Dune II - The building of a dynastyDeveloped by: Westwood studiosPublished by: Virgin Interactive EntertainmentRelease Date: 1992 (DOS version)Type of Game: Action, Strategy, Real-TimePrice: ~$40 at release, Abandonware nowMinimum Stated Hardware RequirementsMinimum CPU Class: 80286 12 MHz or betterMinimum OS Class: DOS 3.0 – 3.3Minimum RAM: 640KDisk Drives: High Density Floppy Drive (assuming they mean 1.44Mb)Input Devices: MouseSound Device: Adlib, Adlib Gold, Disney Sound Source, PC Speaker, Roland MT-32 (and LAPC-1), Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, ThunderboardVideo Modes Supported: VGA, the game ran at 640x400Actual Hardware RequirementsCPU: 80386 or aboveQuick OverviewOne of the first blockbuster RTS games to be brought to the PC, Amiga, and Genesis. With top notched graphics, game play and sound, this game became a classic.Story LineEven though the game supposedly exists inside Frank Herbert’s Dune series, the game itself takes resembles no existing story line. The emperor of the Universe presets a contest to the three main houses (Atriedes, Ordos, and Harkonnen) to take control over the Spice producing Dune. For those that have never read the series. The spice is cinnamon like seasoning that only grows on the planet Dune. The spice holds astonishing powers, giving civilizations the ability to travel long distances in space, give people psychic powers, and overall a tonic to every ailment. But the wonder spice has a price; it’s extremely addicting, and extremely scarce. Since it only grows on one planet in the whole universe, it becomes a tremendous commodity. The three houses land on Dune, and take up strategic land space. Your job is to invade other territories and expand your houses’ borders. The story line seems linear, but playingthe game completely through a few surprises are in store for the player.Player’s RoleYou are the commander of a base, whose task is to: create buildings, harvest spice, ward off attackers, and finally demolish the opposition. Not an easy task by any means, but the game adapts to that. InstallationThe standard DOS installations happen here. You run an install file one the floppy, and the game files are uncompressed onto your hard drive. The game itself, fully unpacked, takes up around 4.0Mb.User Interface and ControlsDune II had a SimCity type overhead view. The game area is built around a grid where you could move. A commander view was on the right for whatever is selected, this let you perform actions on a unit or building. The mouse was used to control everything in the game. From selecting units, to making executive decisions, the mouse dominated all. A keyboard could be used for some hotkeys, which did end up proving very useful later on.A left click selected buildings or units. A right click moved a unit to that spot, or preformed an action (mostly attack). Game PlayThe game play was very simple for a RTS. The commander had to collect spice through specialized vehicles called “harvesters”. The “credits” you earned from your harvest could be put towards purchasing a new vehicle, building a new building, research upgrades, or repair buildings. A shallow technology tree kept you differentiated slightly between the different houses. Unfortunately, there are not good game unit links as other RTS games have. The basic way to win is make the most, and biggest tanks. There are some unit variations in the game. Specifically:Ordos: Ordos Trike, a 3 wheeled unit that had the fastest movement speed in the game, but was relatively weakOrdos Deviator, technology from IX gives you this nerve gas launcher, it is used to “convert” opponents units to your own (but they convert back in a few minutes)Sabatog, the palace special, where an “invisible” unit would infiltrate an opponents base and cause massive damage, but was easily detected by turrets. Atriedes: Light Infantry, a squad of weak units that could “posses” weak enemy buildings. Atriedes Sonic Tank, a tank that has no shells, but rather uses sonic waves to cause damage, very powerful long range tank with excellent damage to buildingsFremen, the befriended local natives fight for you, have the strength of several Harkonnen heavy infantry squadsHarkonnen:Heavy Infantry, rocket based heavy infantry, long range and heavy damage to vehicles. Devastator, a duel barrel wielding death machine, does 2x the damage of siege tanks, and upon death explodes damaging a wide area. Imperial:Sardukar, very heavy armored rocket infantry, rarely seen but very lethal when they hit. ScoringA scoring system when the battle is over tells you how well your battle did. The more spice harvested, and units destroyed brings the highest score. ArtworkBlocky and ugly by today’s standards, but works of art in 1992. The battles were beautifully animated and colored, with immersing visual effects. Sound and MusicMIDI music was enabled if you had an appropriate sound card, with songs that fit the mood of the game perfectly. The songs would change based on the events present (eg. Battle music when units are attack each other). The sound was very minimalist with only explosions being rendered by sound samples.Special featuresOne special feature was the save and load game function. This let you save a game in the middle of battle, and resume it with nothing changed. Since some of the maps were very large, this is a very welcome feature.BugsSome bugs were found with the original release, so a patch was introduced and automatically applied with the White Box version of the game was released. ReviewWhat is good about the game?Fun, this game is a blast to play. From the beginning to the end of the game, you could play each new level with a totally different strategy.The game was fair and balanced. With no house overpowered, many games ended up a near tie. The AI was extremely stupid and predictable. This is a good thing, since some of the laterbattles seem almost impossible to beat without exploiting the AI. What is bad about the game?There are bugs, and lots of them. A patch fixed many of the issues, but many prevailed today. One really annoying part of the game is city management. You needed to make sure there were clear paths between buildings or else units would get trapped, with no way out. With the seemingly random placement on maps, this was a difficult task to accomplish. How does it compare to other games in its genre?While not the first modern RTS (third to be exact) on PC’s, it was the first
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