu Sprint and Shigawire Claw (from the Bene Gesserit and Trooper skill tree, respectively) I was much too slow. No screenshots, by the way, as I was panicking and had better (albeit futile) things to do.

Can someone take me off this godforsaken planet already?

I won’t spoil exactly what happens after that, but in the end I was standing at my chosen respawn point in my undies. No weapons or armor, no inventory, no nothing, except for one worm tooth that can be crafted into a very deadly but equally fragile dagger.

I was pretty bummed for a couple of minutes, but instead of sulking and logging off I went back to my base and started to rebuild right away.

And a good decision that was, because as it turned out I had so much stuff stockpiled by then that I was able to replace almost everything within like fifteen minutes.

Everything except for some of the unique items, that is.

Tier 2 unique cutteray on the right, the standard version for comparison

In order to craft these you need to get your hands on one-time use schematics, which only drop from super chests – I call them that; if they have an official name I’m not aware of it.

Many (but not all) POIs sport one such chest. In the bigger camps and dungeons they’re usually located in or past the boss room, or all the way at the top in the more vertical ones, and basically can’t be missed. In smaller places they’re sometimes tucked away around corners or in little side rooms or caves though, so keep your eyes open.

This is what they usually look like

Each of these chests has its own loot-table. Once opened they respawn after 45 minutes, and if there’s more than one schematic to be had it’s random which one you get.

Which, to be honest, can be quite infuriating. I have, for example, farmed one specific chest for days on end, because I wanted to get my hands on the unique rifle that only drops there. Said rifle is just one of three schematics on that chest’s table though, and I got the (also useful) sandbike engine once, and the scattergun (which I didn’t want at all) six fricking times before the rifle finally made an appearance.

I have even logged off there to do something else for a while, then logged back in just to loot the chest again.

Sometimes they’re smaller for some reason

Despite the RNG repeatedly being a dick I quite enjoy this whole part of the gameplay loop though. It lets me gear up to the point of (almost) being overpowered for the current tier, which makes the transition to the next much less arduous. It also incentivises going back to places you’ve already been – which you most likely would have to anyway for crafting mats and the like – so you don’t burn through each area quite as fast.

Which, for me, is a good thing. I’m in no hurry to advance to the “endgame”, as that, by most accounts and at the time of this writing, seems to be the least appealing aspect of the game.

Also, I’m still having a blast in this relatively early part of the experience, and I’m definitely going to savour it some more. That being said, I’m now almost ready to advance into tier three and start working towards building the buggy. That should be fun!

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Arrakis is a perilous place, even in the shade!

As I said last time, I mainly started to play Dune: Awakening because of features like gathering and base building, but also in hopes of getting to experience exciting adventures. And boy, did the game deliver on all fronts already!

I’m almost 30 hours in now, have moved into the second area and crafting tier, built my second base, discovered new technologies for gathering resources, and unlocked my fourth of the five available classes.

What I’d like to focus on today, though, is my first foray into one of the game’s large dungeons, because that was an experience I’ll not forget anytime soon indeed.

Most PvE content in Dune: Awakening is more or less static, with enemies hanging around camps, in caves or shipwrecks. You go there, clear them out, loot everything and leave again. Calling these places ‘dungeons’ would be overstating things, because they range from a single campfire to a couple of adjacent rooms or caverns at most.

However, there are real dungeons too. They go by the rather unimpressive name “Imperial Testing Station No. XY”, but I assure you, they are anything but.

You get to explore the first one of those, Station No. 2 (don’t ask me what happened to No. 1…) in the newbie region already, and while that wasn’t a cakewalk when I went there only a couple of hours into the game, it didn’t quite make me break a sweat either.

Doesn’t look too intimidating, now does it?

The other day a contract (i.e. side quest) asked me to investigate Imperial Testing Station No. 10, which is located to the far east of my current area. So I stocked up on ammo, bandages and water, mounted my sandbike and got going.

The entrance (seen above) looks pretty much exactly like that of Station No. 2, so I thought I knew what to expect. And I did…but, as it would soon turn out, not really.

As the name suggests these places are (or were) facilities for scientific or military research, and past the entrance they lie completely underground. Hence you have to go down some pretty steep and long ramps at first.

Good thing I’m not claustrophobic

I could soon tell that the enemies here are tougher and more numerous than I was used to, and I had to fight tooth and nail from the get-go. Many of them have a Holtzman shield now (to be fair, so have I), and most packs have at least one heavy gunner, who wield some kind of gatling gun.

Fortunately my usual tactic of aggroing a group, then backtracking a bit and hiding behind something or around a corner works even better in the tight confines of these stations. This way the guys with melee weapons will sprint after you first, and you can hopefully dispatch them with your own knife or sword before their homies catch up.

