In Dune: Spice Wars, The Planet Arrakis Is As Deadly As Everyone Else

gamespot.com:

Dune, Frank Herbert's seminal 1965 sci-fi novel, has endured for half a century for many reasons. It takes place in a world rife with political intrigue and fearsome spycraft, where trust is just as valuable as the spice that animates the planet Arrakis. That makes Dune fertile ground for the 4X approach to strategy games--Shiro Games' Dune: Spice Wars tries to leverage these multitudes to give players a whole lot more to keep track of than just where enemy's soldiers are.

We played several hours of the early access version of Dune: Spice Wars ahead of its release, which gives a pretty solid--although still somewhat incomplete--look at the game and how it works. Battling for Arrakis requires some military might, but not nearly as much as you might think. In fact, the game is designed so that standing armies stay small and battles rarely rise above momentary skirmishes. Even if you want a military victory over your opponents, conquering the harsh planet of Arrakis is often much easier than actually governing it.

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

Sign up or Sign in now!

By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Now Playing: Dune Spice Wars Hands-on Preview

If you're unfamiliar with it, the story of Dune--both the novel and its movie adaptations, including director Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film--is set in the distant future in a galaxy-spanning feudalistic society, not too different from that of, say, medieval Europe. There are great houses, led by dukes and barons, which make up a government called the Landsraad that's part of a larger empire. There are also various commercial enterprises, like the CHOAM