Since its announcement in December 2021, Dune: Spice Wars has become a glimmer of hope for many fans of the books. The last game set on the eponymous desert planet appeared around the turn of the millennium. The expectations of the real-time strategy game are correspondingly high.
In a Steam FAQ the developers have now published a series of new information. Among other things, one devotes attention to the factions, the attention to detail to the book template – and also to the basic structure. And there you break a genre rule, which may not please everyone.
If you’re looking for more information about Dune: Spice Wars, you’ll find it here:
Everything you need to know about Spice Wars
Dune finally gets a new strategy game
All information from the new FAQ
Without further ado, let’s get to the elephant in the room: if you were hoping for conventional base building in the RTS, you’re in for a disappointment. Because, as the developers have often emphasized, Spice Wars relies on a kind of hybrid of 4X principles (known from turn-based titles like Civilization) and real-time strategy.
And that means for the expansion of your cities that you only commission new construction projects in the menu and also cannot decide on their placement. Instead, the new building will pop up at a predetermined location in the city, organically expanding it so that you can expect really big metropolises over time.
The render trailer could already provide a foretaste of what heavily developed cities could look like. With this pure Dune atmosphere you want to win the hearts of the fans:
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Dune: Spice Wars: First teaser for the new real-time strategy game in the Dune universe
This step is mainly justified by the fact that Spice Wars is on a significantly larger scale
sets as a typical real-time representative. This probably means the 4X elements already mentioned, in addition to combat, trade, diplomacy and the planned economic features.
Great value on template fidelity
Aside from this quite controversial point, the FAQ is primarily devoted to compliance with the book template. Because in many respects, connoisseurs of the films must reckon with not seeing well-known characters and factions. A summary:
- Factions: Some familiar houses will be missing from Spice Wars. The well-known house Ordos is mentioned in the FAQ. The developers state that the house of Ordos was mentioned in the Dune encyclopedia and later in the video game Dune 2, but never by Frank Herbert himself. Therefore, the book template is strictly adhered to here as well. However, in the course of the early access phase that will start soon, one will consider how to proceed with such content.
- Optical changes: In previous Dune games, comics, and films, House Atreides’ banner and uniforms featured blue colors. In Spice Wars it is now a mix of a little darker green and black, as it was also explicitly mentioned in Frank Herbert’s books.
- Depiction of the desert planet: Also with the optics you want to capture the spirit of the template. The maps are procedurally generated and are designed to vary in size, wind speed, sandworm activity, and other factors. The deep desert should act as an organic challenge at the beginning of the game. Only when you have researched more advanced technologies in the course of a game should you be able to traverse them and thus open up new areas. You can find three fresh screenshots in our updated gallery:
Dune: Spice Wars – View screenshots from the real-time strategy game
Release planned for 2022
So far, nothing has changed with the planned release in 2022. First, the early access phase should start, which was used in the previous project Northgard have had good experiences in terms of player feedback. Localization is currently planned for English, Europe, Spanish, French, Polish, Russian and Portuguese.
There is also information about mod support and DLCs after the launch. There are currently no plans to enable mods, but if the demand remains high enough, the topic will be looked at again at a later date.
Speaking of later dates: DLCs are currently not in the pipeline either. We are fully focused on the start of the early access phase. Here, too, one would like to react to the feedback of the players and keeps the option for later additional content open.
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Dune is the perfect strategy setting, Spice Wars just has to use it
Incidentally, our strategy expert and part-time spice dealer Micha still thinks Dune is the perfect setting for a strategy title. But Spice Wars has to be measured against the great Dune 2.
And what do you say? Do you already feel the sandworm rising in you when looking at the pictures and videos, or do you still remain skeptical whether the title can really live up to the high expectations in terms of gameplay? Put your spice aside and share your thoughts in the comments section!