Latest Reviews
FIFA 09Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhoodde Blob Brothers In Arms: Hell's HighwayWipeout HDUser Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for Emperor: Battle for DuneWrite your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
Emperor: Battle for Dune Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Emperor: Battle for Dune
'Emperor: Battle for Duneā marks Westwoodās return to the license that kick started the whole RTS genre. Fittingly itās the first game to use their fully 3D engine, however Westwood and RTS fans will feel instantly at home as fundamentally it plays like any other before it.
The planet of Dune is being fiercely fought over by the three Great houses; House Atreides of the water world Caladan, House Harkonen of the dark and cruel Geidi Prime and the House Ordos of the ice-covered world Draconis IV. This war will determine the fate of Dune, the Spice Melange and who will be crowned the next Emperor of the known universe, pretty high stakes.
Once into the game itās the normal fare, place your buildings, and start to build your army, to do this youāll need money or rather Spice; the most valuable item in the galaxy.
Thankfully a lot of work has been put into reducing the tedious elements of the genre; spice collecting is now (nearly) a fully automated process, and the time spent having to micromanage your economy has been heavily reduced, leaving a game that is immediately accessible. More emphasis is placed on smaller battles as opposed to Command & Conquers tactical affairs, which helps to up the action quota.
Each house has completely different units, ensuring that a different strategy is needed for whatever side you choose to play on.
House Harkonnen's units are extremely deadly but require good tactics for best results, as most of its units can be readily countered by troops they're not specifically designed to destroy.
The units of the honourable House Atreides are direct and imposing, and most effective at long range.
The forces of the mercenary House Ordos are physically weaker but also perhaps the most versatile. They're fast and equipped with regenerating energy shields that protect them from initial damage--yet Ordos units suffer noticeably if their shields are breached.
Although the units differ, each sideās structures and buildings are similar. So whilst in battle youāll have to use different strategies, but setting up your base is the same process regardless.
Graphically Battle for Dune looks the business, borrowing heavily from the visual style that David Lynch created back in 1984. The various units have that retro sci-fi feel, whilst explosions and special effects look spectacular, however all this comes at a price as youāll need quite a hefty PC to get it off the ground and running.
Unfortunately the AI system canāt compete with Duneās graphical levels, organising your troops is often a haphazard affair, there is an option to arrange troops into a unit but itās too clumsy, often due to different unit speeds youāll have a collection of troops here and some there, more often then not units will have a hard time getting out of each otherās way and moving to a safe place when firing, tacticians will be disappointed.
Comments
Ultimately āEmperor: Battle for Duneā will please fans of the genre and the film/books. It lacks the polish of other Westwood games, however seeing as this is their first foray into three dimensions we can forgive the slightly rough feel and lack of overall refinement.
