Release Date: 1992
Genre: Real Time Strategy
The 3 Houses in the game are:
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House Atreides has been a prominent power for thousands of years. They have a long tradition of being and just administrators. Their people are loyal, hard working, and rather peaceful. The Atreides leaders are intelligent and noble and the Atreides have a great devotion towards duty. Atreides were one of the first Houses to come to Arrakis and are well prepared for the conditions they will have to face.
The Atreides home planet is called, Caladan. It has a warm, calm climate and the lands are lush and green. The rich soils and mild weather combine to make it a agricultural planet. In the recent centuries industrial and technological growth have added to the prosperity of the Atreides.
The Mentat for the Atreides is Cyril. The Atreides are not known for attacking first but instead defend themselves well against the attacks of the other Houses. The Atreides start out trying to be diplomatic but this strategy will not work and all out warfare between the houses is imminent.
The Ordos are represented by a group of wealthy families who banded together for greater security. The Ordos have little conscience and seem to gain strength through their
sabotage and terrorism. They are protected by their great wealth and their status as a great House is unaffected by their long history of deception.
The home planet of the Ordos is a frigid ice-covered world. It is believed that the Ordos import their agricultural and technological goods from nearby star systems. Acting as traders and brokers, the Ordos produce no physical products but instead rely upon their merchandising skills to make their profits.
The Mentat Ammon is in charge of the Ordos operations on Dune.
House Harkonnen is the most savage House in the universe. The Harkonnens have a history of using violence and fear to achieve their objectives. Status for the Harkonnens is taken not given. If a soldier kills his commander, he assumes that position and is respected by all.
House Harkonnen comes from the dark planet of Giedi Prime. They have spread across the universe with the evil tactics. The Harkonnen are a cruel people and can be ruthless towards both friend and foe in their pursuit of control of Dune.
The Harkonnen campaign is being dictated by the Mentat Radnor. Radnor is a true Harkonnen, killing the previous Mentat Marko, his former teacher and guide. The Harkonnens have spent most of their time assembling a large military force and are by far the strongest force on Dune. The Harkonnens are very dangerous as they mainly want to just conquer the other Houses.
The Atreides home planet is called, Caladan. It has a warm, calm climate and the lands are lush and green. The rich soils and mild weather combine to make it a agricultural planet. In the recent centuries industrial and technological growth have added to the prosperity of the Atreides.
The Mentat for the Atreides is Cyril. The Atreides are not known for attacking first but instead defend themselves well against the attacks of the other Houses. The Atreides start out trying to be diplomatic but this strategy will not work and all out warfare between the houses is imminent.
The Ordos are represented by a group of wealthy families who banded together for greater security. The Ordos have little conscience and seem to gain strength through their
sabotage and terrorism. They are protected by their great wealth and their status as a great House is unaffected by their long history of deception.
The home planet of the Ordos is a frigid ice-covered world. It is believed that the Ordos import their agricultural and technological goods from nearby star systems. Acting as traders and brokers, the Ordos produce no physical products but instead rely upon their merchandising skills to make their profits.
The Mentat Ammon is in charge of the Ordos operations on Dune.
House Harkonnen is the most savage House in the universe. The Harkonnens have a history of using violence and fear to achieve their objectives. Status for the Harkonnens is taken not given. If a soldier kills his commander, he assumes that position and is respected by all.
House Harkonnen comes from the dark planet of Giedi Prime. They have spread across the universe with the evil tactics. The Harkonnen are a cruel people and can be ruthless towards both friend and foe in their pursuit of control of Dune.
The Harkonnen campaign is being dictated by the Mentat Radnor. Radnor is a true Harkonnen, killing the previous Mentat Marko, his former teacher and guide. The Harkonnens have spent most of their time assembling a large military force and are by far the strongest force on Dune. The Harkonnens are very dangerous as they mainly want to just conquer the other Houses.
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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 gets to choose a house of their own choice. 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 worldviews.
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.
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 gets to choose a house of their own choice. 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 worldviews.
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:
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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
Artificial Intelligence
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
Artificial Intelligence
*The AI of Dune II was one of the first used in real-time strategy games.
Units included infantry(Atreides and Ordos), troopers(Harkonnen), trikes (Atrides and Ordos), quads (Harkonan), combat tanks, heavy siege tanks (Harkonan and Ordos), Rocket Launchers, ornithopter(Atreides and Ordos), Carryalls, MCVs, and Harvesters.
Unique special units included the sand worms, freemen(Atreides), sonic tank(Atreides), deviator(ordos), raider(ordos), saboteur(Ordos), death hand(harkonnen), devestator(harkonnen), and sardaukar(emperor). House special units came into the game from palaces.
Legacy
Dune II influenced the modern RTS by having fog of war, resources, base creation, micromanagment, and three "repaint" sides called houses. It had a campaign for each house with progessively more difficult missions. The game was horribly made, however, it created the base used to create future RTS games. Infantry and light tanks were made useless by higher tier units such as combat tanks. The tanks could run over the infantry. You had to be careful that the sand was moving because that meant a sandworm might come and eat your harvestor.
Dune II has a few sequals and modifications made to significantly improve it.
A link where a free updated coded version can be found below.
Dune 2 Updated Full Version
None.
