Dune II (PC)
13 May 2006
As sad as it is to say, Dune II marked a pivotal point in my life as I was reaching adolescence. As if I hadn’t been nerdified enough by years of playtime in front of the NES/Famicom and Sega Master System Games (yeah, I owned one; wanna fight about it?), I had picked up the nasty habit of playing games on my dad's PC. By 1992, I had already been weaned on titles such as Wing Commander, Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest and The Secret of Monkey Island, and Dune II came onto the scene to seal me into a realm of pocket protectors, 20-sided dice and wedgies.
For those who have never even heard of the game, Dune II is the prototype and missing link for the Real-Time-Strategy evolutionary chart. Dune II pulled gameplay, presentation and interface functions from various sources, most notably turn-based strategy games and top-down action games, to put forth one of the first significant examples of the RTS genre that still remains relevant today. Dune II also marked the beginning of Westwood's last era that brought gamers legendary titles such as Command & Conquer and Red Alert before being chewed, swallowed and vomited back up by Electronic Arts.
Interface and unit functionality that may have not been innovated by Dune II was certainly popularized by its release and proliferation: fog of war, resource collecting, unit caps, etc. Even simple crap, such as the Move, Attack, Stop, & Patrol commands and their relevant hotkeys still remain mostly unadulterated and widely used by RTS genre (example: 2004's Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War). So sit back, moisten up those spitballs and practice your noogies for me as I wax poetic about nerdly days of yore.
The Good:
Anyone who's had their anuses pushed in by bloodlusted Ogre Mages can appreciate the fact the Dune II has three distinct races to choose from: The Atreides, The Harkonnen & The Ordos. Though each race shares similar basic units, there are subtle differences in how they become available or how they perform which add a hint of flavor to each army. For example, the Harkonnen have the quickest access to Quads which are stronger than the basic Trike. The Ordos' Trikes are different in that they have lighter armor but are faster and cheaper to build. Though units are pretty much similar, slight tweaks define their role in their respective armies giving them character.
Dune IIreally shines once players begin to access advanced units, each being very characteristic of their respective armies. The Ordos, who are marked by underhanded treachery in their tactics, sport chemical weapons that take control over enemy units. The ruthless, brutal Harkonnen excel with superior ordinance, illegal weaponry and firepower. And the Atreides uphold their nobility by allying with the indigenous peoples of Dune while fielding advanced technologies such as sonic weaponry. All of this is heightened by Dune II's presentation points that feature art and information side by side to advanced the plot and campaign with aesthetics that appeal to both fans of Lynch's movie, Herbert's novels and the in-game action.
In 1992, this game was considered to be graphically stunning; I still feel as if a lot of the aesthetic choices excel despite obvious hardware and software limitations of early 90's personal computing. As of today, the game is nearly 14 years old, so anyone who has any interest in playing it needs to lend a bit of faith that this game was once considered awe-inspiring in terms of visuals. But even with the weight of age, there is a lot of life in the unit sprites; primitive but effective details in animations for units that were damaged or destroyed still do well to pull gamers into Westwood's Arrakis.
And even with its age, Dune II still effectively envelopes a player in quality science fiction aesthetics; 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 Bad:
Dune II is a dinosaur; as innovative and relevant as it still might be, it’s riddled with gaming anachronisms that will probably keep it from being revisited or explored by those who might seek to play out the roots of Real-Time-Strategy. Since many games have basically taken the Dune II blueprint point for point, some of the flaws that plagued Dune II still persist today, mostly unchanged and still just as annoying.
Unit-pathing and enemy AI for tactics and strategy can be easily outsmarted and overpowered by cheap tactics. Turtling is one of the build and play strategies the AI cannot overcome; a player only needs to literally wall themselves in with gun/missile turrets to ensure that they can build their own armies unmolested as the scenario enemies get weaker with each ineffectual raid. Despite the lameness of such a tactic, it's actually pretty fun in practice; it's just an easy way to switch the game challenge from on to off.
Crappy, lame and unbalanced units contribute to this problem; as more advanced units become available, older units meant to fulfill specific roles are simply a waste of credits. Infantry become a liability on a player's resources, and can be ditched as soon as the option to build their first wheeled vehicles appear. Then all wheeled vehicles become useless as soon as the first tracked-tanks appear. Then tanks become useless as missile tanks appear. Etcetera.
Also, though of little relevance to the actual gameplay, Dune II has very little to do with any of Frank Herbert's writings. The game actually resembles the bizarre David Lynch 1984 movie adaptation that featured a wigged out, quasi-homo Sting, but with a lot less Sting and a lot less of David Lynch's weirdness. This actually isn't something I consider to be a detracting feature, but I've heard countless, impotent complaints about how far the game deviates from aesthetics and technologies described in the Frank Herbert's saga. But honestly, if discrepancies between a 1992 game meant to be fun and a nearly impenetrable piece of mid-20th century science fiction keep you from playing this game, you need to get a life.
Bottom Line:
It'd be pretty impractical to expect anyone to dig up Dune II if they have never experienced it. With all the RTS goodness that's been out since after 1992, the experience would be pretty unfulfilling. But everyone who experienced Dune II as a gaming phenom of the early 90's knows what it gave to the gaming community and how much Warcraft I&II, Starcraft and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War owe to their Godfather. Some people may never play Dune II and never realize how much it contributed to the current state of strategy gaming, but I highly recommend spending $10 for Dune 2000, a modernized remake, to get a taste of it.