I also made generous use of grenades and turrets, and generally kept kiting and using cover as much as I could.

Some of these shots were actually taken someplace else…I had more pressing things to do than sightseeing!

I was so tense and focused the whole time that I didn’t pay attention to how long I was at it already, but after a while it dawned on me…this thing just kept going, and going, and going still.

Fortunately for me you can’t really get lost down there (I hate mazes with a passion). Sometimes a path branches off, but one of the two options always leads to a dead end soon, so there’s effectively only one way you can go. At least that wasn’t a concern.

But what if I’d died? I’m not sure how quickly enemies respawn, but it’s seemingly something like 10-15 minutes. Which means that I would have had to fight my way down here again all the way from the top.

Then I remembered that one of the things you can craft on the fly, provided you have the resources on hand, is a placeable respawn beacon. By then I had looted enough scrap metal to make a couple, so I plopped one down right away, just to be safe.

How big is this place?

Deeper and deeper I went, with no end in sight. Aside from loot chests and enemies – of whom I’d probably dispatched nearly fifty by now – I found various audio recordings providing the place’s backstory. Don’t ask me about that though, for I was much too focused on the path ahead of me to actually listen.

To make things even more tense my supply of ammo and bandages had started to noticably wane by now. You find that stuff left and right, but I was consuming even more than I got. About time to finish this, I thought.

Then I finally came to a door with a green energy barrier, which I assumed had to lead into the boss room.

You see, such barriers are usually red at first, unless you have already found the corresponding ‘identification band’. I hadn’t picked up any kind of key during my whole run, so why was this one green? Ah, but I’d seen this before, in Testing Station No. 2! As soon as I’d walked through the door there it turned red and wouldn’t let me get out until the boss was dead.

Looks so inviting…should say “DANGER AHEAD” instead!

I placed a new respawn beacon right in front of the door, checked my weapons and bandages one last time, and went in.

I found myself in a large, two-story hangar of sorts, and immediately had to fight for my life. I used the same tactics as before and dispatched the first batch of enemies, then another one. While doing so I noticed someone shooting at me from quite a distance…sniper! I tried to always have something between us while fighting the others, but still got hit once, and all of a sudden I was poisoned.

I started losing health fast while still fighting some other guy. Luckily I managed to finish him off quickly and applied a bandage right away. I don’t know if that stopped the poison or if it had just worn off by then, but my health bar turned from green to red again and I could heal up to full normally. Phew.

Using every bit of cover I could find I then got near enough for the sniper to switch to a different weapon, but I just made short work of him with my knife.

The slow blade penetrates the shield!

I had assumed the sniper to be the boss, but apparently not. By now the contract had updated its objective to “Kill Inna Hiller”, and that wasn’t checked off yet.

The hangar’s upper level was clear now, but the doors (plural because there’s one at both ends) were still red, so I went downstairs – only to get instantly perforated by a heavy gunner. Seriously, I went from full shields and health to dead in like three seconds, tops. Guess I’d found the boss, eh?

I respawned on my beacon and went in again. I had learned by now that Holtzman shields are turned off whenever the wearer fires a ranged weapon, but considering how quickly I’d died I wanted her not to shoot me of course. So I tried to get her to start firing, only to immediately take cover and let my grenades and turret do the work, which, after a while, did the trick. Phew again. But what’s that? This wasn’t Inna Hiller either?!?

At least the doors were green now, so on to the next room. This one was much smaller, but also with some opportunities to take cover. To my relief these four enemies didn’t pose much of a problem, and now the contract was finally completed. Phew the third.

Loot on the right, ID band on the left (the tiny purple ring)

I looted the super chest (more about those another time), and to my extreme delight the key that lay right next to it indeed led to a shortcut back to the surface, just as I’d hoped the whole time. This, too, seems to be a standard feature of these stations, and I think it’s great design.

And so my first proper dungeon run in Dune: Awakening had come to a victorious close.

To tell you the truth, I’m absolutely sure that I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near the boss fight(s), let alone beat those, without the aforementioned grenades. These aren’t consumables that you buy or craft and then equip like in most games, but come from the Trooper skill Explosive Grenade. If you play the game and haven’t already, I highly suggest to unlock that and give it a try. It’s so helpful! If you have a Technique-slot to spare also use Battle Hardened to reduce its cooldown a little (as well as that of all other Trooper skills, including the grappling hook).

My work is done!

I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’s been a very, very long time since I had a solo PvE experience as gripping as this one.

Now, do I want every session to be like this? Hell no! Those one and a half hours (or however long it actually was) left me completely exhausted. But I was also exhilarated, and so very pleased with myself at the end! Games that can make me feel like that are a rare breed these days, so hats off to you, Funcom!

