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Dune: Spice Wars is a real-time strategy (RTS) game developed by Shiro Games and published by Funcom and Shiro games. The Early Access hit stores on April 26, 2022, but it’s still very much under development with a detailed roadmap for the year ahead. It features the most prominent factions from the books and movies while also adding a few others.

Although the complete game isn’t out yet, there’s plenty to enjoy in the Early Access of Dune: Spice Wars. I decided to head out in my Ornithopter to see what it’s like living on the desert planet of Arrakis.

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Can you rule Arrakis in Dune: Spice Wars?

I’m very excited to have my hands on Dune: Spice Wars in the early stages. My love for Frank Herbert’s books stemmed from playing Dune 2000 on the PlayStation 1, an original copy I still hold in my possession. From there, I read the novels and watched the movies from that time, digging deeper into the lore. I couldn’t wait to play this RTS game to see how it lives up to the franchise.

Selecting a faction

The adventure in Dune: Spice Wars begins with you choosing a faction. Two House names you may recognize from previous games are Atreides and Harkonnen. Other factions also include popular names from the novels, namely, the Fremen and Smugglers.

Each faction has specific bonuses, so it will benefit you to read through them before you select one. If it’s your first time playing a Dune RTS game, I recommend you try Atreides first before attempting one of the others.

Choosing your advisors

Before you can start the actual game, you’ll need to add some councillors to your faction. You’ll start with only two of the four on your screen. Each one adds another bonus to your gameplay, which won’t matter much if you’re a beginner. However, you might make smarter choices the next time around once you understand how important they are.

Conquering the planet

At this point in Dune: Spice Wars’ development, there’s no campaign. Each faction has a back story, but the main aim of the RTS game, for now, is simply expanding your empire and ruling Arrakis. I look forward to seeing how the developer integrates a story into the gameplay later this year.

The Roadmap for Dune: Spice Wars

Shiro Games has provided a roadmap of the year ahead for the development of Dune: Spice Wars. We’ll be seeing the multiplayer mode appearing during summer, while there will be a new faction to choose from soon after that. New buildings and units are on the horizon, we’re expecting the full campaign near the end, and you’ll be able to activate those councillors you select.

How long to play Dune: Spice Wars Early Access?

With such a massive map for Arrakis with several zones to conquer, it can take you up to 9 hours to complete a single match in Dune: Spice Wars, if not more. It depends on how quickly and successfully you take land from the enemies and make them your own. You’ll win and lose many battles along the way.

Strategic gameplay in Dune: Spice Wars

So far, I’ve provided some insight into the main elements within Dune: Spice Wars, but you’re probably wondering what it’s like to play the game. Here are the most essential aspects you’ll encounter and how they work.

Learning how to play Dune: Spice Wars

Anyone new to RTS or the Dune franchise won’t feel like they’re stranded in the game. A small icon will appear that provides some initial quests to show you what the main objectives are. Unlike some other RTS games I’ve played, it doesn’t yet show you the controls, like how to move around and send troops from one location to the other. The game just assumes everyone knows how to do that.

An excellent feature is having access to tooltips, which are small windows of information when you click on items. These serve to guide you on how the resources and objects work and how they benefit you on the planet. I’m slightly disappointed there’s no support for controllers, so you can only play with a keyboard and mouse at this point.

Finding villages and resources

Your most significant objective throughout Dune: Spice Wars is finding new villages and harvesting the resources in the zones. Each area has a specific village connected to it, and you can only obtain spice and other precious metals if you own that village. Eventually, it becomes a grind of fighting militia, commanding villages, harvesting resources, building facilities, defending the base, and moving to the next zone.

The development tree

True to proper RTS nature, you’ll have a development tree to unlock new research and upgrade your facilities and units. There are four main panels, under which you’ll see a massive stack of research opportunities. As you advance in Dune: Spice Wars and conquer new lands, you’ll have enough chances to unlock all of them. Just increase your knowledge points if you want faster research.

Spice bribes and voting

Two elements in Dune: Spice Wars you’ll need to learn about quickly are spice bribes and voting. The former is a payment you need to make every so often that’s almost like taxes for the land you own. If you don’t pay them in time, you may see some penalties for your faction. Also, you’ll need to vote on the council for a specific bonus, but some of them may have negative effects.

Managing your troops

You only have limited manpower when you begin, so you can only train a few troops or vehicles. As you conquer more zones, you’ll have a place for more of them. You can also develop buildings that increase your manpower, which you’ll need at a later stage. So, start early.

Choosing buildings wisely

The desert sands of Arrakis are home to massive sandworms that will feast on your units and vehicles. For that reason, the villages are built on hardened foundations for their safety. You have limited space to build, and each facility consumes resources. It’s essential that you look at what metals or items there are you can harvest in the zone, as you can develop buildings with bonuses related to them.

Similar games to Dune: Spice Wars

A good game you should play for a sense of nostalgia is Dune II. I also have a love for Command & Conquer games, such as Red Alert III. For more modern RTS games, I recommend you try Iron Harvest, Endzone: A World Apart, and Frostpunk.

What you’ll need on your PC

For the full visual effects, you’ll need a decent gaming setup, especially for the graphics card. I suspect that the full game will change these specifications, but these are the minimum PC requirements for Dune: Spice Wars.

OS: Windows 10 and Windows 11
Processor: Intel Core i5 2.5 GHz or AMD equivalent
Graphics: NVidia GTX 1050 or AMD equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Storage: 4 GB available space

Feast your eyes on the stunning visuals in Dune: Spice Wars

I’m going to finish off my Dune: Spice Wars review with a quick look at the graphics and sounds. The initial visuals of the intro video made me worry it would be too blocky and cartoonlike. Fortunately, the actual game is impressive.

