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DuneCrawl

is an exceptional open-world exploration game that allows players to indulge in the fantasy of piloting giant crab war machines. While lacking a bit in exciting progression mechanics and harder to engage with as a solo player, this game is otherwise solid all around and has an incredible fantasy world and visual aesthetic.
DuneCrawl Game Cover
79%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:story, gameplay
Most mentioned negative aspects:stability, optimization
81% User Score Based on 341 reviews
Critic Score 70%Based on 2 reviews

Platforms

PCSteam DeckWindows
Buy Nowfrom $10.99
Buy NowGet on Steam €16.57
DuneCrawl Game Cover

About DuneCrawl

DuneCrawl is a single player and multiplayer open world hack and slash game. It was developed by Alientrap and was released on January 5, 2026. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

DuneCrawl is an open world action-adventure game where you and up to three friends explore the sandy seas atop a gigantic Crab Crawler. Battle against the jar-headed Vassals, survive hordes of wild bugs, explore oasis islands and delve devious dungeons all to help your fellow Polloi pilgrims win their war against the Ceramicist’s invasion! Key Features COOP AND SOLO PLAY: Adventure in loc…

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Reviews

81%Audience ScoreBased on 341 reviews
story16 positive mentions
stability22 negative mentions
  • Engaging and fun gameplay especially in cooperative multiplayer, with unique mechanics like piloting a giant crab and varied combat options.
  • Charming art style, appealing music, and humorous character dialogue that create a cozy and immersive atmosphere.
  • Good amount of content including exploration, puzzles, and side quests providing a satisfying 8-16 hour experience with potential for more through updates.
  • Technical issues such as bugs, crashes, desyncs in multiplayer, and occasional performance drops affect playability and can cause frustration.
  • Single-player experience is challenging and less enjoyable due to chaotic combat and weak AI companions, making co-op almost necessary.
  • Progression and upgrade systems lack depth and meaningful impact, leading to repetitive gameplay and limited replayability.

  • story

    69 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    23% positive mentions, 71% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions

    The story is engaging, fun, and complemented by unique world-building and character interactions, though it is relatively short and often delivered through dialogue and environmental storytelling. However, many missions rely on repetitive fetch or escort tasks that can feel tedious, especially solo, and are sometimes marred by bugs and frustrating mechanics that hinder progression. Despite these issues, the narrative and quests offer enough variety and charm to maintain interest, particularly when playing cooperatively.

    • “Has a great story line and the interactions you could do in this game is phenomenal.”
    • “The story, world, style, and core experience are really fun and enjoyable.”
    • “The story is engaging, the mechanic is unique (this is the first time I'm playing this kind of game and it kinda addicting me so bad I want to keep playing afterwards), the animation is flawless; I can even play around in the game doing so many things that pique my curiosity.”
    • “Key missions that simply cannot be completed and that took so many attempts to figure that out.”
    • “The quests in this game also almost all boil down to fetch quests.”
    • “All of the quests are disconnected missions from the story; they don't seem to do anything other than be a time gate to keep you playing.”

  • gameplay

    69 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    39% positive mentions, 57% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions

    Gameplay in this game offers a charming mix of cooperative top-down combat, exploration, and puzzle elements that create a fun, accessible experience, especially with friends. While the mechanics are generally solid and engaging, some find progression shallow, builds underwhelming, and content limited, leading to occasional repetition and slowing pace over time. Overall, it is a polished, enjoyable game best suited for multiplayer play with a cozy, lighthearted vibe.

