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Review by Dave "!FT!Marauder" Kratky. June 28.2001
It's baaaaaacccckkkkkk....... You may remember a day long long ago when Westwood Studios released a little, insignificant game called Dune 2..... You might remember it as being..... Well.... The game that kicked off the entire real time strategy genre. At the time it was just plain amazing. Graphics, music, sound etc, great gameplay. Herbert's Dune is one of the most amazing sci-fi universes ever made. The potential is amazing, and under exploited in the video game world in my opinion. You don't need to have read the books to play the games, but it does help you get into it. For instance, why is the Mentat's mouth stained red? If you read the books you'd know. :) I played Dune 2 more than anything other game for over a year. It was just so damned good..... The music, the graphics, and the game play..... But no sequel sadly....
Until now. And it's about time! As everyone knows (duh!), he who controls the spice of Arakis (Dune) controls the universe. The spice extends life, expands the mind, and allows for navigation through the waste wastelands of space. The Padish Emperor of the known universe has been assassinated by his lovely and loving wife, leaving behind no heirs. A new Emperor must be chosen. A limited form of warfare takes place on Dune to determine who will rule. You step into the battle as a ground commander in the military of one of three great houses.
Graphics Engine & Sound Westwood is back with the next incarnation in the Dune series, and it's looking good! One of my major bitches with Westwood (And Blizzard) for the longest time has been lack of a 3D engine. I've looked poorly upon any RTS without a full 3D engine ever since I started playing Total Annihilation over 3 years ago. That's been the game upon which I've based my opinions on RTS games... And finally..... FINALLY I may have found a game that can match up to and perhaps defeat TA after all this time. (You know, it's pretty sad when one game stands out head and shoulders above all others in a genre for this amount of time. *Sigh* Poor RTS games, I knew yea well.) So pretty.. So very very pretty. This is Westwood's first 3D engine, as I mentioned above and... Wow. It's really, really nice. Even the menu system is hot and tasty this time around. But then again Westwood has always been known for having interesting and different interactive menu systems. This one just takes the cake for menu systems. So many things in the background animated... Gah.. So nice, so impressive. I'm a real sucker for a good menu system, and this one is right up there with Undying's in my books.
Full motion video again makes an appearance. I haven't seen FMV in anything other than a few Westwood and Microsoft games for quite time, and I've been glad of it. FMV hearkens back to a day a few years back when you blew the entire production budget on cheapass actors and make a crappy game with lousy cut scenes. Few games actually pulled it off well. Terra Nova was one of the examples of really good FMV that adds to the plot rather than just confusing things and wasting the budget. Westwood actually pulled it off pretty well this time around. (Other than the same 3 Atredies troopers running by in the background all the time. :) Those guys must be track stars by now.) Come on, they've got Worf as the Atreides commander.... How can you go wrong with a guy like that on your team? (the FMV also explains the 4 CD size of the game.)
The game's music is excellent and fitting. It's ambient and very suitable for the various locations you are currently fighting your way through. Music is one area that many otherwise excellent games are sadly lacking in. I'm a big music buff, and I honestly believe that music can often make the game. (Lemmings was an excellent example.) Emperor's music won't disappoint you. And, as a refreshing change... The music continues playing during loads and menus. Thank god! That's one thing that's always annoyed me about so many games... No music during loads. The sounds effects are excellent as well. Tanks rumble across the sands, sandworms hiss as they tunnel, wind howls as storms rage, infantry scream and go sploot!! as amour rolls over them. One thing I don't like is the fact that sound effects don't seem to get any louder as you zoom in on the screen. That would have been a nice touch.
Units/Buildings/Factions/Tech
Tree
As in the original Dune, there are three houses in the game. Each house has it's own attitude and feel as well as unique abilities. Most of the building and units are comparable to those of the other factions, but they do have their own weapons and look. (Ex. The Atreides get a rocket turret, the Ordos a popup gun, the Harkonen a flame turret. etc.) It's a nice to change to have more than one team to play, as in most RTSs the sides are very well balanced, and it's fun to play any of them. Personally I like the Harkonen cause.. well.. They're just bad. House Atreides is defensively minded, and the middle of the road faction. They have some strong units, with good mobility and very loyal troops. You can return experienced infantry to the barracks and they will then train any future infantry you create. Instant veteran units. The only real problem is that infantry tend to get run down by any vehicle in the game. Duoh. There goes your 50 man squad and... Oh... they're not strawberry paste under a tank. Damn. House Harkonen are bad ass mofos. They're the Russians of Dune 2 basically. Ruthless and efficient. Their units are extremely hard to kill (Even infantry) and pack one hell of a punch. Their disadvantage is speed, or lack thereof. Harkonen's also seem to have a fondness for flame throwers. I like flame-throwers almost as much as I like Blueberry Yogurt, so you know you just can't go wrong with these bad boys. Harkonen units also function at the fullest of their abilities until completely destroyed. All other houses units take severe efficiency hits when damaged badly. House Ordos have light, high tech fast moving units and that don't really take much damage. The major advantage to Ordos' units is that they repair themselves. Woot. The Ordos excel at hit and run tactics. The Ordo's leader is also a freakish cyborg 5 brained monster, and you just can't say too much bad about clan lead by a freakish cyborg 5 brained monster. As an interesting addition twist to the game, you can ally yourself with various sub houses throughout the game, depending on your actions in missions. Once you have allied with a sub house you can construct their buildings and their units will become available to you. The Tleilaxu are experts in biological warfare. Their units have the abilities to infect enemies and turn them into replicas of the attacker. The Tleilaxu are unstable and untrustworthy. The Guild are a group of independent free traders that make possible travel among the stars. Their units have a limited ability to teleport. House Ix's units are high tech and have cloaking and deception abilities. Nothing quite like being able to fool the enemy into thinking you have double the number of actual units you do have. The Imperial Sardauker are the Emperor's personal elite army of fanatical and deadly warriors. Due to the fact that there is no Emperor at present they've gone mercenary. Their infantry units are more heavily armored and armed then those of any other house. They cannot be suppressed and will fight to the death. The Fremen are the elite native desert warriors of Dune. They have exceptional stealth and cloaking abilities and kill infantry with a single shot. They have the unique ability to control the sandworms that all others fear. Sandworms are a unique natural hazard on the world of Dune. Massive worms that tunnel beneath the sands creating spice, they are attracted to surface vibrations, and destroy any units unlucky enough to be present when they surface. This time around there are two variants: smaller surface crawlers which can be avoided and the massive Shai-Halud that appears without warning and wreaks havoc.