Oh, and as if all of this hadn’t been enough excitement for a day I came this close to getting swallowed by a sandworm while collecting screenshots for this post. More on that next time.

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It’s time to spice things up

Survival games have been pretty popular for some time now. Valheim, V Rising, Subnautica and others have had more success than anyone would ever have anticipated. In the case of Valheim, fellow bloggers like Bhagpuss and Wilhelm made it sound quite fun, too.

I, however, played none of them despite all the praise they got. The very idea of having to take care of a character who needs to eat and drink, who can be too hot or too cold, and/or who also needs shelter lest the faintest of breezes kills him within seconds, just sounded like the antithesis of fun to me. I’m pretty sure that I actually tried a game with similar mechanics a long time ago…I can’t for the life of me remember what it was, but my vague memories of it aren’t fond either way.

The thing is though, these games usually do have a whole bunch of features and characteristics that very much appeal to me, namely exploration, resource gathering, crafting and, above all, base building. Which is why, despite said dislike of survival mechanics, I’ve always eyed them curiously from the sidelines.

Hence when I started to read really good things about Dune: Awakening, for example over at Chasing Dings!, Heartless Gamer and The Friendly Necromancer, an ever growing desire to try it out took hold of me. Next thing I know is that I’m watching various videos about the game on YouTube, and once I see what players are capable of doing with its base building system I can’t resist any longer.

Thus I finally decided to harden up and add some spice to my gaming diet – literally.

Keep in mind that I’ve only played about fifteen hours up to now, so these are going to be impressions of just the early game. To give you the bottom line up front though: I’m really digging it so far.

Let’s start with why I chose this game over the others.

While I’m not the biggest Dune fan ever – I’ve actually yet to read the novels – I quite like the first movie as well as the new ones. In terms of aesthetics and vibe the Denis Villeneuve films really are something else, and the game is very much based on those. The story takes place in an alternate timeline, but one that’s pretty interesting.

Specific IP aside, I’ll take a futuristic, or shall we say ‘technologically advanced’ setting over fantasy, dark ages or some such any day of the week.

Lastly, the game looks freaking awesome. I’m by no means a graphics-snob, but here the high level of detail and realism really help to get the feel from the movies across.

If you’ve read my ramblings about ArcheAge or The Secret World you know that I love me a flexible skill system. Not only does Dune: Awakening have that, you can actually unlock all classes on one character.

You accumulate a crapton of skillpoints over time, too. I assume that it won’t be enough to unlock absolutely everything, but it seems that you’ll at the very least be able to create the combat build of your choice while also having all traversal skills as well as the various passives to gather more resources, consume less durability and so on active at the same time.

If you don’t like your build anymore or find that you’ve missed something important, fret not. Respeccing the whole thing can be done every 48 hours and doesn’t cost a thing.

Speaking of traversal, holy macaroni, the game is really fun in this regard, even before you’ve built any of the awesome vehicles.

Spread across the classes you can unlock a grappling hook, an extremely fast sprint and an anti-gravity-bubble, and there’s also an equippable hover-device to either craft or loot. While these are already great on their own their real strenght comes into play when combined. For example, use the hook to propel yourself up a cliff, then press Space in mid-air to hover, and your momentum will carry you much higher or further.

Getting up and down the game’s mountains, some of which being actually pretty high (and falling damage is a thing of course), becomes quite easy once you get the hang of it. And also, like I said, a lot of fun.

As of yet I’ve only managed to build the smallest of the vehicles, the sandbike seen above. Even with only tier one parts it’s already much faster than running, and since the game world is anything but small owning one speeds up resource gathering trips or bandit base raids considerably. To no-one’s surprise it’s also a hoot to drive.

My next goal is the sand buggy. The name is a bit misleading I feel, because it’s actually more like a hauler with lots of carrying capacity and built-in mining laser. A gatherer’s wet dream, in other words.

The Ornithopters, of which there are three variants, should be the most fun of course, but those will probably take me a good while to get.

Resource acquisition comes in various flavors.

Whenever you’re in an area where specific stuff can be found, some of it just lies on the ground here and there, waiting to be picked up. The amounts you get that way are pretty negligible though, even early on.

What you’re really after is resource nodes. Those usually look like a big rock, clump or stack made out of the material in question. Scan these nodes with your mining tool and then cut along the blue line that appears to break them and get a good chunk of the stuff.

Once you’re able to build a dew scythe you can collect water from plants, but early on most of this precious resource will come from siphoning off dead opponents’ blood and purifying it. The next step up the ladder will be to dissolve whole corpses in some kind of high-tech sarcophagus (I kid you not).

