Dune II: when RTS was born

Cinematic 2020 is about to be marked in a profound way by the release of Dune, , the new film by Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) which promises to to revive Frank Herbert's science fiction masterpiece novel in a modern and mature setting. An event in its own epochal way, which brings back to the screen what has been called the science fiction saga spiritual mother of Star Wars and the concept of fantasy / scifi epic, which but which has also given a lot to the world of video games thanks to three titles based on books and on the film.

However, one of these three games goes beyond the brand it is inspired by, and from it a whole genre was born, a main genre of the 90s: the real time strategy, which gave us Age of Empires or Command & Conquer titles.

Are you curious? Well, let's start discovering this strange and exciting story that crosses literature, cinema and playful video innovation in a completely unexpected way.

A central saga

Dune is a strange science fiction brand, which has crossed the history of pop culture in a "lateral" but always present position since 1965, the year of its US release. The mood of the story is typically suspended between fantasy and science fiction, the plot is the events or of a "galaxy far, far away" (or rather "another galaxy far, far away"), in which rich and prosperous dynasties challenge each other to gain power in the eyes of the Emperor of the Universe, a struggle halfway between war and diplomacy that has a planet at its center, Arrakis, the Desert Planet, also known as Dune.

It just so happens that Arrakis is the only planet in the universe on which it is possible to find La Spezia, or Melange, powerful drug that allows extraordinary effects on the user, including prolongation of life (be careful, keep this information in mind, it will come in handy shortly).

The protagonists of Herbert's novel are Paul Atreides, son of Duke Leto, head of the Atreides faction, and his epic for the liberation of Dune from the emperor's yoke after a cruel and vile conspiracy by the monarch wipes out the Atreides forever as a faction and places the harkonnen (rivals of the Atreides portrayed as typically negative) as lords of the planet.

On paper it is an easy story, but we assure you that it is not: both Dune and the subsequent novels (edited by the son of Frank Herbert) are powerful mental trips suspended between epic adventure, science fiction (obviously) and pure mysticism, in which the themes of predestination, destiny, religion and war are important. In the course of the novel it turns out that Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach, the prophet who is said to bring a new balance to the dark and corrupt universe of Dune.

And we assure you that this is also a simplification, because the Dune saga is an immense, multifaceted story, a sort of Tolkenian saga in full style set in deep space that is not afraid of being difficult at times.

In short, a visionary series, perfect lymph to give life to many and various derivative pop products, including Villeneuve's film (which seems capable of restoring the epic and metaphysical potential of the original story), a first 1984 film by David Lynch, a version unfortunately aborted by the director Alejandro Jodorowsky and a 2001 television series.

And obviously such a powerful story could not fail to interest the video game.

Dune in pixel

To enter the world of digital gaming, Herbert's sci-fi world had to wait until 1992, when for the French Cryo it came out Dune, , a very strange one crossover between graphic adventure, interactive film, strategy game and of course RTS (in the segments where you take command of military troops against the Harkonnen), putting us in the shoes of Paul Atreides.

A very strange game, perhaps the son of another videogame age where the boundaries of genres weren't all that clear, which, however, would soon be forgotten by virtue of its "sequel".

A sequel that at this point, trust me, deserves our full attention and invites us to leave quietly a 2001 action game based on the television miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune.

Taking up playful concepts already sown by Dune and previous games defined as precursors such as The Ancient Art of War or Nether Art, Dune II-developed by Westwood Studios was in fact the first game to move away from the concept of turn-based strategy, which in those years was having its golden moment with a title like Civilization (1991) to something different.

The beginning of the "myth"

It's hard to understand today, after thousands of RTSs released over the past two decades, the extent of the technical innovations that Dune II brought to the video game with the supreme goal of staging the conquest of Arrakis by the Atreides, the Harkonnen and the Ordos (a third faction, present in the books but secondary), between citadels to be conquered, enemy units to be destroyed and other war actions .

For the first time the players had the ability to move units and see the effects of their actions in real time, for the first time they came into contact with the concept of having to create units and having to think about how to deal with a frontal assault, as well as with that of resources to be collected to create new troops.

Speaking of resources: in fact it can be said that the central idea in rts to insert their deposits on the map comes from here, and for a good reason, because as already said the goal of the colonizers of Dune was none other than get your hands on the spice, a fundamental element in the game too, where it was used to build buildings and units.

A great example of a narrative element that becomes a game element.

Dune II had a remake in 1998, entitled Dune 2000, which carried out a complete graphic restyling, modernized the dynamics giving the player more tactical options and it introduced splendid cinematics between missions, able to bring the game closer to the atmosphere of Lynch's film.

In the 1995 i Westwood Studios took the idea of ​​Dune II to develop it into their own fictional-historical narrative universe, that would give birth to a franchise: Command & Conquer, which to date has a dozen titles under its belt (speaking only of the main titles) and is defined as a founding saga, indirectly inspiring the various Age of Empires o Warcraft.

For the record, Command & Conquer was the first RTS game played by this writer, followed by Red Alert (spin-off / alternative saga to C&C) and then Dune 2000 (which made me discover one of my favorite films).

For the medium it was the flame of a small revolution, started from the rib of a playful project on a literary myth that today returns to be felt in all its power in the cinema with a new transposition that we hope will enchant an audience often far from the large space opera.

And, why not, help him recover some old video game glory.