Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (1992)

Westwood Studios

Acorn Archimedes · Amiga · DOS · Sega Mega Drive/Genesis

4.03 from 152 ratings

291 members have it in their collection · 5 playing now · 43 backlogged · 52 wish listed

How long? Main story 6h · 100% 23h (from 3 logged playthroughs)

Dune II is often considered the first mainstream modern real-time strategy game and established many conventions of the genre. Even though set in Frank Herbert's famous Dune universe, the game is only loosely connected to the plot of any of the books or the films based from them. Controlling either of the three Houses, the player must fight a number … Read more
Dune II is often considered the first mainstream modern real-time strategy game and established many conventions of the genre. Even though set in Frank Herbert's famous Dune universe, the game is only loosely connected to the plot of any of the books or the films based from them. Controlling either of the three Houses, the player must fight a number of battles against the other Houses. In the early levels, the goal is simply to earn a certain number of credits, while in the later missions, all enemies must be destroyed. The single resource in the game is the Spice, which must be collected by harvesters. The spice is converted to credits in a refinery, which are then spent to construct additional buildings and units. There are two terrain types: buildings can only be constructed on stone, while the Spice is only found on sand. However, units moving on sand attract the large sandworms of Dune, who are virtually indestructible and can swallow even large units whole. As levels progress, new and more advanced buildings and units are made available, including structures like a radar station, a repair facility or defense turrets and, for units, various ground troops, light vehicles and tanks. Each House can construct one unique special unit, and, after building a palace improvement, can unleash a unique palace effect. Read less
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Details

Developers
Westwood Studios
Publishers
Virgin Games
Genres
Real Time Strategy (RTS), Strategy
Themes
Science fiction
Franchises
Frank Herbert's Dune
Series
Dune

Release dates

  • Dec 1992 (North_America) DOS
  • 1992 (Europe) DOS
  • 1993 (Europe) Amiga
  • 1993 (North_America) Amiga
  • 1995 (Worldwide) Acorn Archimedes

Also available on

Related

Remakes

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Featured in lists

Rating distribution

5 stars
57
4 stars
57
3 stars
26
2 stars
10
1 star
2
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Community All Reviews Statuses

killerstar

Review killerstar 2/5 · Apr 14, 2023

I like the idea of having to place concrete to build structures. It reminds me of another RTS in which you had to "terraform" the soil before expanding (Perimeter). But building and placing each slab one by one is too tedious.

But the two big issues are that units are too dumb and need to be ultra micromanaged …

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I like the idea of having to place concrete to build structures. It reminds me of another RTS in which you had to "terraform" the soil before expanding (Perimeter). But building and placing each slab one by one is too tedious.

But the two big issues are that units are too dumb and need to be ultra micromanaged (they can have an enemy at arms reach and wont attack unless you explicitly tell them to) and that you cannot select more than one unit at a time. So if you have more than a few units, then each troop movement is a long and tedious of clicking each unit, clicking on "attack", and then clicking on the enemy. It's just terribly annoying.

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kupomog337

Review kupomog337 4/5 · Jan 21, 2023

You are the King of all the land, In the Kingdom of the sands, Of a time tomorrow!

I'm not sure how many people will get that reference. Anyway, ahem, this game is pretty good.enter image description here It is a RTS game set within the world of Frank Herbert's excellent Dune books (well, excellent before his son shat all over the franchise). It's a very interesting take on the world in my opinion, with many troops and tanks looking garish …

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I'm not sure how many people will get that reference. Anyway, ahem, this game is pretty good.enter image description here It is a RTS game set within the world of Frank Herbert's excellent Dune books (well, excellent before his son shat all over the franchise). It's a very interesting take on the world in my opinion, with many troops and tanks looking garish and straight out of a Silver Age comic book, I'd say this would have to be my favourite take on the designs and feel of the world. Even more than David Lynch's one (the one with Sting in it). Anyway, I think the gameplay has aged quite well, and is actually quite beginner friendly, it's easy to pick up and play (in the figurative sense, don't accidentally drop your PC, kiddos), I say as someone who has never played an RTS, this seems to be a good place to start in such an intimidating genre. Anyway, enough rambling. I just love Dune, okay? (7/10, or 'good and a half' for you connoisseurs out there)

also it's the perfect game to play while jamming out to this

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