"A decent game, but not up to Westwood's usual standards."

Westwood Studios is well known for producing enjoyable, addicting, and memorable games, such as Command and Conquer: Red Alert. Their game Dune 2000 however, does not possess any of the aforementioned qualities and it is hard to enjoy the gameplay at all.
Other elements in the game are competent at what they do, but the gameplay is what lets the entire package down.

Gameplay: 4
Simply average. Those two words sum up the gameplay of Dune 2000. The units are standard fare for a RTS, and all three houses' units are essentially the same. The only major difference between enemy units is the way the artists drew them, almost all units behave similar. There are some house specific units, but you only get to use them late in the game. Another big beef about Dune is how the game is unbalanced; there is one unit that dominates the rest, and big armies of that unit are all you'll ever need. Sure, you can use other units for variety, but why bother? This is one reason why the gameplay of Dune was not interesting for me; a major part of strategy was missing, the choice of what units to place in an army.

Graphics: 4
Even back when this game was released, the graphics were dated and nothing to write home about. Now, they are even more dated but they still do an adequate job of showing you the action. A lot of the units look familiar from the Dune movie, that's a plus if you've seen it. However, the maps are not very varied because the planet you are on is made of sand, so each map is just like the previous one.

Sound: 7
The sounds present in the game are for the most part good, and do their job just fine. The music is about the same quality; it gets the job done but you will not find yourself humming any of the tunes. Fortunately though, none of the sounds or music will annoy you, everything just fades into the background and you will find yourself tuning it out. There are a couple missions where a certain tune will suit the mission more then the rest, and any other theme will seem out of place. Strange, really.

Story: 4
Story is an important element of any game, and Dune 2000 is no different. However, the story mostly revolves around the three clans and their struggle for Spices. The stories for each clan are mostly a hit or miss affair; some parts will pique your interest, but others will put you to sleep. Unfortunately, the dull moments occur just as often as the entertaining ones, leaving the story tolerable the first time through, but tedious any time after.

Replay value, and bang-for-your-buck: 6
Beat the game once and you probably won't want to play the single player campaign ever again because of the hit-or-miss story. However, there is multiplayer, but if you didn't enjoy the game in the first place then there's no reason to play it with friends. Now the game is very cheap though, which explains the above-average score, but I would rather spend my money on another game or maybe something good to eat.

So in summary, Dune 2000 is mediocre at best; any money you were thinking about spending on it should go to another game. The scant good qualities of the game cannot compare with the overwhelming negative aspects of the game, and because of this I do not recommend the game to anyone.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/12/01, Updated 12/12/01