Emperor: Battle For Dune
Publisher: WestWood

Westwood is a prestigious and recognizable name in the gaming industry for its real time strategy titles, beginning with Dune 2 and continuing with the Command & Conquer series. The company's wild success in the RTS genre has been viewed with a large degree of ambivalence as of late; as some argue that rehashing the same formula over and over again shows lack of innovation, while others see no need to interfere with an excellent design frame. Ultimately, any game can represent any design decision--it is the implementation of the chosen design that determines the quality and value of the title. To that end, the latest, much publicized RTS manifestation from Westwood has arrived in the form of Emperor: Battle for Dune. Touting a full 3-D graphics engine and an epic plot from a well-respected novel series, Emperor tries to show the gaming community that a tried-and-true formula can still prove refreshing and exhilarating after years of use. The degree to which the game achieves this plateau will be measured in the following pages.

Emperor takes advantage of the rich and intricate world of Frank Herbert's Dune series of novels. There are three factions that the player can choose from, all of which are desperately vying for an indispensable resource: spice mélange, the economic heart and soul of the world's body. Indeed, the trio of choices offers potential for a more complex storyline as well as additional replayability.

Click image to enlarge

This potential has certainly been fully exploited, as the noble Artreides, evil Harkonnen, and amoral Ordos factions are separated by more than their names. The full motion videos provide good explanations of the storyline and add a nice element to the overall feel of actually being part of the game instead of just a random detached commander. I was not a big fan of Red Alert 2's silly acting scheme, and luckily Emperor puts a more serious face on the acting, which I would take for granted given that you are only fighting for the entire universe. The number of such movies however, starts dwindling as you get midway through a campaign, but with three sides to choose from the complaint is mitigated. The first faction possesses formidable ground vehicles with a decent amount of versatility but slow speed. To complement this component of their battle force, the Artreides also have quicker moving but rather vulnerable infantry units. The Harkonnen wield awesome weapons of destruction capable of extensive damage with heavy assault vehicles and an infantry-killing contraption known 'affectionately' as the Buzzsaw. However, its units can be countered with the right combination of aerial attack and ranged fire. The Ordos possess great speed and some degree of cloaking ability, but overall their combat status depends on stealth and not methodical, attrition warfare. As if this mix was not enough, each group can also ally with various factions within the game and for multiplayer purposes, and each ally offers a couple new unique units. The looming question is, can these various combinations of units and strategy blend together properly to create a well-rounded gaming experience?