I
magine a universe
where Patrick Stewart
charges into battle
holding a pug and
firing sound at people,
where Sting plays a ginger psycho
lubed up with baby oil, and where
Freddie Jones is forced at syringe-
point to suckle milk from a cat—all
whilst under the watchful eye of a
gigantic spice-puffing space vagina.
I am of course talking about David
Lynch’s 1984 film, Dune, the
adaptation for the big screen of Frank
Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel.
Dune is an intriguing and complex
story about time and space, bravery
and betrayal, and ultimately about
one young man’s destiny to unite a
universe. Set in the year 10191, the
story sees two great houses battling
for control of the desolate sand planet
Arrakis. The planet’s mysterious
spice is harvested to fund war, giant
tank-eating worms roam its surface,
and its indigenous Fremen warriors
hold a great secret.
The Dune universe first came to
PC in Cryo’s modest 1992 adventure
game, however it’s undoubtedly
Westwood Studios’ 1993 masterpiece,
Dune II, for which the universe is
best remembered on PC. Dune II:
Battle for Arrakis, or Dune II: Building
of a Dynasty as it was known in
North America, played a pivotal role
in the formation of real time strategy
as a genre, and laid solid foundations
for the beloved Command & Conquer
that came a year later.
Then, in 1998, and in the shadow
of both Command & Conquer and Red
Alert, Westwood and Intelligent
Games released the now largely
forgotten Dune 2000.At the time it scored poorly, and
rightly so in the context of how much
the genre had developed by that
point. It lacked the production values
that we’d seen in Red Alert, and had
almost taken backward steps in
harnessing the concept of unit
balance. Dune 2000 was simply Dune
II in Command & Conquer’s engine.
For that reason, I never played
Dune 2000 at release, and Tiberian
Sun came out just 12 months later.SANDS OF TIME
So why is Dune 2000 worth playing
today? Let’s find out.
I recently watched the movie
again, which got me thinking I’d love
to delve back into Dune’s strange
universe and perhaps replay Dune II.
Sadly, after viewing a couple of
YouTube videos I was instantly put
off. I’d forgotten how laborious the
mechanics must have been—having
to select each unit individually andDUNE 2000
NEED TO KNOW
RELEASED
1998
PUBLISHER
Virgin Interactive, EADEVELOPER
Intelligent Games, Westwood
LINK
http://www.gruntmods.comCelebrating Westwood Studios’ forgotten RTS. By John Strike
OLD GAMES, NEW PERSPECTIVES
REINSTALL
How not to attack.