Beautiful, chaotic, and in need of a tune-up – that is DuneCrawl in a nutshell.
If you’ve ever dreamed of commanding a gigantic, cannon-laden crab across a sun-scorched wasteland while fending off jar-headed bandits and racing beetles for treasure – congratulations, you may be legally required to disclose that in a psych evaluation.
But also, you’re going to love DuneCrawl.
Developed by Alientrap Games, DuneCrawl is an upcoming online co-op action-adventure where you and up to three friends hop aboard a colossal crustacean and set sail (well, set skitter) across the vast dust seas.
The demo gives players a taste of the chaos, complete with stunning painterly environments, explosive battles, and a gameplay loop that makes being a desert-dwelling privateer feel like the best bad life decision you could ever make.
The Good: An Absolute Visual Treat with Co-Op Madness
Let’s start with the obvious: DuneCrawl is beautiful.
The game’s vibrant art direction blends 3D characters with lush, hand-painted 2D environments, creating a world that feels like a dream.
The music is also stellar, perfectly setting the tone for your adventures as you traverse the wasteland in search of treasure, mayhem, and probably a solid skin-care routine after all that sand exposure.
Gameplay-wise, it delivers on its promise of frantic co-op fun. Whether you’re fending off raiders, catapulting yourself onto an enemy crawler (yes, that’s a feature), or accidentally steering your crab into a cliff while arguing over who forgot to reload the cannons, there’s never a dull moment.
The combat feels weighty, the exploration is engaging, and the worldbuilding is impressively deep despite minimal exposition.
In short, DuneCrawl is shaping up to be the kind of game that turns a casual play session with friends into a full-blown, laughter-fueled disaster. And that’s a compliment.
The Not-So-Good: Optimisation Needs Work, and Some Controls Feel Like a Boss Fight
For all its beauty and fun, DuneCrawl still needs to iron out some kinks before transitioning from a promising demo to a full-fledged release.
First up: optimisation. Right now, the game struggles in crowded areas – when rolling into a village or manoeuvring on the crab’s deck, the frame rate takes a nosedive faster than a speedrunner glitching through a wall.
While performance issues are somewhat expected in a demo, they need serious smoothing out before launch.
Then there are the controls. While piloting your giant crab fortress and manning its arsenal is supposed to be a multitasking nightmare (that’s part of the charm), some of the control choices feel needlessly convoluted.
You need to manually equip a weapon to break open a weapon’s chest rather than simply smashing it open like a true scavenger.
Some actions require a single button press (loading a cannonball), while others demand a prolonged hold (picking up said cannonball). This inconsistency leads to many “Why isn’t this working? Oh. Ohhh.” moments.
The weapon/inventory system could also use a tweak – scrolling through up to six items with the mouse wheel, especially when health potions are mixed in, is a recipe for disaster when you’re one hit away from death and accidentally pull out a machete instead of healing.
These quirks don’t ruin the experience but add unnecessary friction to a game that already thrives on controlled chaos. Fine-tuning the UI and tightening performance would go a long way in making DuneCrawl feel as smooth as it looks.
The Verdict: Keep Your Eyes on This One (And Your Frames Intact, Hopefully)
Despite its rough edges, DuneCrawl is an absolute blast. The world is gorgeous, the gameplay is a chaotic co-op dream, and the sheer novelty of piloting a crab-tank across the dunes makes it stand out in a sea of online co-op games.
The demo offers a glimpse of something special – provided the devs can iron out the performance hitches and streamline some finicky mechanics.
BOTTOM LINE:
Should you try the demo? Absolutely. Should you bring friends? Definitely. Should you prepare for some frame drops and a few “Why Won’t This Work?!” moments? Yes, but trust me, the giant crab adventure is worth it.