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Dune II: Battle for Arrakis
Developer: Westwood Studios
Platform: DOS
Release Year: 1992
Stephen's Rating: 7/10
![[image loading]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UKJCICd2_wI/TsBXWzEOwII/AAAAAAAAAhc/zQTNbzclk6I/s320/dune2_box_eu.jpg)
Basic Plot
Dune II: Battle for Arrakis is based on Frank Herbert's Dune book series.
You play one of three factions vying for control of the planet Arrakis; House Atreides, House Ordos, and House Harkonnen. Your mission is to take control of the spice and drive the other houses away from the planet.
For those of you who've never read Dune, the "spice" is a mysterious substance which occurs naturally on the planet Arrakis. It has the properties of bending space and time. If you consume spice you live longer, and in extreme circumstances it allows some people the ability to see into the future (Guild Navigators being the prime example in the pre-history of the first Dune novel).
The Emperor gives stewardship of the planet Arrakis to one of the "Great Houses". That house gains significant economic benefit from the spice it is able to export in the Emperor's name.
Note: This game doesn't follow the plot of the Dune book series closely. It sits inside the same universe but doesn't fit into Frank Herbert's story.
Gameplay
The game was a real time strategy which involved building bases on remote rock outcroppings, and harvesting the spice melange to gain funds.
Each faction had their own units. There were also additional hidden factions who took part in the story and in some of the missions.
The game panned out in missions which involved taking control of a part of the world. You had a choice of which mission to undertake, different missions had different benefits. Your mentat advised you on the best course of action.
![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0GGdF1UpJnU/TsBXb_D48GI/AAAAAAAAAhk/AFfLgo3eCgc/s320/dune-2-1992.jpg)
The Harkonnen mentat.
Positives
This game was ground breaking and set a precedent for other real time strategy games to come. It had a fascinating mix of units, a good sense of politics and intrigue, and did well in most respects to stay true to Frank Herbert's universe.
I loved the inclusion of the extra factions such as the Freman and the Sardaukar. And sandworms.
![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A8-B6qr6wuM/TsBXkP3e1yI/AAAAAAAAAhs/sV2p1Q50bz0/s320/1059-Dune2.jpg)
A small base on rock outcropping, with a harvester on the top right collecting the spice.
Negatives
Selecting one unit at a time is pretty painful.
I am a huge fan of the Dune novels, and it irritates me that House Ordos was included in the game when it doesn't exist in any of the Dune novels (or even the prequels or sequels written by his son). It would have been better to include a Great House which slotted into the wider story such as House Richese.
![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f1EfGVs-0nk/TsBXwc3nj-I/AAAAAAAAAh0/zMrBUOqLAJ0/s320/d2tm_v044_1024x768.jpg)
A large Harkonnen army.
Memorable Moments
I loved the theme of the game despite playing this game well before reading the novels. I think Westwood did a commendable job in taking the intrigue and complexity of the novels and turning it into something interesting to play.
 
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And for the record, if you've never read Frank Herbert's Dune... it is the greatest book of all time. It literally changed my life, the way I think, who I am.
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You just gave me nerdchills... this along with homm2 ignited my passion for pc games. I get teary eyed remembering this game :D
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Holy shit I used to play this game. Great game... Thanks for the blog.
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fucking worms always eating my harvesters! and the sonic tanks, yummmy~!
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I played this game when I was a little kid on my dads Amiga and it was awesome.
the spice must flow ~
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the spice must flow ~
It must indeed!
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Funny how the book had such an impact on the scifi genre, and then the game pretty much defined the rts genre.
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I'm too young to have played this but I've played Emperor: Battle for Dune which is also an amazing game
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On July 26 2012 08:22 lFrost wrote:
I'm too young to have played this but I've played Emperor: Battle for Dune which is also an amazing game
I've played Emperor: Battle for Dune as well... and I was really *really* disappointed. The game seemed buggy, and the units weren't very much fun to play with. I also found the controls and the general "feel" of the game lacking. You think I should give it another shot? Again... they should have replaced House Ordos with an actual house from the books.
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Dune 2 was groundbreaking but such a pain in the ass to play. You have to place concrete before placing buildings, and then you can only select one unit at a time. Plus the 25 unit limit. I could never get past the 6th or 7th mission with any house :/
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On July 26 2012 05:47 DRTnOOber wrote:
And for the record, if you've never read Frank Herbert's Dune... it is the greatest book of all time. It literally changed my life, the way I think, who I am.
It's a decent book but the religion stuff ruins some parts and especially the rest of the series. The political, ecological, intrigues etc. are good. Not the greatest book of all time though, perhaps of science fiction but that I'd not even say.
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I actually place the Legends of Dune (Butlerian Jihad, Machine Crusade, Battle of Corrin) trilogy of the Dune books up there with my favorite books of all time. So fucking unreal good. Also, Ordos is my favorite house  Mostly from Dune 2000.
"Why don't they just let us die..."
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I really liked Dune up until the third or fourth book in the series.
+ Show Spoiler +Whichever one where he turns into the god-slug thing.
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It's a decent book but the religion stuff ruins some parts and especially the rest of the series. The political, ecological, intrigues etc. are good. Not the greatest book of all time though, perhaps of science fiction but that I'd not even say.
What is it about the religion aspect you didn't like? I'm atheist, I have no interest in religion, but I didn't feel like Herbert was pushing any particular values with the books? In fact every reference to religion in the book was explained as a means of controlling the masses of people; directly under the guidance of the Bene Gesserit, Muad'Dib, or Leto II (at different times). I thought it was interesting... posing the idea that someone obtains god-like powers and surmising how people might react to that.
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On July 26 2012 09:48 PassiveAce wrote:I really liked Dune up until the third or fourth book in the series. + Show Spoiler +Whichever one where he turns into the god-slug thing.
The first is really the only one that matters. I found the other books too different from the tone of the original Dune and i was completely disappointed by them.
I played the original Dune game ages after it came out - i think it was even after Dune 2000 - but i still found it to be quite a lot of fun.
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I agree that the first book is *the* book of the series, but I also... for some reason, really like the fourth book "God Emperor of Dune". It's absurd... the entire book is just Leto II talking about philosophy... but I just find it really engaging.
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I loved the sound from this game. Also Sonic tanks were awesome.
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Played this game quite a bit back in the day. It was my first RTS, if I remember correctly. I used to think the Harkonnen were cool as shit, because I got tired very early of always playing as the superhero/good guy/forces of light/righteousness/whatever. After Dune II, I discovered Age Of Empires and then Starcraft, the rest is history.
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EPT
