Emperor: Battle for Dune

Game review

Emperor: Battle for Dune, released in 2001 for Windows, is a real-time strategy game that builds upon the legacy of the Dune universe. Set in the iconic sci-fi world created by Frank Herbert, the game is a continuation of the narrative established in the earlier Dune games. It is only inspired by the novel Dune by Frank Herbert and picks up shortly after the events of Dune 2000. Emperor Corrino has been killed by his concubine Lady Elara and the empire is in chaos.

The game allows players to choose from one of three major houses – House Atreides, House Harkonnen, or House Ordos – each with its unique units, strategies, and strengths.

• Atreides - they have snipers, sony tanks and mammoth tanks as the only ones, which are devating artillery in terms of firepower, so they can shoot, with approximately half the energy against the devastator, which is enough to say, they have kynjal infantes, which are units with a cannon, just stronger against tanks, compared to Ordos artillery is ineffective against soldiers (which will be replaced by snipers), the ultimate weapon is something that takes away the enemy's morale and causes them to go crazy so that they run around the map, run away from the map, and the enemy has a good chance to shoot them on the way - in my opinion, the strongest ultimate weapon , but ignores buildings
• Harkonnen - fire tanks and soldiers, they have a stronger basic tank, also a missile tank (they shoot slowly but with one full shot of all missiles they destroy every plane or tank except the devastator), a catapult that kills soldiers and buildings at a distance but doesn't work very well on tanks, devastator, the ultimate weapon is a nuclear weapon, destroy the weaker buildings, any troops stacked on top of each other
• Ordos - they have tanks with energy shields, which are continuously acquired (Protoss - Starcraft), their tanks shoot fast and accurately, but do not give much damage, but often used to dodge slow shots and shoot again, deviator (also has that shield), cobra tank - a tank good for everything, it shoots faster than a mammoth, good for everything compared to a catapult - it only has to be deployed in order to work, they have an artillery of fighters and acid fighters that are only effective against soldiers, a saboteur (he's not much) the last weapon is something that triggers frenzy , attack all the units you throw it at and they will immediately start shooting all around

In addition to these main houses, several sub-factions can be allied with, further diversifying the gameplay and strategic options available to the player.

• Fremens - invisible snipers and the second unit invisible fedakyns, who shoot a sound wave like a sony tank and can ride a worm at the same time! the more stars they have for experience, the better and longer they do (and the bigger the map worm they attract)
• Saudarkar - heavily armored elite soldiers equipped with either a heavy machine gun or laser crystals from which they shoot and at the same time use them as knives to kill other soldiers with one swipe, and these soldiers die quickly and are cheap, a Saudarkari with a machine gun usually manages to kill 5-6 ordinary soldiers with a machine gun , and with four to five crystals he can quickly destroy any plane, even a building
• Tleilax - they have bug tanks, which when they attack/infect other tanks, after a while it becomes a bug-tank and they have soldiers, which when they infect enemy soldiers, after a while they become our Tleilaxan soldiers, the computer knows how to play Tleilax better than a person, one of the units that is not worth massing, on the contrary, attack a large number in a small number and gradually destroy it with infection
• Ix - they have invisibly moving detonators that you can detonate anywhere (if they are not destroyed during the two seconds of visibility after activation), they have a tank that does not attack but can copy other tanks after deployment, which retain all the characteristics of the tank they are copying, except that they disappear after at the first attack on them (ideally for tanks with a large rate of fire at a distance such as mammoths for the Atreides, catapults and devastators for the Harkonnens)
• Guild - has tanks that can teleport, they shoot slowly (once every 20 seconds? are you kidding me), but their shots are useless (two shots will slowly destroy every building) and then they have some "Jabba the Hutt" - so it looks like a unit that it also shoots relatively slowly (about once every 5 seconds) and fires a powerful flash at a huge number of units at once, which means that it often kills dozens of soldiers or destroys a large number of light vehicles or destroys a heavy army

Players engage in resource management, base building, and tactical combat, all while navigating the political and environmental complexities of Arrakis. The game's environment is a critical factor, with the harsh desert conditions and the presence of the giant sandworms adding layers of challenge and strategy to the gameplay. The game is more an experience that transports players into the heart of the Dune saga, challenging them to master the complexities of warfare and diplomacy on Arrakis.