“The Spice must flow.” And so it shall, alongside proverbial rivers of blood which aren’t actually depicted in Dune: Spice Wars. By slaughter or peaceful annexation, the Emperor shall get his Spice shipments either way. Arrakis may be a desert planet, but it is far from devoid of life or meaning. As the only place in the galaxy to contain the performance-enhancing drug known as Spice Melange, it was natural for competing factions to wage war on each other when diplomacy failed.

The previous Dune video game I played at length, was “Emperor: Battle for Dune”. An RTS released in 2001 which also counts among my very first forays into PC strategy. I find it very odd that no other games using the Dune license would be released since this title. We’re talking of over two decades, you can bet that fans were itching to get back on Arrakis, especially since 2021’s Dune film has been critically acclaimed as one of the finest adaptations for the silver screen. There’s no better time to dive into Frank Herbert’s space epic first published in 1965, than as of right now.

Dune: Spice Wars is developed by Shiro Games and published by Funcom. Both companies have experience with strategy, in fact Shiro’s Northgard influences can be felt across Spice Wars’ gameplay. This new title is far more than a reskin or low effort adaptation for a pausable 4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) which features the real time perspective instead of the more traditional turn-based approach. The central theme of corporate greed hastening political decline is very well portrayed.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2801446369

If you study the written material’s vast lore, you will begin to understand just how much have Dune and Frank Herbert influenced other Sci-Fi franchises. Spice Wars could have benefitted from the introduction of a glossary for characters, organizations and concepts specific to the Dune universe. You can’t expect novices to fully grasp CHOAM’s tendrils or the imperial ambitions of House Corrino which isn’t yet represented as a faction. House Ordos is also absent from the base game, but I can only hope they’ll make an appearance in a subsequent DLC.

Here’s a mind bending mouthful for you: CHOAM (Combine Honnete Over Advancer Mercantiles) is a galaxy-spanning corporation that has a direct influence on policy making within a slowly-crumbling space empire filled to the brim with equally cunning and overzealous nobles looking to further their own standing in an inherently oppressive society. What the commoners desire, pales in comparison to the whims of the nobility. Progress, you say?

Spice is the most precious commodity in the lore since it facilitates the space travel that sustains the entire imperial infrastructure. If CHOAM is important for economic stability, everything else still depends on the goodwill of the Spacing Guild. They matter so much that Dune’s calendar is split between two timelines: BG and AG. “Before” and “After” the founding of the Guild. Players start their campaigns in 10192 AG and they can potentially finish the main mission objectives in less than two in-game years. The structure is open-ended and you’ll invariably default on the ever-increasing Spice taxes or bribes.

Since the game doesn’t yet make use of the Order of Mentats or the Bene Gesserit cult, I won’t dwell upon them. Spice Wars is still thin on exposition or even a proper tutorial. You’re cut loose too fast, in my opinion. And it doesn’t really help that the four factions from the base game, do have distinct features helping or hindering certain victory conditions. First and foremost, you have two major noble houses vying for control over Arrakis: the honorable Atreides focusing on diplomatic agreements and the cruel, unpredictable Harkonnen preferring sheer violence instead.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2802492592

Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV has tasked Duke Leto Atreides and Baron Vladimir Harkonnen with pacifying the desert planet and maintaining the continuous extraction, storage and safe delivery of Spice to be shipped off-world. The remaining two factions are the wild cards in the imperial equation: highly organised Smugglers lead by Esmar Tuek and the Fremen (single “E”, not a typo) native tribes which formed a confederacy under the banner of Liet Kynes.

Unity Engine is used to render Dune: Spice Wars and there’s a small distinction here by having the option to boot up the game in either DirectX or OpenGL modes. The latter provided me with a smoother frame rate, but your mileage may vary based on personal system specifications. I have no bugs, glitches or crashes to report and I was pleased that I could hide the in-game HUD by pressing a single button. F2 should do the trick for you too, if you’re looking for great screenshots. I want to suggest the future implementation of a rotating camera since the fixed perspective can’t truly capture Arrakis’ beauty from multiple angles.

Not nearly enough voice acting for a title of this importance. The narrator from the intro is so far the most capable in terms of line delivery. Faction leaders and units have a limited number of recorded phrases which they repeat ad nauseam. There’s too much “silent text” at play here and while I’m perfectly fine with reading, dialogue is the key to an engaging storyline in gaming. Repetition has an adverse effect.

The faction specialties should be enough to warrant multiple playthroughs. Take the Fremen, for example. They don’t use Spice Harvesters, instead mining the resources by hand. Why is this important for them? The Arrakis natives have a symbiotic relationship with the infamous Sandworms that would otherwise be a threat to anyone causing vibrations. Fremen warriors even use proprietary “thumpers” to attract those massive monsters and use them as an unconventional means of transportation across the vast, deadly desert. Every other faction should fear and avoid the Sandworms. Sandstorms and enemy raids are far more predictable, yet still causes for concern.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2802492665

Proper defense will go a long way as your armies aren’t as mobile as you’d expect. I mean, the aforementioned “Emperor: Battle for Dune” was so vehicle-centric while Spice Wars has next to no options apart from infantry and some drone support. Transport and recon aircraft cannot be engaged in combat at all. Lastly, I want to address the diplomatic and political maneuvers you’ll be undertaking in this game. You must outwit your opponents as much as you should attempt to undermine their military operations.

Keep in mind that Spice Wars have released under the Early Access label. While some features need expansion, I’m certain many improvements won’t be locked behind any DLC paywall. You can regard the current game mode as “campaign sandbox”, since there are sliders for anything from competitor AI to natural hazard occurrence. You can even choose to play with a single faction on a large map having no AI competitors and you could still unlock most of the game’s Steam Achievements apart from the ones tied to difficulty. Learning the ropes in that way is a far better tutorial than the one currently present.

+ Beautiful graphics.
+ Competent 4X – RTS hybrid.
+ Steam Trading Cards & Achievements.
+ Replay value through factional bonuses.

- Not nearly enough voice acting, the current one being repetitive.
- Current lack of scenarios and fleshed out missions.

This article was submitted for Imperial Reviews. Following my Curator Page, will help me keep publishing new reviews as soon as I can. Thank you for your support!