Dune: Spice Wars
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What the press is saying
“Overall, I’m very impressed so far with Dune: Spice Wars […] Even in its early access form, Dune: Spice Wars is shaping up to be a triumphant return.” – IGN
“The 4X take on the war for Arrakis feels like it captures a lot of what makes the Dune stories interesting, from the warfare to the political intrigue.” – GameSpot
“This game is easily the most faithful to the Dune universe that I’ve played.” – CNET
“I’ve spent the bulk of my weekend playing an early access build of Dune: Spice Wars and, perhaps unsurprisingly, as someone who loves 4X strategy games, I was obsessed.” – Twinfinite
“Dune: Spice Wars is wonderful […] Even in this unfinished state, Dune: Spice Wars is giving me the Dune video game I’ve been dreaming of for decades.” – Cinelinx
About the Game
A 4X real-time strategy game from the developers of the critically acclaimed Northgard. Set in Frank Herbert’s groundbreaking Dune universe, you must lead your faction and battle for control and dominance over the harsh desert planet of Arrakis.
Spice is the most valuable resource in the universe. The spice extends life, expands consciousness, and makes interstellar travel possible. Found only on Arrakis, it is sought by the most influential forces in the universe. Play as one of several factions, including House Atreides, House Harkonnen, the Smugglers, and the native Fremen, and compete for power over Dune and the spice.
Scan the landscape for wormsign or risk losing your troops and spice harvesters to titanic sandworms who will burst through the dunes to swallow and devour them whole. Crush your opponents in combat, best them through political intrigue, and undermine them with your network of illusive spies.
Experience the unique Dune universe, one of the most influential sci-fi settings ever created. Lead your faction to victory with iconic characters, such as Duke Leto Atreides, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Esmar Tuek, and Liet Kynes. Stay alert as opposing factions seek to gain the upper hand and the planet itself threatens with withering deserts, huge storms, and consuming sandworms.
Balance open warfare, subterfuge, political influence, and economic supremacy to prevail and gain control over the most important planet in the universe! Use secretive agents to sabotage the plans of your opponents. Vote on political resolutions in the Landsraad to further your strategy.
Explore Dune with ornithopters to discover resources, villages, and points of interest. Expand with your troops to take control of more and more regions. Exploit the resources through buildings and spice harvesters to dominate the economy. Exterminate your enemies with a strong military but beware as outright aggression can have high political repercussions.
Take the path of honor and political power as the respected House Atreides, or choose violence and devious plots as House Harkonnen. Become master of desert survival and guerilla tactics with the native Fremen and gain influence through shady deals and infiltration as the Smugglers.
Tailor each faction’s existing strengths and weaknesses by selecting your councilors. With the Atreides’ legendary swordmaster Duncan Idaho at your side, expansion and combat prowess are improved. Gain power over people and information with the aid of Chani Kynes of the Fremen, or overwhelm with military might with Rabban of the Harkonnens.
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care…
The game will be updated and expanded with a full campaign and multiplayer, including more features and improved balance throughout Early Access, based on your crucial feedback.
Chief 0
So with the recent hype coming from a second part of Dune movie, I decided to extend my experience and play this game.
Probably, if it wasn't backed by large franchise this RTS wouldn't make it to my list of "games to play".
It offers interesting strategy mechanics and is not demanding quick reactions from players.
However, the way it allows you to take decisions slowly, also limits you in ability to perform quick actions.
Sessions last 2-3 hours, and often you dont have any choices to do something, but wait for resources.
Besides, it is so much focused on strategy, that tactics really doesnt change anything. After 3 hours session you might find out there is no way to win current session, no matter what you do, and you still have to wait another 30 minutes until you loose.
Steam User 391
It's like an RTS for old people who can't click fast enough for Starcraft. I'm old so I mean this as a compliment.
Steam User 346
It seems to me that a lot of negative reviews are from people who either care deeply about having a story-driven campaign, who are die-hard fans of prior Dune games, and/or have very fixed ideas about what a Dune game (or an RTS) is supposed to be.
For my part, I think it's absurd that Dune: Spice Wars has a "Mixed" rating as of the time of my review. Now, I am not a fan of traditional RTSes, and I would not want to play this game multiplayer. But if you're a single-player strategy game fan who usually prefers turn-based games or grand strategy titles like those made by Paradox, I think you'll find Dune: Spice Wars to be a lot of fun. The ability to pause means the twitchy, click-fest nature of RTS games isn't an issue, so you can play at a relatively slow pace and make tactical decisions without first having to develop the kind of muscle memory you'd need to be even half decent at games like Starcraft. So, again, this is an RTS for folks who like TBS and grand strategy.
Part of what makes Dune: Spice Wars work - and part of why I think a purely narrative-driven campaign would be weird - is that this is a game of several interwoven systems. It reminds me of a Euro board game, with a great many resources to keep track of, strategic decisions to make, and paths to victory. It is not a game of tactics. Yes, you probably want to make sure your armies focus fire individual opposing units, and you can do some small micro with damaged units (moving them out of attack range), but this isn't Age of Empires. Rather, the focus of the game is on more strategic things like building a better economy than your opponent, having better information and mobility, and determining how your current situation meshes with your faction's particular strengths and weaknesses.