Collecting Spice has again its own mechanics, but I’ll talk about that when I’ve experienced it myself.

Overall I like how resource acquisition works in this game quite a lot. Since looting dead enemies and their bases, shipwrecks and research stations is yet another way to get your hands on valuable stuff there’s much variety here, so things shouldn’t get boring too quickly.

This is my first base, and it’s obviously crap. I hastily slapped the first iteration of it down while the sun was scorching me, and instead of starting over from scratch at night I just kept adding to it whenever I needed more space. I didn’t know yet that all of the resources are refunded when you tear something down again, which is really great as it incentivises trying stuff out and also takes the sting out of relocating.

Which will probably happen a couple of times, so this one is temporary anyway. I’ll design something better – hopefully much better – for my main base, once I know where I actually want to build that.

Provided I’ll find an open spot there, that is – this is open world housing after all. It seems to me that there’s lots of space to go around though, but we’ll see.

Anyhow, the building system itself is pretty spiffy and, like I said, some folks have done ridiculously cool stuff with it already.

So what about the survival mechanics then?

To my surprise I’m totally fine with them. I would actually go as far as saying that I prefer them being in the game just the way they are, instead of having none at all. Why? Because they add a little bit of tension and thus a sense of danger and adventure, while in reality not being that dangerous after all.

You see, there is no hunger, so all you need is water, and that’s not really much of a problem right from the start. Sure, you can’t outright ignore it, but the game doesn’t make it overly hard for you to stay alive.

Freezing at night ain’t a thing, but sunstroke sure is. To avoid that you only need to find yourself a bit of shadow though, so that’s usually not a big problem. Even if you do overheat, all that happens is that your hydration wanes much faster, and, again, you quite quickly get to a point where water reserves become more or less a non-issue (for your body at least; it seems that higher tier crafting will require tons of it, too).

Aside from that there’s sandstorms and, of course, Shai-Hulud, aka sandworms. I don’t know yet how that might change later on, but in the starting area avoiding both is a concern, but not hard to do at all.

So, yeah, all things considered I really like what this game has to offer so far, and I haven’t even talked about crafting or combat yet as this is already getting long as it is.

To me Dune: Awakening is more than the sum of its parts anyway. Playing it feels like I’m having a big, exciting adventure, and that’s one of the things I enjoy the most when playing video games.

More to follow.

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Postcards from the Multiverse

While it’s definitely true that Marvel Heroes doesn’t have the graphical fidelity of a DII Resurrected or Path of Exile 2, I still think that it looks quite good in places. Especially the various set pieces scattered across the story campaign, like this rune pattern created by the Bifrost for example, look pretty awesome.

Speaking of the Bifrost, the rainbow bridge connecting Himinbjorg and Odin’s palace looks great, too, and also grants a nice view of Asgard’s lower levels.

I really like how the game manages to convey a sense of height despite being essentially two-dimensional. When you’re running across rooftops it really feels like you could fall down at any moment if not careful.

They also did a good job with getting the locations to look right. The scene above is supposed to take place in New York City, and I actually would have guessed that if I hadn’t known.

This, on the other hand, is Madripoor, which would be located in south east asia if it was a real place. I’ve not yet been to Singapore myself, but I’ve absolutely seen places in Vietnam and Hong Kong that strongly resemble this.

This was taken somewhere in Asgard, I believe, and I just find it pretty. It’s also uncharacteristically tranquil for a game that usually has more action and mayhem going on than basically any other I’ve played.

The bulk of the action in Marvel Heroes takes place outdoors, but I like the few interior sets we get to see a lot. They’re all quite detailed and, shall we say, tastefully decorated.

Of course once the action starts they get absolutely shredded to pieces within seconds. I do appreciate having the ability to destroy a game’s environment (anyone else looking forward to Battlefield 6, by the way? Oh, look, Naithin does!), but here it’s almost a pity to wreck these beautiful places.

Almost.

This cold room gave me lots of Predator 2 vibes, but unfortunately (or fortunately…) there weren’t any invisible, discus-throwing aliens around.

In hindsight, the screenshot I used when talking about loot explosions in my first impressions piece (after a nine-year hiatus we can call them “first” impressions, no?) was much too tame of an example. So here’s a better one, taken in Castle Doom’s throne room right after whupping the good Doctor’s ass. I still get a kick out of gobbling up those XP bubbles.

The wanton destruction wasn’t on me this time, in case you’re wondering. What can I say, that’s what you get for messing around with the fabric of the multiverse.

So, yeah, doesn’t look too shabby, now does it?

Nevertheless this will probably be my last post about Marvel Heroes for a while. Not because I don’t enjoy it anymore, but a) I’ll be on vacation starting tomorrow, and b) the other day I finally caved and bought a game I’d been very intrigued about for quite a while, and so far I’m really liking it.

