it has a lot of premise but falls a bit short.the game lacks depth and more interesting mechanics.i saw people comparing this with eu4 and i don't know what they're smoking.i love the dune universe and enjoyed the game to some degree but after all this is a videogame,you need some mechanics for the player to enjoy and keep returning to the title especially if it's a strategy game.

This is an extremely shallow game. I've waited a long time to write a review in the hopes they ever made it better, but they didn't. I'm just baffled at all the positive reviews. I guess sure it does give strong Dune vibes. So it got that right. Everything else is just bad. I think at this point their is no real way to save this game. It lacks a clear vision.

The fact is this should simply not be an RTS game. I don't know why they made this an RTS game. It's an utter failure as an RTS. Attempting to win by exterminating all the enemies on the map borders on impossible. Attacking peoples final bases borders on impossible due to the amount of troops you can field and the problem of having enough points to take enough land surrounding enemy bases to launch an attack. Your troops simply don't do enough damage.

So the real way to win is by the other path of victories. Namely, gathering more spies. Basically, in this game you are really just using your armies to delay other peoples progress to the spice production victory and it's just extremely boring. All the Dune flavor and vibes can't make up for just how boring it is to play this game. This should be a 4x game like Crusader Kings or even Civilization would have been better. Nothing about this game works. It feels like at some point they had to make a choice and they attempted to do a cross between a 4x and rts and it's just a complete failure.

I really wish they had just made a 4x which is heavily story based like Crusader Kings. This game would have be drastically better, especially considering that's literally the entire point of the Dune franchise. It's all political maneuvering and backstabbing. Just go play like Stellaris and download a Dune mod. That would be a better use of your time then playing this extremely boring game.

I picked up Dune Spice Wars immediately after it 'soft released' on Steam a few years ago. Initially, the gameplay was kind of crude, slow, and many features hadn't been implemented. I am a huge fan of the Dune franchise so I purchased the game. With Dune 2 out, I've recently gone back after the addition of two new houses - Ecaz and Vernius Now, I've played 60+ hours of the game, including a complete campaign (Harkonnen), and I am disappointed to say that I feel like I wasted my time/money on this game.

Strengths
- Multiple ways to win
- 7 different factions to play, each with their unique flavor, story, troops, and abilities/perks
- Campaign missions are varied (not always focused on domination)
- Multiple ways to attack/weaken your opponent(s) both directly and indirectly
- Minor factions (rebels, renegades) can create some additional unique in-game havok
- The sand worms

Weaknesses
- Individual games are always at least an hour long from start to finish... this slog can get old. Especially if all you are doing is just clearing bases (domination)
- Campaign is particularly weak with no distinguishing features. Remember the cut scenes and mission briefings from Dune (Westwood Studios)? There are no visual briefings, no cut scenes, nothing to provide any additional level of immersion. Even the campaign victory screen just says "Victory." That's it. Then you are taken back to the main menu.
- Games can easily turn into a slog, a mindless chore - especially if win conditions are limited
- Domination victory is extremely cumbersome and almost requires all favorable buffs/debuffs when attacking a main base
- Not all win conditions are allowed in all campaign missions
- Atomic weapons are extremely weak. A single nuke will kill an entire army within its blast radius, but does almost zero damage to main bases or buildings - even when the nuke is dropped directly on a base. Also, you will lose ALL political standing after a single use. In short, you get every extreme negative, you may not even kill anything, you won't scratch a single building, but atomics are supposed to be devastating? What???
- Assassination requires a long set up, can be easily detected, with no real method of pushing for victory as the faction pushing for assassination.
- Did I mention that individual games are typically a really long, mind-numbing, sleep-inducing slog?
- During the campaign, you will be required, on occasion, to kill renegade camps. Cool idea... but, while the AI opponents can help, they won't. They entirely focus on each other and never attack the renegade camps. Meaning you, the player, basically have to clear the entire map.
- The music/ambience is extremely weak. No actionable build-up of music, just an occasional chime. It might be fitting for a desolate environment... but it is so freaking boring.
- There are some additional campaign mechanics (fremen reputation, and something known as "the plot.") However, "the plot" never does anything and actually requires you to lose in order to gain any real momentum. I beat the campaign in the fewest missions, 8, and I only completed secondary objectives a few times (elections can be difficult) and I never saw anything meaningful from either the fremen reputation or "the plot."

I really wanted to like this game. But the game is a solid 4/10 due to very poor overall execution, lacking in features, lacking in polish, and due to the absurdly long times it requires to play a game start to finish.

to much sand i hate sand in my toes and i hate the sun and the sandworms and the heat

seems pretty well balanced, the pause function lets you play it like a normal 4x game. the authority mechanic impedes one faction easily snowballing away. The backstabbing opponents while you try to nerve the strongest faction can be a bit annoying at times. Also losing a siege because your units move away from the sieging spot to chase away units can be frustrating.
Killing the opponents main base can be very hard, but that obv makes it also more satisfactory if you manage to do it. The trade system is unnecessarily tough to control, their should be a button to make a trade equal.
But overall a very fun game so far.

No story driven single player campaign. Dune is Dune due to Herbert's Lore and the Lore you can create through your actions. This is paper thin and tailored to C & C and SC 2 fanboys. Gum cracking, Red Bull swilling, Powning click mashers rejoice! Your game is here.

as some one who never watched the show/movie, its a great game. its a bit confusing at some points but once you get the hang of it. its a blast lol. Do anything for the SPICE

not the dune 2000 that i hoped it would be, dune 2000 still the goat, but this game is still fantastic.

Good

One of my favorite multiplayer RTS games. Has the feel of playing a board game that has been uniquely tailored t the RTS format.
Balance isn't perfect, but it's a ton of fun.