Ah. The never-ending dunes of planet Arrakis. Home of the spice melange. This is where the game takes place, in which three houses battle for the rule of spice, and with rule of spice comes rule of Arrakis. In this ground breaking real-time strategy game you can join one of the three houses in their conquest. House Atreides, the noble one. House Ordos, the scoundrels. And finally the evil House Harkonnen. The one that controls the spice, controls Dune..

This game was the game that started it all. Of course there had been attempts at real time strategy before (games like Herzog Zwei and Art of War), but none was so packed with innovative features as Dune II, so I consider it one of the titles that defined the RTS genre. It had it all. Of course, when you look at it in retrospect, there are some features that you miss dearly. Like the ability to select several units at the same time. This is the feature I miss the most when playing Dune II nowadays, but I never really noticed it when I played it back in 93.

Music is astounding, and changes depending on the situation you are in. If the enemy is approaching, it changes to a faster paced tune, and if you only sit around the base, harvesting, it goes over to a calmer track. It also features speech for units, which was something new. Same with the announcer, telling you if you have lost units of killed the enemy units.

Controls are fairly easy, using the mouse. Each unit must be selected, then an action must be chosen, then you must click the destination. This is a bit tiresome to begin with, but with the use of hot-keys, you can easily develop a technique for this. The interface is also easy to navigate. Construction is done by clicking on the respective buildings. To construct buildings, you click the construction yard. For units, you choose their buildings. The game also features a Mentat, a person which gives you advice and information. It's like an interactive in-game mini-manual.

As you finish missions, your technology advances, and you get better units and buildings to aid your cause. Each house also has some unique units. The Atreides are the noble house, having average units and utilizes the help of the Fremen, the original population of Arrakis. House Ordos use speed and agility, and has units that depict this strategy. Among these are the saboteur units. House Harkonnen rely on brute force, and have some heavier vehicles than the other houses, like the Devastator.

As the game goes on, the battles get harder and harder and the enemies stronger and stronger. The AI isn't really that developed in this game, it mostly comes down to spamming of units by the enemy. Strategy to beat this is mostly by defending your base the best you can, and then build up your army and attack with everything you got. This is another thing I really miss in this game. A more extensive form of strategy, both by the AI and the player. This is probably a bit much to ask for such a title, and back in the day, this was cutting edge.

This game was pretty nice, graphics-wise, utilizing the 256 colours offered by VGA. Especially the Mentat and the information is beutifully pictured. Units are a bit cluttered, but you can easily see the difference on the several different tanks and infantry units. Buildings are also quite well done. I like the fact that you should build concrete before you build buildings, so that they don't get damaged. And that you can't build on sand. This really is a challenge when constructing your base. Especially later on in the game.

To sum everything up; Dune II might not have been the first RTS, but it's the first RTS that really defined the genre. It was the first really sucessful game produced by a team of developers. It has great music and addictive gameplay. Some features are missing compared to future RTS titles, but if you want to try out a piece of history or replay one of the first really great RTS games, you should get your hands on this title now.