See y’all on Arrakis when I get back.

Blaugust 2025 post count: 5

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Summon the suit!

Another week, another character for me to play in Marvel Heroes – this time around it’s Moon Knight’s turn. Once again I was inspired to try out someone new by seeing him do his thing in the live-action adaptation made by Marvel Studios.

I couldn’t tell you whether it’s actually any good as an adaptation because I know nothing about the comics, but the show in and of itself is absolutely brilliant in my opinion.

It’s very much carried by Oscar Isaac, who plays the character(s) to perfection. The way he switches from Marc Spector to Steven Grant or vice versa in a heartbeat, completely changing his accent and speech melody, as well as his whole demeanor and body language, is nothing short of amazing. Sometimes you can see the transition in his eyes alone! I liked him as an actor before, but this performance easily made him one of my favourites.

As I’m a big fan of ancient egyptian mythology, Moon Knight’s adventures also get bonus points from me for their themes and setting. In any case, I can strongly recommend watching the show if you haven’t yet.

“Oh, the idiot’s in control…” “I heard that!” *angrily shakes his fist*

So what about the ARPG’s take on Khonshu’s avatar?

I think he’s really fun. Unlike some other heroes he isn’t more or less locked into either melee or ranged combat, as he’s got various abilities of both flavors at his disposal. He can even morph some of them into one or the other via his talents and traits, which are unlocked from level 32 onward.

When fighting up close he uses weapons like truncheons, nunchucks and a bo staff, while depending on his signature crescent blades for ranged combat. Strangely, some skills have him shoot those blades out of a pair of pistols. I don’t know how that’s supposed to work, but I assume that it’s canon.

“Did he just throw the gun??” Well, not exactly…

His unique resource is called Khonshu’s Favor. It starts out empty, and some abilities build it up over time. Once at 100% he can use either of two spenders (or both at the same time if specced for it), which completely depletes all favor and gives him big buffs for quite a while.

What’s great about this is that most of his skills need no resources whatsoever, so you can basically use everything off cooldown, and spam those that don’t have one endlessly.

His signature ability is a barrage of very quick attacks with a big finisher at the end. This one, too, can be switched between melee and ranged, and while the former does more damage I prefer the latter as it’s much easier (and also safer) to use. You can “weave” it around a bit if you’re quick, but in essence it’s a single-target skill, which is quite unusual for a signature. The upside is that it literally melts bosses…well, not literally, but…you know what I mean…and that’s a trade-off I’m very willing to make.

His Ultimate, however, is by no means lacking in room clearing capability, as it peppers a pretty large area with gunfire and rockets for 20 seconds straight. You can still move and attack with your other skills in the meantime, too. Great stuff.

Call in the Batwing…err…I mean, the “Moon Copter”

I gotta say, I really appreciate how unique every hero I’ve tried up to now plays and feels. I believe they doubled down on this when they released the BUE (Biggest Update Ever) in January ’17, and while that patch was met with a ton of criticism by the playerbase as well, I think they did a good job in this regard at the very least.

I also really like how much control I have over each character’s specific playstyle. The aforementioned traits – it’s basically a talent tree that lets you choose one out of three options every few levels – offer more substantial alterations to a hero’s kit than most games do. Said switching between melee and ranged capabilities, or giving an attack a huge damage boost and additional DoT in exchange for a longer cooldown are just a few examples.

Granted, I’ve only scratched the surface so far, what with 58 more heroes waiting to be played. But, again, the ones I have given a shot are really unique and fun, and Moon Knight is no exception.

“What are we wearing??” “She said I needed a suit.” “Yeah, the ceremonial armor from Khonshu’s temple, not psycho Colonel Sanders!”

Basically the only thing that he’s lacking is a high-quality costume based on his signature armor from the show – which is no surprise of course, as the game was shut down five years before that even came out. Fortunately the one I’m wearing on all screenshots seen in this post, based on Steven Grant’s version of MK (known as “Mr. Knight”, I believe), comes pretty close to the one Oscar Isaac wears when Steven’s in charge, so that’s at least something.

Anyway, that’s enough for today. Now please go and visit Project T.A.H.I.T.I., so you too can play this awesome game again (or for the first time). The more the merrier!

Laters, gators.

Blaugust 2025 post count: 4

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Most “free” stuff actually isn’t

Well, hello there. It’s Introduce Yourself Week in Blaugustland, so: hi! I’m Mailvaltar, and I like, from time to time, to rant about stuff other people do or say that annoys me. This is such a time. Don’t say you’ve not been warned.

