We’ve already reported on the hidden radio stations you can listen to as you traipse about cutting up rocks in survival MMO Dune: Awakening. They play chiptuney classics from the original, 1992 Dune games that will drive you slightly mad even without huffing spice. But they also include full-blown radios drama based on various backstory events which unfolded before you arrived on-planet. It is like listening to a really intense episode of The Archers on BBC Radio Arrakis.
The radio channels are a bit tucked away – you’d be forgiven for never even noticing them. You can find ’em by hitting the social tab in the game’s menu. There you see another tab called the “Communinet”, where you can tap a little broadcast symbol button to tune into one of four stations, each run by different factions within the Dune universe.
The Harvester’s channel includes a sitcom recorded “in front of a live studio audience” about a working family, with a dad who’s got some real Del Boy energy, cockney accent included. And the House Atreides channel features an action-heavy war drama that tells the brave story of House guardians who work together and battle Harkonnen dirtbags to achieve a great and honourable military victory. “Remember! Honour and loyalty are the true marks of a good warrior!” says the announcer when that dramatisation ends. Typical do-gooder propaganda. Here’s a sample of another drama that plays on one station.
The Harkonnen Network meanwhile, do their own thing. They broadcast propagandistic monologues, or live slave fights as described by Russian-accented commentators. One fight I listened to saw a pair of angry twins hop into the arena and cut down the would-be victor. “Stupid competition, that was rigged!” grumps one of the announcers when he sees the attack. The other announcer awkwardly bumbles on with her commentary, nervously laughing, as if to say: “Shut up, you’re going to get us executed.”
It’s an incongruous feature for lore-likers and laugh-seekers. Both a detailed world-building exercise, and a comically un-Dune take on the long-running fictional world. Lazlo’s radio chat shows in GTA games exist within a greater world of satire (however you feel about the efficacy of that satire). But Dune is not, by intention at least, a “funny” universe. You scurry around in the sand, chatting to NPCs who drop endless serious-faced words of lore about the emperor and your place in a rigid society. Then you go for a sandbike ride and listen to radio announcers bellowing “YOU’RE LISTENING TO THE HARKONNEN NETWORK! STAY TUNED!” It is deeply funny.
My upcoming review of Dune: Awakening is still in the works. My initial impressions are: it’s not bad. Survival games are dependant on a sense of balance in a way many other genres can often avoid. How fast your various meters deplete, and how much scrounging you have to do – these are often crucial to get right. And from what I’ve played so far, it feels like Funcom have managed to keep these within tolerable limits at least. Everything else in the game? Well, STAY TUNED TO RADIO RPS TO FIND OUT.
