Dune: Spice Wars

I stayed away from this for awhile based on the mediocre reviews, but within the first 20 minutes it was pretty obvious what the problem was...and it has nothing to do with the game. It was really mis-marketed, because well, there's really no way to market this game. They're selling it as an RTS, and people are expecting SC2 on Arrakis, but it is most definitely not that. It's best described as a very complex pausable real-time board game...and it was marketed wrong because it's difficult to market things that haven't existed before. "The mechanics suck" ...no, the mechanics are not what you expected, because you didn't bother to play the tutorials or read any guides. "The pacing is too slow and I can only speed up time 2x" ...yeah, unless you've got like 20+ hours under your belt, and understand every mechanic and every subtle minutiae of every individual territory on the map, you should be in pause mode most of the time. If you're thinking about build lists and clicks per minute, you are miles off from ever winning a match.
This is a watershed game, and one of the very few truly fresh ideas I have seen in video gaming in decades. Don't sleep on this one, just understand it is NOT Starcraft on Arrakis.

Overall I feel this game deserves better reviews than it has and I don't think you'll regret getting this if you like the Dune universe and want a casual/fun strategy game.
It's a good solid RTS. If you like playing the board game catan; it's kind of similar to that in many ways; provinces offer unique perks, the trading, and you have to mentally calculate what buildings are best positioned where (it's way better than catan though because you have units to fight with and the addition of your special agents is dope.)
I really enjoyed playing as the Harkonnen in the campaign. I feel like they got the feel of the dune universe right and the unique play style's between the different houses are cool (note there are different strats to win the game too which is really good imo).
My only gripe playing with the Harkonnen's is the sound ping when a sandworm appears that's attacking your harvester and/or the oppression sound ping when rebels rebel is kind of loud and obtrusive. I looked for a way to turn this sound down/off because it disturbs what is a chill game - it's also kind of pointless because you can put your harvesters on safe mode, and your rebels are always crushed by your militia units anyway - which eliminates the need for the ping.
And because I love to oppress the hell out of those filthy fremen PEASANTS the sound goes off ALL THE GOD DAMN TIME.
So if any dev reads this, if you could please provide an option to turn that sound off for all the deluded megalomaniacs like myself out there that would be great.
I probably won't bother playing the other factions in the campaign; I feel like I've seen/experienced everything the game offers - which is quite a lot but it gets a little repetitive after 40 hours or so.
What ideas could you implement into the game that would be cool? That is tough, it feels like a complete game in all honesty.. BUT:
- I really loved the Campaign perks for taking territory, really nice. However, the game at times felt a little repetitive - maybe you could colour a little more personality into the campaign missions. An example would be with the option where you can choose to have 5 extra agent slots - maybe you have to find the agents in a village individually? I dunno, I just felt the missions could do with some more uniqueness to go with the perk system.
- The fighting animations is a bit on the bland side. When I first saw it in game my inner voice said "This is so shit" but then I got kind of used to it eventually and accepted it. But I mean, come on, it could be cooler if you see some actual brawling like in the total war games. Or at least some of your units are dead when the unit reaches half health. I didn't understand why this part seemed kind of lazy when everything else is so well thought out.
- Make your own dune faction - that would be the TITS - since the models look like they are kind of easy to modify. I realise that would probably never happen but some element of customisation - maybe in the ships? It would give the player's some level of ownership that goes above and beyond.
This is the longest review I've ever made. I'm going to stop there. Thanks for reading :)

Dune Spice Wars is a thoroughly enjoyable and very unique RTS, and I can easily recommend it to any RTS fan.
I grew up on RTSs like Warcraft 2 and 3 as well as playing a ton of StarCraft 2 and to a lesser extent StarCraft somewhat competitively and this game is very far from those in ways that I do not like, but it still has unique features that I enjoy. Having groups of units rather than single units has always felt odd, those same units feel quite unresponsive, part of this is because the game is very slow to the point where it kind of feels closer to a 4X strategy game, and map navigation is kind of a pain and can be unclear. However, somehow it all works out in the end and arguably in the game’s favor, despite it feeling somewhat slow and clunky the whole game feels very methodical and relaxed compared to a lot of other RTS games and that runs to the core of Spice Wars. Resources can be difficult to acquire, progress in objectives is slow, victories have to be prepared well in advance while also being flexible to the constantly shifting game, and you have to plan around each faction’s unique playstyle and units to get to the results you want. I think that a lot of people may find Spice Wars to be slow, difficult to understand, and overall frustrating, but if you are willing to be patient with the game, put a handful of games underneath your belt, and give the game the time it takes to truly learn it I think that as long as RTSs are your style of gameplay you are likely to find enjoyment at the end of it all. It is extremely satisfying how well-fought victories feel and most games at your proper skill level will be exactly that. I played a 2 v 2 with my friend that probably took about 4 hours to play and it was a close battle the entire time to the point where one of our opponents was mere minutes (if not seconds) away from winning the game for us to pull the rug on them and smack them to the floor, and honestly, it is probably one of the best experiences I have ever had in any RTS. Something about how methodical the whole game is where the tension of victory is not hinging on singular fights but hours of scheming and strategizing feels so rewarding. Other things I like are that the AIs feel solid, sometimes they get confused, but most of the time they are smart enough to be just as worthy of opponents as actual people, that being said multiplayer feels pretty good in this game. I wish you could have bigger matches than just 4 people and maybe if they add a few more factions, they could allow 6-8 player games, but I am hesitant to believe that will happen, a lot of the way that objectives are balanced is designed for the 2-4 player games. As someone who prefers playing with my friends and not against them though I want to hope that it will happen. Maybe that all seems like disorganized ranting but to put it simply, even though this is the slowest RTS I have played, the long-term play style, methodical speed of all units and actions, and the variety of factions and playstyles you have at your disposal, and a game that rewards good planning Dune Spice Wars is a joy to play even though it can feel clunky at times.
Story-wise, the game does not have a campaign that directly follows the story of the Dune books, the closest thing it has is its conquest mode; however, it is less story-driven and more of just living in the world of Dune. That means if you like Dune, like I do, you will enjoy the world-building that is here, and if you are not as much of a fan of the series it probably will not attract you to it.
The sound design for the game is well thought out. Character voices are great, combat noises feel very appropriate (even if they feel a bit understated), and auditory feedback is well done. Alongside that, the music is more like wallpaper than music, but I enjoy it, it has this wonderful feel to it all that just feels appropriate for Dune to me. It is nothing like the Hanz Zimmerman movie track and I am okay with that, it has this gentle charm that I appreciate compared to what the films offer. Overall, I like the sound design a lot.
Graphically I find the game appealing. It is stylized quite a bit and it looks good, feels appropriate to Dune, and offers a lot in the way of game readability, though like a lot of RTSs when you reach unit critical mass it can become very messy at times. I would say that animations may be a bit stiff and the menus feel a bit awkward; I wish that, for example, the research page gave better visual clarity on what the upgrades each did rather than being very similar-looking buttons, but does not greatly detract from the game.
All-in-all, Dune Spice Wars fills my need for a Dune-based RTS in a way that is wholly unique from other RTSs and I think that many may find it compelling. Good luck friends, may the spice that blesses Arrakis flow through you so that you may shape it as you see fit.

