Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty

The Good
Well, just the simple fact that it takes place in the Dune universe is a good start. Also, the music is excellent. From the title screen, to House selection and into actual gameplay, the music is better than in many other games released during the same time. The graphics are pretty good, although they really aren't very exciting. The cinematics, on the other hand, are very well done and fairly well animated. A nice little feature is the mentat. When you begin your game, you receive a mentat (human computer) which will give your orders for each mission, and inform you on the various types of buildings and units you'll encounter in each mission. The game itself it fine, and is similar to other RTS games (you know, mine resources, build stuff, kill bad guys). There are some gripes though...

The Bad
...namely, the fact that you can't select more than one unit, which is very annoying if your trying to assault an enemy base and you have to micromanage each and every one of your vehicle and infantry units. Also, conversing with your mentat is sort of a dry experience. The AI is also sort generic, resorting to tank/trooper rushes most the time. Another thing is that the Harvester AI doesn't seem to mind going to spice fields that are guarded by 10 or so tanks all the time. It doesn't learn from it's mistake(s), and returns to the same spice field again and again. It almost never tries to find another patch, which makes resource raids relatively easy, as long as you aren't getting shot at too much.

The Bottom Line
Dune II is a spin-off of the Frank Herbert novel and Ray Lynch movie Dune. However, instead of playing out young Paul Atreides' adventures, you must instead command a military force to take over Arrakis, the planet also known as Dune, the only planet known to have a organic substance called Spice. The spice extends life, increases psionic powers, and tastes like cinnamon (no joke, but ;) ). The spice also is the center of the economy.

The Spacing Guild (sort of like the United Airlines of space) needs spice to create and maintain Navigators, mutated humans who have regressed somewhat into a fish-like state. Guild Navigators are powerful psionics, and can see all the dangers in a hyperspace tunnel ahead of time, which is crucial for effective space travel. The Bene Gessrit, a powerful group of female psionics and martial artists, need the spice to make vials of the spectrum awareness narcotic, which in turn enhances their psionic powers to an extent when consumed. The Emperor needs spice because the Guild and the B.G. need it, and because they need it he gets lots of money out of the whole deal.

The Houses Major, chief among them House Atreides, the good guys, House Harkonnen, the bad guys, and, first appearing in this game, House Ordos, the in-between, money-grubbing guys, need the spice because they also get lots of money by harvesting it. House Harkonnen has, or rather had, governorship of Arrakis, but the Emperor has rescinded that recently. Instead, he wishes to have a contest to see who can own Arrakis. Whoever harvests the most spice wins, and gunplay is allowed. Only House Atreides, House Harkonnen and House Ordos can partake in the contest. You enter the game as the commander of military forces on Arrakis for whichever faction you choose.

Overall, this game is fun RTS exercise in the Dune universe, although it lacks in features and personality to an extent. Still, it's an ok game and a strong recommendation for purchasing if you can get a copy.

The Good
Anyone whose first foray into the RTS genre was through Command & Conquer, Warcraft, Starcraft or Total Annihilation totally missed out on Dune II. Dune II defined the RTS genre as it is best-known today and was the most complex, innovative and (most importantly) playable RTS upon its initial release.

Conventions in unit control, unit production, base building, resource gathering and campaign structure have all evolved but still remain relatively unchanged in even games as contemporary as Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.

Dune II's gameplay should be familiar to anyone who's ever played any post-Dune II RTS; the gameplay itself is rather basic but is wholly rewarding. Though the three factions (Atreides, Harkonnen & Ordos) are vastly similar with their basic units, subtle differences manage to distinguish the functions of each others' basic units and buildings enough to keep things interesting and replayable. In addition, the higher-level units which each house can produce differ vastly in their tactical and strategic purposes (which is more than could be said about Warcraft 2). When replaying the game under a different house, the knowledge gained while playing with their previous house can be used in their new unit choices.

Graphically, the game is colorful and units and buildings are all distinctly and effectively rendered. I've read complaints that this game hasn't graphically aged well, but please keep in mind that this game was considered stunning in 1992.

The sprites and animations all work well with the gameplay with animations and indicators that respond respectively with the gameplay. Little details such as billowing smoke from highly damaged units or the primitively yet effectively executed rippling sands to show movement of the Sandworms help immerse the player into the games atmosphere.

