nlineDune Awoke
Dune Awakening (on a docked Steamdeck with controller)
Ok, so it’s been a while.
But I’m 160+ hours in to Dune Awakening and it’s been a world worth immersing myself in.
I’m a Funcom fan. Have been since their debut MMO title the dystopian Sci-Fi of Anarchy Online.
I’ve spent my life in AO, in guilds, absorbed in the music and the novels written by Ragnar Tornquist.
My time in AO is pure nostalgia and my love for their ability to create believeable and immersive worlds started then and has continued beyond. I’ve been with them from AO, through Age of Conan, The Secret World and Conan Exiles. Dune Awakening seems to be a heavily themed version of Conan Exiles in the Dune Universe. And they make it work.
I’m a fan of Dune.
So again the worlds of my obsessions align.
Not to mention the two modern film adaptations of Dune revitalising my interest in the Duneiverse.
Since it’s announcement I’ve been awaiting Dune Awakening on consoles. I primarily game on consoles these days.. such is my lot in life. I used to be a big PC gamer, but have gravitated to the comfort of the couch and the big screen, with controller in hand.
It looks like consoles will be getting Dune Awakening in 2026 sometime, if at all.
Luckily my dabble in the Steamdeck and its docked and controller bound setup has enabled me to dibble in compatible indie titles on the PC platform, but from my more sedentary couch stance.
As soon as I found out that Dune Awakening was Steamdeck Verified, it lit a passionate desert fire beneath me to get in there as soon as possible.
So I dived into the desert and tried to make sense of it all.
My first impressions where that the Steamdeck isn’t the optimal way to play this title.
It CAN run, but it needs a fair bit of tweaking to get a) satisfactory performance and b) a look that isn’t stripped of all aesthetical appeal.
I’ve winged it, by initially just setting it to the “experimental low end laptop mode” and then after suffering badly on the visuals, have followed guides that visually get it to something worth looking at, but with any complexity or action, it suffers massive framerate issues and lag to almost make it unplayable.
After a while I managed to whittle it down to a compromise of the two ends of the Steamdeck able spectrum. And without any promise or guarantee, I present those setting here for those who might be interested:
(Remember my Steamdeck setup is very specific, in terms of being docked and tied to a TV and controller setup)
STEAMDECK SETTINGS
Ultimate workable Steamdeck settings for Dune Awakening running a docked and controller setup on a 54” widescreen TV using a docking station and HDMI connection.
DISPLAY
Gamma: 2.2
Field of View: 90
Motion Blur: OFF
VSYNC: OFF
Frame Rate Cap: 30
Dynamic HUD: OFF
Ultrawide Support: OFF
GRAPHICS
Quality Preset: Custom
Window Mode: Windowed Fullscreen
Resolution: 1280x720
Upscaling Qualty: Low
Frame General Method: OFF
Override Upscaling Preset: ON
Resolution Scale: 67
FSR Upscaling Quality: Quality
Shadows: Low
Virtual Shadow Maps (Experimental): OFF
GI Quality: Low
Enable Lumen: OFF
Reflections Qualty: Low
Low End Laptop Mode (Experimental): ON
View Distance: Low
Post Processing: Low
Effects Qualty: Low
ACCESSIBILITY
Font Size: Large
Thoughts on configuration
Playing this game on the Steamdeck is not ideal. It can be done, with varying success if you are willing to tailor the settings to your requirements.
The above settings have enabled me to play it fairly successfully and enjoyably.
However, I long for the console versions (if they ever come) to taste the world, without the constraints of hardware.
Summary
I love Dune.
To have a world simulated and populated with an authentically simulacrum of the Dune Universe (Duneiverse) is amazing.
I feel it is harsher than Conan Exiles, intentionally so.
The grind to survive is steeper.
But the hardships endured, seem to give the Dune setting depth, because water scarcity, worm threat, landscape scouring sandstorms and factional oppression force you to always pay attention to the predicament you’re in.
The tech you collect and assimilate is hard earned and cherished.
The bases you establish are truly life giving oases that you return to for some respite.
The grind seems a steeper curve to ride than Exiles.
But being able to use mauler pistols, spitdart sniper rifles, drillshot shotguns for range combat, or blades and drinker knives (which will extract the enemies valuable blood) coupled with suspensor shields for traversal and damage mitigation adds a particularly Dune flavoured scifi tinge to your combat.
Couple this with your ability to traverse the desert regions for resource collection and questing using vehicle options such as sandbikes, buggies and eventually the flying ornithopters gives you a progress path that is very much a struggle, with durability concerns, but with an eventual opening up and rewarding level of freedom. Hard fought freedom. And hard maintained freedom. But freedom none the less. This is true earned progression.
The ability for your character to fight towards earning skillsets from the various Dune related disciplines is key to climbing these steep progression curves.
Coriolis storms will sweep everything in its path and obscure your cartography progress periodically. So get used to remapping areas and finding differing placements of resources and dynamic threats and challenges.
There is however a storied path, woven into Dune lore, where you search for the elusive Fremen. These spice shrines are major milestones in your progression and your learning of the “ways of the desert”.
Overall, I’ve been inspired by the world itself… to find my place in it, but to prepare myself to be able to carry out tasks and explorations and still come back better off than I set out. It’s a hostile environment intentionally and can seem overtly so. But galvanising your gains to help you climb to better is a major part of this experience.
The desert does not treat humans kindly.
You have to respect it.
And be wary of Shai Hulud (the sandworms) because they will take everything from you. Literally.