Dune ranks as one of the top works in science fiction, creating a very loyal fan base and inspiring several movies and computer games.  Unfortunately, the complexity and depth of the book, the very things which make it such a good work of fiction, have made it difficult to translate it to other media.  This hasn't stopped people from trying, though, despite the fact that the end result has often been a confused mess which baffles those not familiar with the book, and invariably disappoints those who are fans of it.  Recently the Sci Fi Channel created a six hour miniseries based on the books which tried hard to stick close to the original material, but met with mixed reactions from the book's fans.  Dreamcatcher Games has released an action/adventure game tied into the series, but it appears to have little true tie-in to the Sci Fi Channel production and stands more as an attempt to allow gamers to play their way through the book's storyline.

Unfortunately, the game suffers some of the same problems faced by other translations of the book.  Those who have not read the book will find the storyline very disjointed and will often find themselves wondering just what the heck is going on.  Fans of the book will be disappointed in the haphazard way the story is presented, with numerous omissions and outright errors.  For example, words are often mispronounced or outright changed in the game.  Stillsuits have become distillers, and carryalls have been changed to carrioles, pronounced "carry-o-lays".  These changes are inexplicable and almost make it seem that the game's designers never bothered reading the book or watching the miniseries on which the game is supposedly based.

In fact, tie-ins to the Dune miniseries are minimal, and the miniseries seems to serve for the most part as a source for the in-game music.  Most characters in the game bear no resemblance to those appearing in the miniseries, and none of the miniseries' actors lent their voice talents to the game.  You'll occasionally see a costume or character that appears to be inspired by the miniseries, but for the most part the game really stands as its own interpretation of the novel.

In the game, the player takes on the role of Paul Atreides, the son of a royal house sent to govern the planet Dune.  The game picks up the story after the betrayal of the Atriedes family, when Paul and his mother Jessica narrowly escape the plot and flee into the desert wastelands of Dune.  Play in the game proceeds as a series of missions punctuated by animated cutscenes which advance the story and provide motivation for the missions.  Each mission presents a set of objectives which must be accomplished to successfully complete it.  The missions themselves blend elements of action and adventure games.  There are the puzzle solving and item finding elements of adventure games mixed in with the real-time combat of action games.  Unfortunately, the game does neither of these very well.

The puzzles in the game consist primarily of entering codes into terminals to unlock doors.  The codes appear elsewhere in the levels on walls or paintings or the like, so there is not much challenge in solving these puzzles.  Another typical puzzle is of the "find your way through a maze" variety.  These often prove more frustrating than challenging, though.  For example, very early on in the game you will find yourself chased by a sandworm across the desert.  Some sand is as soft as quicksand and will slow you to a crawl as the sandworm bears down on you.  For some unknown reason, you must find your way to safety while running towards the camera, without any clue as to what type of sand you are heading towards.  This is an exercise in frustration, as you will need to continually retry the level until random trial and error get you to safety.

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