Rating: 
Summary: Long live the fighters...
Review: Alright, here we have the next step for RTS games, FULLY 3D-rendered battlefields. Some have said that the Dune landscape doesn't offer much in the way of asthetics, but if you have a powerful enough computer to crank the detail it looks absolutely stunning, and downright real. That said, eventhough you DO need an accelerator card to run Emperor, the basic requirements don't seem very steep. I've got an Athlon 650, 256 RAM with a 32MB Geforce 2 card and it runs pretty darn smooth with medium detail at 1024 resolution. Enough with the techie-talk tho...So far as unit balance and diversity, Emperor is one of the best RTS games I have ever played, each side has clear strengths and weaknesses you must expolit and defend. This game is far from just a "rush n attack" style RTS. The Subhouses do well to somewhat make up for certain weak-points in your army, as well as let you tailor your forces to your specific strategies. Battles are typically pretty quick, as opposed to other RTS games which can drag on endlessly. My only gripe, really, is that there's only one mode of play for Skirmish/net games. Red Alert 2 had diffrent "rule" sets you could download to make a battle all infantry, extra money, etc, and older Westwood games had the Tech Level slider... Weswood neds to bring one or both of those features back! The acting and storyline are kinda lame... but, eh... they serve their purpose.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Graphics and Great Action
Review: Don't be fooled by the DISTURBING movie. This game is awesome. Great graphics and sound. The campaign is awesome. Each house starts with some territories. Then you pick a place to attack and see if you win if you do you get one step closer to your enemy. There are also sub-houses, like the Imperial Sardukar and the Evil Tileaxu, that play a HUGE role in your victory. This game doesn't only take place on Arrakis. You also fight on the dropships and on your enemie's homeplanets. Once you attack it's your enemies turn. They MIGHT not attack you but if they do you can either defend or resign if you don't want to defend. Your units will get upgrades over time. And one thing that is one of my favorite tactics is that you can runover your enemie's infantry. Overrall this is a very great game that has an in depth story line that will keep you playing for a long time. (And yes, there is a skirmish mode, and a tutorial for you people who are new to the world of Dune)
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best Dune game out there, but still not the worst
Review: Emperor Battle For Dune is a mixed bag of a game. As a RTS its formula has been oftenly used and abused many times in other titles (especially the Dune II or Dune 2000 series), and the leap to 3D isn't entirely that spectacular. But considering the production value, this game is quite worth mentioning. There's a top actor Michael Dorn (of Star Trek's Lt Worf fame) playing the Atreides duke, and the costumes and props are all used from the 1984 David Lynch movie. Of course the storyline is a bit absurd... supposely to take place centuries before the main Dune storyline during the 'War of the Assassins'... serious Dune fans might have difficulty understanding it. The dynamics aren't too heavy... and most missions are pre-scripted and the campaign unfolds the same ways no matter what. But this game is quite worth playing (if you can find the hours the spare for it).
Rating:
Summary: "Emperor: Battle for Dune"
Review: If you're a fan of RTS (real time strategy) games, Emperor is definitely the game for you. I've been playing it for about 4 days now and let me tell you that it looks great! The story goes like this: Three sides fight for the domination of the planet Arrakis, also known as Dune, the only source of the spice Melange, that has special properties and whatnot. You can choose to play the game from any one of three Houses (Atreides, Harkonnen, or Ordos) and can ally yourself with 5 different subhouses, acquire new technologies and customize your own level of play. You can play the game from the perspective of most previous RTS games or you can zoom in right down to the action and the finer details of the game. After passing missions, you will be shown top-quality mini-movies and briefings that will ensure that you get right into the game and feel as if you are in the Dune Universe. This game definitely does a good job of illustrating real warware. There is no direct path to follow. You, the player can choose from several different missions at a time and follow your own path to victory to control the planet. Whatever you do in one mission can and will affect the environment of the missions to follow. Not only do you attack new ground but you must also make sure to defend the territory already in your possession. Units on high ground have advantages over those on low ground and a tank rush like in previous Westwood Studios Command & Conquer games will most of the time not ensure victory. In addition, units that get enough kills can achieve veterancy status and depending on the unit, can become faster, have better firepower, become invisible, and more. For the Atreides, for example, infantry that gain maximum veterency can be sent into a barracks, allowing the player to produce elite units right away. Emperor requires both skill & strategic thinking as well as diversification of forces. This is not a complicated game but it's not too simple either. The controls are easy to grasp and getting used to it doesn't require much time. If you're thinking of a good game to get, put "Emperor: Battle for Dune" at the top of your list.
