Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty

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Name: Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty Year: 1992 Publisher: Virgin Games Developer: Westwood Platform: PC Genre: Strategy Total rating: 87.9% - rated 81 times rate now: please log in to rate Submitter: Res Added: May 28 2004 Warez status: Abandonware

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Author: Nanaki_Xii Date: May 12 2005 - 22:05 Score: 50 points

The grand-pappy of real-time strategy games was Westwood's original RTS adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, the book's war & strife filled basis ported over to a fantastic game, well suited to a fantastic book. Years later, Westwood took the now hideous original and gave it a face lift and some much needed improvements. Many give Command & Conquer the privilege as the game that set the paved road for future RTS games, but Dune II in spirit, was the first.

Dune II is quite a pretty game, there's an overall lack of graininess, it's a very sharp and attractive look. Explosions flare up fantastically, and units are - most of the time- easy to recognize. Despite all that, Dune II is overall a "pretty" game, but it all gets the job done in a satisfying manner, and without any loss to the player's understanding of the action taking place in the battlefield.

The sound in the game is a little better in quality than the graphics, you'll grow to recognize the sounds of tanks exploding and gunfire, allowing you immediately to tell which way the battle is shifting. This allows you to have a finer tuning when it comes to being able to manage all the chaos that'll be happening on-screen.

Later on in the game, a single wave of tanks won't do the job, so knowing the variations in sound will hold a advantage, as the game doesn't provide enough time for you to slowly recollect yourself and once again direct your attention. The sound makes this wonderfully easy though, as each blast or scream sounds distinct in it's own way.

By this time, Dune II's game play wasn't exactly revolutionary, but Westwood did a fine job of keeping it fresh. If you know the C&C formula of control, then there'll be no difficulty adapting to the game's control scheme. The bad thing is, if you aren't a quick learner, expect to find yourself cursing when you deselect a unit accidentally. The C&C interface wasn't exactly praised through the years, so take a quick tip. Left click will select units, but right click won't move them. That's simple twist may cause some frustration in battle, once being new to this myself, I lost quite a few of my first skirmishes deselecting tanks as they strolled into an enemy base. Despite the initial mess with the controls, the interface is clean and easy. Buildings are built with a few mouse clicks, keeping base development at an all time low when it comes to time consumption. One thing that many will be thankful for is the fact that Dune II only has one central resource, Credits. This keeps it mercifully easy, as you don't have to hunt down a variety of elusive materials. The AI is average, it sticks to a formula it was programmed to, and never really changes it's behavior. Though Dune II wasn't exactly original in it's game play, it certainly held a good amount of fun.

If you're an RTS fan there's no reason for you not to collect this treasure. Despite it's age, Dune II still holds a special place in the hearts of RTS fans, and it still manages to please today.

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By EvilCow - Sep 26 2006 - 11:43 Started playing this the other night, now i understand why it kept me awake all night back in the day, it's awesome.

By Lordarctic - Sep 18 2006 - 16:59 man, this game may be 14 years old, but i sill enjoy it. it's AWESOME!

By Nosam - Jul 22 2006 - 19:56 NO, this was the first modern RTS, everything else was too weak at the time. Anyways, this is a classic. I remember how I got it too. I called the support hotline because I was stuck in Lands of Lore, they helped me out and I thanked them. They then sent me a strat guide and Dune II for free. That was awsome! But then crappy EA had to buy them out. *starts grumbling*

By Nanaki_Xii - Jul 02 2006 - 06:30 @Drakken: Contrary to popular belief, there were several games like Dune II before it, so it wasn't that original, but it did do it better than all else, and it was also extremely popular compared to those others.

By Bennyben - Mar 04 2006 - 16:47 the screenshots on this page is way better quality then when i play the game, why is that?

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