Dune: Spice Wars Showcases 4X Strategy In First Gameplay Trailer

thegamer.com:

It's been a few months since Dune: Spice Wars was first revealed at last year's Game Awards, and our patience is finally being rewarded with a first look at the upcoming strategy title's gameplay.

Today's gameplay trailer reveals a typical RTS screen layout if you've played a strategy game in the past two decades. The player's resources are noted in a bar across the top of the screen, including water, money, and population, as well as several icons we can't quite discern at the moment. But the largest and most obvious is spice, which is the main reason anyone goes to the desert planet Arrakis.

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After sending out an Ornithopter to explore the area, players can then ally themselves with the nearest village (or take it over militarily) to begin setting up spice harvesting operations. A region map shows what parts of Arrakis are controlled by allies and enemies, while local maps allow you to control units that are harvesting resources or fighting opposing units.

Although the layout says typical RTS, Shiro Games promises a fusion of real-time strategy and 4X strategy elements. Players can send spies to infiltrate enemy factions, can send political attacks, and make deals on the diplomacy screen. Not every problem must be solved through violence, and Shiro promises political attacks can be just as damaging as military ones.

As previously revealed in the Steam FAQs, Dune: Spice Wars' maps will be procedurally generated with permutations on size and wind strength. The game will start with two factions--the Atreides family and the Harkonnen Clan--but two more factions will be announced before the game's launch.

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