I gotta say as one fascinated by the effects, design, cast and music of the original 1984 Lynch movie (but not enough so to suffer through the books), this game did the most for me of any of the post-84 Dune incarnations I've seen or played, including the lifeless miniseries and both the earlier computer games.
The plotting and acting are both very good, somewhat sub-Lynch movie, but definitely above the miniseries. Vincent Schiavelli makes an excellent Harkonnen mentat (complete with gaunt, depressing look and a slight lisp) who follows you around for the entire game offering instructions and advice. Michael Dorn give the Atreides a professional presence - more so than just being the "good guys", and thankfully Michael McShane from "Whose Line is it Anyway?" is used sparingly.
It's neat to see the Space guild as the main villains who in the end try to breed a man-worm hybrid to conquer the galaxy. Of course it's the final mission to destroy the giant worm before it becomes too powerful, and this is made VERY difficult by the space guild's advanced weapons. The cut-scenes have some bad blue-screening, but I guess that's necessary when the bulk of the game's budget goes to the gaming.
Though a standard RTS, there is a bit of a steep learning curb in figuring out how a lot of the weapons work. Stuff like the Tlexiu or Ix monsters which can mutate enemy units and tanks seem to work a lot better for the computer than for you, and for some reason the enemy ALWAYS knows to attack your harvester at the worst possible moment... but the lighting / explosion effects and animation of the tanks and little Sadaukar terror troops is amusing and more than makes up for it. I found it significantly more fun than the similar Command and Conquer games from the same period (this was around when Red Alert 2 came out) and an exciting retread to David Lynch's Dune universe, needed ever since it's mutilating by the Sci Fi channel miniseries.
The plotting and acting are both very good, somewhat sub-Lynch movie, but definitely above the miniseries. Vincent Schiavelli makes an excellent Harkonnen mentat (complete with gaunt, depressing look and a slight lisp) who follows you around for the entire game offering instructions and advice. Michael Dorn give the Atreides a professional presence - more so than just being the "good guys", and thankfully Michael McShane from "Whose Line is it Anyway?" is used sparingly.
It's neat to see the Space guild as the main villains who in the end try to breed a man-worm hybrid to conquer the galaxy. Of course it's the final mission to destroy the giant worm before it becomes too powerful, and this is made VERY difficult by the space guild's advanced weapons. The cut-scenes have some bad blue-screening, but I guess that's necessary when the bulk of the game's budget goes to the gaming.
Though a standard RTS, there is a bit of a steep learning curb in figuring out how a lot of the weapons work. Stuff like the Tlexiu or Ix monsters which can mutate enemy units and tanks seem to work a lot better for the computer than for you, and for some reason the enemy ALWAYS knows to attack your harvester at the worst possible moment... but the lighting / explosion effects and animation of the tanks and little Sadaukar terror troops is amusing and more than makes up for it. I found it significantly more fun than the similar Command and Conquer games from the same period (this was around when Red Alert 2 came out) and an exciting retread to David Lynch's Dune universe, needed ever since it's mutilating by the Sci Fi channel miniseries.