Dune II is a perfect example of converting an extensive, complex, and relatively unillustrated (visually, at least) world with a devoted following into an effective, immersive gaming experience. Westwood renders the Dune Universe with pure sci-fi aesthetics by combining smart designs with the visionary grandeur imparted by both Dune's novels and film. The splashscreens and cutscenes best exhibit this; each is rendered to a very high standard (considering the age of its release) and each provides unique character to their respective houses while giving the player a schematic close-up of the Dune tech.

The sound leaves a bit to be desired; it's mostly meepy floop sound effects unless you had a decent soundcard. But it's some of the best meepy floop sound you'll ever hear.

The Bad
Being such an early incarnation of the modern RTS, the game is not without its gameplay flaws. The enemy AI is just not up to snuff for certain tactics. Turtling is one of the tactics that the AI can't seem to overcome; once Turrets and Rocket Turrets a player simply as to wall their base in and crank out units. This aspects removes a large portion of the game's challenge in later levels, but it's mostly assuaged by the fact that it's a rather fun tactic to take on (considering the AI is the only one that suffers).

The AI also has a tendency to send pathetically small attack squads; against the average players' steadily growing attack/defense force, the AI's forces get crushed pretty easily. Again, another product of being an early RTS game; the AI does ramp it up towards the later levels though.

Unit obsolescence also runs rampant in Dune II; a lot of the earlier units effectively become useless once you have access to units even one tier above them. I found Heavy Troopers to never be worth building at any point in the game; I could simply gun them down with trikes en masse. Once I could build Quads, Trikes became useless. Once I could build Medium Tanks, Quads and everything below them became useless. Some units like the Heavy Tanks were totally useless since they were far outgunned by Rocket Tanks.

Missions don't really vary much; they're either "Collect X amount of Melange" or "Destroy Everything that's Not the Same Color as You". This flaw is again reconciled by the fact that the idea of more complex missions had not yet been introduced into the genre.

The Bottom Line
I don't expect many to seek out the original Dune II and to install it onto a dinosaur unless they really, really want to know what people were feelin' back in 1992. However, I do recommend to any RTS player worth his salt that he or she spend $10 for Dune 2000 to get a taste of it. So go out there and build your Dynasty.

The Good
Dune 2 for better or for worse, revolutionized the strategy genre. Before the advent of rts games, strategy was limited to just about the wargaming audience, an even more uptight audience than the regular adventure-fanboys, and who sat atop their thrones content with being the ones that played the "thinking games" and not those run-and-shoot "kiddie games". Enter Dune 2. Once again, for better or for worse, this game changed the rules for every strategy game by providing an excellent real-time strategy package that combined simplified versions of such classic concepts as resource management, unit hierarchy, etc, etc. without overwhelming the players. Essentially Dune 2 toned down the anal-retentiveness of regular strategy games, added the fast-paced action only real time can deliver, and throwed in some spiffy details like a storyline, a "fake" campaign and of course, the Dune lore. This product translated into a travesty to most "serious" wargamers, but for the rest of us it proved to be the right amount of "thinking" to ease us into the world of strategy games, while not forgetting about action, presentation, and heck...FUN.

If there's something true that can be said about Dune 2 is that it was a romp to play, something wargamers had lost a looooong time ago in their sea of phases, turns, morale management, etc.

Another hot spot for Dune 2 was of course it's presentation, which was another area forgotten by most strategy games. Most people consider Dune 2's graphics quite bad, but they were ages above what was available to most wargames, especially if you consider most had only hexes, some dots and lines, and text. Dune 2 provided quite a lot of eye-candy and glitz to make the action even more pallatable. And I'm not even gonna bother describing what a milestone such things as voice-feedback and the great sfx represented to the genre.

The Bad
Well, I DID say for better or for worse right? What I meant by that is that this game introduced the rts genre, and.... it also introduced the rts genre...if you know what I mean... :)

Quite frankly I like to take time to think instead of frenetically moving the mouse as in an epileptic attack when playing strategy games, but hey that's me! :) Yet I am still able to recognize that there is a lot to like about the genre.

Other than that there's only the issue of being able to select only 1 unit at a time, but I guess that those were the limitations of the time...

The Bottom Line
So it's strategy light... so What??? Dune 2 brought strategy to the masses and didn't forget to ad a lot of fun and excitement in the process, while taking time to singlehandedly define a genre... for better or for worse ;) Not bad for a sequel, huh?

Dune 2 may not be the holy grail of gaming and it's ...shall we say "pop", roots are certainly questionable, but it still deserves the respect it has. If you have never played it before, you owe it to yourself to at least check out were it all started.