Don’t forget there are modern ports like Dune Legacy and OpenRA a modern engine.
For me, the original Dune game isn’t even Dune 2, it’s an earlier game that was more of an adventure game, that tried to adapt the story of Paul.
Dune 2 was much more influential, of course. So influential that it suffers the problem of all old influential games, newer games have stripped it for parts and do what it does, but better.
Jimmy Maher at the Digital Antiquarian covered Dune and Dune 2 a while ago, and he was all in on the first Dune game (which absolutely sounded like it wouldn’t hold up for me, today, but is was completely unsurprising to me given his preferences).
I think you can play Dune 2 online somewhere? At least I played through the first mission or two and then realized that, actually, game design has moved on.
Also, I can only call the movie “Dune 2” (not “Dune Part Two”) so I’m constantly thinking of the game these days.
I replayed the Cryo Dune game recently, maybe last year. I’m a sucker for those kind of games that blend narrative and strategy. There were some quirks, but I thought it was totally worth playing!
UPDATE: There’s a thread!
Ah, just noticed it was @rei who started that thread too, so, guess I didn’t need to explain the game.
Yeah I also was really into the first Dune game, much more so than the second, which I found after having played stuff inspired by it, so didn’t work for me as well.
The first one remains an unique experience and a pretty good book-to-video game adaptation given the times.
The funny thing is, that first game at the time was a bit of a disaster, but today, if the gaming industry wasn’t currently on fire, a game adaptation of the book could be a success.
Man, Westwood Studios was the bomb.
It was a triumph in its country. I would have moved out of any country thinking it was anything but!
It was a comercial success, but the story of how it was developed, with funding being pulled, working almost in secret on the game, new management not realizing they were paying to have the game made, etc, a bit disastrous.
Loved the Cryo game, fun adventure game, but the strategy bits were badly underdeveloped. Would love to see someone develop a version with some actual though going into that part of the design.
I remember when I was in college my roommate had a copy of Dune 2 installed on his pc. First RTS game I ever tried, I flailed hopelessly at that game but I still enjoyed it. Wonder how it holds up.
The music was absolutely epic for the time.