I’m an explorer at heart. Give me a big open world map and yes, I’ll harvest resources and craft gear and build a base—but what I really want to do is get out and see the world.
I’m about 10 hours into survival MMO Dune: Awakening, I’ve got a snug little base, a couple flasks of water, and a fully-fuelled sandbike, so I thought I’d do a bit of exploring today. I jumped on my bike, pointed myself toward the horizon, and floored it—and immediately got stuck in a massive pit of quicksand. Roadtrip cancelled!
Also: life cancelled. This was my first encounter with quicksand and it wasn’t exactly a surprise. I knew there were quicksand pits in the region because they’re very helpfully marked on the map. In fact, I opened my map to see where the quicksand was, which accomplished two things.
First, it showed me I had already driven directly into the middle of the quicksand, and second, it slowed me down because you can’t look at your map and maintain bike speed at the same time. Here, see it for yourself:
I might have made it if I hadn’t slowed down, but now I was properly stuck. I tried the only move I had: flooring my bike and chanting “No, no, no.” Strangely, that didn’t work. So, I continued doing it for about another twenty to thirty seconds, while slowly sinking deeper.
That’s when the sandworm appeared, breaching the dunes right behind me. I am terrified of sandworms because when they swallow you, they swallow all of your gear and you lose it forever.
It’s the worst way to die in Dune: Awakening: your bike, your weapons, your armor, everything you’ve got with you is permanently gone.
So, I leapt into action… by continuing to floor it and chant “No, no, no.” Still didn’t work.
Finally, I had a bit of luck: my bike exploded and I was killed instantly! Hooray!
I know, it doesn’t sound like something to celebrate, but dying by exploding bike meant I wasn’t killed by the sandworm. I may have lost a few resources from my backpack, but I didn’t get swallowed, so I still had all my weapons and armor and tools.
Is that a viable strategy if you’re stuck in quicksand? Exploding? I’m not sure, but it’s all I’ve got to work with right now, and I was afraid if I jumped off and ran my boots would sink into the sand, too. My plan is to stop exploring and get to work on crafting an ornithopter so I can just fly over this scary desert instead of driving on top of it.
I did have to build a new bike, and I couldn’t collect my dropped items (I wouldn’t have tried anyway), but at least my lack of caution resulted in me happily dying in a vehicle explosion. Believe me, there are worse ways to go in Arrakis.
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