[A REVIEW OF RETRO VIDEO GAMES] DUNE II: THE BATTLE FOR ARRAKIS
Happy weekend
How are you, steemians? How is your weekend? is everything good? I hope that you have a nice weekend. So, don't forget to take enough rest because you have to do your best in next coming week. As usual, in every post, I provide a review of retro video games from various platforms. This time, I choose a video game from Sega Genesis. The name of this video game is "Dune II". Ok, to save our time, let's review this amazing video game.
This article is aimed to review classic games on various platforms. Then, the important thing is to recall your childhood memories. Please follow me @zulfan91 to make sure that we still keep in touch.
Dune II
Dune II is also known as Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty while in Europe and North American, it's known as Dune II: Battle for Arrakis. This video game was developed by Westwood Studios and it's release by Virgin Games in December 1992. The genre of this video game is a real-time strategy that is adapted from David Lynch's movie named Dune released in 1984. Then, this film was based on Frank Herbert's science fiction novel which has the same name.
Even though Dune II was not the first game that adopts a real-time strategy (RTS) model, Dune II's developer team created the format that would be by other video games for several next years. As a video game that takes the archetypal "real-time strategy" game, Dune II has a balance between complexity and innovation. It also achieved a huge success because other popular video games followed Dune Ii such as Command & Conquer, Warcraft, StarCraft, and many other RTS video games.
The Information Details
- Developer: Westwood Studios
- Publisher: Virgin Games
- Directors: Aaron E. Powell and Lyle J. Hall
- Producer: Brett Sperry
- Designers: Joe Bostic, Marc Cram, and Aaron E. Powell
- Programmers: Joseph Bostic and Scott K. Bowen
- Writers: Rick Gush, Donna J. Bundy, and Marc Cram
- Composers: Paul Mudra, Frank Klepacki, and Dwight Okahara
- Series: Dune
- Platform: Amiga, MS-DOS, RISC OS, and Genesis/Mega Drive
- Release: MS-DOS (December 1992), Amiga (1993), Mega Drive/Genesis (NA: 1993 and EU: 1993), and RISC OS (1995)
- Genre: Real-time strategy
- Modes Single-player
Gameplay
There are three options for interplanetary houses that can be selected by the player. They are Atreides, the Harkonnen, and the Ordos. The mission of this video game is to take control of other two houses. For your information, the Ordos is not available in Dune novels. The basic need in this video game is to harvest spice from the treacherous sand. The player can do harvesting by using a harvester vehicle. Then, the spice will be converted into credits by utilizing a refinery. Then, the player can use these credits to build armies and weapons.
In the beginning, the map of the game is only a fog of war that covers all area that is not by the player's unit. To remove the dark from the map, the player can utilize the units to explore the map. This video game is very different from Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness that the fog of war is always removed even at the beginning of the game. So, when the player's units leave the area, the dark does not cover the map.
Moreover, there are other attacks that are dangerous besides enemies' attacks. For instance, there is marauding gigantic sandworm that can swallow vehicle and infantry but it's blocked by rocky terrain. The player can only build the infrastructure on rocky terrain but concrete foundations must be built first to avoid deterioration of the structures. In addition, the fields of spice are marked by orange coloration on the sand while darker orange indicates high concentration.
During playing the game, the player is presented a map of the planet Arrakis before starting the missions where they can decide the next territory to play in between two or three that can affect the enemy house fought in next mission, as all missions but the first two missions require to destroy all of the enemies. Then, the player must fight for nine territories to end the game.
PLOT
The emperor of House Corrino named Frederick IV is hopeless for the harvesting of the valuable drug which is known as "the spice". The spice only can be found on the planet Arrakis. The emperor needs the spice to pay off all of his debt caused by wars with family members. To realize his will, he tenders the sole governorship of Arrakis to three Houses (Atreides, Harkonnen, and the Ordos). These Houses must send him the spice as much as possible. Due to only one who will rule the planet, these Houses begin the war each other.
Where to Play
Have you ever played this video game? If no, click this link. I also provide several screenshots of this video game that I got from youtube.
My Opinion
I have explained some important information about this video game. But, due to a lot of assignment from office, I don't have much time to play it. Now, it's time for me to write what I'm thinking about this video game. The storyline is really different because there is no the main character who plays as a good guy. The feature on this video game also is very well. Thus, many RTS video games followed its model. So, I give 8.5 of 10 for this amazing video game. I hope you enjoy reading my article and see you in the next post.
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