How a new Dune video game could succeed where others have failed

It’s been a very long time coming however Warner Bros. and Legendary’s gigantic Dune adaptation lastly hit cinemas and HBO Max this week, sparking a revival of curiosity in Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi franchise.

To mark the discharge of the most recent adaptation of this sci-fi epic, we’re trying again on the historical past of Dune video games in an effort to grasp why the franchise hasn’t seen lengthy-operating success on gaming platforms, regardless of providing a wealthy and distinctive sci-fi world brimming with lore that ought to have builders rubbing their arms in glee, and the way the Dune franchise could make a gaming comeback as grand as Frank Herbert’s books.

Dune is an absorbing and visually putting sci-fi epic – with one main drawback

A troubled historical past value remembering

Dune 2 — (Image credit score: Virgin Games)

1992’s Dune, developed by Cryo Interactive and revealed by Virgin Games, was an bold mixture of actual-time technique and interactive journey, borrowing components from hits corresponding to The Secret of Monkey Island so as to flesh out each its characters and the dense world of Arrakis. Its improvement was as troubled because the manufacturing of David Lynch’s 1984 movie, and the entire thing was nearly canned a number of instances.

However, the game was a success and proved there was a future for the IP within the gaming world. If we glance again on the essential reception, most reviewers praised the mix of journey and RTS, with some shops praising how Cryo struck gold by specializing in what made Arrakis a distinctive setting and toying with the participant’s company. That sort of strategy sounds acquainted, doesn’t it?

We’re greater than used to versatile, non-linear storytelling in video games by now, particularly when it helps discover huge, unknown worlds. Dune is all about this – most of Herbert’s unique novel spends nearly half of its pages establishing Arrakis and its guidelines, plus different planets and a good portion of a large galactic empire. The cinematic medium has a tougher time with this due to runtime limitations, and Dune is just too massive for the small display. But video video games don't face the “too much information” drawback, as they'll flip all of it into good playable content material.

Dune 2000

(Image credit score: EA)

Surprisingly, Virgin Games wished to strive its luck with a full-blown RTS too, within the type of Dune II. Oddly, Dune and Dune II have been launched solely months aside, – that they had been developed by completely different studios as rival initiatives below the identical writer’s umbrella.

Beyond the essential DNA, Dune II, developed by Westwood Studios, had little or no in frequent with Cryo’s game. In truth, it was titled Dune II (with two completely different subtitles) solely as a result of it ended its improvement later. It was launched simply in time for Christmas 1992 and likewise discovered nice success, establishing a new normal for technique video games. This is a little bit of buried game historical past, however arrange a lot of what we’d see later within the Command & Conquer series, born from Westwood as effectively, and within the first Warcraft.

Okay, so each an journey-RTS hybrid and a full RTS made a splash within the early 90s. But did that occur due to their high quality or due to the property they have been primarily based on? Looking again, Dune wasn’t highly regarded round that point. Lynch’s movie had left a bitter style in individuals’s mouths, and avid e book readers have been those retaining the flame alive for future audiovisual diversifications. Building these video games on prime of an already-established property saved game corporations valuable time and wasn’t as dangerous as developing with one thing new, however that was it. The gameplay is probably going what made these titles profitable, slightly than the ‘Dune’ identify, and that turned evident with Dune II.

Here’s the factor: there’s a lot to unpack in every of Frank Herbert’s novels (and his son’s in case you’re into them) – the Dune universe follows frequent patterns, however continually tears them down. The iconography that has been solidified is that of the sandworms and perhaps the stillsuit-sporting, blue-eyed Fremen. But Dune is a lot greater than that, and most video games previous the primary one appeared to overlook about its uniqueness, an untapped energy that was pushed apart so as to as an alternative work with acquainted blueprints. Even if individuals didn’t care a lot for Dune, it was an IP that could’ve pushed these technique titles in brisker instructions if it had been utilized correctly.

Arrakis is ripe for the taking

Dune Emperor

(Image credit score: EA)

Look, we’re not saying Dune II, later remade as Dune 2000, is a dangerous game, as a result of it isn’t, but it surely set the IP on a path of conformity and diluted id, giving delivery to initiatives (later dealt with by EA) that felt like Command & Conquer mods. Anyone into the books is aware of why that’s a drawback and nullifies what makes the universe particular. For starters: no waving weapons and lasers round to battle, that’s probably the most not-Dune factor ever.

Dune II already confirmed indicators of inventive confusion by utilizing a non-canon faction, House Ordos, as an alternative of developing with an fascinating Fremen faction that hardly resembled the opposite two (Atreides and Harkonnen). Furthermore, massive pew-pew automobiles slowly took over – it received ridiculous in 2001’s Emperor: Battle for Dune – as a result of massive sci-fi means Star Wars-y tanks and ships, proper? There have been loads of properties doing that already, and the world of Arrakis was asking for one thing not almost as explosive.

Dune video games went underground after Cryo one way or the other received its arms on the IP once more to give you a tie-in game for Frank Herbert’s Dune, a Sci-Fi Channel miniseries launched in 2000. It was a expensive flop that didn’t land a lot of its pictures, but it surely doubled down on the inherent weirdness of the universe and went again to the story-heavy gaming roots of the franchise regardless of some canonical compromises. We could see one thing like that working now, as avid gamers have grown to like character-pushed experiences. And that’s only one chance.

We nonetheless don’t know whether or not or not Denis Villeneuve’s Dune will discover sufficient cash within the sands of Arrakis to kickstart a movie franchise, but it surely has actually gotten individuals speaking and diving into Herbert’s expansive universe once more. People like bizarre, particularly of their video video games – Dune doesn’t have to comply with “safe” aesthetics or design selections anymore, as many sci-fi properties have come and gone whereas it hibernated. With open-world RPGs, cinematic narrative video games, and RTS titles now having large followings, it is likely to be the right time to sprinkle some spice on prime of these genres.

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