$67f|1-DUNE II REVIEW $f7c BY DAVE DIAMOND I know this game is (some what) ancient but ive been playing it alot recently and thought I`d give it a good old review. So Dune 2 or to give it`s full name the battle for arakis tells the familiar tale of war between two major colonies on the planet of dune,the atreidies who long for peace and the harkkonen who have been sumound by a mysterious being (which is revelaed later on) to mine spice (the gold of dune) for him and for him only. So war breaks out for control of dune and control of the spice. The game is set as a ariel sim city look and does it`s job perfectly, I couldn`t really imagine it any other way,the graphics are dainty but fine and are crisp and clear with some nice little animations and effects such as smoke and tracks being left by your or anyone else`s vehicles. The sound is just a small sample being looped over and over again with the spot on effects of explotions,fireing and some soldiers speech,you may think a looped sample would be so tedious and could drive you insane but you`re so involved in the game that it hardly seems there at all. Gameplay wise is also great as after a few short minutes you can set about your task and fight for peace or destruction! Where Dune II really shows it`s colors is in the playability department as once you`re hooked then you really do loose all track of time and find yourself playing for in excess of 2 hours-even if you only wanted just a small little game which for a game this size just isn`t possilbe. Talking of missions you can control either the atreides,harkkonen or ordos (a small but violent native) each has 9 levels which alter in difficulty another nice point about dune is the learning curve it offers so each level gets harder each time. So say if you were to complete the 3 houses then you would have beaten 27 levels,dont let the short number put you off as they are really a challenge expecially the last level which is really tough!! The game is just so addictive and challenging as you just can`t charge into the enemies base blazing and hope for the best..well you can but there`s no way you could win so stratergy plays a very important part. However the game does have some problems,nothing serious,they`re just extremly frustrating... 1) The enemy builds an entire base within a few minutes while you are left building after around 14 minutes,therefore you just haven`t enough time to cope with attacks. 2) If you attack a enemy tank and say one of your buildings or vehicles are in the way then the cpu inteligence will completely ignore this and destroy bother you and the enemy! 3) If a worm eats your harvester in the first few minutes of playing then you may as well start over as there is no way of continuing. 4) The enemy`s fire is always accurate when ours isn`t! 5) If you build a compact fort then tell your vehicle contained there to more then they will just move aimlessly around and not to their required destination,this applies mostly to harvesters which can be really annoying!! 6) When a missile destroys your construction structure,unless you build another before hand then your in shtock! 7) If you built too many structures then you cant built any more until one is blown up! This also applies to any vehicles you may have and is very frustrating as spice CAN be lost on a very regular basis. 8) The enemy always seems to re-build and re-load at an extremly quick pace when of course we..can`t! 9) The harkkonen and ordos never fight each other!!!!! 10) The enemies missiles on level 9 (the last and hardest level) 9 times out of ten hit the desired target and will always come in two`s....FIXED!! Wow!! quite a few old problems there but they just had to be mentioned!!! So the verdict! GRAPHICS: 80% SOUNDS: 15% GAMEPLAY: 90% PLAYABILITY: 95% OVERALL: 92% Info. ----- Number of disks: 6 Hd installable? Yes Memory requirements: 1mb minimum Speed of game: Varies and is quite fast but hopefully an accelorator would boost things up. Price: £15 tops $67f|1-DUNE II TIPS! $f7c As I've been playing dune for quite some hours now I`ll devulge some tips that I`ve found oot! 1) Dont bother with building slabs,they`re too time consuming. 2) Once you`ve built 1 refinery at the start build another immediatley,keep doing this until you have about 2 harvesters. 3) Build only 1 windtrap,radar isn`t that important eben though you will need to build one. 4) Build rocket turrents in a straight line one square above your fort (about 10) then behind the turrents build a long wall. 5) Explore the screen fully before starting a mission,example find out where the enemy is and where the most spice is located. 6) If you find a very large spat of spice (about level 9) build another construction site followed by a refinery close by so you wont have to keep telling the harvesters where to go. 7) Build as many powerfull vehicles as possible and then mive them to a save secluded area by the enemies base,then when the time is right send ALL vehicles in for the attack. 8) Send a drone (trike,guard) into the enemies lair to uncover their fortress before going to war,the best way is to send in a spare harvester and move it around the enemies base until lots of structure are located. 9) Destroy all enemy turrents first!! Also have some tanks,siege tanks by your launchers,devastors etc so they can attack any approaching vehicles. 10) When a missile comes..SAVE YOUR GAME!!!!!! generally the cpu intelligence might alter the path of the missile saving you from an ass kicking. Generally save your game at any time where you feel `should i be doing this?` So with those little tips you should be a winner thanks to the man who has completed the game with the harkkonen and am 1 step away from doing the same with the atreides even though it`s very,ver,very hard...Dave Diamond! $67f|1-WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN DUNE 3 $f7c Dune was good because it introduced us to the many faces and people of the planet of dune,it combined great graphics with spot on gameplay and a sequel was inevitable. Dune II had much simpler graphics but the gameplay was so intense that large graphics,256 colors and perfect scrolling didn`t seem so important. Dune II for me is a unforgettable classic but i wanted to see things that didn`t happen,so if virgin are ever thinking about making dune III then please include the following. Keep the same arial scene Keep most of the same graphics Have a upgraded version for a1200 users Keep the same houses plus choose to be fremen and sardukkar Have some more varied speech Have lots more vehicles including faster harvesters,double rocket launchers,lasers,tanks with limited sheilds etc. Let atreidies ride the worms!! When going into battle let the opponents battle each other as well,example fremen battling the harkkonen while the ordos battle both fremen AND us!! A zoom option Perhaps a little animation every time you destroy the enemies base,fmv sequence of the buildings blowing up. Unlimited structures and vehicles!!! Well of course you will have to buy `em! A option so you can tell the ornihopters where to attack. A £15 maximum price tag...hey this is basically a data disk remember. Only a few points you see! of course some different scenarios,colors and levels should come naturally! So how`s about it virgin? end