Status Chovus Aug 16, 2024
Beat the Atreides campaign using dosbox. I never even heard of this game back in the day so it was very interesting to experience the precursor to Command and Conquer and see where many of the series mechanics began. The copyright questions after the first level were annoying and it took a few tries to get past them after looking …
Beat the Atreides campaign using dosbox. I never even heard of this game back in the day so it was very interesting to experience the precursor to Command and Conquer and see where many of the series mechanics began. The copyright questions after the first level were annoying and it took a few tries to get past them after looking up the manual online. Some of the questions were very technical. The sandworms were a very cool mechanic as they encouraged me to avoid driving on sand and even try to lure them towards enemies. It was extremely annoying to lose a harvester but you got a free replacement when your last harvest was lost. This also applied to the enemy so attacking their economy was not a viable strategy. I preferred this over sniping harvesters in the C&C series. It seemed like the AI always had as much money as me so I don't believe they actually relied on harvesting to get money. I did not really like the mechanic of building concrete foundation under buildings because it was unnecessary tedium, but I did appreciate the trade off between taking extra time for full hp buildings vs plopping them down faster but having to then repair. It was also cool how buildings degraded over time and needed to be repaired periodically. The build menu was clunky and really should have been condensed to fit everything on 1 screen, and that menu broke the pace of the game by pausing.
My strategy for all but the final 2 missions was to immediately upgrade the construction yard so I could build 4x4 concrete, because 1 at a time was ridiculously tedious. Then build power plant, refinery, radar for map, light factory, heavy factory then 2nd harvester. Later maps had a few advanced buildings and units. Early on tactics were not fun; just mass the strongest unit and overwhelm the enemy using the insanely tedious 1 unit selection. It was not until later units were unlocked that I discovered proper tactics. The basic infantry unit could capture nearly destroyed enemy buildings like an engineer, but I never used this. I never even built the barracks because these units were so useless. They could also move over mountains but the levels were never designed to take advantage of that or capturing. The developers had the tech in place to make non base commando style missions but instead every mission was the same. The heavy infantry were stronger but I still never built any. I did use free infantry for defense and scouting until they died. The trike was the fastest unit so I used it to scout. No unit had good view range so revealing the map was very tedious. I suicided trikes into the enemy base to map it out to best plan my attack because the AI continuously rebuilt buildings and pumped out every kind of unit. It was absolutely imperative to bee line for the enemy construction yard and destroy it in a single attack otherwise the attack would be a huge waste. Once they could not rebuild I could more leisurely take out the unit production buildings, but they still continuously pumped out troops. Trikes were also good for baiting rockets but not much use at actually attacking. Quads had a balance of speed and power that made them good at taking out rocket launchers. Combat tanks were the most balanced unit and the best available from the factory, so I typically pumped them out until the unit cap then purchased better units from the star port. By late game I was using siege tanks (slower and more powerful than combat tanks) supporting massed rocket launchers. The launchers could kite siege tanks and infantry while also just barely out ranging the over powered rocket turrets, but needed help against faster units. They also did massive damage to buildings and could destroy the construction yard in seconds with a surgical strike. I usually picked off the static guard units with kiting then slowly sniped the turrets to clear a path to the yard. Then it was a slow process of methodically destroying the base and units while sending units back to my base for repair. I did use the few sonic tanks I was given but never bothered to build any; they were good against infantry and light vehicles but overall not better than siege tanks. I did not try out the Ornithopters but they were devastating to me on a couple levels. Rocket launchers were not anti air and there did not seem to be any anti air units; maybe heavy infantry? Rocket turrets took care of them though. During 1 level I could have lost my entire attack force but my tank managed to limp back to base with the enemy flyer in tow to be shot down. The carryalls were useful for automatic transport of harvesters and damaged units but I did not bother with them for the later levels as they just didn't seem worth the investment.
The final 2 levels were absurdly difficult with constant streams of enemies from multiple enemy bases and repeated cruise missile strikes that could easily 1 shot any unit or building. It was like the NOD nuke only infinitely reusable. It was so unfair and took a lot of save scumming and redundant building. I did discover that I could build lines of concrete to put buildings further apart so that not too much would be lost from each cruise missile. I had 2 separated refineries so my economy could never be lost, and regularly purchased MVCs from the star port to replace my construction yard. In fact I didn't even build the heavy factory and only relied on siege tanks and rocket launchers from the starport. Several rocket turrets were key to defense against the onslaught while I slowly scouted out the enemy bases and began dismantling them. I did try the Fremen but they were not that useful; just a bunch of heavy infantry that were easily slain. Apparently they were better in the patched version. I did download the patch but forgot to install it. I then started the Harkonen campaign and it was pretty much the same. The mission structure was pretty much identical and I quickly grew bored of the pre rocket launcher gameplay and stopped playing. Not sure if I will ever bother to finish those 2 campaigns because this game did not age well. I imagine the devastator tanks would require more micro to avoid them destroying my own units upon their death. Not sure how useful it would be to suicide them into the enemy. It would definitely be worth going for cruise missiles for the final missions for cheap wins. The only Ordos unit of the note was the mind control rocket launcher, which could change the faction of a unit until it took damage. This might be a bit helpful when attacking an enemy base.
Dune 2 was a pioneer of the RTS genre that broke significant ground back in the day. It had a lot of great mechanics but was held back by lackluster mission design, limited tactics, and the complete lack of multi unit selection. Good for the time but I think Warcraft 1 was better.
7.3/10
