Dune 2000
(Virgin)
This is not a new game, I picked the thing up for $5.99 at BigLots in Maine. Since I have a pokey PC for internet, I thought it might be good for a laugh. It was certainly worth the price of admission, providing me with a few hours of enjoyment while I waited to have access to the "real" machine. How any could even think of paying full price for the game is beyond me.
It is clearly dated and one wonders if it was not at the time. It has all those RTS quirks, including idiot AI functions and illogical behaviour of units. Quite often units stand around clueless as the other side of their base is flattened. At times, your forces stand around while getting attacked, if you have not set them to guard. Your spice (resource d'game) machine will head off into the middle of enemy territory even though there a decent amount a stone's through away from your base. Oh yes and this game is pre-rally points, so units stand around gormless outside their spawn point oblivious to all around you.
There is not much variety between units or missions. Not much of an advantage one over an other. The cut-scenes especially the ones with John Rhys-Davies, of Indiana Jones fame, for the House of Atreides are rather good. It is clear the house that the designers are expecting you to play. Your Harkonnen over-seer is about as camp as they come, prancing about like a Rocky Horror cast member. Ordos' minder is very mechanical and so has a bit of Stephen Hawking about him. The cut-scenes are amusing and quite frankly one of the highlights of the game.
As with many RTS games of the era, you mostly watch sprites, vaguely resembling the figures in the docs running around about the place. Most levels are based on mining as much spice as you can (think gold) and then amassing as many troops as possible before obliterating your enemy. Nothing wrong with that but the game is a bit simplistic and really does not do the Dune legacy much credibility.
Article comments
1 - jadester
yes, this game is so ancient it was dated when it was first released. And roundly laughed at by most pc games reviewers. far better examples of the RTS genre were and are available, even the now-tired-and-derivative Command And Conquer series