Dune: Awakening's Sandworms Can Kill You In "Seconds"

thegamer.com:

Dune: Awakening, a survival MMO set in the world of Dune, isn't toning down the threat of sandworms to work in the game. In fact, developer Funcom says that they're completely unkillable and will have to be avoided or diverted rather than defeated. If one of them goes after you, the developers say you have "seconds" to react before it kills you.

This comes from a livestream earlier today, with the developers discussing some of the mechanics we can expect from Dune: Awakening. We didn't get a release date, but the showcase came with a new gameplay trailer, showing the survival features in action as players fight and build bases across Arrakis.

But of course, the most important detail to nail down in any Dune media is the sandworm. In the livestream, the developers explained that the sandworms won't just be tough, but can't be defeated at all.

"The most iconic creature in the Dune universe is the sandworm of Arrakis," says Joel Bylos, creative director for Dune: Awakening. "And so we've tried to represent this in the game in multiple ways".

He goes on to explain how this danger is communicated to players at the very start of the game. "You hear the hiss of the sand in the distance as a sandworm begins to move towards you. And when it gets close you hear the roar as it erupts from the sand nearby. And at that point, you have only seconds to live if you cannot make it to rocky ground."

Bylos also explains that they will vary in size, and will be able to consume spice harvesters as we see in the films. "There's really only one rule", Bylos continues. "The sandworm will always come."

As for the characters we play, it sounds like that will be left to us to decide. There are no locked-in classes, but we will choose our first mentor, dictating our starting abilities. Beyond that, it's up to us to find other mentors, so if you start with a typical soldier build, there's nothing to stop you from learning Bene Gesserit abilities. Yes, that includes the Voice.

The survival