66
MobyRank
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
4.0
MobyScore
5 point score based on user ratings.

Description

Based on the legendary Frank Herbert novel of the same name and visually inspired by the 1984 David Lynch movie, Dune is a strategy-adventure hybrid where the player takes the role of young Paul Atreides, the son of Duke Leto. The Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV has given the Atreides House the rights to manage the extraction of the most precious substance in the entire universe - the Melange, commonly known as Spice in the desolate desert planet Arrakis (Dune), the only place in the universe capable of producing the substance. While everything indicates the offer is a trap orchestrated by their enemies the Harkonnen, the Atreides family agrees on moving, as he who controls the spice, controls the universe.

The player arrives in Arrakis with the mission of contacting and convincing the Fremen tribes residing in sietches (desert settlements) near the Atreides palace to harvest the spice. Harvesting is the most important part of the game, required to purchase equipment from the smugglers and appease the emperor. To speed up the process of harvesting, the player can equip the tribes with harvesters to increase production and ornis to protect them from the gigantic protectors of the planet: Shai-Hulud - the sandworms.

However, the spice doesn't last forever and new sietches must be prospected before having a mining crew assigned, but the player cannot run Southwards forever, as the Harkonnen enemy controls the North of the Planet, dangerously close to the Atreides Palace. Soon after the initial batches are sent to the Empreror, the player will have to actively deal with the Harkonnen, who will try to take control of player Sietches. For those, Fremen tribes can be assigned to military training with Gurney Halleck, but before doing such work Paul must have a certain reputation, gained by the control of Arrakis.

As the game advances, the player will untap Paul's latent powers, as well as meeting other characters from the Dune universe, such as Duke Leto, Jessica, Thufir Hawat, Duncan Idaho, Harah, Chani, Stilgar and Liet Kynes, the mastermind behind the ecological plans on Dune - the ultimate goal.

Part of the Following Groups


Merchant Title Platform Price  
Amazon
Dune DOS $24.99  
Dune DOS $11.87  
ebay.com
Dune    
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User Reviews

Best Dune to date, and very impressive as a game Luis Silva (12596) 4.8 Stars4.8 Stars4.8 Stars4.8 Stars4.8 Stars
A classical masterpiece MAT Bronze Star Contributing Member (35183) 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars
Strangely addictive, yet far from perfect... tbuteler (3042) 3.8 Stars3.8 Stars3.8 Stars3.8 Stars3.8 Stars
If you can find it anywhere - go get it! Gothicgene (83) 4.2 Stars4.2 Stars4.2 Stars4.2 Stars4.2 Stars
An underrated classic. Tomer Gabel Bronze Star Contributing Member (4476) 4.75 Stars4.75 Stars4.75 Stars4.75 Stars4.75 Stars
Possibly the best media conversion to date, which also makes a challenging game. Mickey Gabel Bronze Star Contributing Member (347) 4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars

The Press Says

Just Games Retro Jan 20, 2008 84 out of 100 84
The Good Old Days Mar 20, 2001 5 out of 6 83
Abandonia Sep 22, 2003 4 out of 5 80
Top Secret May, 1992 4 out of 5 80
PC-Spiele '93 1992 6 out of 10 60
GameCola.net Jul, 2007 4 out of 10 40
Power Play Jun, 1992 38 out of 100 38

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Trivia

Dune was Cryo's first game.

The game should not have existed : during the end of 1990, the project was officially abandoned by Virgin Games, who then hired Westwood to work on a Dune license-based strategy game... A few months later, Cryo, who had secretly continued working on it, succeeded in convincing Virgin to release it (although the game was then much simplified on Virgin's request). That's why Dune & Dune II have nothing in common...

The battle images were inspired by the worldly famous CNN pictures of the Gulf War (green skies with explosions...).

Many Fremen pictures were inspired by real famous people like Kadhafi, Khomeyni, Salvador Dali, Salman Rushdie.

Very much more details about Dune's creation can be found in French journalist Daniel Ichbiah's book, "La saga des jeux vidéos". If you were interested by the informations above, I suggest you to buy this book which is very well documented and pleasant to read.


This entry was contributed by Tomer Gabel Bronze Star Contributing Member (4476) and MAT Bronze Star Contributing Member (35183)
 

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