Dune 2000

The Good
It's an improvement on Dune 2, no question. The graphics and sound are much better, and it adds some cutscenes.

The Bad
It does nothing that Command & Conquer didn't do 3 years earlier - in fact, it's essentially less. Like Dune 2, it only has one ground surface, making for bland looking levels and a lack of gameplay variety, and not many units by modern standards. It's clear that it's been aimed as a cash-in and time-filler, something Westwood would never have done in the old days.

The Bottom Line
Not a sequel to Dune 2, but essentially a remake using the technology at the time. And it was showing it's age. Only buy it if you can get it cheaper than Dune 2, or you don't have a DOS-capable PC. Dune 2 has more charm, and a genuine place in history.

You can't take a 1950s music system, change the casing, add fancy speakers, and expect it to match a current model. This is the same situation.

The Good
First, I've always liked the Command and Conquer system. Despite its faults, I have consistently enjoyed the games, and this is no exception.

I loved the original game, and after hearing what I did, I prepared to be dissappointed. I was surprised by how much I liked the game.

Now, the graphics. The graphics are pretty damned good, especially the worms.

The briefings are well acted for a computer game.

My favorite part is the length. This a long game, with many different choices. This also increases replay.

The Bad
Well, the pathfinding is bad, but that's it.

The Bottom Line
A criminally trashed game.

The Good
The very feel of command in the Dune world was great. I have never played Dune 2 or Dune, but I am a huge fan of the Dune books (not the movie, of course...) and when I first played the game, I was mesmerized. I got to gather melange spice, buy ornithopters, command my loyal Atreides soldiers to kill those filthy Harkonnen...or vice versa.

The Bad
It's not true to the Dune book storyline, and the battles can be absurd (e.g.: I surrounded an enemy soldier with five soldiers and a battle tank and it still took about two minutes of back-and-forth gunfire to kill him.)

The Bottom Line
A first-rate, though not leading-edge, Real Time Strategy game for the ages. Who doesn't want to slaughter enemies with 'thopters and Fremen? No true Fighter, that's for sure.

The Good
Okay, before I start the bashing let me say this: Dune II is a great game, and this is basically Dune II. That's also the problem with this game. The game doesn't suck, but when compared to it's ancestor there not much else to say about it.

The Bad
Okay, they spent all of the time updating the sound and graphics and doing nice cut scenes -- why didn't they spend some time fixing the interface and some things like the path finding abilities of the units. It's 1992 AI in a 1998 game. I expected more and got much less.

I found the game very boring and hard to keep with. The missions were exactly the same as the original down to the most minor detail. All the work put into this game was obviously cosmetic. With all the advances in the last 6 years I was hoping for something... more... fun. If I grasp for an analogy, I would say that I wanted the Civ II of Civ and all I got was Dune II.

The Bottom Line
If you have never played Dune II, I recommend that you get this game. It's basically Dune II for Windows. While this game doesn't improve on the original, you're less likely to be disappointed if you've never played the first one.

The Good
Dune 2000 is a remake of Westwood's classic PC game Dune 2, the game that launched the real-time strategy genre. With Westwood's notoriety for re-packaging and re-releasing games it was inevitable something like this would happen. Sadly, many opportunities were wasted when Westwood put down their copy of How to Butcher Classics 101 and crapped out this instantly forgettable game.

Like in Dune 2 you can play as one of three factions (Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos, although there are many other nonplayable factions) and must fight to control the precious melange spice. Dune 2000 is mostly the same as Dune 2, and a few elements have been derived from Westwood's later games like Command & Conquer: Red Alert. There's the same kind of interface and graphical engine, and many of the classic Dune 2 gameplay conventions have been scrapped in favor of a more C&C-ish design (for example, the way the radar works). Dune 2 purists may not enjoy these changes, but overall they're for the better. C&C was little more than an expanded version of Dune 2 anyway, so there's nothing unfamiliar here.

The original Dune II is crude by present-day real-time strategy standards. Mounting a large-scale assault was a cumbersome matter of individually selecting each unit and ordering it to proceed to the enemy's base. Westwood was kind enough to implement band boxing to make Dune 2000 a little more modern, although unit production queues remain absent. Otherwise, the game plays much like it did in 1993: You lay foundation for a base, build structures, mine spice to earn cash, avoid the sandworm, build a lot of units, and attack the enemy. It's true that several gameplay elements of Dune 2000 remain rather interesting - particularly the starport, which allows you to pay up front for reinforcements at the fluctuating market price, usually less than what you'd pay to build your own. But for the most part, Dune 2000 is a simple game.

Production values on Dune 2000 are very good. In the original the story was told through simple animations and text messages, but in Dune 2000 we have full-blown FMV cutscenes that seriously could have passed as deleted scenes from the David Lynch movie. The revised artwork is for the most part good, and also with a lot of effort spent on making things look like the movie. The units and buildings could have been taken straight from celluloid. The sound effects have all been resampled, and there's some good professional voice-acting (including the guy who would later play Gimli in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies). And native Windows and TCP/IP support is always welcome.