*Takes a deep breath*

No matter the game or genre, but especially regarding MMOs or “live service games”, players often talk about this or that being free, and I can’t help but wonder if they actually think that to be true.

I mean, nothing really ever is, is it?

Don’t worry, I’m not going to talk about powering up your PC costing electricity and stuff like that (although it obviously does). I’m pedantic, but not that pedantic.

But still, in my opinion rewards you only get if you do something, even if it’s just logging in, aren’t free.

It’s lying! Even the top row isn’t “free”, it just doesn’t cost any real money

The idea for this post came to me when I recently watched someone review other players’ Zenless Zone Zero accounts (yep, that’s a thing in gacha game circles). Several times during the video the host says that this character or that weapon should totally be leveled up to the maximum because “it’s a free power upgrade”.

If you’ve played any gacha game before I don’t need to tell you this, but in case you haven’t: the resources to level stuff up are far from being free!

Now, I know what they mean by saying that. To farm for things in this type of game you need stamina (in ZZZ it’s called battery charge), which replenishes on its own over time. So, technically speaking, given enough time you have a virtually unlimited amount at your disposal, which of course cannot be said about gacha currency, hence the distinction.

However, in reality there’s quite a bunch of caveats to calling those upgrade mats “free”.

I sure as hell didn’t get all this just because I’m such a nice guy

For one, your stamina pool always has a cap. Usually it’s 24 hours worth of recharge, sometimes even less, which means that you have to spend it very regularly in order to use as much as the game is willing to hand out to you.

More importantly though, to spend stamina you actually have to, you know, do stuff. I mean, that goes without saying, doesn’t it?

Now, granted, in ZZZ I can burn six hours’ worth of battery in about ten seconds if I’m in a hurry (or actually need and want just the most basic of materials), but even that can become a chore if done each and every day. Hell, spending my stamina in Genshin Impact became such a burden after a while that I had to quit playing altogether for a long time. But to my point, even if stuff like this does only take a couple of minutes each day – that’s still not fricking free!

Even adopting a cute cat was a lot of work, believe you me

But what about rewards I get just for logging in – those are surely freebies, aren’t they?

Well, here’s the thing. The idea behind all of this, whether it’s “only” farming a bunch of stages for a couple of minutes or even “just” logging in, is that at least some players will not immediately log out again. Since I’m already here, they might say to themselves, maybe I’ll also take a quick peek at the new event, or whatever. And before they know it they’ve spent an hour or more in the game. And time, seemingly contrary to some people’s opinion, is neither free nor without value.

Sometimes the incentive to log in can be so big that it might lead to stuff happening that you didn’t actually want to happen at all. Here’s an example. A couple of weeks ago an email informed me about ZZZ celebrating its first anniversary by gifting everyone an S-rank character and weapon of their choosing from the standard pool.

I wasn’t going to play that game anymore (I even said so not too long ago), but this? Well, guess what…I re-installed and patched up the ~70 GB client, claimed the “free” stuff and then thought to myself, well, now I kinda want to try them out, and let’s have a look at what’s new in the game, too, and…sure enough I went and played the game for many hours over the following couple of weeks.

They sure know how to tug those heartstrings

As long as I’m having fun that’s not actually a bad thing though, is it?

Not really, no. Playing the story chapters I’d missed, visiting new areas and doing some events really was quite fun. However, considering that I’d much rather play Marvel Heroes right now, the fact that they’ve managed to pull me back in, and that I now feel almost obligated – again – to at least log in and spend some battery every day (and tend to my video store, and hang out with my agents, and…see what I mean?) does bug me quite a bit.

And, yeah, that’s completely on me, I do realize that. Nobody forces me to do anything. I know for a fact that I’m not the only one who’s susceptible to these practices though – which is exactly why they exist in the first place of course. That’s why we should stop pretending (or actually believing) that it’s all completely harmless, and that game developers give so much stuff away solely out of the kindness of their hearts.

That all being said, I’m not here to tell you that you shouldn’t enjoy collecting login rewards, spending your stamina or whatever. If those things make you happy and don’t lure you into spending your time on gameplay you don’t actually fancy doing, more power to you.

But please, let’s stop calling stuff free when it actually isn’t.

Blaugust 2025 post count: 3

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With great power comes great fun!

My Marvel movie watching binge is still in full swing. Having concluded the Avengers timeline…Thanos timeline…whatever you wanna call it, I’m now revisiting the few good flicks operating outside of that. Ok, if you also count the X-Men franchise it’s actually more than a few, but I’ve watched those too recently to go back to them yet again.

So I’m mostly talking about stand-alone entries now. For example, I still quite enjoy Punisher: War Zone (rest in peace, Ray Stevenson), and just the other day I had an absolute blast with 2018’s Venom once again.

