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Dune: Spice Wars is a diamond in the rough
15.09.2023 - 16:15 / polygon.com / Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert’s Dune holds a special place in the gaming community, providing the basis for one of the first true real-time strategy titles, Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty. Shiro Games is treading on hallowed ground with its latest title, Dune: Spice Wars, and the studio seems to know it. The game’s recent 1.0 release still has some pain points after a year in early access, but it's clear that Spice Wars was developed with a clear passion and understanding of the assignment.
Dune: Spice Wars is a 4X game, played completely in real time, set against the backdrop of Herbert’s novel. While the game clearly uses established 4X titles like Civilization 6 as a framework, massaging that same formula into an RTS flavored with the Dune universe gives Spice Wars an edge.
At launch, Spice Wars features the Atreides, Harkonnen, and Fremen factions, in addition to Smugglers, House Corrino, and House Ecaz. Each faction operates on the same basic principles but has some unique wrinkles that lend them to a specific play style. For example, while House Atreides can’t pillage settlements, they can peacefully annex them, which is more expensive but yields long-term bonuses. The Fremen, on the other hand, aren’t subject to the same penalties for failing to pay the Emperor's ever-present spice tax.
The standard game mode, Battle for Arrakis, is supplemented by the protracted two-player Kanly Duel and the more lengthy Conquest Campaign. The gameplay will be familiar enough to seasoned players of the 4X genre, but a series of helpful tooltips and tutorials are also present to fill you in on the basics.
Each procedurally generated map is composed of regions controlled by a single settlement (think city-states from Civ 6). These can be annexed, turning them into extensions of your regime, or pillaged for a quick cash infusion. Each settlement also has randomly assigned traits that may influence how you specialize its infrastructure.
The harsh environment of Dune plays into your strategy, too — units deteriorate when outside of your territory too long, which has the added effect of curbing rushes as a viable strategy. The random appearance of sandstorms and sandworms can also effectively shut down operations for large areas of the map.
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Expanding, conquering, and researching all in real time may sound overwhelming, but the action on the map occurs at a leisurely pace, and you can pause the action at any time. Things can still get occasionally chaotic, though, usually when you’re attempting to fight wars on multiple fronts.
The minute-to-minute combat in Spice Wars is serviceable but lacks precision. Your ranged units make a bad habit of engaging in melee, while your melee units will chase the enemy into their own
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Dune: Spice Wars Review
When I think about what's cool in the Dune universe – what really sets it apart from other epic sci-fi – I think of a lot of the same things Shiro Games has chosen to focus on in Dune: Spice Wars. There's the complex galactic politics, the smooth blend of the futuristic and the ancient, and the deadly, sweeping splendor of Arrakis. When I first reviewed it in Early Access, Spice Wars already felt like a reasonably complete RTS. And after a year and a half of additions and refinements, it gleams even brighter.