The Bad
Dune 2000 is very disappointing. I don't know what I expected, but it had to be something better than this.

Quick question: what's the point of remaking a game? To update a classic experience to modern times. Then why does Dune 2000 feel so much like a game released in 1995? The graphics are dull and repetitive (there's only one bland desert tileset, and the three sides in the game look almost identical), the AI simply sucks (trike rush = guaranteed win), the controls are skeletal (you can group-select units but there are no waypoints or anything like that). Whatever opportunities a remake may have presented Westwood went the lazy route and produced a game that feels dated and tired.

That sums up the main problem behind Dune 2000, it was dated before it even got out of the gate. Even the trifling revisions to the graphics and interface seem almost like insults. It would be like if id Software released an update of Doom using the Quake 1 engine and said "Hey look guys, now you can enjoy your favorite game with slightly better graphics AND THE ABILITY TO LOOK UP AND DOWN! Now give us 20 bucks!" I call this a cheap and blatant attempt to to exploit one's devoted fans, or anyone else who falls for this particular brand of snake oil.

Now, this wouldn't matter so much if Dune 2's gameplay was amazingly good to begin with. But despite it's historical significance Dune 2 has not aged well. The game is clunky, difficult to play, and horribly unfair. The new multimedia elements can't hide the fact that this is a 1992 game in 1998 clothing.

The Bottom Line
This game is a rip off, plain and simple. It's a graphical mod for Dune 2 with a few new features. If you want a true remake of one of the greatest games ever, you won't find it here.

The Good
Its easy to get into gameplay, graphics are nice and useable. Keeping an Overview is not difficult. Interface is okay.

The Bad
This game was released at roughly the same time as Starcraft and thats why it sucks. Making a game about Dune without incorporating the depth of the novels and the movie is idiotic. Compare it to Starcraft: There you cant wait to go on to the next mission because you want to know what happens next. The storyline is absolutely captivating. Dune 2000 is just lame. Graphics are not bad but definitely out of date, sounds are not bad, but dont create much atmosphere. As a RTS it was already out-dated, as a Dune-game its worse than the dos-version from 1992 (which is still great today).

The Bottom Line
If you need a windows version of the dos-RTS, buy this. If you are looking for a classic RTS, take Starcraft instead.

The Good
It was a remake of the best RTS game I knew, and also happened to be based on Dune.

Dune II set the stage for years to come, and Dune 2000 took all the elements that had been added to other games, and made the original play catch up. In theory.

The graphics got a touch up, and were better than the original, but not as good as they could have been for the time period that it was released. That said, the game ran smoothly on a decent PC.

The Bad
It was a remake, and nothing more. No new elements, no new story, no new anything. You could now group your units. Yippee. I was horribly ashamed to have this game on my machine.

The Bottom Line
This is the game that shouldn't have been. It took the name Dune II had created for itself, and tried to survive on it. I'd call this game Dune II with a little tinsel, but not enough to justify buying a new game.

The Good
Fair graphics, storyline. Good fmv's. Cool sandworms.

The Bad
Okay, this is an update to Dune 2, a game I never played. Having said that, this game is a huge disappointment. While this game is set in the Dune universe, it incorporates almost no Dune elements. Instead, it plays like C&C on Arrakis. It's a tank rush game, that's it.

Instead of tiderium, or turbonium, you harvest spice. Then you use, I don't know, spice bucks? to purchase buildings, train troops, build tanks. Most of the main Dune players are here, House Harkonnen, House Atredes, and the Imperials. Oh, there is also House Ordos. Don't remember them from the book/movie? Don't worry, they aren't there. The Fremen are present though. They are cute little brown sprites that have the ability to cloak. They can't ride worms or anything though.

How does the battle work? Well eventually you will have enough troops or the enemy will and one of you will attack the other. Here's how it goes... everytime. Bikes and buggies are the fastest so they show up first. They either cripple base defenses or get pulverized. Okay, one that wave is over, next come the tanks. If there is enough of them, then game over. If not, then after they flee or are wiped out the ground troops move in. They are largely insignificant. Rinse and repeat if necessary.

The Bottom Line
This is basically a Dune mod for Command and Conquer, or DuneLite. There is no diplomacy, intrigue, Bene Gesserite influence, or Weirding Way.

The Good
The game is so much fun the graphics are good for that type of game I like ecpiecially(EXCUSE THE SPELLING) well evrything about the game. the missions are more than just blasting the heck out of everything you see. The music is mostly great.I like the movies in it.

The Bad
good question.

The Bottom Line
A game to play.

The Good
- Good scenario - Remake of the first real RTS Game - Interesting Units

The Bad
- Poor Graphics and Sound - AI is poor

The Bottom Line
In Fact, Dune 2000 is a solid, nice game. But to be a real good game in the Year 2000 it should have included more than just an update to the original Dune2 of 1993