Dune: Spice Wars is exactly what you'd want out of a Dune video game: Chaos, secret plans within plans, and radically asymmetrical factions that grab you by the face and force you to pay attention to what other people are doing. You, too, can live your dream of assassinating the head of House Atreides because they're just too strong to face head-on in a military contest and their political standing is untouchable.
Fair warning: Everything requires planning. This is a strategy game, NOT a tactics game. If you go in head empty hoping to respond to things as they appear, you will be outmaneuvered and outclassed.
That said, multiplayer is ABSOLUTELY worth doing. Everything you thought you were good at? Nope, you were only good at doing it while everyone while politely stopped and waited for you to go. Now do it all in real-time. DELICIOUS.

Obviously, I very much enjoy Dune but PLEASE for the love of all that is arrakis, please update this game more regularly, I understand at the time of writing this that Shiro is developing another game but it's been 6 months and not even a word. At least a road map or something would be good. A more in depth tutorial that teaches players the nuances of the game would be good. The only other major concern I have for this game is the annoying bugs and things that happen during gameplay. For example, fix the bug that makes my units hold position when I'm TYPING in the chat box and not actually microing during a fight! Also, please make lobbies more stable. The bug that kicks players out of lobbies is really annoying because you have to guess when it happens and sometimes you find out too late and everyone else is already in another full lobby and they've already started a match that you were supposed to be a part of. A matchmaking system (it doesn't have to be rated) would help fix the issue of wait times for games because the community is smaller than other games but functional. PLEASE punish leavers! Fix the bug that notifies me about combat (it stays there, can't delete it) even after the combat has ended. Please give us a replay feature! Please give a better tutorial, explain the ways to win. Those are just my complaints. There are so many positives!
1. Engaging gameplay
2. So many ways to win/play
3. The game rewards creativity beyond just armies fighting
4. There is usually always something you can do for counterplay
5. All factions are unique and interesting with their own identity, can't wait for more factions
6. Many different map types so you never get bored, although competitive is dune medium
7. There are many things I can't think of atm that are awesome about dune
Go pick up Dune right now if you like RTSes and aren't necessarily the AOE type, this game has gameplay elements from 4x and RTS so there's something for everyone. The game is challenging at first but once you get over the difficulty hump it's amazing! This is an impassioned review because this game was recommended to me by my buddy and I now play it more than he does; I fell in love with dune. Go buy dune, Arrakis needs you!

Once upon a time, when I was a kid, I played an RTS called "Dune 2000" and I thought it was awesome. This game feels like a spiritual successor, but it's as if it has grown up and matured along with myself. It's fair to say the two don't really have much in common, aside from being the same IP and both being RTS games, I know I'm just getting that nostalgia hit - because Dune: Spice Wars is superior in every way.

For fans of Frank Herbert's Dune, or even just more casual sci-fi fans, this game really inhabits the setting; I love that there are multiple ways to win; politics, economics or just plain old violence. The Imperial Tax on Spice (one of the, if not the most, crucial resources in the game), the ability to buy shares in CHOAM (the company that controls all galactic trade), the Landsraad (political body), the diplomacy system, assassination, intelligence operations - the game has an incredibly immersive amount of complexity that enables you to develop your own play style. If you want, you can win without firing a shot.

I actually played it on Gamepass Ultimate on Xbox Series X for most of a campaign and liked it so much I bought it on Steam.

the most boardgame-y feeling real-time game I've ever played, with a astonishingly well-designed balance of systems. Every path to victory feels tenable, and every win-condition has some resource or two that supports it.