Since I’d just hit level cap with the Punisher in Marvel Heroes I thought, well, what better time to give everyone’s favourite symbiote a spin. Boy, what a great decision that was.

WE are Venom!

Like many heroes (or villains…depending on who you ask, I guess) he has his own mechanics and special resource to go along with it. Actually he has two resources to manage, because some of his abilities consume his own hitpoints, and also deal more damage the less he has left. To make permanently running around on low health feasible he’s a pretty tanky dude, and I’m looking forward to how this feels at higher levels.

His unique resource is called Ichor, and it looks the part. Yuck. Thankfully it starts at full when you enter a level, unlike, say, Scarlet Witch’s Chaos Energy, which has to be built up first (I don’t know her full kit though, so take this with a grain of salt).

Consequently you can go all-in right from the start, spending Ichor as well as hitpoints galore. As long as you weave in abilities that recharge at least one or the other, depending on what you need, you should be good.

Have a nice life

Most importantly, it plays well, and also looks and feels really great. It’s hard to get good screenshots of it, because his powers move so damn fast and twitchy (as they should), but I hope it comes across at least somewhat on the ones I’m showing here.

So many snacks, so little time

Having played a new (to me) hero for a couple of hours now has also highlighted some more aspects of the game where the developers went the extra mile to make each of them unique and fun.

For example, every character has a basic movement ability right from the start. It’s basically a short dash, meant to get out of harm’s way quickly. The Punisher does a forward roll, Captain America lunges with his shield held in front of him, Venom shoots a tendril of ichor and then pulls himself after it. Some are too lazy to move on their own and just teleport.

It gets really crazy at level 10 though, when everyone gets their “travel power”. These aren’t for combat (they even have a short cast-time), but they’re a godsend for traversing the huge maps quickly. And I mean quickly. I really wish every ARPG had something like this, because not only takes it the sting out of any backtracking you might have to do, it’s also fun as hell!

Cap and the Punisher just sprint really fast, Blade, Wolverine and Ghost Rider…well, ride their motorbikes, while Iron Man, Wanda and others fricking fly (Ant-Man rides a flying ant of course)! It’s not just for show either. While they can’t go over higher obstacles like freight containers or buildings, getting to another floor level or from rooftop to rooftop without taking the stairs or bridges is no problem. And as for Venom, well…

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Holy macarony, how awesome is that? I assume Spidey and Carnage do something similar. Mechanically it’s the same as flying, so bonus points for that.

Of course each hero also has their own lore-appropriate ultimate ability.  Iron Man activates the House Party Protocol, the Punisher calls in an armored and armed-to-the-teeth van that would make B.A. Baracus blush, and Cap…take a guess…AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

They’re really powerful, too. To balance that they have a whopping 10 minute cooldown to begin with, but you can shave that down to 7 or so (I think) by upgrading it.

Hell yeah, THAT’S what I’m talking about

Another cute tidbit is how heroes automatically talk to each other when they meet in the hub areas. When I’m standing around with the Punisher and an Iron Man walks by, my guy says “You should stick to making the hardware, Stark, not using it!”, for example.

Sure, stuff like that can get repetitive after a while, but I usually can’t help but chuckle at the amount of snark these guys have for one another. I wonder whether this is where the Overwatch devs took their inspiration from, because those heroes do it in quite a similar fashion.

Now you’ll have to excuse me though, those bad guys aren’t gonna bite off their heads themselves…

Blaugust 2025 post count: 2

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It’s a magical place

I’ve recently felt the urge to re-watch my favourite Marvel flicks once more. As it turns out they really knew how to make fricking awesome movies during the first ten years or so – in my opinion, obviously – and I’ve now binged on over a dozen of them in less than three weeks.

In addition to just enjoying the experience, seeing Cap, Iron Man et al. in action also made me reminisce about a great game that actually let us play all those characters and was really fun while it lasted – Marvel Heroes.

As a fan of both the movies and the ARPG genre I obviously had to check it out back in the day, and while it wasn’t quite as good as Diablo II or Path of Exile I still liked it a lot. They totally nailed the feel of playing those iconic heroes, which is arguably the most important thing to get right for a game with a license like this.

Before I knew it I was investigating the possibility of playing the game in 2025, and lo and behold, there’s actually a number of fan projects in various states of completion and with different server concepts to choose from.

About two hours later (because I first had to procure the right version of the original game client) I’d created an account for Project T.A.H.I.T.I. and started to punch and shoot my way through Hydra’s henchmen once again.

By now I’ve played the Punisher up to level 57, Iron Man to 26 and Cap to 20, and I’m pleased to say that it wasn’t just nostalgia that drew me back to the game – it still holds up really well. Sure, the graphics aren’t that great, and it doesn’t feel as polished and smooth as the aforementioned kings of the genre either, but, again, being able to play these iconic characters totally makes up for that.

