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Dune

Developed by
Published by
Released in
Genres 		Cryo Interactive
Virgin Games
1992
Adventure, Strategy

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Never would've guessed, what with you giving birth to me and all.

Review

War. War never changes. Neither do the first few games I add to anarchy. Dune is always among the first. I can't really explain the reason why, but hopefully this review will shed some light.

I first played Dune on an Amiga. I don't know the exact year, I can only guess that it was around when the game came out, 1992 or 1993. It lured me in with it's beautiful graphics, and the atmospheric music. This was the first time I'd heard of Dune in any context, and for a few years after, was the only Dune I knew.

I then came across the film. I could tell immediately that the game was based on the film, everyone looked identical, especially Paul. I learned a little after about the books, but I won't go into the books too much. Or the miniseries based on it.

So, after the intro ended, I was still amazed. Everything from the intro came from the game. It wasn't like most games, where the intro was flash, but the graphics were usually nothing in comparison. I was amazed by the illusion of freedom, the real time gameflow, the dynamically changing sky.

The plot of Dune is quite familiar to anyone who's seen the film, read the books, or seen the miniseries. Though it's mostly based on the film, things have been shifted around and changed about, and its probably for the best. Where the miniseries was a direct conversion of the books, this made it boring. Long, and boring. The film was long, but very compact. The problem with this approach was that it didn't really make any sense, sadly. Dune refactored the film until it did make sense. This is good.

So, for a basic outline of the plot. You're the son of Duke Leto Atreides, sent to Dune by the Emporor to mine some spice for him. Dune is a sandy planet, a vast desert, otherwise worthless were it not for the fact that the most valuable substance in the universe is found there - the spice. Your rival family, the Harkonnen, have been on the planet for a while already, but they're nasty so the natives don't like them much. So you basically have to turn them against the Harkonnen, after you've established some income.

I've touched on the graphics and music, so I won't go into them further, but rest assured that they are beautful. The interface is quite awful, however. Once someone has stopped saying anything useful for example, the "talk to me" button makes them stop talking, abruptly, so you have to guess when they have nothing more to say if you want to give them orders, or ask them to join you.

The gameplay though, always the most important aspect of any game, is all there. It starts off simply enough, as an adventure game mostly - with you tootling around advancing the plot - but quickly turning into a simple bit of strategy as you shift the natives about the land to mine the spice where there is most of it, trying to keep apart the Southerners from the Northerners who get pissed off with each other (it's just like England) and will stop working completely until separated, trying to keep up with the spice demands from the Emporor.

Later, you can train the native Fremen to become warriors to take back the planet for them, and also train them in something else that I'll let remain a mystery to not ruin part of the plot. At this point the game adds a layer of complexity to the strategy side, as you try to balance the number of miners with the number of soldiers, and try to keep everyone happy while fighting back at the Harkonnen.

One negitive thing I should point out is the dialogue. While there is lots of dialogue and this is a good thing, a lot of the dialogue is naff. Not only was it typed up and translated into Engrish by French people, but some of the dialogue is absurd. The firs tline of dialogue you are likely to see is "I am the Duke Leto Atreides, your father.". Um, ok. Could you not have thought of a less mood-breaking immersion killing way of saying that? Like, I dunno "My son, now that we are on Dune, yadayda".

Another negitive point is that some relationships build far too quickly. Within ten seconds of meeting Stilgar, he's doing the mingling waters speech. Within ten seconds of meeting Chani, she's declaring her love for you. Er, steady on there. Well, actually, no. Go right ahead. Rowr.

Speaking of Chani... Check out screenshots 7 and 8 and tell me that's not the most gorgeous person in the world ever. Even including people that actually exist. I will say with some reluctance that I am a sad, sad person, and fell heavily in love with this idealised version of a woman for many years, and perhaps I'm still not completely over it. This particular version of Chani is hot. Seriously, hot. Hotter than in the film and the miniseries combined (though they were both hot, too). I don't know what it is. Anyway, I digress.

In conclusion, there's no reason not to play this game. The only negative points can be ignored on the whole, the interface isn't that bad, it just could've been much better. The dialogue isn't game breaking in any way after the first few minutes, and things moving too fast is a minor complaint anyway.

Play this game and beat it.

I've added the CD version to download, as well as the Mega CD version. It has better quality music, the orni flights look a bit fancier (but maybe not better, as in the original you see the actual terrain) and some poor quality video taken from the film, along with full (and not awful but far from good) speech. It's marginally better than the floppy version. The lack of mouse controls of the Mega CD version is very annoying. The graphics are a bit worse - taken from the Amiga version - and the music is of shoddy quality, so I wouldn't recommend it.

The good
  • + Beautiful graphics
  • + Atmospheric music
  • + Strong storyline
  • + Gameplay elements work well
  • + Chani ♥
 85%
The bad
  • - Engrish dialogue
  • - Clumsy interface

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