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Dune: Spice Wars
Released On: Sep 14, 2023
74
6.4
All Platforms
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
74
58% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
26% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
74
58% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
26% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Dune: Spice Wars from developer Shiro Games is the ultimate experience for any Dune fan looking for a well-designed and respectful translation of the sci-fi series into an RTS gaming form. It has all the intricate details and power moves that are featured in the books, while at the same time crafted to be a familiar real-time strategy experience at its forefront. The only downer is the amount of gameplay element juggling a casual RTS fan might have to do to enjoy the game, which could turn them off from playing it.
Dune: Spice Wars masterfully translates the intricate conflict for Arrakis to the gaming screen, delivering an engaging experience while it lets you delve into conquesting new territories, political machinations within the Landsraad, CHOAM share trading, and forging unexpected alliances. Despite the absence of a significant story campaign and stupid AI, it still offers an addictive strategic journey that can easily make you lose track of time.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 25 User Ratings
6.4
40% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
48% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
12% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 25 User Ratings
6.4
40% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
48% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
12% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Shiro has delivered, daringly and **** advice: Read everything, tooltips, goals, etc. Pause the game and read everything, so you understand what is happening and won't get lost later on. The systems and lingo urge you to know what they are talking about. I got defeated at 'campaign' mode. And i had no clue as to why at first, I was winning on all fronts so i thought. The obscurity of systems and the wall of info put me off at first. It is not an easy game. There is very much to take in. Especially because the game is very unique. There is no other game like it. Give yourself the luxury of knowing this game. You will love it. Apart from this hurdle of uniqueness, Dune Spice Wars is a very very good game, and the more you play it the more the systems will become second nature. And the more you will master Arrakis by your own **** is the game a Dune game? Yes. It's more Dune than any RTS ever could be, it is more Dune than the new movie is. It is less Dune than the first Cryo game from 1992. And it is on par with the Boardgame from the 70's. In other words, it is a freeform Dune game with a lot of unique elements from the universe. Overall it is a beautiful looking UI. But one of my major complaints stems from EA:The UI needs a lot of focus of the player, it can be too busy with icons and lingo, you can get lost and have to pause the game just to make sense of every icon, meaning and alert button. It is a lot to take in and sometimes hard to keep up and therefore sometimes very hard to make the right decisions and stay on course concerning your tactic.Once it clicks however you really do feel like the Ruler of the Known World. And that is a fantastic feeling. When you win it is all your doing, when you lose, you need to consider if you really made the strategic puzzle fit to the scheme at hand. My suggestion in campaign mode? Focus on the straightforward missions. Do nothing else. What i find lately is zooming out completely makes it a game of moving icons, but you do gain all the vision needed as a commander. It works best to play this game like that. It is a bit of a shame sometimes all the beautiful vistas you miss playing this way, but you zoom in enough during gameplay. Everything is easily done once you get the hang of it, but the learning part can be a problem for many players.Nevertheless, even though this game needs getting used to, and you need to learn to play. It is fantastically crafted and very lovingly executed. Very polished and cared for. The campaign in the form of roguelite missions is simply fantastic. I will always prefer this mode above anything else. I get beat at easy mode, after 100 hours in EA. Which is a good thing. I never had these tense battles before 1.0. **** is the best Dune pcgame that has ever been made. Period. It is very daring blend of genres and a genuine authentic Dune experience as a whole.I am deeply in love with it. Albeit the game is void of soul and personality in the form of storytelling. An introduction to the House/Faction or a glimpse of grander scale could easily mitigate this. However the game itself does the most telling for you, and it **** you into the core. Something the Westwood games did with video and moreso the trailers for this game did wonderfully. I don't care for the discussion about whatw a sprimised in Ea or what they delivered was not canon. For me it captures the essence of Dune wonderfully and i don't care if it is not a RTS or there is no story campaign. The campaign we got is 1000 times better and very replayable. This game is the best Dune game there is. Trust me.
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PC
Dune: Spice Wars is an excellent Dune-licensed RTS. The approach to the game mechanics is fresh and functional, net of some various imbalances.
Dune Spice Wars pays homage to the source material in a clear and often effective way. The strategic foundations that the Shiro Games team has laid are also solid, thanks to the various mechanics that refer to the Dune universe. However, on this well-studied foundation the team has built an experience that is at times superficial. The depth and complexity that one would expect from a game set in such a rich imagination are lost in some choices that we struggled to understand. That said, those who love the reference genre and Frank Herbert's iconic novels should give Spice Wars a chance.
