Review
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For fans of Command and Conquer, Dune 2000 is the sequel to the
real-time strategy game that started it all, Dune II. In Dune
2000, you play as one of three rival "houses" from Frank
ert's classic sci-fi book series. You can select from the
Atreides, Harkonnen, or the Ordos. Each house has its own
strengths and weaknesses, just like the GDI and the NOD, from
C&C. Basically a port of the PC version, Dune 2000 is lackluster
at best, because it is a port of a lackluster PC game. In Dune
2000, you're warring with the other houses over control of the
spice mines, which, in typical real-time-strategy-game fashion,
is the resource you must harvest to further your other causes,
such as building the machines of war. Each house has its own
technology tree that you must master to conquer the inevitable
invading forces. Ultimately, you'll work your way through
missions, steering you toward complete dominance of the planet
Arrakis' spice mines. Besides warring with the other houses, you
must also contend with nature's own monstrous sandworms and with
religious zealots called the Fremen. Despite the game's basic
competence at handling the real-time action, it is at its best
merely average, and at its worst impractical. The majority of the
problems facing ports of almost any RTS game are caused by the
controls, have been severely compromised to fit on a PlayStation
controller. Although this problem isn't enough to make the game
unplayable, it's enough to make it more frustrating. PC gamers
are used to hot keys and key-specific commands. When these
functions are buried deep in layers of menus configured to the
PlayStation controller, they simply add to what is already a
traditionally complex interface. Anyone who has this game for the
PC will not likely be buying it for the PlayStation, but even
PlayStation owners will find the controls overly busy. Beyond the
questionable control scheme, the visuals really highlight how
ill-equipped the PlayStation is at handling what are supposed to
be high-resolution graphics. While the little people running
around the screen are, of course, supposed to be drawn to scale,
they look like sprites rendered by an Intellivision. Similarly,
the backgrounds also border on monotonous, due to the desert
settings. The buildings you create and the machines you construct
all suffer from a loss of detail, which is further enhanced by
the fact that most people will be playing this game on a normal
TV. Simply put, the game isn't very pretty to look at. Although
gameplay is king when it comes to RTS's, the gameplay here is
painfully average, which is only exacerbated by the fact that the
graphics fail to liven things up. The game is interspersed with
live-action FMVs designed to draw you into the Dune 2000 world.
Expect a C&C level of quality, and you won't walk away
disappointed. Movies, sadly, are not enough to save this game
from bargain-bin status. While there are 30 missions spread out
among the three houses, only gamers with no other RTS recourse
will find themselves playing this game, which is, in almost
ironic fashion, far inferior to Westwood's own Command and
Conquer series. If you think this game is unusual among
console-based real-time strategies, it's not, as Blizzard's
upcoming Starcraft 64 faces the same problems. At the present,
however, Dune 2000 is its own worst enemy, and this game is
suitable only for those with no other choice for some real-time
action. This is rental material, at best.--James
Mielke--Copyright © 1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without
express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot
Review