The tech tree in Dune should be familiar to anyone who's ever played an RTS. Deploy your construction yard. Build Windtraps to collect energy. Build barracks to make infantry, and a factory to make vehicles. Build turrets to defend your base. Build a refinery to collect spice to get moolah. Build up enough units to rush the enemy and kill him dead. Standard RTS fare, nothing new here.
Worlds/Battlefields As you might assume, the majority of the battles take place on the desert and rock covered surface of Dune as the various factions scramble for control. You'd be right. However! Scattered throughout the game are missions on other worlds. For instance, in one mission you end up leading a commando rescue mission on a spaceship, in another you are on your homeworld leading a party to the rescue of your Duke. The variation is nice as seeing desert, and just playing traditional RTS all the time would get boring. The graphics on the terrain are excellent, although not quite as nice as Ground Control (You just can't beat those bump mapped dunes baby)
For most of your missions, you'll be selecting with territory you wish to attack from on the tactical map. When an enemy AI has it's turn and it attacks one of your territories you can chose to defend or evacuate. The map always gives you an idea of who's winning, where you're going to get attack from next etc.
AI Pathfinding on the AI is pretty decent, I have yet to see units get hung up or lost. However, if you order a large number of units to attack up a small ramp (Ex. INTO an enemy base, where concentration of fire is vital to punch though), units will often get blocked by other units..... and so turn around and try to find another way in, rather than waiting their turn. Units chose their own targets and maneuver for position if an enemy is in close range. However I have noticed that an enemy artillery unit can be sitting off bombing the hell out of your base and the AI won't respond. It would be nice if, like in some other older games, you could set your AI to retaliate if attacked. The computer players are pretty decent, building up defenses and bases quickly and then spreading their influence. I'm playing on easy however, so on hard they may be insanely difficult to beat. I'm finding it a bit of a challenge as is.
Controls in the game are easy to learn and fairly intuitive. Click on a unit and left click what you wish it to interact with it. The unit will perform the most logical action based on what you clicked on. If it's an enemy unit it will attack it. If you have selected a repair unit, it will attempt to repair the unit you clicked on. If it's empty ground it will move there. Etc etc. You can of course do the standard things like dragging a box around your units, assigning groups and such. To build a unit simply click on the corresponding tab in your build menu to the right of your screen. Infantry, buildings and vehicles. You can also repair, sell, retreat and perform other functions from this menu. The menu incidentally is up on your screen within easy reach at all times. If you've built a building and it needs placing, your building icon will flash. (Icons flash if there are new options available there as well as an voice cue.) Click on it, drag the thing where you want it, select which way you want it to face and click again. Done. You can of course do the standard things like dragging a box around your units, assigning groups and such. The game is played from a traditional isometric camera "God's eye" view. Use your mouse's scroll wheel to go from a waaaay out view, or zoom waaaayyyy in. Personally I play the vast majority of the game zoomed out as far as I can to get the best view of the battlefield. Close up is nice for eye candy and very tight battles when individual unit selection can get difficulty.
Manual Well, it's
a little above standard thin booklet. Gives you the basics, tells
you what all the units do and the basics of the controls. If you
read the manual you should be able to jump in and play the game. Multiplayer Setting up an account on Westwood online is pretty annoying. Your password must be exactly 8 characters long. Your account name cannot start with a number. If you make an error it drops you back to the pre logon/password screen, so you have to click submit, go back to that screen and fill in the logon and password you want again. Oh tab, and delete don't work either. (Wow, am I a nit picky little bitch or what??)
Once I got my account created I had to exit the game and follow a URL that was emailed to me to complete the logon. Then it was back into the game, logged on, jumped into the join menus and........... Found one game running, which I couldn't connect to. Argh. Checked the chat rooms and there were only 3 other guys there, none of them talking. And no one joined my game... Not many people out there playing this bad boy yet I guess... Probably all busy playing RA2. :)
If there are guys playing it's simple to find a game. You can click on "quick" game which matches you to another player with similar stats to you for a quick match. Maps are chosen randomly. You can also chose custom which takes you into the game browser/chat area. Just click on a game to join. Rules are shown down right side and can be modified by the game host. Pick your side and when the host starts, you are playing. Simple as pie. If you can connect to his server. (argh!)
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