    • “The game consists of 3 main gameplay loops: 1) traveling the overworld on your giant crab with cannons (my wife controlled the crab while I manned the cannons and launched myself at the enemy to destroy the enemy crabs and bases), 2) docking on islands and exploring those islands with your character (my wife leaned heavily towards the guns while I enjoyed the melee combat, needless to say we had to turn off friendly fire which is on by default as my wife kept killing me with her guns), and 3) exploring dungeons which are puzzle/bullet hell style areas (I quite enjoyed these, my wife did not).”
    • “It's a surprisingly entertaining mix of several gameplay elements combined: open-world exploration, inventory/base management, fun action-but-still-strategy-oriented fighting mechanics and a charming ambience, driven by quirky lore and characters.”
    • “All in all, it's a solid coop couch/remote play party game with compelling gameplay and an interesting setting that sets you up for a great time with friends.”
    • “But even in just 8 hours of play, the gameplay got a little old, the builds/upgrades for the player and crab were underwhelming, the weapon variety was very fun, and the final boss was a broken mess that left a pretty sour taste to the end of an otherwise pleasant and goofy game.”
    • “The dune crawler gameplay mechanics are pretty weak, it seems heavily co-op incentivized.”
    • “A tad overpriced, a bit light on content, boss fights are rather rudimentary, movements are a wee janky, balance and progression are under-designed, some mechanics are downright vestigial and don't capitalize on their great potential (bug mounts are great but you'll barely get to use them outside of their designated quests)...”

  • graphics

    46 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    59% positive mentions, 34% neutral mentions, 7% negative mentions

    The game features a charming, colorful, and cute art style widely praised for its uniqueness and visual appeal, creating an immersive and enjoyable aesthetic experience. However, some players note that the visuals can become "noisy" and make it difficult to distinguish characters from the background during chaotic moments. Performance issues like occasional freezes have also been reported despite mid-high-end hardware, though overall the graphics effectively complement the gameplay and cooperative experience.

    • “The art style and animation is truly beautiful and it's a lot of fun exploring and upgrading.”
    • “Absolutely gorgeous artstyle, and similar in vein to Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime or Ship of Fools.”
    • “Very impressive visuals that preserve easy readability, gameplay and immersion within a limited isometric world.”
    • “Visuals are pretty but noisy; it's often really hard to find your character or differentiate between you, enemies, and the background, especially when things get chaotic.”
    • “Performance: don't let the cartoony style graphics fool you, the game experiences freezes, particularly during boss fights or larger fights, even on a mid-high end PC.”
    • “This doesn't really change the whole issue here; the main problem seems to be the graphics part not having enough RAM, though other games with stricter requirements run fine.”

  • stability

    23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    4% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 96% negative mentions

    The game is widely praised for its fun concept and multiplayer chaos but is plagued by frequent bugs, glitches, crashes, and performance issues, especially in online play. Stability problems such as save file corruption, controller malfunctions, and AI glitches often lead to lost progress and frustration. While enjoyable with friends, the game feels unfinished and in need of significant bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.

    • “Months later, the controllers and local play are so buggy I can't get 10 minutes of gameplay without an error.”
    • “Tons of glitches that made me force reset, effectively killing me and forcing me to restart quests I've nearly completed.”
    • “The buggy nature of online co-op ruined the main purchasing point of the game; frequent crashing and de-sync issues became quickly frustrating.”

  • music

    13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    77% positive mentions, 8% neutral mentions, 15% negative mentions

    The music in the game is generally praised for being pleasant, relaxing, and well complementing the art style and atmosphere. However, some users note that the soundtrack can become repetitive due to a lack of variety and background sounds. Overall, the music enhances the immersive and enjoyable experience.

    • “The music is also really good; I come back to the soundtrack when looking for a relaxing ambience.”
    • “Such an incredibly cute game with great music and great to play with friends.”
    • “The art style is adorable, and the music makes the world feel expansive.”
    • “The music can get very repetitive at times.”
    • “Soundtrack is meh so far.”

  • optimization

    9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    33% positive mentions, 34% neutral mentions, 33% negative mentions

    Optimization is a significant issue, with frequent and unexplained performance drops from stable 60fps to below 30fps, even on mid to high-end systems. Players report stuttering and freezes during intense scenes or after extended playtime, indicating poor optimization despite the game's simple, cartoony graphics. While some find performance solid, many consider the game unoptimized and taxing on hardware.