Massive map with gorgeous graphics

Firstly, I want to say how wonderful it is to have such a massive map to conquer. It looks small to start with, but you can zoom out to see how much land the fog of war hides. You can zoom quite close to units and buildings, and every element has a stunning design. Even the sandworm. I managed to pause the timeline to catch one for you.

Excellent user interface, effects, and animations

Most of the effects take place when there’s a battle, which can become intense. I enjoyed most of the animations, but the user interface impressed me the most. You’ll have clear details on your resources and how much they increase or decrease per day. There’s also a side panel that feeds details on your faction and units.

Sounds true to the Dune franchise

The sound of the Ornithopter starting up sent goosebumps down my arms. There are many sounds that remain true to the previous Dune movies and games, which is excellent. Also, there’s voice acting for the speech, so you won’t need to read lines of script.

Final Verdict of Dune: Spice Wars

Dune: Spice Wars is an excellent representation of what the final version of the RTS game will look like. While there are still many more parts to come, you can still enjoy strategic battles while conquering the land. It’s worth downloading whether you’re a fan of these types of games or just the Dune franchise in general. I look forward to doing a proper detailed review once the complete game releases.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check my opinions on the Mirror Forge horror demo and Recursive Ruin. I also took a spin on MCreator to create mods for Minecraft for the first time in my gaming life.

PROS

Massive map to conquer
Intense strategic gameplay
Resources linked to buildings
Stunning visuals and effects
Sounds true to the franchise
Many nostalgic moments

CONS

No campaign as yet
No controller support

Developer: Shiro Games

Publisher: Funcom, Shiro Games

Game Modes: Single-player

Platform reviewed: Windows 11 – Steam

Developed by Shiro Games, Dune: Spice Wars is a science-fiction strategy game that takes full advantage of all the political intrigue of Frank Herbert’s expansive Dune Universe. Spice Wars follows up other real-time strategic adventure games from Shiro, including Northgard.

Dune: Spice Wars DOWNLOAD

In Dune: Spice Wars, your objective is to lead factions and capture villages to take over the Arrakis world. You’ll have to harvest special spices to pay taxes to the Spacing Guild and achieve votes to become the leader. An ornithopter will also explore the lands to gather spices and avoid sand worms who will attack and kill them.

Utilize 4X strategies to get a general knowledge before gameplay

Dune: Spice Wars is considered a 4X strategy game, which means you’ll need to expand, explore, exploit, and exterminate. Keep these in mind before starting the game and adjust your settings to fit your skill level. You can choose to make the Arrakis map smaller, specify how many AI characters you will encounter, and even choose to conquer one singular enemy faction.

In addition, you can make it so your ornithopter is set to auto-recon so you can focus on the game without having to direct it around the desert. The harvester assigned to each village can also be set to an automatic setting and recalled back when they encounter sand worms. This will set you back 5% of spices though.

Strengthen your village with necessary resources to gain power and popularity

You will start with nothing as typical in an RTS, or real time strategy game where you play as the faction leader and create military bases to take over villages. Once you have obtained a harvester who is willing to mine spice for gold, or Solari as they call the currency in the game, you gain power to build up your resources whether through defense or trade.

You can keep your villagers happy and on your side to get the highest vote from the Spice Counsel. This requires building windtraps and hegemony for tech progression to create crafting workshops for your citizens to learn new skills in order to win the game.

Look to other elements than spice in rare regions

By unlocking new regions, you can also find new elements to help build up your villages and faction influences as a leader. Use your map to seek out special colors and hot spots when you’re in a specific area. Three vertical red waves can mean fuel cell energy, grey stone minerals increase the region’s plascrete factory output, and rare yellow orange stone elements you find upgrades your processing plant for more Solari.

Keep in mind to keep your military healthy with the right resources as they will lose energy traveling across unknown lands. Look to special equipment and staying in one area before conquering another for extra HP.

Stay close to the political gameplay of Dune: Spice Wars

Your ultimate goal in Dune: Spice Wars is to become a political affiliate who overthrows your enemies with conquering villages for strengths and committing espionage against your rival factions. You will find yourself in a vote with Landsraad to press support or decline on decisions such as water upkeep and military control. Your character starts with 100 votes and increases with further gameplay.

Another addition is the technique of your secret agents assigned to your faction. They will provide intel as they gain more power and you can use the intel points to unlock extra votes when it comes time to meet the counsel – this can also include assassinations against your enemies!

Look to these three ways to win Dune: Spice Wars

Spoilers ahead! There are three key ways to win the entire game depending on your skill sets. The first is domination, where you have assassinated other leaders and destroyed enemy bases through the espionage technique. This is the “exploit” part of the 4X skill strategy.

The second way to win at your own game is hegemony. This currency is just like hit points in any video game and you will need 50,000 to collect throughout Dune: Spice Wars. These points can be collected through the long game with gathering spices and defeating enemy military units.

Lastly, you can win the game by governing your people and the world of Arrakis. This rare moment comes up within the Landsraad Council vote for ownership. Simply hold onto your leadership role for 60 days in gameplay and you can emerge a winner.

Use your experience with real-time strategy games to conquer Dune: Spice Wars

Politics, weapon tactics, and action gameplay are important throughout Dune: Spice Wars. You’ll have to use your skills as a mastermind in the factions as well as keep in mind that you’re also in control of villages and your individual plot to take over the lands. A great strategy is to monitor your stats and use your resources as quick as possible to stay up to date with the game. You can also fast forward and pause the scenes when you need a break.

Use espionage skills to spy on your enemies by viewing their statuses in order to increase your own point. Feel free to leave your harvesters to find spice or make the game your own by picking where they land and escape sand worms. Let us know in the comments any other tactics you use for Dune: Spice Worms and share this article to help your friends!

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