60 Second Review of…
Emperor: Battle for Dune
Tom's Review: It's a great concept that ports itself
into an RTS beautifully. So what if it's not innovative? But there
are a hundred and one things Westwood could have done to make the
pace more manageable and the interface smoother. They've been doing
RTSs for, what?, ten years and they still can't figure out how to
streamline the player's interaction with the fucking game? Have
they ever seen a Real RTS like Battlecry, Age of Kings, or
even goddamn Outlive? Are they using autistic tree monkeys for beta
testers? Did it occur to them how royally screwed some of their
design decisions are or they just counting themselves the kings
of infinite space bounded up in their nutshells? Are they just in
it for the chicks and fancy cars? Patch it up, Westwood, and patch
it up good if you want this game to last, because now it's just
a wasted day at the beach that leaves you with a bunch of sand up
your ass. Until Westwood trades in their slavish commitment to The
Way We've Always Done It for a clue, color this one out of mind
and off my hard drive.
Mark's Review: When it comes to writing game reviews,
there's nothing duller than a middle-of-the road game, yet that's
exactly where "Dune 3" travels. Tom's right on the mark
with his complaints, yet on balance I enjoyed the game. Mildly.
Briefly. After finishing one campaign and sampling multiplayer with
a half-dozen games, I uninstalled it. It's flashy in the looks department,
the cutscenes are interesting, and the RTS gameplay is instantly
accessible since it's a rehash of all the Westwood games you've
played before. It's like a dime novel you grab off the Walgreen's
spinrack while on vacation because you were a dunce and forgot to
pack a book and now you gotta have something. For a short while
you'll be distracted from that vague sense of gaming boredom that
often afflicts us, and then you'll forget you ever played it.
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Westwood
Genre: Real time strategy
Requirements: Being okay with history repeating itself
August 2, 2001
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