    • “Performance is solid, the game feels complete, and exploration rewards you with new weapons and blueprints.”
    • “Don't let the cartoony style graphics fool you, the game will have freezes (we all had these at times especially in boss fights or bigger fights in general), and I have a mid-high end PC, so that shouldn't be an issue normally.”
    • “Another thing to note is the performance: my friend plays on a system slightly lower power than I and initially for both of us performance was fine; this is not in any way a performance intensive game - until a couple hours into play.”
    • “It has terrible performance that constantly drops for no reason, fluctuating from 60 to less than 30 FPS.”
    • “The game is very unoptimized; my friend with a slightly less powerful system initially had fine performance but started experiencing issues a couple of hours into play, despite this not being a performance-intensive game.”
    • “Don't be fooled by the cartoony graphics; the game experiences freezes, especially during boss fights or large battles, even on a mid-to-high-end PC.”

  • humor

    9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game features a charming, humorous style with a funny story and whimsical art that enhances the lighthearted experience. Its physics and occasional bugs often lead to amusing moments, especially in co-op play where hilarious interactions with friends are common. Overall, the humor contributes significantly to the game's fun and engaging atmosphere.

    • “While there are some bugs I encountered, most of them were actually quite funny and none of them hindered actual gameplay.”
    • “The physics of the game provide some interesting ways to strategize and make for many hilarious "accidental" team blunders.”
    • “The art style and vocals are also hilarious and whimsical.”

  • grinding

    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Grinding in the game can become very tedious, especially in later stages and during tasks like feeding the crawler to gain speed boosts. Using helper features reduces micromanagement, and multiplayer play helps alleviate some repetitive labor, but overall, the repetitive nature may diminish engagement for some players.

    • “Grinding becomes very tedious in the last 4 hours of gameplay.”
    • “Feeding gunk to the crawler offers a speed boost but is much more tedious than engaging, especially outside of combat when traversing the whole map.”
    • “Certain missions become just tedious, such as the final mission which caused me to stop playing.”

  • replayability

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 25% neutral mentions, 75% negative mentions

    The game is criticized for its short playtime and lack of replayability, with players wishing for more customization, unique runs, and additional content to extend its longevity.

    • “I do think this amount of playtime is short, even if we got the game for ~$13 AUD (55% off), just because of the lack of replayability.”
    • “The only negative thing I have to say about this game is the length. Don't get me wrong, I took my time with it, but the lack of replayability stung when it was over.”
    • “All I would like to see from this game in the future is more replayability, maybe more customization to make runs more unique, possibly more map sections, any sort of expansion.”

  • atmosphere

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game's atmosphere is immersive and cozy, enhanced by its distinct, pleasant cartoony art style and complementary music. Overall, it creates an engaging and enjoyable experience despite occasional minor issues with quest hints.

    • “The atmosphere and energy this game has is immersive despite it being quite cartoony.”
    • “Its art style is distinct and pleasant to behold, its music does a reasonably fine job at complementing the visuals, the overall atmosphere is comfy and immersive.”

  • character development

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    Users appreciate the game's character development, highlighting the cool character design and engaging missions that enhance the overall experience.

  • emotional

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The emotional aspect is praised for its wholesome and family-friendly content, creating a positive experience that can be enjoyed together by both children and adults.

    • “Thank you for making wholesome content for me and my children to enjoy together.”
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Critic Reviews

70%Critics’ scoreBased on 2 critic reviews
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Play Times

6h Median play time
6h Average play time
6-6h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

DuneCrawl is a open world hack and slash game. Common tags for DuneCrawl include co-op campaign, 3D, indie, stylized, isometric and others.

DuneCrawl is available on PC, Steam Deck and Windows.

On average players spend around 6 hours playing DuneCrawl.

DuneCrawl was released on January 5, 2026.

DuneCrawl was developed by Alientrap.

DuneCrawl has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked DuneCrawl for its story but disliked it for its stability.

DuneCrawl is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include The Ascent, Ship of Fools, Rotwood, Remnant: From the Ashes, Wizard of Legend 2 and others.