Dune II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dune II | |
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| Developer(s) | Westwood Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Virgin Interactive |
| Designer(s) | Joseph Bostic, Aaron E. Powell, Brett Sperry |
| Engine | Custom |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, DOS, RISC OS, Genesis/Mega Drive |
| Release date | 1992 (DOS) 1993 (Amiga) 1993 (Mega Drive/Genesis) |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media | Floppy disk, CD-ROM or Cartridge |
| Input methods | Keyboard, Mouse |
Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (retitled Dune II: Battle for Arrakis in Europe and for the Mega Drive/Genesis port) is a Dune computer game, released in 1992 by Westwood Studios. It is a loose sequel to the computer strategy game Dune (although it shares no storyline or gameplay). Both games were based upon David Lynch's 1984 movie Dune, which was in turn taken from Frank Herbert's science fiction novel of the same name.
While not the first real-time strategy (RTS) game (The Ancient Art of War, Stonkers, and Herzog Zwei all preceded it), Dune II established a format that would be followed for years to come, and was the first to use the mouse to move units, allowing players to fluidly interact with their troops.[1] As such, Dune II was the first modern real-time strategy game. Striking a balance between complexity and innovation, it was a huge success and laid the foundation for the coming Command & Conquer, the Warcraft series, and many other RTS games.
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[edit] Plot
Emperor Frederick IV of House Corrino is desperate for the harvesting of the valuable spice melange, only found on the planet Arrakis, to pay off all of his debt incurred on internecine wars with family members. To achieve this, he now offers the sole governorship of Arrakis to the House (huge nobleman family/cartel) which delivers the most spice for him out of House Atreides, Harkonnen and Ordos. War begins as deputations from all three Houses arrive on Arrakis.
The player is a military commander from a House of their choice. In the first few missions the objective is to successfully establish a base on an unoccupied territory of Arrakis, to harvest spice and defend against intruders. Later, when the three Houses divide Arrakis among them, the player has to assault and capture enemy territories. When the player dominates Arrakis on the world map, the two other enemy factions ally against their common enemy. The ultimate final showdown is the battle among the player's House up against three enemy sides, among them Frederick's forces the Sardaukar (an unplayable elite force whose heavy infantry are particularly powerful). The final cutscene is different for each House, in consonance with their very disparate world views.
[edit] Gameplay
The player takes the role of a commander of one of three interplanetary houses, the Atreides, the Harkonnen or the Ordos, with the objective of wresting control of Arrakis from the two other houses. House Ordos is not featured in the Dune novels and is mentioned only in the non-canon Dune Encyclopedia. The basic strategy in the game is to harvest spice from the treacherous sand dunes using a harvester vehicle, convert the spice into credits via a refinery and to build military units with these acquired credits in order to fend off and destroy the enemy.
The game map initially starts with a fog of war covering all area which is not covered by the player's units range of view. As the units explore the map, the darkness is removed. Unlike later games such as Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the fog of war is lifted forever with initial exploration, it does not become dark once more when units leave the area.
In addition to enemy incursions, there are other dangers; like the marauding and gigantic sandworm, capable of swallowing vehicles and infantry whole but only capable of moving through sand. The player can only build on rocky terrain, but must build concrete foundations before to avoid deterioration of the structures due to the harsh weather conditions although in general, structures will gradually decay over time regardless of the presence of those concrete slabs due to the aforesaid weather conditions. Spice fields are indicated by orange coloration on the sand, darker orange indicating high concentration. Some spice may be concealed as bumps on the terrain (a 'pre-spice mass') that become spice fields when they are shot at, or when a unit runs over them (the unit is destroyed in the ensuing 'spice blow').
The player is presented a map of the planet Arrakis before most missions, where he can choose the next territory to play in among two or three. This affects primarily the enemy house fought in the next mission, as all missions except the first two require the complete destruction of the enemy. Nine territories must be fought, irrespective of house, to reach the endgame.
Some key elements that first appeared in this game, but would later appear in many other RTS games, are:
- Mouse operated units and buildings
- A world map from which the next mission is chosen
- Resource-gathering to fund unit construction
- Simple base and unit construction
- Building construction dependencies (technology tree)
- Mobile units that can be deployed as Buildings
- Different sides/factions (the Houses), each with unique unit-types
- Destruction of the enemy as a goal
Completing higher missions gives authorization to use improved technology and higher-order weaponry unique to each House, ensuring varied game play. For example, House Harkonnen may be able to construct their Devastator tanks with heavy armor and ordnance but cannot build the similarly impressive Atreides Sonic Tank. The Ordos have access to the Deviator - a specialized tank firing a nerve gas that switches the allegiance of targeted units to Ordos for a limited period of time. The three Houses also are restricted in their production capabilities - House Ordos cannot build Atreides-style trikes, instead making the faster "Raider" trikes, while House Harkonnen constructs heavier but more expensive quad bikes.
