The action component of the game does not fare much better. Control is
awkward, with Paul continually getting stuck behind people or caught on
objects. Combat is also awkwardly implemented. Paul's two main
weapons are a knife and a gun. The knife can be used when sneaking up
behind enemies, but inexplicably once Paul is spotted the knife is
useless. You can stand face to face with an enemy, madly slashing him with
a knife, but the enemy will remain unharmed. This problem is compounded by
the fact that ammunition is very difficult to come by and often missing a single
shot will leave you with no way to take out an enemy. Using the gun is not
much better than the knife. To hit an enemy the gun must first be
aimed. However, the aiming crosshairs can not really be controlled by the
player. You must ensure that Paul is facing the right direction and hope
that the crosshairs lock on to the target. If they don't, you'll have to
put the gun down and move Paul slightly and try aiming again. The enemies
don't move much, if at all, so combat often consists of people standing in one
place and shooting at each other until one of them falls over.
Between missions, you'll be forced to wander around a Fremen base, talking to
key characters and collecting items to use in the next mission.
Unfortunately, most of the characters look the same and you'll have no idea
where to find those with whom you need to speak. Speaking with a random
character forces you into a cutscene conversation which consists of the
character speaking a random, and very often nonsensical, phrase. After
hearing the umpteenth ludicrous comment, you'll wish that you could whip out
your chryskife and reclaim their water on the spot.
Several design flaws compound the frustration of the game's gameplay.
First, there is no way to save your progress in missions. Saves are
completed automatically at the end of missions, so should you die you'll be
forced to replay the entire mission. There is also no way to skip
cutscenes. Should you need to replay a level (and you often will), you'll
be forced to sit and watch the same scenes all over again. To make matters
even worse, the cutscenes are not well done, featuring poor quality voice acting
and the worst character lip-synching seen in a game in quite a while.
You'll often feel that you are watching a poorly dubbed kung fu movie.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 28%.
The game features a story too confusing for those new to Dune and too inaccurate
for fans of the book. Action gamers will find the game too basic and
adventure gamers will find the puzzles too simplistic, and both groups will find
it frustrating. It is difficult to think of any group to which Frank
Herbert's Dune would be appealing.
System Requirements: 400 MHz Pentium II CPU; 64 MB RAM; 16 MB
Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM; Mouse.
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