Surviving on Dune’s Arrakis is difficult, even if you have the power of a mighty house behind you. The Dukes who live in towering, shaded palaces still struggle with the intense weather. The midday sun forces everyone into cool, concrete rooms. The sandstorms nullify your shields and defences, leaving your armies blind and position vulnerable. I can’t remember if Frank Herbert wrote that the buildings in Arrakeen had air conditioning, but if I was a Duke moving to a hostile world under thinly-veiled political manoeuvres from the Emperor himself, it’d be the first thing I’d install.

The only people who truly cope with Dune’s arid landscape are the Fremen. They understand the desert, care for it, adapt to it, and, in some cases, worship it. Every decision the Fremen make is carefully thought through in order to preserve water, every attack perfectly executed to make the most of the few resources they have. Put simply: Dune makes for the perfect survival game, but I wish it didn’t.

This is purely a matter of personal preference. I’m not that into survival games. I’m sure my colleagues Harry Alston or Joe Parlock will dig the forthcoming Arrakis-based survival game Dune: Awakening, but I’m going to steer clear. I’m not too interested in inventory management in any game, so having to keep a similarly close eye on several depleting meters to avoid certain death isn’t my idea of fun. It’s bad enough when my Sims need a poo every day and won’t just go to the bathroom themselves, let alone having to survive in the desert on top of that.

If a survival game, a genre that fits the book like a stillsuit, is not what I want from a video game adaptation of the classic novel, then what do I want? I’m not entirely sure, but I have a few ideas.

The next most logical step is a 4X strategy game like Civilization. Fight opponents on a grand scale in order to control the spice and therefore the galaxy. However, the problem with this is that Dune: Spice Wars exists, and is fine. Nothing more, nothing less. This is probably another me problem, as controlling legions of faceless soldiers doesn’t excite me in ways that more personal stories do.

I wonder if a political decision-making game a lá Democracy would work for Dune. Either you play as the Emperor, the Duke who controls Arrakis, or a member of the Bene Gesserit spreading the propaganda of the Lisan al-Gaib across Arrakis. The latter sounds particularly enticing, but this would be a simpler game. I’m not sure it would fly in 2024, the era of eight-figure budgets and double-digit years of development timelines. Players would want an epic Dune game with dramatic, realistic visuals to rival Villeneuve’s movies, not a low budget politician simulator. Still, it could be fantastic. I envisage it with pixel art vistas and a host of advisory characters approaching you to offer advice on how to control the spice. It wouldn’t be hugely popular, but it would have the right vibes.

I have other ideas too, but most of them are silly (not that that’s inherently a bad thing). What if Sable, but your hoverbike Simoon was Shai Hulud? What if a developer created a new genre, the anti-rhythm game, where you have to desert walk completely off-beat, or risk alerting the worms to your presence. The latter would be a perfect arcade game.

What I have come to understand over the course of writing this piece is that the characters are core to making a Dune game work. You only care about galactic politics because you care about the fate of Paul. You only care about the meddlings of the Bene Gesserit because of how they impact Paul’s quest for revenge, plans for jihad, and resignation to his own fate. You care about the Fremen because of Chani, and Stilgar. The sandworms themselves are the only aspect of the story not personified (at least until book four), but they are instead deified, and carry an awesome power that defies personification.

This is something that the existing RTS and 4X Dune games don’t grasp. Board games, too, struggle with this aspect of things. Herbert’s worldbuilding may have come from five years spent studying the effects of poverty grass on America’s sand dunes, but his success came from his characters.

I worry that a survival MMO won’t be as successful in portraying this aspect of the novels. I’ve been wrong before – LOTRO is the most faithful Lord of the Rings adaptation – and I’ll cross my fingers that it nails Herbert’s characters as easily as it shows the harsh climes of Arrakis. To be honest, I’ll come away pretty happy if it succeeds in envisaging an interesting adaptation of Fremen culture. Or if it has a dunewalking anti-rhythm game.

Next: Dune: Part 2 Review - Rise Of Paul