Of course, like any system-driven game, Dune: Spice Wars does not have a ton of content. Maps ARE procedurally generated, so no two battles (or stages of a conquest) are the exact same, but Dune isn't exactly the most geographically varied setting in SciFi to begin with. Factions are definitely very different from each other both to play as and to play against, so that provides a good deal of variety. But if what you're looking for is a deep story with a ton to discover and explore, this game ain't it. There's no pretension at being a strategy game + RPG like a Crusader Kings or Age of Wonders. There's not really even emergent narrative as you might find in Europa Universalis or Stellaris. Nope, this is a strategy game, a game of mechanics and systems.
I've been playing conquest mode and am enjoying it quite a bit in part because it mixes up your objectives from map to map. And I think it highlights one of Dune: Spice Wars's greatest strengths. It FEELS like a grand strategy game, but any given map only takes an hour or two to finish (maybe a tad more if you pause a lot, or possibly less if you're an expert and don't pause much). I have found that conquest mode in particular helps me scratch my grand strategy itch while still respecting my time and fitting into a couple hour gaming session after work in the evening, something I struggle with when playing many Paradox games, as it can take an hour for me just to get my bearings if I haven't played in a couple days, so I tend to play only when I have a large chunk of time to devote to a campaign.
So, in summary, if you're a strategy board game fan, an EU4 fan, or a non-traditional RTS (think Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom) fan, Dune: Spice Wars is for you. It's an RTS in which the "S" is the star, rather than the "RT".
Steam User 163
TL,DR:
Real good RTS game with focus on FFA mode.
Dune Spice Wars is a slow paced RTS. Unlike classic RTS your main goal is not to annihilate the enemy. With focus on a "real" FFA game mode ("Free for all": no allied victory) you achieve victory by being opportunistic. Of course, you can still wipe the enemy base from the map. But you can also just eliminate the enemy leader, win by owning most spice shares, win by being elected the leader or by gathering the most hegemony points.
In this regard, Dune feels far more like a real time Civilization than a Command & Conquer or Starcraft. Combat is very simplified. You rather have to prepare your assault correctly instead of pulling off some 300 apm micro skill set.
Team games are possible, but I would say, they are not the core of the game.
I see that the mixed reviews come from old school gamers, who expected more or less a sequel to the venerated Dune 2 from 1994. This game does not share anything but the setting with the Westwood games. Still, it is a great experience to play and it fills the RTS FFA niché like it intends to.
Steam User 143
It is the most authentic Dune RTS you can have. The issue with other fellow buyers is that they were expecting an Age of Empires with sandworms. The focus of the game couldn't be more different. Spice Wars is about setting up a succesful spice extraction operation, dealing with increasing demands from the Emperor while using subterfuge and military moves to sabotage your "allies of the Landsraad" (read: competition). It is Age of Empires meets Offworld Trade Company - the result being very fun.
Steam User 422
"REFUNDS ON PRE-PURCHASED TITLES
When you pre-purchase a title on Steam (and have paid for the title in advance), you can request a refund at any time prior to release of that title. The standard 14-day/two-hour refund period also applies, starting on the game’s release date."
Early Access titles technically fall under this clause of the Steam refund policy. Request a refund with this clause mentioned, Steam may give push-back but will usually acquiesce if you do the same. I like this game a lot but I hate developers quietly scrapping their roadmap and shoving out a 1.0 far more than my enjoyment of this games only viable game mode, the multiplayer skirmish.
Steam User 127
TLDR its an excellent game, I recommend it, BUT:
Don't come here looking for a single player story mode campaign. There isn't one despite perhaps everyone expecting one, as well as other features which were hinted at being availiable at launch.
Being a fan of this game has been a weird ride. The game has spent so long in early access, and the news about updates have been very sparce, and kinda confusing.. I actually forgot it was an early access game. In 2022 one update (that I was particularly excited about checking out with friends) dropped a month after the announcement said it would, they stopped holding their breath and moved onto different games waiting for it. Heroes of Dune update was intended for 1.0, but now instead we get Ecaz the filler house.
Despite that, it's still probably the best and truest representation of Dune you could fit into a 4X strategy game. Shiro have done an amazing job encoding so much lore and politics into a game while still keeping it well paced and exciting.
If you love Dune, you won't find a game which makes you feel more like the head of a great house or it's mentats. There's dozens of ways to defeat other houses, disrupt their supply chain, cause political conflicts, launch spy operations..
There is no single player campaign, but I think it would have elevated the game to 10/10 if there was.
(It's not too late to add one Shiro!!)
Playing in skirmishes is fine but the difficulty curve is very steep, and I imagine once a person got to a point of learning all of the AI's tendencies and consistently winning the game would lose a lot of appeal and replayability very quickly. Where's the ramp?
It's one of the most complicated strategy games I've ever played, and last minute they took away any hope of you having anything less than an infuriating time trying to learn all of the things which can go wrong
You forgot to add the ramp Shiro, but it's still some of the best stairs I've ever used.
Steam User 63
long time RTS player, StarCraft era. This game definitely has a super strong foundation and the recent updates have been polishing this game up pretty nice.
Pros?
the game round prep is very nice with the Main Faction/House selection + 2 officers/advisors (some you might remember for the movie) This helps define your play-style with those passive perks towards offense or defense styles. this scratches that RTS itch in a fresh game. Love the troops, ground/air mix is sweet. The worms keep your resource harvesting always a thing you have to keep an eye on. Is it worth being greedy to get the spice or play it safe and keep your crew protected?
Cons?
mostly visual minor stuffs lol. I do wish certain villages/cities were more defined with more buildings though, would love to see a population growth similar to Civ-style games. Wish they added more units per group, would love to see bigger battles with troop numbers. But that might just be my own biased opinion lol.
Look forward to see how this evolves, and hoping they add more advisors as well as factions/houses.