Rating:
Summary: The Emperor of RTS games
Review: This is a truly awesome game! I have been playing this game since it came out and I wrote this review in 2004! There is so much replayability you can't count how many hours you can play it. Be warned though, this game has the potential to take over your life with it's beautiful graphics, truly awesome music, and great balance between the three houses. The music is good enough for you to buy the game alone, the music is even better than Starcraft music and the game is better than it too! If you enjoy a game that lets you choose where to attack and defend you will love this game. Also, there are several different kinds of missions like defending a subhouse defend against another subhouse or attacking an enemy convoy heading out of the map. Although the difficulty level is very high during the end of the game with the computer opponents simply pouring out high level infantry and heavy artillery and such it is still beatable and you really feel as if you accomplished something. Overall, this is a really good game that any gamer SHOULD NOT MISS!! That is the directive!(I have spent over 500 hours playing this game and am still going!)
Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous graphics and great gameplay - a must have!
Review: Dune has always been a favorite series of mine - both the book and the Real-Time Strategy games. For the book, I played in DuneMUSH for quite a while and fell in love with the atmosphere. For the series, Dune always managed to introduce new features that other games just didn't have yet. This one is no exception! Yes, there's the traditional threesome of powers, the "Great" Atreides, the "Evil" Harkonnen, and the "Insidious" Ordos. They just love that "Insidious" word :) There are also many sub-plots going on with the other factions, and you have to choose how to ally yourself throughout the game. The movies and cut-scenes are great. They bring out the character of the book without being too confusing for those who never read it. The graphics in the *game* are just as stunning, though! The troops, the worms, the shadows, every detail really shows how much attention the developers put into getting this game *just right*. Gameplay is awesome. You're doing regular RTS organizing and plotting and destroying, but you've also got many other layers now to keep you entertained and intrigued. There are the various alliances you choose to make or break. More worlds to explore. More weapons to choose from. It's really a game that you can replay over and over, and never get the same same twice in. I highly recommend this to anyone who is fond of the RTS genre of games - you will NOT be disappointed. As a side note, for the person who complained this won't run on Athlons, I have been playing this on an Athlon system (as well as several non-Athlons) and haven't had *any* trouble at all! Email me for suggestions.
Rating: 
Summary: ....
Review: No one ever said that war was simple. The guys at Interplay seem to understand this - and they definately understand how Frank Herbert wanted people to understand the world of Arrakis and his wonderfully complex universe. The plot line is excellent, and the developments that keep the game moving rival Herbert's own fiction in strength of tale. Everything that happens before you get to the battlefield is wonderful -- the backstory that few of the modern RTS games have and everybody wants. But, once you get thrown into the captain's chair and try to control the combat... Let's just hope that you either wrote the thing or have a P.h.D. with a thesis in "point-click-point-right-click, now run over there and do the same thing over again". RTS is supposed to be exciting, right? It's supposed to keep you moving from place to place, following and directing the battle on every front. It should progress slowly, teaching you the interface and the tools with which you wage war. Dune is all these things -- with an enormous, Devastator-sized "but" looming in the foreground. Your troops are absolutely stupid. Maybe one time in twenty will they make an intelligent decision on their own. Pathfinding is absolutely attrocious. Troops always seem to take the most dangerous route to where they are going -- not necessarily the longest mind you, but the way that puts twenty newly minted infantrymen running right by your opponents machine gun emplacements. Machine guns? In Dune? In the world where kinetic energy weapons are obsolete because of personal shielding technology that was one of the highlights of Herbert's "Dune" series? Yeah, machine guns. This is supposed to be how many thousands of years in the future? Next week, Westwood is going to introduce a modern RTS that has your US Marines charging the battlefield with bows-and-arrows and greatswords. But, I digress. The wonderfully crafted resource-end of the game, built on harvesting and refining the spice melange, is definately an integral part of the plot-line. It would be fine -- if the AI that controls your harvesters and carryalls had any real decision-making skills. For instance... I'm