Insert obligatory CLANG sound effect

As far as I can tell this is the game just as it was right before its shutdown in 2017, but with a few important distinctions.

Most notably, all heroes are unlocked from the get-go. I haven’t counted, but if memory serves it’s 63 of them, and you can play each and every one to level cap if you so desire without paying a dime. As a matter of fact it’s currently not possible to spend any money period, not even donations are a thing. I don’t know whether that’s going to change once they release the 1.0 version, I guess we’ll see.

Speaking of which, the game is currently in alpha, with the launch slated for “early 2026”, and while they’re saying that there won’t be regular wipes until then, there will be one wipe prior to 1.0 going live.

Due to this, since I’m not one of those ARPG players who basically live for starting over from scratch every few months, I’m probably not going all-in quite yet, but for the time being I’ll continue to play. It’s just that much fun!

Like I said, the heroes feeling absolutely great to play is a big contributor to that. They achieved this by various means. For one, they got the animations and sounds right, especially for the main characters from the movies. Cap’s awesome flying reverse kick (or whatever it’s supposed to be called) from his fight against Batroc looks basically the same in game, and you can almost feel the impact when it hits. Many ability names are winks and nods to the films as well, like Cap’s sprint “On your left” or Iron Man’s 360-degree laser attack “One-Off”.

But wait, there’s more. Many a hero’s kit was specifically designed to fit what they do mechanically. To use the Punisher, my main in 2015 and probably again now, as an example: instead of having a mana/energy gauge and abilities with individual cooldowns he has an ammo system, and his big hitters can only be used a certain amount of times per reload cycle.

Consequently playing him revolves around using his basic MG stafing attack (at my current level it’s a fricking minigun!), which consumes a certain amount of ammo per second, and weaving in his various grenades, rockets, shotguns and whathaveyou until you have, optimally, used up all the things and also expended at least 75% of the ammo. Then you can hit his quick reload with a reduced cooldown, rinse and repeat. I really like this playstyle because it gives me a lot of agency, and aside from his signature-ability I basically never have to wait out any cooldowns.

If this doesn’t sound fun to you, well, there are 62 other heroes to check out, many of whom play very differently.

Instead of energy or ammo the Hulk has a rage meter that starts out empty and has to be filled up before he can smash, Blade needs to keep his bloodthirst in check, and Deadpool…well, he doesn’t need to manage anything. He just kicks ass, and where his ammo gauge should be you just see his logo, which, if you hover over it, says “Awesome 100/100”. Raise this stat (as you would energy), and all of his damage increases, just because. How cool is that?

There’s much variety on offer here, is what I’m saying, so any ARPG connoisseur should find something to enjoy.

Just as important for an ARPG is the loot, and boy, I’d totally forgotten how good the game feels in this regard. It’s quite addicting, really. Now, granted, there’s a lot of crap lying around, too, but after a short while I was already back in the groove of what to pick up and what to hoover in (to automatically be fed to your pet for additional stat bonuses).

There’s also a lot to work towards long-term. For example, each character has a Relic slot. These drop semi-rarely and give pretty minor stat buffs at first glance…until you realize that you can stack up to 1,000 of the same type on top of each other. One thousand! Which means that even at low levels you’ll find stuff that will basically be of use to you until the end of time, which I think is very good game design.

My favourite thing are the XP bubbles (the green ones seen above). It feels so damn satisfying to see them pop out of chests or enemies, then to walk over them and watch the XP rolling in. Sure, some players may find this annoying and unnecessary, but I prefer this over XP just getting added to my total whenever an enemy dies. I don’t know, seeing these bubbles drop and then collecting them somehow makes the whole thing feel more tangible and rewarding to me. Also, it makes the already impressive loot explosions even more ridiculous.

Speaking of loot, a handful of little treasure rooms are spread out over each of the bigger areas. In there you just have to kill two or three groups of enemies to spawn yet another loot chest. I like these a lot because it’s a quick and easy way to grab even more stuff and XP, and more importantly, as their entrances don’t always lie directly on the path to your next main objective, they reward exploration and let me see parts of the map that I’d otherwise miss.

By now I’ve also started to do Terminals and One-Shots again, which are the game’s version of instanced dungeons and…well…bigger dungeons with a bit of story. It’s all quite addicting, really, but in a good way. Just like an ARPG should be.

Long story short, yeah, Marvel Heroes is still a great game, and as far as I’m concerned Project T.A.H.I.T.I. is, in fact, a magical place. I’m here to stay!

Sorry Phil.

Blaugust 2025 post count: 1