WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Dune
Publisher: Virgin Interactive Developer: Cryo Interactive Release: 1993
Yet again I find myself trying to figure out how I have to frame this game. I'm not sure most of our readers are old enough to remember this book, the disappointing movie from 1984, or the father of the realtime strategy genre – Dune II.
Up until I cracked this game open for this article, I'd forgotten all about the fact that there was a graphic adventure based on Frank Herbert's original novel.
Dune is the story of two warring houses – Atreides and Harkonnen. This time and this universe is controlled by a spice, called melange. This spice is the key to space travel, allowing pilots to literally fold space. Unfortunately, this spice is only available on one planet – the planet Arrakis.
Emporer Shaddam IV has begun to fear the growing popularity of Duke Leto Atreides, especially due to the Duke's fighting force. In order to destroy the Duke, the Emporer decides to take advantage of a long-running feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen. Shaddam gives Atreides the fief of Arrakis, previously controlled by Harkonnen. Thus Harkonnen begins to plan war with Atreides.
A further wrinkle, though, comes in the form of Atreides son, Paul. Paul's mother Lady Jessica had been directed to give the Duke a daughter, who would then breed with the Harkonnen heir to produce a superhuman – Kwisatz Haderach. Instead, Lady Jessica bore the Duke a son, Paul. Furthermore, she believes Paul may actually be Kwisatz Haderach himself.
The third element is the Fremen – the local humans on Arrakis. The Fremen await a messiah...guess who!
It's a lot to follow, which is one of the major reasons the movie was such a flop.
Dune on the Sega CD follows the settlement of House Atreides on Arrakis, and the subsequent war with House Harkonnen. Most of the time is spent searching various structures, interacting with the different characters from the story, and commanding the Fremen forces that eventually begin working for you.
The game is an enhanced version of a PC game released in 1992, complete with full voice acting and full-motion video travel transitions. And even though the game was originally mouse-driven, it controls surprisingly well with the Genesis controller, thanks to the cursor snapping to the nearest interactive element – it's a surprisingly thoughtful design considering how poorly most PC games translated to home consoles back in the day.
Unfortunately the game is about as exciting as the horrible movie. The whole thing moves very slowly, and seems very repetitive right from the start. While this is a great port, it's just not a very good game.