A player can gain access to other Houses' special units by capturing an enemy Factory and manufacturing the desired units at the captured Factory (House Atreides' Heavy Vehicle Factory for Sonic Tank, House Ordos' Light Vehicle Factory for Raider trikes, House Ordos' Heavy Vehicle Factory for Deviator tanks, or House Harkonnen's Heavy Vehicle Factory for Devastator tanks). Note that a Deviator not owned by house Ordos still switches control of targetted units to house Ordos, and not to the side that owns the Deviator. Apparently Westwood was aware of this bug, since capturing a Sardaukar Heavy Vehicle Factory allows the player to build both the Sonic Tank and Devastator, but not the Ordos Deviator.
Buildings may only be built in rocky zones and connected to another existing building, and are the same for all houses. To protect them from constant wear, the player must place first concrete slabs in the construction areas. Production buildings can be upgraded at a cost several times, allowing the production of more advanced units or buildings.
The final prize for the commander is the building of the House Palace from where superweapons may be unleashed on opponents in the final closing chapters of the game. The House Harkonnen superweapon is a long-range finger of missiles called the Death Hand, whereas House Atreides may call upon the local Fremen infantry warriors, over which the player has no control, to engage enemy targets. House Ordos may unleash a fast-moving Saboteur whose main purpose is the destruction of buildings.
[edit] Interface
The Dune II interface is the basis for subsequent real-time strategy games, being the first to use the mouse for unit control[1], but is less sophisticated when compared to later generation RTS interfaces, such as Command & Conquer. Dune II did not give the player the ability to select multiple units as in Command & Conquer and Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and, unlike later games, clicking on a piece of land or enemy would not result in movement or attack actions. To do so requires clicking on the "Move" or "Attack" buttons (or pressing of a hotkey), and then selecting the target.
[edit] Reception
When the Commodore Amiga version of Dune II was released in 1993, it was met with good reviews. CU Amiga rated the game highly with 85%, praising the smooth gameplay and controls.[2] Dune II received Amiga User International's Game of the Month award when it was reviewed in September 1993.[3] The AI of Dune II was one of the first used in RTS games, and while better than that of Herzog Zwei, it has various drawbacks. Examples include only attacking the side of the player's base facing its own, general inability to perform flanking maneuvers, and not rebuilding defenses.[4]
[edit] Versions
Dune II was originally released 1992 for DOS. It was one of the first games to support the Roland Sound Canvas (General MIDI), and one of the first to play digital samples using an AdLib or Sound Blaster card. Unfortunately, the game did not originally support more than one sound device, so players were forced to choose between digitized speech (which is helpful in game play, since approaching enemy units are announced) and higher quality music. Westwood later released a patch to fix this issue, allowing players to select different devices for sound effects, music and speech.
In 1993, it was ported to Amiga and Mega Drive/Genesis. Two years later it was also brought to the Archimedes and Risc PC range of RISC OS computers.
The Amiga floppy disk port is nearly identical in interface and game play to the PC version, albeit with less detailed graphics and frequent disk swapping — the game uses 5 disks. Save games are stored in a specially formatted disk. The game could also be installed to hard drive. Patches exist for the Amiga version of the game which allow the full 255 units to be created and managed. In the original Amiga version the player was limited to 32 units.
The Mega Drive/Genesis port has fairly different building and unit graphics, a full-screen menu-less user interface suited for gamepad control, and no save game support, relying on access codes for accessing each level. Other additions include a music test option and a tutorial that replaces the mentat screen. Several ideas from this version including the music track listing and the replacement of sidebar command buttons by a context-sensitive cursor were used in Westwood's next strategy game, Command & Conquer.
[edit] Legacy
Dune II is one of the most influential games in the real-time strategy genre. Though not every characteristic was unique, attributes such as fog of war, and the game's model for resource-extraction, base creation, and military micromanagement became several standards upon which the RTS genre is based. Obvious influences of Dune II can be seen in numerous games, particularly in Westwood's own Command & Conquer series.[5]
Chris Taylor stated that Dune II and Command & Conquer were a very strong inspiration, motivating him to leave Electronic Arts to create Total Annihilation.[6]
Dune II was given several direct sequels: a Windows partial remake of this game was published in 1998 as Dune 2000, along with a PlayStation port in the same year. In 2001, Emperor: Battle for Dune was published.
[edit] Remakes
[edit] References
- ^ a b Bob Bates. Game Developer's Market Guide, p. 141, Thomson Course Technology, 2003, ISBN 1592001041.
- ^ Gill, Tony (July 1993). Dune II CU Amiga review. CU Amiga. EMAP. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
- ^ Dune II Amiga User International review. Amiga User International. AUI Limited (September 1993). Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
- ^ Brian Schwab.AI Game Engine Programming, p. 107, Charles River Media. ISBN 1584503440.
- ^ Porter, Will (2008-02-28). Command & Conquer - Origins. ComputerAndVideoGames.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
- ^ Tracy Fullerton, Chris Swain, Steven Hoffman,Game Design Workshop,p. 377, CMP Books, 2004, ISBN 1578202221
[edit] External links
- Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty at MobyGames
- GameSpy Hall of Fame
- FED2k Discussion
- Dune Wiki @ FED2k
- Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty guide at StrategyWiki
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