This Beta Is Rough—And No, That’s Not “Being Negative,” It’s Being Honest

[w0rm_lord]

I’ve played my share of betas, and I know what a work-in-progress looks like—but this Dune beta isn’t “in progress,” it’s barely functioning. Here’s what I’ve experienced:

AI that’s completely broken. Enemies path to random locations, stand around doing nothing, and ignore the player even in direct combat. This isn’t “low-level enemy behaviour,” it’s just bad programming.

Quest progression bugs that leave objectives stuck or impossible to complete—missing NPCs, incorrect trigger orders, and no real workaround except “restart and pray.”

The beta offers maybe 5–8 hours of gameplay, tops. Several quests are broken, you can complete the first step, but the NPC you need to continue just isn't there. On top of that, the beta is severely limited. Around 75% of the map is walled off with invisible barriers. Funny enough, when streamers had access, they didn’t seem to be locked out like the rest of us.

Feedback tools that don’t even work. Half the time the in-game bug report feature crashes or is just greyed out.

A community that shuts down criticism. Bring up issues in Discord? You get dogpiled or timed out for “negativity.” Apparently, pointing out problems during a beta test is off-limits.

The real kicker? When you do bring up legit issues, people come crawling out of the sand telling you “the devs don’t have time to read Discord.” Cool, then why the hell is there a public chat at all?

If this is supposed to generate meaningful feedback, you can’t silence the people who are actually giving it. Not everyone wants to cosplay as a spice miner in a broken sandbox just to feel good about a pre-order.

I love the Dune aesthetic. The setting, the vibe, the potential, it’s all there. But I’m out. Not wasting more time hoping this turns into the game it could’ve been.

[Menzagitat]

So you will refund?

[w0rm_lord]

Originally posted by Menzagitat:

So you will refund?

Already did that.

[w0rm_lord]

The beta offers maybe 5–8 hours of gameplay, tops. Several quests are broken, you can complete the first step, but the NPC you need to continue just isn't there. On top of that, the beta is severely limited. Around 75% of the map is walled off with invisible barriers. Funny enough, when streamers had access, they didn’t seem to be locked out like the rest of us.

[solarise]

And this is act 1 btw and something that is likely the most polished part of the game, and the one Funcom are willing to show us right now. Expect the rest of the game to be even worse. Also sorry, but especially combat and movement just kills me. It's terrible. It's so janky, it's like they slapped it together in 5 hours tops and then never tested it. How can you ship that. My character is basically sliding all over the place with a cheap walking animation playing on top of it, completely out of sync. I try to vault over a rock, the animation plays, I just rubber band right back to where I started. Like come on.

[SolutionS]

I think this game is going to be just like Conan as in it has a great IP and back story due to the movies but has clunky combat and will be riddled with bugs and multiple Dlc's that fix nothing.

[w0rm_lord]

Originally posted by SolutionS:

I think this game is going to be just like Conan as in it has a great IP and back story due to the movies but has clunky combat and will be riddled with bugs and multiple Dlc's that fix nothing.

Spot on

[Menzagitat]

Originally posted by SolutionS:

I think this game is going to be just like Conan as in it has a great IP and back story due to the movies but has clunky combat and will be riddled with bugs and multiple Dlc's that fix nothing.

So you say it will be rated "very positive" ?

[Izuzul]

Originally posted by SolutionS:

I think this game is going to be just like Conan as in it has a great IP and back story due to the movies but has clunky combat and will be riddled with bugs and multiple Dlc's that fix nothing.

Funcom 101

[Menzagitat]

If many players refund the game after this weekend, maybe Funcom delays the release until next year :)

[w0rm_lord]

Originally posted by solarise:

And this is act 1 btw and something that is likely the most polished part of the game, and the one Funcom are willing to show us right now. Expect the rest of the game to be even worse. Also sorry, but especially combat and movement just kills me. It's terrible. It's so janky, it's like they slapped it together in 5 hours tops and then never tested it. How can you ship that. My character is basically sliding all over the place with a cheap walking animation playing on top of it, completely out of sync. I try to vault over a rock, the animation plays, I just rubber band right back to where I started. Like come on.

You wrote that very well. I agree. and just to add the AI is worse that Cyberpunk 2077 at launch by a mile.
The Instances are complete trash, empty rooms with the a couple of loot boxes and 4 or 5 janky npcs.

[Mystic_Phoenix]

That's too bad, sorta got the impression the IP would do the heavy lifting but still hoped this would turn out decent.

If this is what they're showing during the demo it certainly doesn't bode well.

[Toana]

Originally posted by Menzagitat:

Originally posted by SolutionS:

I think this game is going to be just like Conan as in it has a great IP and back story due to the movies but has clunky combat and will be riddled with bugs and multiple Dlc's that fix nothing.

So you say it will be rated "very positive" ?

CE got, private servers, solo play and huge modders community thx to that, modders helped to fix lots of CE issues like horrible building and snapping.

DA have none of this, it will flop faster than Concord did.

[Menzagitat]

Originally posted by Toana:

Originally posted by Menzagitat:

So you say it will be rated "very positive" ?

CE got, private servers, solo play and huge modders community thx to that, modders helped to fix lots of CE issues like horrible building and snapping.

DA have none of this, it will flop faster than Concord did.

But why? If people try the game out now, why would they buy it if they don't like it?
Only those who like it will remain...

[pRaX]

Only people who think ARK and Conan Exiles are peak gaming will enjoy this lol.

[Sugaroverdose]

Originally posted by Toana:

Originally posted by Menzagitat:

So you say it will be rated "very positive" ?

CE got, private servers, solo play and huge modders community thx to that, modders helped to fix lots of CE issues like horrible building and snapping.

DA have none of this, it will flop faster than Concord did.

tbh, there's no way that it will flop like concord did, they have couple of thousands of people who will play it no matter what