Emperor: Battle for Dune Updated Preview
Westwood dropped by our offices with the latest build of this 3D RTS in hand.
Ever since the release of early real-time strategy games like Dune II, Warcraft, and Command & Conquer, the recipe for making a successful real-time strategy game has largely remained unchanged. Of course, there have been minor alterations like the addition of more than two factions as well as small changes in basic play mechanics. The transition into full three-dimensional worlds has caused some developers to experiment with the genre a little more, but most choose not to stray too far from the typical real-time strategy path. Often credited for creating the basic real-time strategy formula, Westwood Studios is taking a similar approach with its latest real-time strategy game, Emperor: Battle for Dune by bringing the series into a three-dimensional world while at the same time designing the gameplay in such a manner that both real-time strategy veterans and novices can jump right into the action. Despite its foray into the third dimension, Emperor: Battle for Dune will seem instantly accessible to anyone who's played Westwood's RTS games in the past. We recently had a chance to take a look at the latest build of the game and spent a few hours fiddling with its campaign and skirmish modes. While it still feels like a classic Westwood real-time strategy game, Battle for Dune brings more than a few innovations to the genre.
A perfect example of this innovation is the skirmish mode, which plays like just about every other RTS game's skirmish mode, but it offers some new twists in planning out your strategy. First, you select from one of the three houses available in Battle for Dune--Atreides, Harkonnen, and the new house known as Ordos. Each house has its own strengths and weaknesses, so your strategy should focus on whatever those abilities are. For example, the units found in the house of Ordos have a strong initial defense, but if an enemy breaks through that defense, then the Ordos become incredibly vulnerable to other enemy attacks. Conversely, if you designate the Ordos as the computer-controlled opponent, then you have to be aware of its speed and defense capabilities in order to plan an effective attack or to successfully defend your base. Once you decide which house you wish to control and which houses the computer will control, you can then decide if you want to form alliances with any of the secondary groups found within the Dune universe. You can select from Ixian, Tleilaxu, Fremen, Imperial, and Guild subhouses--again, these subhouses have advantages and disadvantages when aligned with any of the three houses. You'll find that some subhouses complement the abilities of certain houses better than others, and experimenting with different combinations of house-subhouse alliances is highly recommended.
There are also the traditional set of options that you can adjust before the game starts such as the default amount of money and the number of units each house starts with. You can also toggle the fog of war, item crates, and the massive worms of Dune, which play an incredibly important role in the game as both a great equalizer and a destructive weapon.
Going through the process of selecting houses and alliances is a chore in and of itself, but it can pay off in the end when you gather your forces and move into enemy territory to do battle over the most precious commodity in the Dune universe: the spice. But before that happens, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the units themselves. We spent most of our time with House Harkonnen, so we've compiled a complete list of all the units you'll find in that faction.
Emperor: Battle for Dune Quick Links
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- EA Games
- Westwood Studios
- Sci-Fi Real-Time Strategy
- Release: Jun 12, 2001
- ESRB: Teen
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