Dune: Spice Wars is a very well-made game, but it falls short in not being able to give the proper relevance to all the game modes.
A competent strategy outing, Dune: Spice Wars provides a range of strategic systems that offer engaging decision points for players. However, without a narrative campaign, options for play are limited, and immersion into this classic sci-fi setting is held back by samey environments and shallow combat.
I've been thoroughly enjoying this game for a couple of days now. Every faction plays differently enough to provide replayability and there are options for different approaches to conquering the planet.
Having a game mode where a full game can be played in one evening helps, too.
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PC
Northgard tries to be Stellaris.
Northgard has its own niche of “survival RTS” but also of embracing relative simplicity. I find it quite impossible to play competently in multiplayer because every region has two economic multipliers, most have one special modifier and all have wind strength. All agents have their own multipliers too. It makes us jump through very arbitrary hoops to optimize our region’s income. Like build one building of each of the three categories to get different bonus, there are tons of variations of that. Or unique buildings that affect all surrounding regions.
So all the complexity of a Paradox title, while always feeling too small. It keeps the “cuteness” of Northgard and you will rarely have more than 15 units, with are displayed as up to 5 individual soldiers. It’s the furthest from epic possible.
I maybe would give it a 5 if there were more, better games of that type out there, but there really aren’t, so it gets the 7 for being a big fish in a small pond.
P.S. Shiros PR team practically nuked their own game by double gaslighting the community.
1st, they claimed to be the most lore accurate Dune adaptation ever made, but it ended up being incredible “current year”. The genderswaps are insane, especially since Frank Herbert thought a lot about gender. For example, 3 of the 5 Fremen ground units are women. However, later in the story the messiah replaces the Fremen who were his army during his galactic crusade with an all female peacekeeping force. If men already were marginalized within the Fremen military, why build the Fish Speakers from scratch instead of fireing the 40% males and keeping his Fremen females.
2nd, they promised a campaign, but changed the scope and axed the campaign. Fine, but instead of just saying that like normal people, they decided that they can just call their Conquest / Domination mode a campaign and say all goals have been met. Everyone knows that a campaign has a story and customized missions, not just a succession of random map games that can earn random bonuses for the next random map game.
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PC
At the premise, Dune:Spice Wars had me with the theme & graphics. The tutorials were quite intuitive and I thought that it would make me immerse in the game quickly. That didn't happen.
Game offers you three different types of single player experience. I went with the first one. And suddenly... I didn't feel ok.
My main base was firing rockets at attackers, which I didn't learn of until... it fired them.
I didn't understand the purpose of my campaign, I got tons of messages which were new to me.
The whole experience was like "meh", I didn't feel it, in opposition to my experiences with the old Dune games
I am completely aware that I didn't invest much time into this game, but it just didn'te encourage me into doing so.
It is a visually nice game, but I don't get it's eventual depth and as I am getting older (sic!) I want a game that gets me hooked right in. As a fan of the old Dune movies and games this one felt just... boring.
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PC
Don't understand IGN saying that this game deserves score 9.0 do they only care playing games for multiplayer ?? Dune the novel is full of stories and complicated characters and lore and this game has nothing of that. It's missing a proper campaign/story mode with missions there is only a "conquest mode" basically a battle of skirmishes in a map where you do the same battles and economic choices . Overall gets boring and very repetitive it's barebones. Also, diplomacy feels lackluster with only basic choices and as for the Tech tree there is nothing really worthwhile to invest just few upgrades. Feels like a poor early access game made for multiplayer i am very disappointed.
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PC
A barebones and shallow game.
While the Dune universe implementation is passable at best, the strategic aspect doesn't have a lot going for it. Combat is barebones and uninspiring, very few units to speak of and hard to figure out which is best for what.
Environment is one big flat surface, although visually there are some cliffs and elevation, they don't matter. I understand Dune is a desert planet and it's inherently a vast open space, but it does have cliffs choke points etc. You'll see none of that here.
It has a few well implemented, albeit not very well explained system, such as politics which is interesting but since it's not really obvious how it works doesn't help with the overall impression.
Bottom line, this is a barebones and rushed game with a few well implemented mechanics but unfortunately .not enough to make it even an okay game.
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PC
Summary 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.
Platforms:
- PC
- Xbox Series X
Initial Release Date: Sep 14, 2023
Developer:
- Shiro Games
Publisher: Funcom
Genres:
