Emperor: Battle for Dune

Hot on the heels of Red Alert 2 comes another long overdue sequel.

October 19, 2000

Anyone who reads the site regularly is familiar with the way we tend to get nostalgic 
about 
the games that first captivated us. Civilization, X-Com, Pirates and similar titles are 
spoken of at IGN in terms usually reserved for first girlfriends and old cartoons.
 One of the titles that has always stood out in our gaming memories is Dune 2. 
You can talk all you like about Starcraft, Total Annihilation and Command and Conquer 
but, for me, my love of strategy games began with Dune 2. Tal and I used to plan our 
lives around playing this game. Our friend Bruce even told his boss that his mom had 
had a heart attack just so he could stay over at our place and play the game all day. 
So what’s the point of all this? Simple. Today Westwood announced Emperor: Battle for
 Dune, the long, and I mean long awaited sequel to the grandaddy of all real-time
 strategy games. We got a chance to talk with some members of the team including 
producers Chris Longpre and Brett Sperry. And just to get the credentials on the 
table, Brett’s one of the two guys who created the first Dune. The guys were kind
 enough to show us the game in action. And if the game lives up to half of its promises,
 it stands poised to take the 3D RTS crown. 

Like with Red Alert 2, the first thing people want to know is why it took so long
 to make a sequel at all. Emperor was prompted by the big success of the Dune 2000
 remaster that was released a few years back. Once the team saw the enthusiasm 
gamers showed for the old game, they decided it was time for a remake. The new 
game has been in development for two years already and is due out “when it’s done”
which, given the polish on the build we saw, seems to mean sometime next year. 

The three Houses from the first game reprise their roles here. The “noble and efficient” 
(and horribly whitebread) Atreides from the novels must battle the “ dastardly, evil
 and sloppy” Harkonnen. And Westwood’s own addition to the mixture, the “sneaky and
 treacherous” Ordos, are back as well. But beyond these three Houses and their various 
philosophies and aesthetics, the player will be able to ally with two of the games five
 subhouses. If you can manage to win the loyalty of the Fremen, you can build a Fremen 
base camp and start pumping out their units. An alliance with the Imperial Sardukar
 gives you access to their “elite warrior force” complete with knife attacks that can 
kill enemy infantry in an instant. 

The Tlielaxu and Ix are both weapons dealers but they’ve got some profound differences 
in terms of approach. The Tleilaxu rely on “flesh vats” to produce genetically altered,
 biological units. The Ix on the other hand, trade in “forbidden technology” and
 scientific super-weapons. They grant you access to the holographic projector unit. 
Illusionary units can either take on the appearance of one of your own units or one 
of the enemies. A favorite tactic is to make a hologram of an enemy harvester and just 
park it next to the refinery. This gives you an inside look at everything going on at
 the enemy base. You can also ally yourself with the Spacers’ Guild which controls all
 the travel between planets. 

But let’s get back to the differences among the units for the three main houses. 
The main goal with the units was to “provide meaningful diversity” so that players 
could adapt the game to their own play style. The team showed us several of the houses’
 units and explained their function. The Atreides have their normal Sonic Tanks and 
stealth units as before, but are also equipped with Weirding modules and thumpers to 
call worms. Their Minotaurus is a “walking artillery platform” making it kind of a 
mobile defense turret. The Mongoose is a faster, weaker version of the Minotaurus with
 the added advantage of a rotating turret. This allows the Mongoose the advantage of 
firing and walking in entirely separate directions. But my favorite Atreides unit is 
the Advanced Carryall. This is just a much more powerful version of the regular carryall
 that can pick up any unit on the map…and this includes enemy units as well. 


The Harkonnen Devastator makes its presence known in the game. This three-legged 
war machine not only packs a heavy punch; it’s also equipped with its own anti-air
 defenses. The Harkonnen also rely on their Flamer units equipped with a flame-throwing
 weapon great for taking out so-called “soft” targets (flesh is soft, right?).
And Ink Vine Catapult allows the Harkonnen to throw containers of “painful poison” across the battlefield. This substance does tremendous damage to infantry and has the added bonus of persisting on the battlefield and damaging all infantry that come into contact with it. But the “classic Harkonnen weapon” is the Buzzsaw. This unit not only chews through enemy infantry, but also destroys spice fields. 

The Ordos have the advantage of shielded, regenerating units. Their answer to the 
Minotaurus is the Cobra Gun, a mobile artillery platform that must deploy to fire. 
Their APC Hovercraft and Laser Tank both have hover capability and can travel across 
both sand dunes and dust basins. The Dust Scout can take advantage of the new dust bowl
 terrain type. These spider-like units burrow into the sand and wait to ambush the next 
approaching enemy. The Ordos Saboteur makes an appearance in the game as well. But as 
scary as that unit is, players of the original game will be utterly terrified when they 
find out that the Ordos Deviator is back as well. This unit allows the Ordos player to
 take control of your units for a period of time (right now about 30 seconds). 

Each house also has a capital building at which it can produce a special super weapon.
 The Harkonnen Death’s Head Missile can be launched at large masses of enemy units and
 buildings. The Ordos Chaos Lightning disrupts personnel thereby reducing building 
productivity. It also has the added benefit of sending enemy units into a berserk rage
 during which they will attack any nearby targets. By far that coolest of the weapons
 is the Atreides sound and hologram projector. This weapon sends a gigantic, 
illusionary hawk swooping down on the battlefield that unnerves your enemy units.
 I’d talk some more about the buildings, but who really cares about buildings? I
 mean architects and such might care, but what do they know about gaming? Oh, but 
there is one more important thing to say about the buildings – you don’t have to 
build those stupid concrete slabs anymore. 

We haven’t received any details about the story itself yet (although in typical
 Westwood fashion, there’s going to be some fantastic cutscene work) but we can 
talk a bit about the campaign shape. It’s much less linear than Westwood’s other
 RTS titles and you can pick and choose your own missions to some extent. Imagine 
a strategic map divided into territories. At the start of the game you’ll be able 
to choose one neighboring territory to invade. You get a little text and voice-over
 briefing and are then taken to the battlemap. Once the battle is over, your enemies
 each take a strategic turn. If they choose to attack you, you go back to the battlemap
 and fight it out. If they choose to attack each other, the computer resolves the 
attack immediately (or nearly) and the turn passes to the next player. It’s a great 
system but unfortunately it doesn’t really allow for any three-way battles. 

One of the more refreshing additions to this system is that you can lose a
 battle and still continue the campaign. You can either try to take the territory
 again or try to go around your enemy to get at other objectives. And in the objective 
based missions, you can fulfill your objective and then retreat. By retreating you leave
 the territory in the hands of the enemy but gain a small reserve force of units that you can commit to a later fight. 

When choosing a territory to attack, it’s important to consider the number of
territories that border it. During the fight for the territory each side will 
receive reinforcements for each bordering territory that they control. For instance,
 if you choose to attack a territory surrounded by enemy controlled territories, your
 fight’s going to be much more difficult. IF you can manage to gain a few territories 
around the territory you want to take, you’ll be much better situated when the battle
 comes. The reinforcements, which amount to about ten or twelve units every eight minutes
 or so, will arrive on the edge of the battlefield that corresponds to the territory 
that they come from. 

Each game culminates in an attack on one of the House’s home planets. Caladan of the
 Atreides is “rich and fertile” as compared to the “post-industrial wasteland” of 
Harkonnen Giedi Prime. The Ordos home planet of Draconnis 4 is icy in contrast. We 
haven’t yet been told exactly what the objectives of the campaign are but we’re very
 intrigued by the open-ended nature of the strategic game. There are 33 total 
territories in the game but “you don’t have to defeat every territory on Arrakis
to win.” The shortest game (estimated at about 15 hours per campaign) would involve 
the taking of about eight territories or so. But for you lackadaisical types, the game
 could take much longer. And since each of the territories can hold any of the game’s 
100 random missions, there’s a lot of replay value. 

The new game also features some new multiplayer features. It’s now “much easier and 
fun to go online.” For one thing, there’s a much-improved matching service for those 
of you who don’t have any friends. Now you just log on to the server and, through the
 miracle of technology, you’re paired up with someone as eager and capable as yourself. 
By far the best feature is the co-operative campaign play. You and a friend can blast
 through the campaign together even playing as different houses. It might not work
 from a story standpoint, but hey, when the Atreides and the Harkonnen can team up 
together, who cares about story? 

All right, so let’s talk about how the game looks. In a word, great. Since you can
 see most of this from the screenshots, I’m not just going to go into basic descriptions.
 What you can’t see is how the game moves. The action is very fluid and the animations 
are all really convincing. Some of the little touches are what makes the game so 
believable. When you construct buildings for instance, there’s a little scaffold 
that rises up out of the ground and the building grows up within it. Chris also showed
 us a Harkonnen level that had a lot of little guys hanging from a row of gallows.
 On the more utilitarian side you have this neat little addition in the unit halo. 
You know how when you select a unit it gets a little circle around it just so you know
 it’s active? Well that same thing happens here except that the halo acts as a health 
and shield meter. A completely closed halo indicates a perfectly healthy unit. As the
unit takes damage the halo begins to get eaten away. 

You also won’t get a sense of the camera range from the screens either. 
There’s not nearly as much range in terms of zoom and angle as most people had hoped.
 You can’t get down to the level of the action to the same extent that you can in a 
lot of other 3D RTS games out now but for me, that’s not a problem. This is a strategy 
game so it’s more important that you be able to get a good general view of the action.
 It’d be nice to position the camera at eye level and roam around your base and junk,
 but ultimately it’s not that small a loss. 

Wow. So that’s a lot of hinkfo to digest all at once. And that’s just all I could
 gather from talking with the team. There’s a huge press kit that I haven’t even
 cracked open yet, so you can expect a lot of movies and media tomorrow. Since 
the game still has at least a year in development we’ll have plenty of options to
 bring you more updates on its progress. And this is one game that we’re definitely 
going to do some serious coverage on. Maybe next time we talk, I’ll ask the guys at
 Westwood if you can save the game in the middle of the battle. 

-- Stephen Butts 


















  Below is a list of all the current [p]reviews on Westwood's new upcoming 3D RTS,
 Emperror: Battle for Dune.

GamesMania. [P]reviewer: Jason MacIsaac. Preview Rating: 5/5
"We are now playing around with defining different roles for the two players to play.
 It's one thing to get together and "hey! We've got two of us versus one of them, we're 
just gonna clobber them." That's a certain amount of fun, but I think a lot of players 
would be excited by "You're going to be the base builder/resource gatherer. I'm gonna be
 the general." So the first guy gets the MCV, builds up the base, builds up the defences
 and starts generating units. But he doesn't get to control the units. The units are 
under the control of this guy. He's the general. He positions the troops, sets up the
 choke points, executes the battles and he's saying "Hey! Build me more troopers! 
I've got aircraft coming in." The other guy says "Ok, but I've got to build this turret
 over here because I've got infantry crawling around the back end." It's almost like 
class in an online RPG."

IGN: Preview 1. [P]reviewer: Stephen Butts. Preview Rating: 5/5
"So what’s the point of all this? Simple. Today Westwood announced
 Emperor: Battle for Dune, the long, and I mean long awaited sequel to the grandaddy of
 all real-time strategy games. We got a chance to talk with some members of the team 
including producers Chris Longpre and Brett Sperry. And just to get the credentials on 
the table, Brett’s one of the two guys who created the first Dune. The guys were kind
 enough to show us the game in action. And if the game lives up to half of its promises,
 it stands poised to take the 3D RTS crown."

IGN: Preview 2. [P]reviewer: IGN Staff. Preview Rating: 4/5
"We saw a bit of the intro in its rough form where the Guild presides over the
 three houses as they invoke The Great Convention. The Convention impels the houses 
to observe a limited form of warfare known as the War of Assassins. By the terms of 
the Convention, the war will be limited to the planet of Arrakis and will not interrupt 
the flow of spice. Atomic weapons are also outlawed by the terms of the Convention, 
making a quick, albeit messy end to the conflict unworkable. " 

Gamers Depot Preview. [P]reviewer: Duane Pemberton. Preview Rating: 5/5
"With 33 maps, more than 100 missions, each one will present new challenges each 
time you play them. Once you’ve conquered a territory you can call on troops from
 that area to help you in future battles, or might be forced to retreat if you find
 that you’re spreading yourself out too much. Those of you hoping for some kind of 
map or level editor, you might have told hold your breath. As of the time of this 
article, Chris wasn’t sure if an editor would make it in the initial release but didn’t
 rule out the possibility of releasing it after the game comes out in either a free
 download or perhaps in an expansion pack." 

CGO Preview. [P]reviewer: Nick McElveen. Preview Rating: 4/5
"You can control all three of the houses, each with their own unique military units.
 The noble House Atreides' units and structures will be elegant yet hardened.
 The evil House Harkonnen units will reflect their inhumane, gratuitous natures.
 Finally, the insidious House Ordos will feature units capable of stealth and deception,
 and Ordos units will be more likely to rely on hit and run and sabotage tactics. 
In addition to the three main houses, there are five subgroups with which you can
 ally in the game: the Fremen, the Sardaukar, the Tleilax, the Ix, and the CHOAM Guild.
 Once allied with these groups, you can then build their unique structures and units. " 

Daily Radar Preview . [P]reviewer: Jason Samuel. Preview Rating: 4/5
"The biggest change for Westwood is leaving the 2D realm for a polygon-based 
3D environment. The visuals are striking; from what we've seen there is no doubt 
that Emperor will be easy on the eyes. Just because it's going 3D doesn't mean it's 
leaving the isometric view -- while players will have the ability to zoom out and in
 to a degree, the view won't be as tight as a single unit or so far back that every 
unit is shown. " 

Gamespot Preview. [P]reviewer: Amer Ajami. Preview Rating: 5/5
"Westwood is clearly trying to progress the genre that it perfected by incorporating 
a number of new features into its latest real-time strategy game. While some of these, 
like the use of a 3D engine, are new only to Westwood, others, like the strategic 
overview map, are features that are almost brand new to the RTS genre. The game makes
a great first impression, and it'll be interesting to see how well Westwood integrates
 this new 3D technology with its accessible style of play. Emperor: Battle for Dune is
 scheduled for release in mid-2001" 

PC Zone. [P]reviewer: PC Zone Staff. Preview Rating: 1/5
"Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 will come with a disc containing a video trailer of
 Emperor: Battle For Dune confirming that the RTS god Westwood has finally embraced 
3D after many years of 2D sprite action." 

Gamespot UK Preview. [P]reviewer: Julian Boardman . Preview Rating: 2/5
"There will be 100 missions set in 33 maps over four planets. Where necessary, 
troops can be seconded from already conquered territories to aid in the current 
mission. Cooperative and adversarial multiplayer games will be available through 
Westwood Online." 

GameCentre Preview. [P]reviewer: William Harms. Preview Rating: 3/5
"The lighting effects are top-notch, and the environmental graphics leave little 
doubt that Dune is a dust-choked planet. What looks to be the best feature of the 
game, however, is the nonlinear Planetary Campaign. Instead of giving the player a
 series of missions, the single-player campaign mode will present the player with a
 top-down view of Dune, which is divided into zones of control that are colored 
depending upon which House controls that territory. Players will then be able to
 decide which section to attack, and the entirety of their chosen territory's border
 will be open to them. In addition, any adjacent player-controlled areas that border 
the zone the player is attacking will factor into the mix, as they'll send periodic 
reinforcements, bolstering the player's army. "  







House Atreides This noble house hailing from Caladan employs unlikely methods in
 its struggle to secure Arrakis: noble spirit, just ways and unfailing virtue. 
Ruling its home world Caladan for ten generations with justice and generosity, 
House Atreides has perfected a form of government that results in a well-organized 
society and a spiritually satisfied people. Little wonder that Caladan is the lush,
 prosperous paradise that it is.

Such conditions have inspired a fierce loyalty in the people, making the Atreides'
 army one of the most devoted -- and deadly -- in the universe. These qualities have 
inspired ire in Atreides' foes, such as the Harkonnen, but admiration in the would-be
 allies such as the natives of Arrakis, the Fremen. The devotion of Atreides' troops 
are matched by the House's formidable military, which boasts an exceptional air force
of Ornithopters and respectable array of ground vehicles. But the Atreides' fighting
 spirit and unflinching belief in its claim to Arrakis are its best weapons.



