60 Second Review of…Emperor: Battle for DuneTom'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.
August 2, 2001 |
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