trying to defend my base plateau from an assault of no-less than six Harkonnen Devastators. ...the Devastator is the most powerful Harkonnen unit in the game. It can attack both land- and air-borne threats. So, as I'm watching these behemoths coming towards my base. I'm moving my defenses into place, creating interlocking fields of fire with my emplaced machine guns and rocket launchers, deploying my infantry-based rocket launchers, ...! All three of my carry-alls proceed to deposit my three, very expensive harvesters right in the middle of the inbound assault. The sensual female voice proclaims through my speakers in rapid succession - "Your harvester is under attack." "Your carryall is under attack." "Unit lost." "Unit lost." "Unit lost." Repeat ad nauseum. There went fifteen minutes worth of development and I couldn't even stop the carryalls from their stupidity. Didn't I tell you? You can't even intervene. Oh, and by the way, the defense missions -- for the unitiated at Westwood that means I'm defending and someone else is attacking -- are really just normal missions with a starting base instead of an MCV. You can sit there and build up your defenses to your hearts content, but the game won't end until you go on the offense and destroy the enemy. It isn't even timed. This morning, I built up my defenses until they were literally unbeatable - I literally built a maze out of walls and lined the walls with machine guns and rocket launchers. I walked away from the game for three hours, letting my defenses do their job so I could get finished with this stupid mission. And nothing happened. Well enough of a rant -- if you've read this far, I wouldn't recommend ...this game. ....The good things about this game are far outweighed by the bad.
Rating:
Summary: awsome game !!!
Review: This is my first strategy-type game and I think it's awesome. The 3D graphics and colors are great, the sound is terrific, and the game play is really cool. You can have up to 8 players (human and/or computer) on a local area/home network or up to 4 players on the internet (if you have a fast connection--56K or better). You can play by yourself against 1-7 computer players too. There are 36 screens to choose from with varying terrain. You can configure just about every option in order to tailor the game to your desires. I can't believe it's [really cheap]. I'm an avid Dune fan, so it was easy to relate to the names, places, and story-line; that helped in understanding the game. The game will work with Windows ME (that's what I have) and a friend of mine has Windows 98 2nd Ed. We networked our computers together and play against each other and/or other computer players. It's really cool. This is the best birthday gift that I've received in a long time!
Rating:
Summary: The last of the great Westwood Games!
Review: This game is very very good! After this one, came Yuri's Revenge with a horrid storyline which was pretty corny, then came Generals which was a weak game and mostly meiocre. To me, Battle for Dune was the last of the great Electronic Arts games. This Dune RTS had 3 opposing sides, like its predessors, but unlike the ones that came before it, it has sub houses. The Sardaukar are the best! Make like 20 of em and you can take out most anything. The Tleilaxu are entertaining while, at the same time, being disgusting. In the missions, you'll be encountering the Tleilaxu many times and will likely develop a major dislike of those slimy little mongrels. They are the major villains of the game. The Harkonnens are definently the most intertaining to play as, with their blood thirsty units and massive devastators. They also have very entertaining movies. If you are a fan of the C&C games (especialy the old ones) get this. And though it only follows the Dune storyline loosely, it should be a must have for any Dune fan in general.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea gone bad
Review: This game has some awesome things about it. The graphics, for example. Graphics are just amazing, as many people have probably pointed out. Also the general tactics are awesome. You get to choose where to attack, what races to get on your side, what to defend, where to move your reserves. I have rarely seen anything of this sort before. Yet the battle tactics are awful. The first few missions are won by pumping out infantry. The next few, when enemy gets infantry-crushing units, light tanks go into battle. Towards the end, you basically build 2-3 spice factories with 3 ramps each, and pump out heavy units, sided with a bunch of lighter tanks for support. Whichever house you're fighting, in order for Sardaukar or Fremen to efficiently work, you need hundreds of them, because otherwise fire tanks and any other regular machine can just run over them in a second. This game definitely lacks balance and tactic depth as in, say, WarCraft III. Thus it gets very boring in a few weeks. Nevertheless, if you got the money to buy this, go ahead, it's pretty fun to check out. A fremen riding a worm is a sight worth it already =p
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