Emperor Battle for Dune

[Malovolpe 3]

The more I play this the more I realize that it is the most refined of Westwood Studios RTS games. It also has the best cutscenes. Anyone else enjoy this game?

[Gben 20]

Well it's truly been years - but that isn't my memory of the game... still I haven't thinking about a reinstall for a couple of months.

Ironically I'm re-reading DUNE for the third time after reading the Herbert/Anderson prequels for the first time.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

I could never get into it no matter how hard I tried. I always felt that it was a subpar experience and a bad representation of the Dune universe.

[MrFlibble 31]

I did enjoy Emperor for a while when I first played it, but it does get quite repetitive very soon. It didn't help matters either that on hard difficulty, the AI would amass such an army that my decent (for that time) but not top-notch hardware was unable to handle so many 3D action at once, and the game would lag immensely, to the point of being unplayable. To counter this, I adopted the tactics of quickly rushing my starting units to locate and destroy the enemy construction yard before the AI could build any significant army. Obviously, this wasn't fun at all.

 

My overall opinion is that Emperor had a lot of great ideas behind it (randomly generated mission objectives, a realistic global conquest map) but many of them did not receive a proper execution they deserved. I'm certain that if the game were polished enough, it would have been something akin to Rise of Nations (at least, in terms of the planetary conquest campaign).

 

As for the multiplayer part, I really can't judge that as I haven't played any multiplayer games at all.

 

Another thing is of course the representation of the Dune universe, but Westwood's Dune games had never actually aimed at recreating Frank Herbert's vision, they just took the most interesting stuff that would work in an RTS game.

[Luk3us 63]

I quite liked the global conquest idea and how you could come back and defend old bases and such. I quite enjoyed it actually I rather like the Dune Universe, its a pity nothing is being done with it now.

[Gben 20]

Another thing is of course the representation of the Dune universe, but Westwood's Dune games had never actually aimed at recreating Frank Herbert's vision, they just took the most interesting stuff that would work in an RTS game.

 

Wasn't their original Dune II version based on the movie universe rather than the book universe?

[Guest Stevie_K]

The movie was quite, what should I say, "special", in it's visuals, and bizarre in some scenes. I don't see many similarities to Dune II. *Looks for the dusty Dune movie on the DVD shelve*

 

On an other note: funny thing I read on Wikipedia about the Dune movie "Dan O'Bannon entered a psychiatric hospital after the production failed, and worked on 13 scripts; his 13th became Alien." (Alien have always been my favorite movie, so it's a funny reference)

Edited October 30, 2012 by Stevie_K

[MrFlibble 31]

There is no such thing as the "movie universe" of Dune. It's just that David Lynch put his own vision of the book, apparently with Frank Herbert's personal consent, as he had participated in the production.

 

One could say that there's a "Westwood universe" of Dune that deviates a lot from the books but retains some elements and, possibly, continuity with David Lynch's film.

 

As for the ties with Alien, it's about the Alejandro Jodorowsky's version which never came out. It was supposed to feature Salvador Dali as the Emperor, and deviations from the book would have been that big no one would ever complain about David Lynch's version being not true to Frank Herbert's vision if Jodorowsky's film were made. Back to Alien, none other than H.R. Giger participated in Jodorowsky's production as well, and made some creepy designs for the Harkonnens (not sure if those were ever used anywhere).

[Gben 20]

I have a vague memory of a westwoodian explaining that the game was based on the movie. But I haven't found the direct quote yet...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_II

 

Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (retitled Dune II: Battle for Arrakis in Europe and for the Mega Drive/Genesis port) is a Dune computer game released in 1992 by Westwood Studios. It is based upon David Lynch's 1984 movie Dune, an adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel of the same name.

 

http://www.edge-onli...making-dune-ii/

 

Lacking any of the hexes or grid squares of contemporary turn-based strategies, Dune II was loosely based upon the David Lynch movie, at least in terms of visual design. The gameplay featured three different factions (one invented for the game) all with individual structures, units and superweapons.

[MrFlibble 31]

I have a vague memory of a westwoodian explaining that the game was based on the movie. But I haven't found the direct quote yet...

Thanks for the link to the The Making of... article, I've read it sometime ago but I think it had been down for some time.

 

Here's a couple of interviews with the people from the Dune II team by Gobalopper of FED2k:

 

Joe Bostic Interview

The Origins of House Ordos Revealed

 

In fact, the developers took a lot of inspiration from The Dune Encyclopaedia, which was an "authorized companion" to Dune books written by fans (many of them with academic background BTW). Frank Herbert personally approved of the Encyclopaedia, even though some of the facts in it contradicted the later Dune books he wrote after the Encyclopaedia was published. However, when Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson took on to write MOAR Dune books, they did all they could to make sure The Dune Encyclopaedia did not stand in the way.

 

Here's what Marc Cram says about the role of the Encyclopaedia:

Our thoughts were that the story was too complex and rich to replicate in a video game. We decided that it would be best to take all of the fun elements in the game and create our own story.

 

I had read the books once and was a little confused as to all of the elements, but my friend Wesley <...> Anyway, Wesley was a big fan of the books and so I invited him to lunch at the Golden Nugget buffet.

 

Over a piece of salty roast beef, he pulls out the Dune Encyclopedia. He told me that the book was very rare and would not let me take it home. So on the back of a Keno pad I started writing down the profiles of all of the houses.

The FMV cutscene design in Dune 2000 and Emperor, on the other hand, are obviously based on the visuals from David Lynch's film.

[Traymen 6]

The FMV cutscene design in Dune 2000 and Emperor, on the other hand, are obviously based on the visuals from David Lynch's film.

 

Yeah, but noone says it is a good adaptation of great novel I would say, that more adequate vision of Frank Herbert's Dune was produced by Jodorovsky - but he never finished his movie.

 

While Dune and Dune 2000, were great videogames of all time, the Emperor: Battle for Dune was nothing more than previous games with 3D graphics.

[MrFlibble 31]

I would say, that more adequate vision of Frank Herbert's Dune was produced by Jodorovsky - but he never finished his movie.

Somehow I don't think that the Emperor being a narcissistic figure who lives with his robotic doppelganger and sits on a toilet throne is a very accurate representation of anything in the book.

[Traymen 6]

But you don't mention who was going to play the Emperor - Salvador Dali Also, movie was going to be 5 hours (!) long with very cyberpunk concept... Lynch have made a movie for people who have read the book, because without it, you can't understand what is happening on the screen. Good example are visions of Paul when he realises, that he is somehow connected with all beings of Bene Gesserit society. Lynch in his movie torture us with two minute long of dripping water... two damn minutes of watching how drop hits water surface.

[Gben 20]

Nice reads, thanks Mr Flibble.

And yes, to clarify, I was talking about the visuals mostly.

 

Loving the universe again...

[Sonic 296]

Emperor was cool. So cool we made this site many years ag0 http://web.archive.org/web/20030806125129/http://www.emperor-network.com/

[Malovolpe 3]

I love the Ordos in Emperor. Their units are more fragile than Nod buggies though. x_x

[MrFlibble 31]

Ordos make for cool hit-and-run tactics with their speed and self-repair. It quickly gets boring though.

[ApornasPlanet 9]

I played the Atreides campaign a couple of years ago. I have played the Harkonen one a couple of times but never managed to finish it. But it's a great game!

[lkRaven 0]

I played the Atreides campaign until the last mission and stopped for some reason. I found their Minatour to be one of the coolest units at the time as well as the sniper's laser scope.