House Harkonnen The House Harkonnen is built on a simple foundation of fear and terror,
two tactics that make the Baron Harkonnen's troops that much more dangerous: risk death
 on the battlefield, or suffer a slow, excruciating death in the Baron's chambers as he 
watches with relish. With an order based on treachery, soldiers rise through the ranks
 through deceit, trickery and, if necessary, assassination. The ruthlessness of the 
Harkonnen army is legendary; but the rumors of its illegal atomic weaponry are more 
frightening still.

Hailing from an industrial wasteland of a planet called Giedi Prime, 
The House Harkonnen is much like its Baron: cold, ruthless, egomaniacal, 
but brilliant and lethally efficient. Most of all, it's driven by a kanly 
,or vendetta, against House Atreides, which the Harkonnen feel has taken a 
piece of what's rightly theirs: the whole planet of Arrakis.



House Ordos These aristocrats of the universe are shrouded in mystery and speculation 
-- which is just how the statesmen of Orrdos want to keep it. Run by a secretive cartel
 of the rich and powerful who specialize in trade and smuggling, House Ordos has no
 identifiable leader. Even the citizens on this ice-coated, remote planet have little 
grasp on who controls their fate.

What is known, however, is that the reclusive elite of Ordos has at its disposal
 radical new technologies that it hopes will put all of Arrakis in its hands. 
Buying illegal armaments from the House of Ix, the Ordos equips it troops with 
high-tech weaponry that puts the Harkonnen and Atreides technology to shame.
 However, money can't buy loyalty: Ordos troops desert with alarming frequency,
 and, despite its wealth, the Ordos' military strength is shaky at best.





Producer Chris Longpre talks about the sequel to one of our favorite games.

December 7, 2000

You've read the books. You've seen the David Lynch movie and the Sci-Fi channel mini-series. Heck, you've even read the exhaustive preview written by one of our sexier editors. Even more impressive, you've read IGN Sci-Fi's interview with writer/director John Harrison. And now, as if all that wasn't enough, we've brought you The Interview (notice the capitalization? That's how you know it's important). Anyway, we've all been big fans of the first game, so as soon as we heard that Westwood was making a sequel, we fired off a few quick questions to Producer Extraodinaire Chris Longpre. And since we're feeling magnanimous today, we thought we'd go ahead and pass the answers along to you. To aid in comprehension, we've also decided to include our questions. 
IGNPC: Red Alert 2 proved that 2D RTS games can still be exciting and profitable. Why is it important for you guys to make the shift to 3D with Emperor? What advantages does 3D offer? What are the possible limitations? 

Chris Longpre: With 3D we can create amazing visuals. The technology lets us play with blending modes, detailed unit animations, transparency, dynamic lighting and more. It also gives us the freedom to move the camera around some, though we think that too much camera movement can make an RTS hard to play. The game will not become “find the best camera angle.” 

The major risk of 3D is becoming seduced by it and neglecting that all the all-important gameplay. Also, performance issues are very different in 3D than 2D. Even a small infantry unit represents 100 polygons, so dealing with many of them on-screen is tough. 

IGNPC: Tell us a little bit about the story if you can. We know you said that the game take place a few centuries before the story in the novels, but can you be more specific about the setting for the conflict? 

Chris Longpre: The Emperor has been assassinated by the Lady Alara (in Dune 2000), leaving no heir and a huge power vacuum. Each house is laying claim to the throne, but each realizes that controlling Arrakis, home of the spice, is the key to winning the Imperial throne. It finally blossoms into war among the three most powerful houses, the noble Atreides, the insidious Ordos and the evil Harkonnen. 

Your conquest of Arrakis will take you from the deep desert filled with dust basins, rock mesas & worms, through the enemy's base camp and onto their homeworlds. There is even a special mission on the Guild Highliner. 

IGNPC: What do you say is the main difference between the three houses in terms of character? 

Chris Longpre: The noble Atreides are a precise military unit with lots of range & good defensive ability. The evil Harkonnen are cruel, chaotic and devastating in a toe-to-toe fight. The insidious Ordos are masters of stealth & hit-and-run tactics. 

IGNPC: How do the five sub-houses factor into the equation? Obviously, they permit the player to adapt the game to their own playing style but how will this work in practice? 

Chris Longpre: The sub-houses give you a chance to customize your army, each one giving you different units and capabilities. For instance, if you form an alliance with the Fremen, one of the units you get will allow you to ride worms. If you team with the Tleixu, you’ll be able to use their genetic technology to create virus infecting Contaminators. 

In multiplayer, you’ll have your main house and your chose of two sub houses, either the Fremen, Ix, Tleixu, Spacers Guild, and the Imperial Sardaukar. I think we’ll see a nice bit of argument over what the best composition will be. Harkonnen with Ix and Tleixu? Atreides with the Sardaukar and the Fremen? That should make for good forum reading. 

In the campaign game, you’ll form alliances with the subhouses by winning mission goals as you fight across the surface of Dune. If you do enough missions for a sub-house, you will be granted an alliance with them, and permission to build their technology. However, in the single player game, some alliances won’t be allowed. For instance, if you are Harkonnen, you will not be able to ally with the Freman, because the Freman truly hate the Harkonnen and always will. 

IGNPC: We've seen that a few of the old units from the original Dune reprise their roles here but what intrigues us most is the addition of several new units. Which of the new units are your favorites? 

Chris Longpre: There are so many new units that I always have a hard time answering this question. For practicality, I love the Advanced Carryall, which can pick up and move any unit, include enemy units. I also love the contaminator, which turns any infantry it touches into another contaminator. That’s just incredibly evil and very fun to use in the middle of a battle. 

IGNPC: What's been the hardest thing about balancing the units? 

Chris Longpre: You want to give players units with amazing powers, really make them worth your time and money, but you don’t want to make units so powerful that if you build one or two of them, you win the game. That balance is hard to get right. The subhouses also present interesting balance issues, as they can be added to any main house for multiplay. Keeping the subhouses balanced in terms of each other has been very hard, as they are also very unique units. 

IGNPC: Some RTS games have experimented with formation control and variable rules of engagement. Do you have any plans to include such features in Emperor? 

Chris Longpre: We’re still working on a few things in the feature set, so I don’t want to say anything about these right now. Give us a month or so and we’ll announce exactly what’s going to be in the game feature-wise. 

IGNPC: The addition of a strategic turn and an overall campaign map is very interesting. What do you feel these features add to the experience? 

Chris Longpre: It should make for a deeper strategic experience. It gives gamers interesting choices about which order to attack the territories and which alliances to pursue among the sub-houses. Do I attack a well-defended territory because it will give me an alliance with a sub-house I want? Do I attack the easy the territory, even though it gives me little else but one more territory? Should I retreat from a territory, gaining a bonus squad of elite reserve forces for another battle? Am I going to steam right through to the enemy jump point? Will I go ahead and try to lay claim to all 33 territories? 

IGNPC: The range of the camera is a little more limited than in most current 3D strategy games. Why have you opted to restrict the camera in this way? 

Chris Longpre: Being able to move the camera is very cool, and obviously shows off the beauty of the 3D world. However, it can also be the biggest hindrance to enjoyable gameplay if you must constantly move the camera out of the way, or back into a playable view. We have allowed 360-degree rotation, a good amount of zoom out/in, as well as a slight bit of tilt. The game is very playable at all these angles. 

IGNPC: In the first game, worms were a constant menace to both you and your opponent. How are they being incorporated into the new game? 

Chris Longpre: The worms are definitely back. There are three different sizes, and yes, players who ally with the Freman will actually be able to ride the worms. The small vertical attacking worm, much like Dune 2, has a cousin which surfs across the top of the sand, eating multiple units in a row. The huge 'Maker' worm is awesome to behold and swallows entire battles in its maw. Also, there are some units that actually repel the worms, keeping them away from your valuable harvesters. 

IGNPC: How have you had to change and adapt your original concept of the game to meet existing challenges or the introduction of new technologies? 

Chris Longpre: We’ve been able to do everything we wanted with this engine and more. A few minor things have changed, but nothing significant. 

IGNPC: We've saved the most important question for last: will you be able to save the game in the middle of a mission? 

Chris Longpre: Of course! 

IGNPC: Thanks for your time. 

-- Stephen Butts